Shepard could feel herself being pulled out of her slumber. In the distance she could hear gunfire and explosions but she could also hear a woman's voice, yelling at her to wake up. And she did, but very slowly. She could vaguely remember seeing Liara and Ashley in the med bay of the Normandy a short while ago but at the same time it seemed like long ago, and for some reason they had both been naked. Not that she had minded at the time, but she was beyond confused at her current situation.
The woman's voice was now telling her to grab a gun and some armor from a wall locker. As she made her way over to it she could hear her joints popping, it was almost as loud as the distant gun fire. Once she had the armor on she asked about the lack of thermal clips, only to get reminded that she was in a med-bay. She continued to move slowly, trying to allow her joints to get used to her moving again.
After a few minutes of walking she heard shouting up ahead. She moved quickly and as she came through a large door she saw a man shooting at a group of mechs. After they dispatched them and had a short conversation another group of mechs entered the room across the gap that was in it.
Once they were through with them they continued on towards the shuttle bay, meeting a guy named Wilson whom Shepard remembered from the first time she woke up. As they made their way to the shuttle bay the resistance they were getting from the mechs lessoned considerably. While they waited for the doors to open to the last two shuttles Wilson was saying something about how he was glad to be getting off the station, then the doors opened and Maranda shot him in the head.
After a long discussion about looking for any other survivors Miranda said, "These are the last two shuttles, and one is already full with a very precious cargo." So Shepard begrudgingly got aboard the empty shuttle and while they flew away from the station her thoughts turned to Ashley, Liara, and Kelly, mostly how they would react to her return after two years.
Kelly was walking around the Normandy SR2. It was an amazing ship, and the thought of being able to work with the woman that had been a sister to her for so long made her want to jump up and down with excitement. After she had been told that Shepard's body had been recovered by Cerberus, they had contacted her and had told her how they were going to rebuild her and that they wanted her to serve as the Normandy's Yeomen, and to keep an eye on her.
While she had been waiting she had visited Liara, whom Shepard had spoken of and had told her of her relationship with the Asari, along with Williams, she had been given Shepard's stuffed snowman, which Liara had found in a sealed footlocker. The fact that the little toy had made it through the crash ok made her sigh internally, but she pushed any other disappointing thoughts out of her mind as she got to her station. She was so excited to see Shepard in action, she had even prepared a list of things they would talk about once she came aboard. The thought of her list of things to do with Shepard reminded her of something she needed to check.
She brought up the intercom and called the med-bay, "Dr. Chakwas?"
"Yes Miss Chambers," came the reply.
"Did you pick up a good supply of that sleeping medication I told you to get for Shepard?" she asked.
"Yes, but I don't see why we need it. Shepard told me about how the two of you would sleep next to each other to get to sleep back home." Doctor Chakwas said.
"I guess we could do that, but I thought it would look unprofessional now since I'm working as her Yeoman."
"Hey, just tell people that you're sisters and they wouldn't care."
"But what if we pick up Williams and Liara?"
"Then they would either A) kick you out of her bed, B) let you stay until they both joined, or C), and Shepard may not be the one to ask you to, but they may invite you to an orgy." Chakwas trailed off with a snicker.
"HELL NO! I've known Shepard way too long to do anything like that!" Kelly said, her face going red.
"Come now, I was only joking." Chakwas said through another bout of snickers.
"Kelly?" a voice rang out from the front of the ship.
Kelly looked up and… there she was. Looking about the same as she had when she had boarded the Normandy on Earth about three years ago, except for a few scars, but she knew they had something to remove them.
Their eyes met, and a huge smile formed on Shepard's face.
"Allison!" Kelly shouted as she ran over and embraced the other woman.
"You two know each other?" One of the men watching a monitor asked.
"Yeah, since we were kids. We met in an abandoned building just outside of London. We're practically sisters." Shepard said.
"Interesting." The man said before going back to work.
The two people who were following Shepard left then Kelly told her to follow her to the elevator, "Where are we going?" She asked as Kelly pressed the top button.
"They assigned the room at the top of the ship to be your personal room." Kelly said as the elevator binged and the doors opened. They stepped out and when they entered the room Shepard immediately spotted Olaf sitting on the bed, "Your friend Liara found him in your footlocker when she explored the original Normandy's crash site. And before you ask, yes the fish tank was my idea. It has a built in VI to feed any fish you buy, and as you can see," she continued, motioning to the window in front of the desk, "You have ample room to put any model ships you build. Also I brought your hamster." She finished, pointing to the little ball of fur resting in its glass aquarium on a shelf.
"Thanks Kelly, it's good to have you here. I mean, it's good that Joker and the doc. are here, but I just feel better knowing that I have someone with your level of familiarity here."
"Thanks. Oh, and before you ask, yes I'll sleep up here with you, but if you need it we have a boat load of your medication in the med-bay."
Shepard grinned, "You really thought of everything."
"Of course," Kelly said, grinning and giving a mock salute, "Commander."
Ashley yawned as Rupert, one of the colonists that worked on the communications tower, droned on about a problem they had a few weeks ago, "So as you can see, we received a serious frequency burst that lasted ten hours. That isn't the weirdest part though,"
"It gets better?" Ashley asked, her boredom, and aggravation with everyone in the colony evident in her voice.
Rupert eyed her, ever since the communication anomaly she had been acting different. She was aggravated more easily, and had even punched a few people for getting on her nerves. Since his job was to monitor communications he knew about a call she had placed the day after the anomaly. She had called Alliance high command and had requested a transfer, her reasoning being that she no longer cared about the colony and someone else could take her job.
"Yeah, while the frequency burst was active it traveled to the communications monitor in your 'apartment', which then proceeded to broadcast white noise for, as I said, ten hours. Do you have any idea what it was about?" he asked, but when he turned back to look at her again she had a strange look on her face, "What?"
"Did you happen to record it?" Ashley asked, her expression changing from outright bored to completely serious it took Rupert a moment to respond.
"Um, yeah it's… … … right here? Any idea what it's about?"
"If I'm lucky, it may be my ticket at replicating a long distance Asari meld."
"I'm… sorry… come again?"
"I once melded with two people I had feelings for, one of which was an Asari. That communications burst somehow initiated a second meld while the other none Asari of our meld was in a coma. Somehow she contacted us from across the galaxy through a meld and even though for us it lasted only a few minutes, ten hours passed. So with this 'white noise' we may be able to replicate it, and either create a new form of long distance communication, or a new meaning to being a 'call girl'. Either way, this is worth looking into." Ashley said, taking the OSB with the signal on it.
"OK… well… have fun with that?" Rupert said, not quite sure how to respond with all that.
"Well, if you need me I'm going to go… do… something. Let me know if anything else pops up." And with that Ashley made her way back to her 'apartment'.