Story Title: A Touch of the Past
Chapter: 8/18
Chapter Summary: The struggle of waiting…

Chapter 8: Answering the Call

Shepard paced about his cabin, unable to settle down.

Once he had made his report to the Council and Admiral Hackett, he had gone to his cabin for some much needed solitude. The rest of the crew had left him alone, sending him reports via email instead of asking him to check things out personally as he was apt to do; he appreciated the consideration as much as he didn't want to need it.

But he admitted that he did need it.

The calls to the Council and Hackett had been rough, to the point where he was still sort of recovering from the response he had gotten on both ends but for different reasons.

The Council had ripped into him for letting the situation get to the point where the enemy could isolate Kaidan as they had. After all, he was a Spectre and the mission being a trap for him shouldn't have meant anything to the outcome. And another Spectre had suffered for his failure to anticipate the danger. His response had been as far from respectful as he had ever been with the Councilors, telling them that they had as much of a responsibility to the Spectres, making sure they didn't send them into somewhere without checking into the message at all. They had cut corners because of the similarity to the Collectors when they should have done a little investigating on their own. They had people for that besides Spectres.

The report to Hackett had been more of a personal blow. When Hackett had appeared on the comm, Shepard had actually been unable to say the words to a man he deeply respected and who had always supported him and had supported Kaidan as well.

He had managed to croak out, "The mission from the Council was a trap for me and Major Alenko. He's…"

Hackett had allowed a few seconds pause to see if Shepard would be able to get it out on his own, then had sighed and shook his head. "Do you know if he's okay?" the Admiral had asked.

"We believe so. It appears as if he let himself be taken, asked for 36 hours to work. That was about four hours ago," Shepard had replied in a subdued tone, finding some of his usual resolve being given something familiar as answering the Admiral's questions was.

"Do you know where he is?" Shepard was kind of surprised that Hackett had ignored the gap from when Kaidan was taken and when the report was made.

"He gave us a way to find him. We just came out of the relay, about to enter the system he was tracked to."

"Then I expect to hear from you in 33 hours with an updated report on Major Alenko's findings."

And that was it. Nothing else. No blaming Shepard for what had happened. No asking what even happened. Just relaying his next orders with the implication that he would succeed, that he would have more to tell because Kaidan would have given him more.

"Off the record, sir?" he requested. Hackett paused, then nodded for Shepard to continue. "It shouldn't have happened. We knew to watch out for people targeting him and I still let him get separated from us."

Hackett looked at him, evaluating him carefully. "Will Alenko blame you for what happened?"

"Of course not. He doesn't do that sort of thing."

"You're right, he doesn't. So don't do it for him. It's a distraction and it won't do him any good. I know you're concerned for him, but he's capable of solving this, especially within the time frame he asked for. Remember, he has learned a lot in the past few years; especially in the months prior to the Reaper's assault on Earth as he took command of the Spec Ops Biotic Division. He's resourceful enough to make you work to keep up and smart enough to see when he's about to run out of options."

Hackett was right, Shepard knew that, knew all that about Kaidan. He just hated having to look past worrying about the man he loved.

"Anything else, Admiral?" he asked, needing to end the call and get himself straightened out.

"He has a habit of wrapping things up faster than he anticipates. Comes from the days before a certain Commander helped him not be so careful in the execution of tactics. Be ready to move in sooner than 32 hours. Hackett out."

And with that, Hackett knew that Kaidan was in enemy hands; an enemy that Kaidan had predicted would go for him. And Shepard was left to wait for the Major's deadline.

Which was just about the shittiest thing Shepard had ever had to do in all his years of service.

It didn't get easier as the hours ticked by either. He had tried to sleep but only managed maybe an hour or two before he had to move or he'd lose his mind. He then resorted to throwing himself into work, reading over reports submitted to him and working out where they would be going next after this, catching up on progress reports on the Crucible. Everything he could do to keep from thinking about Kaidan and what he was possibly going through.

He had dozed off at his computer at some point, thankfully catching a little more sleep. He had been unable to remain idle any longer and had made his rounds of the Normandy, talking to all of the crew, getting some much needed assurance from his friends as to why he shouldn't be too worried about if Kaidan was alright.

Though he'd avoided Javik completely, not needing to hear the Prothean tell him something along the lines that they were wasting time waiting when they could be doing something against the Reapers.

Garrus was the best stop, the turian asking him for more details on what had happened to Kaidan at BAaT and then making a point to tell Shepard just why a seventeen year-old human killing a turian General was something to pay attention to.

"I just might be a little more scared of pissing Kaidan off now," Garrus had said with a chuckle that Shepard knew to mean the turian was partially serious. "I have even told him that he needs to loosen up with his biotics."

"He's got nothing but control on them," Shepard had replied absently.

"Well, yeah. I might have too if I had killed a guy before being taught how."

"You think he was wrong to kill Vyrnnus?" Shepard was curious to hear what Garrus thought of Kaidan killing one of his own kind like that, removed from the battlefield as that situation had been.

"I'm wondering how he didn't kill him sooner."

Shepard breathed out a laugh. "Killing him sooner wouldn't be Kaidan."

Garrus' mandibles shifted to his smile. "True. He's good for you, a good balance to your crazy."

"Like you're one to talk about crazy, Archangel," Shepard shot back good-naturedly. This was something familiar. He needed this even if they were talking about Kaidan.

"Never said I wasn't. But you have to admit he's not as obvious about it as we are. That's handy to have around." Garrus paused briefly, as if deciding if he should continue or not. "Besides, he promised me epic battles between the two of you and I expect him to deliver."

Shepard shook his head. "You have no heart."

Garrus' laugh had followed Shepard on his way out of the Shuttle Bay where Garrus had been holed up cleaning his weapons to the elevator.

He had returned to his cabin after making the rounds, going back to killing time with reports and checking messages, trying to not obsess over the time display in the corner of his private terminal.

"Commander Shepard, we are receiving unusual readings from Major Alenko's tracker. Will you please return to the bridge?" EDI's voice sounded through the speaker next to the door.

"I'll be right there."

He was passing the galaxy map before he really was aware that he had taken the elevator down to Deck 2. It wasn't the gathering of the crew as it had been about a day ago, instead only Tali was on the bridge besides Joker and EDI.

"What's going on?" he asked as he stepped up between the pilot and co-pilot seat.

"I am not certain, Commander," EDI responded. "Since locking on to the signal from Major Alenko's dog tags, the signal has been constant and we are maintaining a high orbit over a small facility on the planet. However, a few minutes ago, the signal began fluctuating, increasing in strength before returning to the strength it has maintained until now. It has since ceased and returned to normal, but it is concerning as to what has occurred."

"I cannot determine a pattern of fluctuations," Tali commented from her place off to Shepard's left. "But I am not familiar with the device."

Shepard wasn't all that familiar with it either, simply wearing it because they were his tags. He started racking his brain, trying to remember what had been told to him about the tracker when it had been given to him. There hadn't been much as the tracker was just a last precaution in making sure N7s were never really lost or alone during missions. The tags acted as extra insulation as well as hid the tracker from being picked up on scans unless someone knew exactly what to look for.

But none of that explained why the signal would change.

A low hum sounded from Tali's omnitool, likely the signal they were using to find Kaidan. The single tone suddenly increased in pitch, getting higher for just about a second before returning to the low hum, then after two seconds of the regular sound increased again, only to lower again almost instantaneously and then again before another pause, the sound such a quick change that Shepard probably wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't paying such close attention.

And the fluctuations continued to change, increasing in short blips or the slightly longer ones. But Tali was right, there was no pattern Shepard could identify and it always returned to the normal tone. After about a minute, the fluctuations stopped and it was just the signal. Tali looked down at her omnitool and played the recording again, imputing a few other commands into the device.

"It's just a tracker. There's no reason for the signal to change like that," Shepard thought aloud. Nothing anyone had said about the device had included information of it being used as a communicator. It made it a lot easier to find in a scan to have that capability.

The sound of the altering signal faded somewhat as Shepard continued to try to find an answer. They didn't need this right now; things were already tense enough without an unknown variable like this. That signal was what told them where Kaidan was and if it was faulty, then Shepard wasn't sure that he could keep from ordering Joker to go planet-to-planet in search of his lover.

But it was this distraction that allowed the tone to fall enough from direct focus that he was able to hear something familiar. Something that he hadn't heard since getting out of basic. Something that could only be from Kaidan, Alliance marine that he was.

"Start the recording over again, Tali," Shepard ordered and moved closer to the quarian. Tali did as she was told and restarted the message, and Shepard listened carefully to the sounds with a new understanding, gleaning the meaning from it that Kaidan had intended. When the message came to an end, Shepard turned to Joker and EDI.

"It wasn't anything wrong with the signal. Kaidan found a way to alter the output to send a message. It was Morse Code."

"Wait, Kaidan really just pulled Morse Code out of his ass to communicate with us while he's being held hostage?" Joker said incredulously. "Dammit, I'm never going to be able to hold anything over him again if he keeps up smart crap like this."

"What is Morse Code?" Tali asked.

"It's an old form of long range communication humans used before we had anything else, using patterns in sounds to form letters. Alliance soldiers are still taught so that we can always have a way to communicate without everyone knowing that's what we're doing."

"Nice history lesson. Now what did Kaidan say?" Joker pressed.

Shepard went over the message mentally, separating out the sounds into letters and then into the words. "Time's up. Something must have changed and he needs us there now."

"You're sure that's what he said?" Joker questioned.

Shepard gave the helmsman a frustrated look. "You want to check my work now?" Joker just shook his head and turned to face his console. "Get us in range for a shuttle landing. Tell Garrus to get ready for departure. Tali, I'd like you on this one as well. Can you track the signal with your omnitool?"

"Of course, Shepard."

The Commander walked out of the bridge and headed back to the elevator with Tali following behind him.

They met Garrus in the cargo bay and all got changed into their armor and loaded onto the shuttle with Cortez in silent efficiency. As they launched from the Normandy and headed straight for the facility, Shepard looked between his friends.

"I won't have Kaidan watching over his shoulder for these guys to be coming after him again. I don't plan on letting any of these assholes out of the facility let alone off the planet alive. You have a problem with that, stay on the shuttle."

His friends appeared to have expected as much because both of their responses sounded amused and sincere.

Tali pulled out her heavy pistol and checked the thermal clip. "It's been a good while since we've had a 'shoot only, no questions' sort of mission."

Garrus clapped Shepard on the back of his shoulder before adding, "You did say we were making a statement here about not screwing with the crew of the Normandy. I believe it would lose something if we let people walk away without getting the message."

Feeling the shuttle decelerate and shift angle to land, Shepard stood and pulled out his auto rifle. "Glad we're on the same page. Now let's see what trouble Kaidan's caused these guys."

The hatch opened and the three stepped out smoothly with guns raised and ready for anything. They were a short distance from the facility, it being too risky to land within. There were no guards or any indication of security as the three walked through the shuttle bay.

Shepard took point with Tali right behind him and Garrus taking the rear position and they passed by about half a dozen shuttles.

"Shepard," Garrus called out when they were nearly through to the other side and the door into the facility. Shepard turned to look where Garrus had indicated to one of the shuttles, the hatch open. Shepard walked back to where Garrus was and looked into the shuttle to see why Garrus had called out to him. His gun lowered as he realized Garrus had seen a pile of armor and Shepard recognized it at once. "That belongs to Kaidan, right?" Garrus confirmed.

"It does," Shepard answered before pressing his fingers to the transmitter in his ear. "Cortez, got a favor to ask."

"Yes, sir?" Cortez's voice responded at once.

"There's an open shuttle in the landing bay. It has Kaidan's armor in it. Could you come collect it and bring it back to the shuttle? Area is clear."

"Can do Commander. I know how much he likes that armor he assembled," Steve's voice was amused and Shepard rolled his eyes as he turned toward the door again.

"I would defend his affinity for the armor, but I know you two actually discuss supplies."

Cortez laughed. "Yeah, I probably know his armor struggles better than you do, Shepard."

"Dangerous claim there, Cortez," Garrus said as Shepard stepped up to the door and hacked the lock.

And as the door swung open, an alarm blared through the facility and the element of surprise was lost to them.

Not like they really needed it.