Acronyms:
AAR – After Action Report
OTH – Other Than Honorable
CHAPTER VII: FALLOUT
The first thing Commander Shepard noticed was the pain. Sharp, excruciating pain. Her nerves felt like they were on fire. She heard…something…buzzing loudly in her ears, but also felt like something was boring directly into her brain. Her entire body felt like it had been struck repeatedly with hammers, and the continuous throbbing in her head made it difficult to focus.
A fuzzy white light appeared as her vision slowly began to return. The blurry shapes that appeared, though, didn't resolve themselves into anything else. It took her a while to realize she was laying down somewhere, since she was looking at a ceiling…right? She slowly moved her head to the left and right, and was able to discern other shapes and colors. The shapes looked like…humans? But shouldn't they be protheans…so where was she?
"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? She's waking up," she heard a male voice say. A deep, smooth voice too, the dazed part of her mind told her. She could listen to that voice all day…
Shepard's mind slowly cleared as her vision finally returned. Her eyes slowly settled on a ridiculously handsome, dark-haired man standing next to her, his warm brown eyes filled with concern as he looked at her. There were most certainly worse people to wake up looking at, a dazed corner of her mind thought.
Wha…what happened? Realization and memories began to slowly return to her. On the Normandy…Eden Prime was attacked!...Jenkins…Nihlus...the beacon…
The commander's eyes fully opened as the doctor approached her, Lieutenant Alenko standing just a couple meters away. "I'm glad you're awake, Commander. How are you feeling?" Doctor Chakwas asked as she stopped next to the bed.
"I'll be OK…I think." She rubbed her head and was rewarded with intense throbbing, causing her to wince. "How…long was I out?"
"About thirty-seven hours." The commander's eyes widened in surprise at the amount of time, and she looked to the doctor with a flash of worry in her expression, glancing to Alenko before looking back at Chakwas.
"A day and a half," Shepard whispered.
Chakwas nodded soberly. "Something happened down there with the beacon," the doctor said.
"It's my fault. I should have told everyone to been more careful," Shepard responded after several moments in a soft tone, her shocked expression replaced by sadness. "We were more than ten meters away from the beacon, but it suddenly pulsed and pulled all three of us towards it," she finished quietly. "I…had to throw Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams out of the way." She then suddenly looked at Alenko, her eyes filled with concern. "I…are both of you okay?"
Alenko nodded in confirmation. "We're both fine. Thank you," he finished quietly and sincerely.
She nodded to him, an odd expression on her face as she didn't quite meet his gaze. "I'm just glad you're unhurt," she said softly.
"You hit us both pretty hard, though," he said, finishing his last statement with a bit of lightheartness in his tone.
She didn't seem to notice. "I wanted both of you to get clear from, after it pulled us towards it…but…" Her voice trailed off, her eyes losing focus as she began to stare at the ceiling.
"We don't know what caused it to pull you all towards it. Unfortunately, we'll never get the chance to find out," Chakwas said.
"The beacon exploded and the blast knocked you out cold. We thought you were going to go into shock," Kaidan told her, the relief that she hadn't evident in his voice.
Shepard closed her eyes and let out a pained sigh, and the lieutenant couldn't tell if it was from the pain or the fact the beacon was destroyed…or was it something else?
"Physically you're fine now. But I detected some unusual brain activity, primarily abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming," the doctor said.
"Dreaming…it felt more like a nightmare," Shepard said quietly, almost in a trance as she stared straight ahead, her gaze unfocused. One of Chakwas' eyebrows raised in puzzlement, and the doctor glanced down to her datapad before studying the commander's expression very closely. "I saw…I-I'm not sure what I saw. Death. Destruction. Massacres," the commander responded, rubbing her head. "Nothing's really clear." The lieutenant regarded her with narrowed eyes, confused by her words. She seemed aloof, distant when speaking now, as if to recall details from her dream. She looked uneasy, and it didn't appear to only be the pain.
"Hmmm. I better add this to my report," the doctor said, narrowing her eyes as she glanced to Alenko momentarily. "It may—oh, Captain Anderson," she exclaimed as the CO entered the medbay.
Shepard tried to sit up, but fell back down after getting about twenty centimeters off of the bed.
"Easy now, Commander. Don't worry about sitting up. You've had a pretty rough time," Anderson told her softly, then looked to Chakwas. "How's our XO holding up, Doctor?"
"The commander should be fine after she gets some more rest," Chakwas told him.
"Glad to hear it." Then he turned towards his XO. "Commander, I need to speak with you—in private," Anderson said. His message was clear.
"Captain, I'll be in the mess if you need me," Alenko said as he left. The doctor followed him out.
"You sure you're okay?" the captain asked her softly. He grabbed a chair and pulled it next to her bed.
Shepard lowered her eyes, and if she had been sitting or standing her body would have slumped. "I don't like soldiers dying under my command," she said sadly.
"Jenkins wasn't your fault," he told her softly.
"Yes, it was," she replied sharply. "He came from Eden Prime; my gut told me he should stay on the ship."
"I was the one who assigned him to you. If it is anyone's fault, it is mine," Anderson said quietly as he closed his eyes, recalling the letter he had written and the visit he had made to Jenkins' grieving parents on Eden Prime.
"The drones were no help, sir," she told him. "They got hacked almost immediately. If anything, they alerted the geth to our presence, and allowed them to ambush…Jenkins."
He watched the commander very closely. He knew her well enough to know something was…wrong…about her current demeanor – and that something wasn't only Jenkins. "You couldn't have done anything to stop it, Commander."
"Yes I could have," she snapped back testily.
The captain said nothing for several moments as he appraised Shepard. Something was off, something clearly bothered her… "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'll recover," she told him, understating her headache. "How many casualties, sir?"
"We're in the process of determining that now," the captain replied – his way of saying 'countless casualties, Commander, don't worry about that now.'
She bit her lower lip as she looked down. "What did you want to talk to me about, Captain?"
"I won't lie to you, Commander. Eden Prime was a disaster. Nihlus is dead. The beacon was destroyed and the geth attacked. The Council's going to want answers."
"Has the Council been informed of everything that happened?" she asked slowly.
"Yes." He didn't want to tell her just how mad the Council was as he continued to appraise the commander's expression and responses. Sad and dejected, doubtless due to Jenkins' death. Frustration, at the loss of Nihlus and the beacon. But there was something else there, something harder for the captain to determine. Is it…fear? Those reanimated husks certainly aren't pretty to look at…or is it something else?
"I did the best I could, Captain," she said. "I had no idea that the beacon would…do what it did. Hopefully, the Council can understand that."
"I'll stand behind you and your report. You're a heroine in my books. But that's not why I'm here."
"Those…spikes, turning people into…things. I…don't think those spikes were geth," she said quietly. "It took less than an hour to perform an almost complete conversion from a human to a…husk. Have we ever seen any tech like that before, sir?"
"No," Anderson responded simply. "Those devices are being studied, though progress is slow."
"Completely understandable," Shepard said quietly. She certainly wouldn't want to get near them again.
"But those spikes aren't the only concern," Anderson told her. "It's Saren. We've picked up the Powell man you spoke with at the tram station. He's telling the truth."
Shepard nodded. "Powell was pretty scared, but he was observant enough to note several things, and he had the good sense to keep silent and hide. Do we have any other eyewitnesses, sir?"
"Only Powell. He's been placed under Alliance protection for the moment. Only Nihlus had his armor's recording systems destroyed. Everyone other suit of armor from personnel had their recording systems intact. We weren't supposed to find out that Saren was at Eden Prime," he told her.
"He came for the beacon, sir," she said quietly. But just what information did the beacon contain, information that would make Saren betray the Council and the Citadel…she shuddered slightly at the thought, and the memories of her nightmares…
The captain nodded agreement, noting her sudden shudder at the thought of…something. Just what could have her this spooked?
"Were we able to pull any information from Nihlus's armor, sir?" she asked.
Anderson shook his head. "Nothing, Commander. Completely wiped and destroyed. A cyberattack knocked out everything on the colony. Anything connected to a network has been wiped clean. Normally techs could recover bits of data, but whatever they hit us with is beyond anything in Council space."
"Did any recording device survive?"
"A camera malfunctioned and couldn't connect to the security systems, so it wasn't hit by the attack. Footage shows geth, but nothing about Saren," Anderson told her.
"Any comm intercepts, sir?" she asked.
"We intercepted up a surprising number of messages from the geth, but can't decrypt any of it. We can deduce a few things from traffic analysis, however. Someone – or something – of importance took off on that massive ship. And the little evidence we have from the dockworker could point to Saren."
Shepard nodded slightly, knowing that one eyewitness to Saren wasn't near enough to convince any jury of his guilt.
Anderson noted that his XO seemed oddly reluctant to discuss the beacon. "Saren somehow allied himself with the geth. And that beacon is the reason. You were there just before the beacon exploded. Did you find any clues down there that might tell us what Saren was after?" he asked her.
He trusts me, but he's never going to believe this… "Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of…vision. From the beacon." She rubbed her head, wincing as searing pain shot through the front of her head as the screams began to echo through her mind once again.
"A vision?" He paused, expecting her to automatically clarify, but she remained silent. "A vision of what?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.
"I saw…synthetics. Machines. Slaughtering people, butchering them. It felt as…as if I were actually there. Living it, or…reliving it," she said quietly, her eyes closed.
"Machines? Were they geth?" he asked, suddenly confused at just how the beacon could show a vision of the Eden Prime attack.
She shook her head. "I don't think so, sir. It was something…colder," she replied.
Anderson furrowed his brow. He noted her reactions when discussing the vision, and could tell that she was clearly unsettled. "You need to amend this to the AAR."
She shook her head and looked down, scoffing slightly. "What are we going to tell the brass and Council, sir? That I had a bad dream?" She looked back up at him, and the pain from her headache and the concern in her eyes was evident. She knew what was coming, and what the Council was going to recommend after everything that happened on Eden Prime. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
The captain smiled for a brief moment; it was a tight smile, though. "Between the two of us, and in here? Always."
"The Council's not going to believe what I say about the mission; they're definitely not going to believe this vision," she said quietly. "I can't make heads or tails of the information I saw in it, sir, but it would be foolish to assume that Saren also can't. Furthermore, why not just destroy the beacon after he got what he needed? And should we really go to the Council with the testimony of one eyewitness?"
"The dockworker's testimony has been reviewed by many people, and by all accounts it is genuine. He's telling the truth," the captain assured her again.
"Sir, it's going to be too easy for them to dismiss his claims as trauma," Shepard stated.
She was probably right, but unfortunately that decision was out of both of their hands. "AIA has been tasked to create a report on Saren's recent activities. They will prove without a doubt to everyone that he was on Eden Prime," he assured her, even though he personally had his doubts that they'd come up with enough evidence. He also noted that she didn't seem reassured; whatever she'd seen in the beacon really left her unsettled.
"But why didn't Saren just destroy the colony, or at least destroy the beacon? Why did he leave the beacon for us to find, sir?" she asked.
"We're looking into that," he told her. We have no damned clue why he didn't, he didn't bother adding. "And why immediately after the geth attack, he recommended that the Citadel Defense Fleet mobilize to protect other colonies in the Traverse."
Shepard was relieved that the conversation switched back to Saren, away from the beacon and it's visions. "None of that makes any sense," she said quietly.
"Other than it has something to do with that beacon," the captain said, watching closely for her reaction. At the mention of the beacon, he saw that she instantly tensed up. Destruction, slaughter…just what did she see? Did she witness a war the protheans fought? Or something else? "You're the only one that interacted with the beacon." He paused for several seconds, considering what she had just said. No one really knows what happened to the protheans…just what caused them to vanish? Then we have that ship, far beyond anything any of the known species could build…
She nodded slowly before looking up at him again. "Do we have any intel on that ship, sir? I've…never seen anything like it. No engines, and to be able to land on a planet at that size…did you even detect it up here, sir?"
"Not until it departed the spaceport. It doesn't come close to matching any ship in any of the Alliance databases," the captain replied. The room seemed to acquire a sudden chill that deepened the longer one thought about just what that ship was capable of.
The commander closed her eyes. The captain's response didn't surprise her in the least, and did nothing to ease her concern. "So it must have a form of a stealth system. When did you pick us back up on comms?"
"From comparing the timelines from Lieutenant Alenko and the Normandy, immediately after the beacon exploded," he replied.
"That doesn't make sense," she muttered, her eyes closing momentarily. "None of this makes any sense," she sighed quietly. "Did any other survivors see Saren, or anything else?"
"The geth were thorough in eliminating anyone they found. While a few colonists survived, none saw Saren. Their stories only have three things in common: the survivors hid very well, they were transfixed in paralyzing fear as that ship landed, and they all said that ship made a painful sound directly in their brain."
The last part told Shepard just how little they knew about what they were up against. They were completely out of their depth.
"The answer to what Saren is after is in that beacon. And only you interacted with it. Commander, you need to write the detailed description of that vision. We have no idea what data the beacon contained before it exploded. The clues might be in what you saw."
"Yes, sir," she nodded slightly. After several more minutes of discussion, the captain left, leaving her in silence.
Shepard drank a full canteen of water that had been placed right next to her bed. She picked up a datapad and saw a personnel transfer request immediately appear after she signed in. Despite her headache, it took her about two seconds to concur with the request – pending the final results from the evaluation, of course. She sighed, shuddering as she began to type in the important pieces of info from the beacon's vision, but after just several minutes her headache worsened. She took more medication for the pain, finishing her draft of what she saw in the beacon as she fought off the returning fatigue. She forwarded her description to the captain, then set the datapad back down. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep within a minute.
Immediately upon returning to the Normandy Alenko and Williams had to start debriefs on the Eden Prime mission. The lieutenant also was the ranking officer on the mission that was conscious, and as a result he got stuck writing the AAR. With Nihlus dead, everyone would want to know how Commander Shepard performed, especially when the mission had gone to hell.
Armor cams and audio feeds from the personnel on Eden Prime gave plenty of details on what occurred, and the summaries had already been disseminated to persons far and wide across the Alliance. As a result of the myriad of data available from ground missions, the AAR could at least be short. They were not pleasant to write in the best of circumstances, and this one would be even worse.
"Lieutenant," Chief Williams said sourly.
"Chief," he replied.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Of course, Chief."
"This is bullshit, sir. The commander did nothing wrong. It's not her fault the mission went FUBAR. And she's going to be hung out to dry," the chief spat.
Alenko shook his head. "If it wasn't for her, we'd be…"
"Alenko. Williams. No more discussion about the commander," the captain told them rather sternly, though his face showed he was feeling the same thing they were at the moment.
Both shared a look of frustration. Kaidan shook his head while Ashley bit her lip. "Enough of that, I guess," he sighed.
"Yeah," the chief responded sourly.
"Have you eaten anything since you got on board?"
"No, sir."
"Let's get something." He sighed as the two of them walked up to the crew mess. The ship was so small that the single crew mess also functioned as a small off-duty space for the entire crew. Also, due to space, there was no wardroom for the officers. While one often thought of the drive core and the stealth system when thinking of the Normandy, the new frigate also broke a lot of other standards in military ship design.
Both marines put together a quick meal from stock of ingredients. The small mess did allow for the crew to cook simple meals that would be neither pre-packaged nor dehydrated. While only having a simple list of ingredients stocked, it did allow for fresh meals rather than constantly eating packaged food. The Normandy was far too small for a cook, though, so the crew had to cook and clean up after themselves, and not properly cleaning up and placing dishes in the washing receptacle was universally frowned upon by nearly all crews.
Finished with the prep after a couple minutes, the lieutenant went to grab a biotic supplement. Both marines ate relatively quickly, and the lieutenant asked the chief some questions about her experience. He wanted to get some information from her, but more importantly he wanted to gauge how she was handling the heavy losses in her unit. He knew she would have to undergo a psychological evaluation after Eden Prime, but he wanted to see her behavior in a less formal setting.
Alenko found out that she was General Williams' granddaughter; the general was the only human CO to ever surrender to alien forces. The lieutenant was disgusted that people would hold that against her, especially because she had proven to be quite competent on Eden Prime.
He found himself regarding Ashley herself after a while. She had dark brown hair and the same color eyes that often had a twinkle of amusement in them, and did possess a rather quick wit. Her skin was neither tanned nor pale, but nonetheless she had a soft complexion. She stood at about 170 centimeters or so, maybe a bit less, he though. She was undeniably pretty, but the regulations prohibiting fraternization were in place for very, very good reasons.
She still seemed to be in a bit of shock from the losses on Eden Prime. The full effect of losing fellow soldiers hadn't hit her yet, but Alenko suspected it would soon. The Navy always said that a busy crew was a happy crew, and after a few seconds of pondering, he believed he had a solution. "Another marine and I were supposed to provide additional small arms training to everyone on board. Everyone's qualified, but given the nature of the missions we're likely to undertake, we need to increase everyone's proficiency. While Emerson and I can re-qualify everyone, neither of us have been groundside much in the past few months. I think you'd be a much better fit. Think you're game for getting a bunch of squids to re-qualify in small arms?" he asked.
She laughed for a moment. A good sign, Alenko thought. "Squid. I haven't heard that in a while, L-T. And I don't think you were around when the Navy drove ships over the ocean."
"Some things do never change though," he replied with a chuckle. "It'll take a marine to put the fear of God into them at the range."
"Well, then count me in, sir," she said with a smirk.
"Just keep the shouting to a level that the captain won't hear," he replied with his own amused look.
Her amused look turned into a theatric frown. "Awww, that's no fun, sir. I'll really have to keep my voice down; his quarters are right above the range we'd set up." Her expression then turned serious and somber. "You do have a point there. He's been…stewing about someone on Eden Prime."
Alenko let out a barely audible sigh. While gossip was a part of any naval vessel, as an officer it was his job to control it. But the chief was entirely correct. "Chief, speculation between the two of us is acceptable, but do not spread rumors amongst the rest of the crew. Understood?" He kept his voice calm and reasonable.
"Completely, sir," she nodded formally.
"Off the record, I do agree with you," he then replied.
Ashley relaxed as she let out a sigh. "I…I wish we had more information. That ship, the geth, those zombies…Saren. The captain nearly blew a circuit at just the mention of the name. Have you heard of Saren before this, sir?"
"Just the name, that he's a Spectre. If he truly murdered Nihlus…"
She nodded grimly. "Plus working with the geth…do you think – "
"Lieutenant Alenko, Chief Williams." Captain Anderson's voice came over both of their omni-tools. "Meet me up in the comm room."
"On our way, sir."
"Aye aye, sir."
Both marines stood and shared a concerned glance. Both wondered silently what other snafus could possibly be added to the disaster of Eden Prime.
"Stay away!" she screamed, unleashing her biotics at whatever out there was stalking her. Her head whipped around, looking for the source of her tormentor in the black abyss. The dark energy briefly lit up the void like a flare, but was quickly re-enveloped by the darkness. She unleashed her biotics again, and
She screamed, ran as the person next to her cried out RUN in pain and collapsed to the ground
Commander Shepard awoke with a gasp and jolted in bed, her corona flaring instinctively as a defensive posture, her mind ignoring the pain that shot through her body at the sudden reflex.
She lay in bed, panting and shaking for several moments before she realized that she was sweating. The nightmare had been so vivid, so real…her head still ached, and she knew the dream had something to do with it. She then noticed that the medical sheets that had been covering her were crumpled up on the side of the bed. She glanced at the ruffled mattress, and it was clear she had not had an easy sleep the past few minutes. Doctor Chakwas, however, was not in the medbay. She needed to get up, needed to shower, as if the water over her head would wash away the nightmare.
"Doctor," she said into the intercom.
Several seconds later the door opened. To Layla's surprise, Kaidan entered instead of the doctor. "Doctor Chakwas is sleeping. You need something, Commander?" he asked, with a strange look in his eyes. He looked at her for a moment, then looked at the myriad of instruments showing her vitals and health status, studying the readouts for several seconds.
"I'm ready to get up," she told him.
"Feeling better?" he asked her.
"No, not really, not after Jenkins." She sighed. "But I need to get up at some point."
He nodded grimly without saying a word. The lieutenant walked over to the instruments, reviewing them as he shut them off one by one. He removed the IV line, placing a drop of medigel over the tiny hole. He then took her right arm, disconnecting the several sensor pads attached to her, his soft yet firm touch sending a warm, reassuring tingle through her.
After Alenko had finished, Shepard swung her legs out of bed and the lieutenant helped her to her feet. She took a few unsteady steps with Alenko's help before her sense of balance returned. He walked next to her as she paced around the medical bay for a couple minutes, making sure her balance had returned and working on rebuilding a bit of strength after lying in a bed for so long.
"How is your balance?" he asked.
"Fine. My strength seems to be okay. It's my head that hurts," she replied. He led her back to the bed, and gave her a small pill and a drink of water. "Thank you."
"Doctor Chakwas put everything you need in there." The commander slowly walked to the medical bay bathroom.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," she said, and for the first time in two days, she had a small smile.
"Y-you're welcome, Commander," he said as he turned and left, again not looking at her. She then realized after over two days of unconsciousness and nightmares, she probably looked like hell. She closed the door and got in the shower, trying unsuccessfully to get her mind off of her newest nightmares.
Lieutenant Alenko had spent the past few hours reading the reports from Eden Prime, and they were not good. Casualties, both military and civilian, were far higher than he had expected, and the tally only continued to rise. The geth seemed to ensure that their enemies were well and truly dead before moving on. There were three hundred "dead" geth of several varieties scattered throughout the colony, and researchers scrambled to find out what they could about the synthetics and their weapon systems. The commander had been unconscious nearly the entire time, save for about an hour where she first woke and talked with the captain.
Alenko switched from reading open source reports of Eden Prime now that the press had gotten wind of the geth attack. People were panicking; enrollment in colonization programs in the past two days had dropped nearly 90%, with many additional people postponing or canceling their enrollments. Many colonists even requested or demanded to be evacuated from distant worlds, fearing another geth attack.
Worse, word got out that Shepard was on the mission, and something went horribly wrong. If those two weren't bad enough, the press had found out that Shepard was under consideration for the Spectres, and a current Spectre was killed on the mission. He was about to read a new intelligence update when he heard a weak female voice over his omni-tool. It was the commander.
The lieutenant passed off the conn and hurried to the medbay, as Doctor Chakwas wasn't on duty and he was a qualified medic. He hoped she was okay; her voice sounded frail and weak. He opened the door and to his relief she appeared to be fine, reclining up in the bed. At second glance, though, he could tell she was uneasy…and a little scared.
He then noticed what she was wearing and looked away after a moment; medical gowns weren't known for their modesty. It only covered the top half of her thighs…Alenko snapped at his mind to focus, and he looked at all of the instruments' readouts; the commander appeared to be mostly healthy from a physical standpoint. Her temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure were a bit above average, but other than that she appeared to be fine.
The doctor had told Kaidan that the commander could be released whenever she could walk on her own. Obliging her request, the lieutenant shut off all of the instruments. He hesitated a moment before gently taking her thin right arm and removing the IV and sensor pads. Her skin was soft, smooth, and warm…
Clearing his head and cursing at himself for that line of thinking, he helped her to her feet. He aided her in taking a few uneasy steps before she regained her balance, and he walked next to her around the medbay for a couple minutes to confirm that she was indeed fit to stand on her own.
Satisfied that she was fine, he left the medbay and returned to CIC. By now the entire crew knew what happened on Eden Prime, and that their XO had been under consideration for the Spectres – everyone figured she certainly wasn't anymore. While officers and senior chiefs would work to control the spread of gossip on the tiny ship, one only had to look at the news to see headlines that were, unfortunately, true.
He shook his head on reading the next dispatch. Things kept getting worse and worse. An unidentified ship had been detected by an Alliance frigate exiting a mass relay that linked to the Perseus Veil. The ship quickly jumped to FTL, but not before the frigate was able to get a reading on the unknown spacecraft. The composition was a near perfect match with geth ships from three hundred years ago, just like the four ships that had first landed on Eden Prime. The two Alliance dreadnaughts that were out on exercises had been recalled to Arcturus station immediately to replenish supplies, and three more had just been deployed to "undisclosed locations," presumably to sit at major relay networks. The last one, along with the two replenishing, was waiting on alert status at Arcturus, ready to deploy within twenty minutes. Cruisers and frigate flotillas deployed in record numbers. All in all, this was the largest fleet mobilization since the batarians went rogue and left the Council nine years ago. The Alliance had feared for a retaliatory strike, but the batarians were too busy squabbling with the other Terminus powers to mount any cohesive assault.
"Lieutenant Alenko, plot a course for the Citadel," the captain's voice said over the personal communicator in his omni-tool. Anderson and Pressly had been in the comm room for the past two hours, and Alenko could only speculate what they were talking about.
"Aye aye, sir," the biotic replied.
The lieutenant decided to walk up to the helm to issue to order. "The commander still out?" Joker asked when he arrived.
"She got up about ten minutes ago," the lieutenant responded. "Take us to the Citadel, Joker."
"Aye aye, Lieutenant." The pilot changed screens and rapidly input commands as his fingers danced over the panels. His tone changed from addressing the OOD to that of a friend. "Where's the captain? Still chatting with Pressly?"
"Yeah."
"What's going on with that?"
"I'm not sure," Alenko responded. "Though I can guess, and it's probably nothing good."
"Hmph," the pilot said as he engaged the FTL drive. "The Council's probably going to be real happy to see us, if that's where we're headed." He shook his head in frustration. "How's the commander? Is she pissed about the outcome?" Joker asked.
"I talked to her for a couple minutes when she was conscious a few hours ago. She actually blamed herself for the beacon exploding."
"She's angry at herself?"
"Surprisingly, she didn't seem angry at all," the lieutenant said. "If anything, I would say she seemed…unsettled. She mentioned something about some sort of vision or image. Of death and destruction and slaughter. Then the captain kicked the doctor and I out," Alenko responded.
"A vision?" the pilot asked skeptically, turning as much as he could to glance at Alenko.
"Yeah, from what little I heard her say," Kaidan responded.
"Hmph. That's not good."
"Whatever happened down there with that beacon, it must have terrified her. She screamed like she had seen the gates of hell open just before the thing blew up."
Neither officer said anything for several moments, both thinking the same thing. For something to spook her that bad…
Layla Shepard finished drying her hair with a slight wince. The long shower hadn't helped with the headache. She still had the images from the beacon burned in her head.
She put on her SDU, making sure she looked presentable for the inevitable discussions with the ambassador – and potentially even the Council – then walked into the mess. Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams sat the mess table, and both stood upon seeing her. She gestured to both of them to sit back down, and was about to take a seat next to them, but the captain intercepted her. "Commander, come with me," he said, hurrying her into the comm room. After the door had sealed behind them he said, "Commander, I need you to review your description of the beacon. What you wrote was good, but you're going to need a bit more detail in a couple sections." He paused, expecting a response, but the commander said nothing.
Shepard nodded; she figured that this was the last debrief she would have to write; she could see the OTH discharge coming. If she were lucky, maybe she'd get a general discharge for a "physical condition" – they could say she was "injured on Eden Prime." Maybe they'd do that and spare the public spectacle once the discharge broke to the news. Her actions on Elysium would hopefully spare her the media circus.
"Just be honest, Layla. Things will work out somehow," he told her as she let out a long sigh.
She let out a quick, mirthless snort through her nose. "Remember our conversation a few weeks ago, sir? When I found out I was getting promoted?" she asked quietly.
He nodded slowly and somberly. In any other situation, he would have found the irony amusing. But not now, not for many reasons.
She shook her head, a ironic look on her face; the expression on her face did not reach her eyes, though. "Fate's a fickle mistress, I guess."
Or a bitch, he thought as he nodded silently. He put his hand on her shoulder and said, "Take as much time as you need."
He turned and left the room as she sat down at the desk screen, staring at it blankly for nearly a minute before she started typing.
The captain found Alenko and Williams sitting at the mess. The two marines stood as he entered. Anderson told them, "It'd be better to have SDUs, but you don't have one here, Chief. You both can wear armor instead for the next couple days, but sidearms only. Make sure your armor is polished and spit-shined." He continued to his quarters before either marine could respond. He didn't want to explain everything that was going to happen to them right now; he was in a particularly sour mood.
It took Shepard a while to finish the report, made more difficult by the pain in her mind every time she tried to focus on something she saw in the beacon. As she slowly wrote her updates to the report, she couldn't help but have a growing feeling of dread rise up from the pit of her stomach.
She shuddered as she recalled the horrible images of death, destruction…she rubbed her head as she felt a throbbing pain from just remembering what she had seen in HELP the beacon. What had she seen? What were those images trying to tell her? RUN She just knew that she should be terrified. She closed her eyes, focusing on the few parts of the vision that she could make sense of.
As bad as detailing her vision was, her next task—writing a letter to Jenkins' parents—would be even worse.
It took Shepard a while to finish the letter to Jenkins' parents. She slowly stood and headed towards the mess. She hadn't eaten anything since Eden Prime; even though she had plenty of nutrients intravenously to replenish her strength after her unrestrained use of biotics on the mission, she craved real food. She headed to the mess and spotted Lieutenant Alenko sitting at the table.
Alenko had set out his armor in his quarters—fortunately he and the chief had cleaned their armor thoroughly after Eden Prime, so it didn't take an inordinate amount of time to make it look pristine—and he went to the mess to take another ration before docking at the Citadel.
He was reading recent press stories and shook his head. All of them were wild and sensational, but each had some measure of truth. Some speculated what went wrong and why Shepard was being blamed. Others talked about Shepard being under consideration for the Spectres. Fortunately none speculated why the Normandy was there so soon; they assumed it was due to the ship's speed. At least they don't know about the beacon…or Saren. Yet…
The lieutenant heard rather than saw Shepard enter the mess; he was facing the other direction. He stood, and asked as he turned to face her, "Feeling okay, Commander?"
"About as good as I can be," was her subdued response. She didn't make eye contact. She slumped down into a chair as she stared downward, pondering the infinite mystery that was the plain gray mess table.
"Losing Jenkins was hard on the crew. And…I'm just glad we didn't lose you too," he told her quietly.
"I just wish…I just wish I could have done something to save him," she responded quietly, still staring blankly at the table. Shepard wished there was something she did differently. She should have kept him on the Normandy. She should have told everyone to be more careful, told everyone to be more alert…she should have taken point; she would have been better able to handle the ambush. Any one of those things would have saved him. The commander hung her head and closed her eyes.
From the pain in her voice, it was evident to the lieutenant that he had brought up another sore topic. "Ma'am, I was there. You did everything right. Even when you do everything right, bad things can still happen."
"I still…I hate losing fellow soldiers. He was from Eden Prime. I should have…should have kept him on the Normandy," she said, almost as a whisper.
Alenko noticed her expressions and could tell this was something that was really bothering her. "Jenkins wasn't your fault, Commander. None of this was. No one could have foreseen any of this," he said, subconsciously reaching out to gently take her hand.
"It doesn't make it any easier," she replied, finally raising her head and making eye contact with him, a distraught expression of pain and sadness in her eyes. "It's also the…all of the dead colonists…all of the families that lived there, believing the Alliance would protect them…and we failed," she said as she winced and closed her eyes.
Alenko knew Captain Anderson to be the most the most decorated soldier in the Alliance. Yet she had immediately fired back at his orders, questioning him, insisting that they protect the colonists…he could never imagine himself questioning orders, especially when they came from Captain Anderson. Like every Alliance soldier, protecting civilians was incredibly important, but from her level of concern for colonists, he suspected there was more to her story.
Kaidan then realized that he had taken one of her hands in his own. Slightly alarmed, he quickly removed his hand, hoping that she wouldn't get angry at his gesture, and several seconds of silence followed before she spoke again.
"Plus we have the geth, that ship, and those…spikes converting people into robotic husks. I don't know…there's so much that we just don't know," she said quietly.
"AIA will get to the bottom of this," he said with far more confidence than he felt, and glad that she hadn't gotten upset at his gesture that had meant to comfort her. "Regardless, the Council will react to the geth attack."
"We'll see," she said with a hint of skepticism in her voice. "The captain hopes the ambassador can get us an audience with the Council. Tell them what Saren's been doing in his free time," she continued neutrally. "We'll see how that goes."
"They'd probably like to know he's not working for them anymore," he said. If they even listen…
She closed her eyes for a moment. "Apparently the Council allowed C-Sec to perform an 'investigation', but they didn't declassify any of the records on Saren. So C-Sec can't access anything. There's no substance at all to the investigation. Just style points." She sighed as she started to stand, but Alenko quickly jumped to his feet.
"What do you need, Commander? I'll get it for you," he told her as he moved towards the kitchen.
She didn't object as she sat back down, and said, "Thank you, Alenko. Just three MREs. While I had IVs to replenish the nutrients while in the medbay, I could really use some real food."
Despite the somber mood, Alenko couldn't help but chuckle. Here was a great opportunity to cheer her up. "Did you just use 'MRE' and 'real food' in the same sentence? I can think of better and less painful ways to be admitted into the medbay, ma'am," he said with a skeptical look, allowing his normally suppressed snark to come to the surface.
It worked; she actually…giggled? She giggles? he thought to himself, thinking that the last time they had been joking around the night before Eden Prime was just a one-off occurrence. "Hey, it was the same statement, not sentence," she protested with a grin on her face.
He shook his head with another chuckle and started looking through the ship's pantry.
"Oh, Alenko, mid-rats are fine," she said to him quickly.
He opened one of the refridgerators and looked inside, gesturing to the midwatch rations with another raised eyebrow. It was a loaf of prossibly stale bread and a small plate of dubious-looking deli meat. "I'd pass on those mid-rats too, ma'am. I'm pretty sure I just saw the so-called 'meat' move."
She grinned at him, suddenly lowering her head for a few moments before looking back up to him.
"You're a biotic, ma'am, you need a full meal," he said. He did a bit of simple math in his head; she hadn't eaten in close to two days, he guessed her weight, her energy use on the mission…he picked the ingredients and quickly got to work.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "It seems I owe you again."
He shook his head. "You don't owe me anything, Commander. You could have very well saved my life on Eden Prime by pushing me out of the way."
She shrugged. "It all evens out in the end." An amused look appeared on her face as she asked, "And Alenko?"
"Yes, ma'am?" He turned to look at her.
Her bemused look transitioned to a rather pretty smile, and she continued softly, "You're making me…lunch…dinner? My body isn't too sure what time it is right now. Regardless, you're making me food and you're not on duty."
"Technically, I-I am on duty, but…" He stopped speaking as he saw she wanted to continue.
"Regardless, here, in this conversation and others like it, there's no 'ma'am', there's no 'Commander'. Call me Layla." Her smile broadened to a grin. "And I will make that an order if I have to."
He smiled back nervously and said, "F-fair enough…Layla."
She had an amused look on her face. "Good. Everyone seems to just call me 'Shepard' for some reason. That can get old after a while."
It would take some getting used to, though, calling her by her first name. He focused on prepping the food, rather than that smile that she had just given him. "It's been a hell of a shakedown cruise," he said with a sigh, more than a little glad to switch topics back to business. "Our first mission ends with one Spectre killing another. The Citadel Council's not going to be happy about that."
"Yeah," she agreed quietly.
"Probably use it to lever more concessions out of the Alliance."
"I'm certainly not going to bet against you there," she said. She paused for a moment, glancing down momentarily before looking back up at him. "You've got a good grasp of the situation. You a career man?" she asked.
"Yeah. Besides, my father served. It made him proud when I joined," he stated. "What about you? Did your family serve?"
She nodded. "They did. They both left when I was young, though. I grew up in the colonies until…until I was accepted into the Academy," she said quickly, blinking a couple times in rapid succession. "I was one of the first biotics accepted into the Academy, and I got bunch of crap for it. Everybody expected me to fail. But I guess I got a little more noteworthy than the folks expected." She didn't mention any more of the details about her earlier life, and the nighmares from Mindoir and Sigma Ceti that still haunted her years later. Not to mention the new ones from Eden Prime…
Kaidan's warm voice fortunately brought her away from the memories. "After your heroics during the Blitz, I imagine all of that allowed you any post in the fleet," he said to her.
She shook her head. "There's nothing heroic about me. Any other soldier would have done the same."
'Nothing heroic about me?' Yeah, right, Alenko thought but didn't say.
"I still have to put up with 'let's praise the so-called heroine' periodically," she continued as her expression changed into a frown, a sour note in her voice.
Several seconds of silence followed, during which Alenko thought about the commander. He figured from various articles and reports about her that she was probably about four or five years younger than him; she was just promoted to O-4, and commentary stated that she had been far younger than usual to get promoted to that rank. He figured her to be only twenty-seven or twenty-eight, maybe twenty-nine. She certainly didn't look any older. The strange thing was from her age, she should have an L3 biotic implant, which had significantly less power output than an L2. But from everything he had seen of her abilities, she had to be an L2. He had never seen or heard of anyone that had such a high peak power output, not to mention sustained power to use biotic abilities continuously…something didn't quite add up.
"What was your last posting?" he asked her, breaking the silence and his irrelevant thoughts.
"A staff position. Trying to more effectively combat piracy in the Traverse with fewer operations," she responded.
"Any luck?"
"Some," was all she said.
Alenko nodded, getting the hint and having a pretty good idea of what she was referring to. "Looking at the intel?"
"Some. I actually was intel a few years ago, but I only looked at open source and lower classification sources while there," she replied.
His head turned in surprise at that comment. "What?"
She shrugged in response. "I wasn't cleared for everything then."
The fact she hadn't been briefed… "Why?" he asked, fairly shocked at the revelation, turning his whole body to face her.
"Do you want the short story, a longer story, or everything?" she asked with a slight grin.
"We got time. Everything, at least what you can say in here." Some was certainly classified and couldn't be discussed openly.
"BUPERS put me in Intel after Elysium. I wasn't cleared for…well, anything, at that point, but it gave the Press Corps easier access to me for interviews than being on a ship. Me being in Intel was really a joke – they could have just stuffed me pretty much anywhere in PAO and things would have been better. But apparently it would look bad if the Alliance's newest heroine wasn't doing something that sounded important. 'Working in intelligence to figure out what the bad guys are up to' sounds a lot better than 'sitting around waiting for the next interview or recruitment special'. I wasn't cleared for anything in intel, but I was a wide-eyed, nervous O-2 with her face suddenly plastered all over the 'net. I just did exactly what they told me."
"Yeah…it'd make much more sense to just assign you somewhere in the Press Corps for a bit after Elysium," he agreed.
She nodded. "I guess they wanted to make me sound interesting or something. But the Press Corps basically could still use me whenever they needed. At least PAO wanted to show that biotics were normal people," she said, ending on both a positive note and a positive tone of voice.
"That's true," the lieutenant agreed. He had noticed that discrimination against biotics had dramatically fallen in the years since Elysium.
"So, the second part of the tale." While cleared for essentially nothing, she nevertheless had several pieces of unclassified intel. She then asked about initiating an operation to act on the information she had come across. She then got grilled from superiors, and a few civilians, on how she knew about said operation. She had just suggested running it, and had no idea that the highly classified operation was actually planned to occur in less than a day.
He couldn't help but snort in amusement. "Huh. That's a good thing, right?" he asked, somewhat sarcastically.
She shook her head theatrically. "Oh no. Not at all," she responded with the hint of snark that the lieutenant had forgotten that she possessed. A brief smile formed on her lips, but it quickly faded. "One, I apparently had enough unclassified info to uncover an operation, and two, it showed that certain people didn't talk to each other. And those people really, really should be talking to each other."
"The op wasn't blown though, right?" the lieutenant asked.
"Not at all. It went off without a hitch. Zero Alliance casualties. But my good-natured, innocent questioning exposed the fact that a few folks didn't talk that really should have. And that became the problem." She continued on for a couple minutes while Alenko finished the meal.
No, she wasn't grilled. Holy shit, they completely raked her over the coals. That wasn't fair at all.
"It was a very eye-opening experience. It was just a few weeks into the assignment, just a couple months after Elysium," she responded.
Alenko chuckled a bit. "Be honest, it was a terrible experience."
She nodded and smiled for a moment, then closed her eyes for a moment as she took on a more serious tone. "It certainly was terrible, but one thing I learned is to always present a positive front once you get some fame. Anything negative can and will be used against you. Double that for being a biotic."
He nodded soberly. "True enough."
A silence settled between the two of them for several moments. "So, Alenko…any advice for how to talk to the Council?" she asked softly with an amused look, one of her eyebrows raised.
The lieutenant turned to face her and shrugged. "I'd give the same advice for talking with anyone. Salute anything that you can't eat or kill," he replied deadpan, keeping his expression completely blank.
Shepard broke out into giggles for several moments, bringing her hand to her face to cover her mouth as her laughter echoed through the mess. "That's terrible, Alenko!" she exclaimed as the laughter subsided. "But that's good. I'll have to remember it."
Alenko finished up the meal and handed it to her. Before she got a chance to say anything in response, an announcement came over the 1MC about being one minute out from a relay jump. "I need to go change into armor before we arrive. I'll let you eat in peace," the lieutenant said.
Shepard looked up to him and said with a heart-stopping smile, "Thank you, Alenko."
He nervously smiled back, trying and failing to keep the blush off of his face when looking at her. "I-I suspect y-you'll have plenty of chances to make it up to me," he said as he hurried down to the hangar bay to change into his armor, wanting to focus his mind on anything but his XO.
Chief Williams had finished changing into her armor and entered the crew mess just as Alenko was heading down to the hanger. She saw that Shepard had just finished a meal and was putting the dishes into the cleaning receptacle. "Ma'am," Williams said.
Shepard turned to face Williams. "Ashley, I do have a request. We're both off duty. There's no need for 'Ma'am' or 'Commander'. Just use my first name. And no, my first name isn't 'Commander'," she concluded with a grin.
Ashley looked uncomfortable for a moment before saying, "Okay…" It was unsettling for the chief. She was just a gunny, while Shepard was one of the most famous and respected…and for a few, detested…humans in the galaxy. There was a fair amount of people that did not like her simply because she was a biotic, accomplishments be damned. But here she was, telling her to call her by a first name, that didn't care about… "What's the plan when we reach the Citadel?"
"We're going to need your help, with some debriefings or discussions with some folks. Honestly…I'm not too sure myself yet. But you were there when the geth first hit. There may be more questions on what happened before the Normandy showed up," the commander responded. She saw that the chief was torn up about the losses on Eden Prime, but seemed to be processing it by keeping busy.
The chief had passed the psych eval, and the response from the review was typical: keep her busy. A busy crew was a happy crew, the Navy always said, so the chief had been tasked with providing additional firearms training to the crew of the Normandy. While all Alliance personnel were required to be proficient in a range of small arms, having a marine train the Navy personnel that entirely worked starside on ships was a good chance for a refresher. This was something that Alenko and Emerson had been scheduled to start…about this time, if they hadn't been co-opted into the disaster on Eden Prime.
"I haven't heard where my next duty assignment after we finish up." The marine garrison forces on Eden Prime had suffered heavy casualties and were being withdrawn to reorganize, replaced by a larger force of marines and an even larger fleet of ships.
Shepard looked puzzled for a moment and cocked her head to the side slightly. "No one has told you?"
"Told me what?" Ashley was nervous now – she knew what was coming.
"I figured someone would have already told you while I was recovering after first waking up. You're being transferred to the Normandy. You've cleared post; it's official."
"Huh!?" Williams' jaw nearly hit the floor. Of all the responses she had been expecting, that was certainly not on the list.
"Lieutenant Alenko put forward the recommendation and I concurred, and Captain Anderson has approved. That is, if you want the transfer."
"Y-y-yes!" Ashley stammered in shock, not expecting that response.
"Congratulations. And welcome to the Normandy." Shepard extended her hand and smiled. Williams took it after a couple seconds of hesitation, still processing what she had just heard.
Shepard's eyes narrowed after a moment slightly in confusion. "Why are you so surprised? You're a very talented marine, and you've earned this spot. You're a crack shot; you saved my rear back on Eden Prime with that giant geth."
Ashley looked in surprise at the commander, and instinctively blurted out, "You don't know?"
"Know what?" Shepard was really puzzled now, and it showed in her expression as her eyes narrowed and her head cocked slightly to one side.
The chief winced; apparently Shepard didn't know. Ashley sighed, looking at the floor as she said in a subdued voice, "I come from a military family. My grandfather was pretty famous, a general, but not in a good way."
It took Shepard several seconds to make the connection, and when it did her eyes widened to the size of saucers. "You're…General Williams granddaughter. Don't tell me you're held responsible for that!?" she exclaimed, incredulous disbelief in her tone.
"Sure am. It takes a special kind of thick-headedness to go into a business where your family name is blacklisted," Ashley said grimly.
"I can't believe they hold that over you! General Williams did the right thing. He refused to throw lives away – military and civilian – for a hopeless cause!" Shepard replied in frustration and a hint of anger.
"Dead right, but no one else sees it that way," the chief replied somberly.
"I don't care what you're grandfather did or didn't do. We need someone with your skillset on the Normandy. You've already proven that you are a valuable addition to the team," Shepard told her.
Williams actually chuckled a bit. "Actually, I think you're the first superior that has ever told me that."
Shepard shrugged. "It's the truth." Then her own face broke into a small grin. "From what I've read, you've been doing a pretty good job getting the Navy personnel up-to-date with their small arms qualifications." She was interrupted by an announcement that they were transiting the relay to arrive at the Citadel. "I need to freshen up quickly before heading to the airlock. Have you ever been to the Citadel before?"
"No," the chief responded.
Probably a stupid question to ask her, Layla, given, you know, that she's blacklisted. "Neither have I. If you give me about five minutes let's head up and take a look," Shepard suggested.
"Sounds good to me, ma'am," the chief nodded, stating the last word out of habit.
Shepard returned five minutes later after freshening up after the large meal and double checking her appearance in the mirror for the nearly inevitable cameras that would be encountered.
Williams waited for Shepard in the mess, the chief subconsciously fidgeting with her hands as the commander approached. "Listen, um, Commander, I wanted to say…I wanted to say thank you for pushing me out of the way from the beacon," she said quietly, not quite meeting her new XO's gaze.
"You don't have to thank me for anything, Chief. I'm glad you're both unhurt," Shepard responded, her tone soft, but the chief heard something else in the commander's tone that she couldn't quite place as a brief, undecipherable expression crossed her superior's face. "Now, let's drop the formality and go take a look at the Citadel," she said lightly, though the chief could tell her tone was slightly forced.
The two women started walking towards the helm. Williams had barely worked with Shepard, but the chief could still tell when someone was trying to suppress something. A few rumored whispers had started amongst the crew. The Navy was the Navy, and scuttlebutt in the Navy traveled faster than a relay jump. Someone had overheard Alenko mention something about Commander Shepard receiving a "vision" from the beacon. And she had spent a couple days in the medbay, after nearly going into shock, with no injuries at all from the exploding beacon, nor any wounds sustained in the battle. None of that was normal, and like any Navy crew, the whispered speculation had begun.
Williams put the thoughts aside as they reached the helm, soon joined by several off duty crewmembers, all of them eager to get their first look at the deep space station.
Joker heard several of the crew come up behind him. "Good timing. I was just about to bring us in to the Citadel. See that taxpayer money at work," the pilot said.
"You mean watch as Joker gets lost in the nebula?" a crewwoman piped in.
"Nah, it's no big deal. I've docked at the Citadel before," the pilot replied.
"See?" a crewman said. "Nothing to worry about."
"I've docked at the Citadel many times before," Joker said defensively. He paused for several moments before finishing with, "In sims."
"Well shit," the crewman muttered. "They'll be lot of explaining to do when we crash into the side of a turian dreadnaught."
"Or turn up at Bekenstein three weeks from now," another added.
"Blame Pressly! He's the navigator!" Joker shot back.
Shepard couldn't help but laugh at the banter, watching the gas clouds silently glide by them.
The Normandy expertly navigated a course through the Serpent Nebula, at the heart of which was the Citadel station. The frigate suddenly exited the cloud to have a full view of the Citadel with the star Widow silhouetted behind the station. A crewman held his breath as he saw the full majesty of the Citadel, the heart of the Milky Way. The enormous station dwarfed any other construct in the galaxy, even the mass relays.
"Look at the size of that ship!" Williams exclaimed upon seeing a massive dreadnaught against the backdrop of light and gas.
"That's the Destiny Ascension. Flagship of the Citadel Fleet," Kaidan commented. The Normandy passed within several kilometers of the massive ship, close enough for the crew to see just how enormous the ship was.
"Well, size isn't everything," Joker muttered.
"Why so touchy, Joker?" Ashley teased.
"I'm just saying you need firepower too," Joker shot back.
"Look at that monster! Its main gun could rip through any ship in the Alliance fleet!" the chief exclaimed.
"Good thing it's on our side, then," Alenko commented.
He heard the pilot mutter, "Sure, but that thing couldn't catch me in a million years. Or find me to begin with."
The Citadel soon filled the front and side viewports.
"Citadel Control, this is SSV Normandy requesting permission to dock," Joker said.
"Stand by for clearance, Normandy." After a moment's pause the voice said, "Clearance granted. You may begin your approach. Transferring you to an Alliance operator."
"Copy, Citadel Control. Normandy out," Joker said. Changing the comm channel, he said, "Alliance Tower, this is the SSV Normandy. Requesting approach vector.
"Normandy, this is Alliance Tower. Please stand by…approach vector to Dock 11-7 uploaded."
"Roger, Tower. Normandy out."
The Presidium ring now came into better focus as the frigate approached. Docking bays could be seen from the central ring, clearly not prothean in origin. Joker expertly maneuvered the Normandy into a small docking bay and through the mass effect field. After the ship had stopped, access arms and hoses extended to hold the ship in place, used to provide external power, to offload waste, and bring on fuel, fresh water, and coolant. A large arm slowly extended to the port side of the bridge that crew used to enter and exit the ship.
"Docking complete," Joker's voice said over the shipwide comm.
Author's Notes:
I covered a few points that I felt the game doesn't in the conversation with Anderson and Shepard. In the game they don't look for any other evidence that Saren was present on the colony, just the dockworker Powell. That seems like REALLY sketchy testimony. Also, I tried to show that both of them can think about just what happened on Eden Prime, and just how many things they don't know.
Interacting with a beacon in this story will hit people a LOT harder than it did in the game.