"That poor boy," was the first thing Kelly said when Shepard sat down on her couch after getting back from dealing with project overlord.
"Indeed," Miranda said as she too sat on a couch in Shepard's room, "I sent all information on the project to the Alliance. They'll make sure that all the facilities are destroyed and that all involved are arrested."
"Good," was all that Shepard said which worried Kelly. She'd been quiet after they had found David hooked into the machine and forced to be a part of the experiment. Kelly assumed that the visual of all the intrusive connections had greatly unnerved her, probably due to memories of being restrained during her time alone.
Miranda, sensing that Shepard needed time alone to collect herself, left the room and sent an order to the cook to make one of Shepard's favorite dishes.
Once she left Kelly sat on the end of the couch and Shepard spread out and rested her head on Kelly's thigh. Once she got comfortable Kelly started to run her hands through her hair, an action that had always relaxed her when they were younger, and sure enough after about ten minutes Shepard was asleep.
Kelly sighed as she thought over what Allison had said weeks before. She liked to think that she was getting better at dealing with problems from her past but then events like overlord made her become like the scared child that was almost paralyzed with fear.
Sure, sex on her own terms made her more fearless, but what if something made that become more of a detriment? Kelly just shook her head and looked up as Ashley tip toed in. she made a 'help me get her into bed?' motion to which Ashley nodded and once she was tucked in she had her follow her into the hall.
"What's up Kelly?"
"When Allison wakes up, I want you to help her get her mind off of everything. Ok?"
Ashley got a wicked smile, "Sure thing."
Three days later as everyone was gearing up for an extended away mission Kelly entered the briefing room and looked over the mission speculation. Possible collector funded pirates based on a deserted jungle planet. Since the Normandy was finally integrating the IFF some systems were needing adjustments so the squad members Allison had collected would travel with her on the shuttle.
Kelly was in her basic armor with a side arm strapped to her thigh and was going to keep an eye on Shepard who looked better but obviously was still disturbed by overlord. She just focused on gauging everyone else's mental state.
After a while Shepard finished with her gear and left the room without so much as a 'let's get going.'
As they boarded the shuttle Kelly suddenly got a feeling that something bad was going to happen but shrugged it off as nerves.
As Joker was manning the helm several hours later he started to notice a series of glitches unrelated to the instability caused by the IFF. He was about to run a full systems check when Edi popped up, "Jeff, it seems that there is a signal imbedded in the white noise you're seeing in the glitches. We are transmitting our position into space!"
That took Joker off guard, "Transmitting it to who?"
He had just barely finished the question when it was answered by the appearance of the collector ship. "Ah shit," He said.
As the crew began arming themselves he tried to make their escape, "Let's get out of here."
"Propulsion systems are disabled. I am detecting a virus in the ships computers."
"From the IFF? Damn it why didn't you scrub it?"
"Primary defense systems are offline, but we can still save the Normandy Mr. Moreau, but you must help me." Joker turned as he heard something begin hitting the airlock, "Give me the ship."
"What? You're crazy! You start singing Daisy bell and I'm done."
"Unlock my sealed data bases and I can initiate counter measures. The maintenance shaft in the science lab will allow you passage to the AI core. The main corridors are no longer safe, the collectors have boarded. The emergency floor lighting will guide you Mr. Moraue."
"God damn it!" Joker said as he made his way to the science lab as fast as his brittle legs would allow. As he passed by the elevator a Collector exited it and attack the people guarding it. After he got to the bottom of the ladder Edi informed him of multiple hostiles on the crew deck.
A crew member offered to protect him from hostiles but ran in a direction Joker didn't need to go. As he looked out the door he saw one collector pull Gabby into the elevator and his would-be guardian get tossed like a ragdoll back in the direction he had just come.
"Main fusion plant off-line, activating emergency H-fuel cells."
"What the shit?!" Joker said as he reached EDI's AI core. As he approached the main console he said, "Alright I'm at ahhh… you."
"Connect the core to the Normandy's primary control module."
"Great, so this is where it starts. When we're all organic batteries guess who'll they'll blame. This is all Joker's fault, what a tool he was. I have to spend all day computing PI because he plugged in the overlord."
He finished the connection and there was a fluctuation of the lights along with a few odd noises before, "I have access to the defensive systems, thank you Mr. Moraue. Now you must reactivate the primary drive in engineering."
Joker grumbled, "Ah you want me to go crawling through the ducts again?"
"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees." Joker gave her hologram a raised eyebrow, "That is a joke."
"Right."
"The duct behind you connects to the engineering deck, good luck."
Jocker hurried through the ducting and emerged in Jack's hidey hole, "Hostiles are present in engineering, they are heading towards the cargo bay." Joker tip toed to the bottom of the stairs and watched as shadows moved across the wall ahead of him. He waited till they were gone then booked it into engineering when EDI declared it clear of hostiles and urged him proceed to minimize chances of detection.
He reached the main control panel, "Activate the drives and I'll open the airlocks as we accelerate, all hostiles will be killed."
"What about the crew?"
"They are gone Jeff, the collectors took them."
"Shit." He moved into the core chamber and finished the reactivation.
"I am sealing the engine room… I have control." There was a flash and Joker felt the ship lurch as it accelerated. He flew backwards and landed on his back, "No other life forms on board, securing airlocks and cargo bay doors."
He groaned as he got up, "Send a message to Shepard's shuttle. Tell her what happened."
"Message away, are you feeling well Jeff?"
"No, but thanks for asking."
Shepard was sitting in one of the shuttle's seats with Kelly resting her head on her shoulder when the pilot franticly yelled back to her that the Normandy had been attacked. 'Damn, and here I was hoping for a relaxing time killing pirates.'