Samantha

Samantha was a jittery mess when she went in to work the next day. She didn't actually have an engagement ring – the downside of actually doing the proposing – but she still felt like she was broadcasting her current marital status (pre-marital status? Somehow that just sounds dirty…) to the world. She was incredibly pleased with herself, and generally with how her anniversary had gone, despite not having the day off, but she was now jumpy, expecting people to say something left and right, even if they had no way of knowing she was now well on her way to being made an honest woman – or, rather, making an honest woman out of herself.

Part of this was because of the endless string of practical jokes she and Joker had sprung on each other over the last several months. They had met six months before, on her first day stepping foot on the Normandy, and almost immediately started up a relationship not unlike brother and sister – specifically not unlike her relationship to her own brothers. Which meant that mere weeks in to the retrofits, she had come to her station only to find a mysterious box sitting on her console. The moment she touched it, it had sprung open, a rubber snake flying into her face, startling her so badly she let out a shriek. The shriek was shortly followed by the pilot's mad cackle, and from that moment it was war.

She was currently in the lead, meaning she kept coming aboard the ship just waiting for some trick to be sprung upon her. She would check her console thoroughly, the high ceiling of the CIC, the space beneath her console… each day for the last week, nothing. She was beginning to think that there was no prank, and his goal was to simply drive her mad waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Despite her best efforts at remaining cool, it was working.

So today's jitteriness was partly due to Joker's antics, and partly due to what he might say or do if he could smell her engagement on her.

She got through the airlock just fine, however, silently coaching herself to keep it cool (keep it cool keep it cool you totally look normal keep it cool). Once past his seat and his pleasant, "Mornin', Sam," she almost giddily ran to her station, visually confirming the lack of any obvious traps or pranks before dropping her duffel bag in the Pile Of Nameless Shit that was in front of the new bulkhead leading to what used to be the armory and which was now the port side of the War Room.

Today was Friday, and she and Ashley would be spending the weekend with Ashley's mother. It was a last-minute idea. Well, no, "idea" was a misnomer. It was a last-minute demand made by Ashley's mum when the LC had called her mother late the night before – midmorning in France where her mum was – to show her the engagement ring. Mrs. Williams had then informed them that the guest bedroom would be ready the next night, and she would be expecting them for dinner.

"The woman is like a no-nonsense version of my mum," Samantha now mumbled, opening up her usual windows after inputting her security code. Her mail was the usual, with an updated task list, an ANN newsletter, various spam messages, and… porn. He actually embedded porn in her task list!

"Jesus H. Christ! Joker!"

Her only answer was the pilot's usual cackle up from the cockpit.

Narrowing her eyes, Sam hurriedly deleted the message, finding the original actually sent by the requisitions office and opening it up. Fuming silently to herself about Joker's "joke", she almost missed the little ray of joy and sunshine the message held for her.

"Dammit. I hate crawling through the ducts…"

Sam was in a black mood when she re-emerged from the ducts aft of the conference room. She had zapped herself four times, been prodded for whether she needed help or not by the (at least astonishingly sexy-sounding) EDI VI (still dubious on the status of Virtual Intelligence – I wouldn't put it past Joker to lie about that), and had had to ignore several calls from her mother, who knew she had planned on proposing the day before and clearly wanted to know all the details (Samantha had at least sent her a holo of the ring on Ashley's finger – she wasn't completely heartless). The only saving grace was that every time she remembered that she had proposed, it put the biggest grin on her face.

"I really need a ring," she mumbled to herself now, putting the tools she had placed in her pockets back into their case. Ashley had said she would get Sam one, even doing a quick scan of the specialist's hand for sizing purposes. Sam had tried to let Ashley know her tastes, but the LC had simply smiled, shaken her head, and informed Sam that she had the perfect thing in mind. If that phrase had come from her brothers – or Joker – Sam might be scared, but she felt confident Ashley wouldn't get her one of those ring candies or something else totally awful for something as important as this.

Right?

Oh shit, now I have no idea-

Suddenly, the floor shifted, sending Samantha sprawling to the ground from her knelt position. "What the bloody hell-"

"All hands, report to stations," EDI's voice intoned. "Hostiles detected, lockdown overridden." A pause, then, "The Normandy is engaging in evasive maneuvers. Brace yourselves."

Well, it's hard to be more braced than flat on your stomach on the floor, Samantha couldn't help but think to herself, before truly thinking about the situation. Wait. Hostiles? On Earth? Shouldn't there have been some warning?

Trying to push herself to her feet only resulted in her hitting the floor once more as the ship jolted to the side. Other than the ship's jerking, however, the room was silent. Only the sound of her heart and her ragged breathing was the soundtrack to her confusion and slowly growing terror.

After a minute she tried again, getting to her feet cautiously before stumbling to the conference table and catching herself on the edge. Giant cabling that had yet to be buried under the floors tried to trip her, but she managed to keep her feet. Working her way around the table, she aimed for the windows, hoping to get some clue as to what was going on. At the same time, she began talking to EDI.

"EDI, I know you're busy aiding Joker, but what on earth is going on? Who's attacking us?"

Just as EDI answered, Sam braced herself on the window and looked up. Looming before her was an image worse than the nightmares of the Collector ship seen on Horizon that sometimes haunted her. "Giant" only started to describe it. Blacker than any night she had ever experienced, it had tentacle appendages that reached down from the sky like a great hand ready to pluck her from the ground. Originating somewhere above – she couldn't make out the details – was a piercing red light, like a great eye trying to ferret out the smallest details below it.

With her heart sinking into her gut and her body frozen in absolute terror, her mind barely registered EDI's words.

"The Reapers are here, Specialist Traynor."