A shorter chapter today my friends. We are getting closer and closer to our big finale! (Did I mention that I'm fucking terrified? I'm fucking terrified!) On with the show:
The MSV Fedele soared or rather tumbled across the viewport, wrapped in a cloud of black smoke that clung to its rough and dented surface like wisps of fog. The shuttles of Gate-and-Perimeter-Control tried to direct the ship away from its current vector but they looked like insects buzzing around a garlefka and were ignored just like that.
Garrus scanned the docks for C-Sec activity or anybody who could put Leran in danger at his position at the controls outside. So far everything looked quiet and he turned to Nihlus to ask him what exactly he intended to do on this mission when his omni-tool chimed with a message. It flagged the code for his sister and he couldn't ignore that.
"Solana, now is a really bad..."
"What under the frying sun have you done?" Solana yelled at him as soon as the connection established. Her angry subharmonics even crossed the limited range of the messaging system and made Nihlus trill out in mocking shock.
Shepard raised an eyebrow at him and Garrus hurried to switch the conversation to the aural connector and rushed out of the cockpit. "Solana, listen, not now..."
"Don't you dare cut me off! The Notarius was here, readjusting your position in the chronic he said, Aethius is even more unbearable than before, mother is keening all the time when she thinks nobody's listening..."
"He forced the decision," Garrus interrupted, his yell making the heads of the crew turn. He lowered his voice. "He made me choose and I chose her."
Solana let out a string of curses in voice and subharmonic that would have earned her a week of chores on any turian ship.
In the viewport the Fedele got closer and closer, the smoke making it hard to see the relay in the background. Garrus began to worry. "I can't talk right now, I have to...
The proximity alert made an obnoxious noise and the unemotional voice of the ship's VI warned them of an object coming closer.
"What is going on?" Solana asked through the comm implant, hearing the alerts through his omni-tool.
Garrus strained his head to see inside the cockpit. The indicator still glowed red, the Normandy was still tied to the docks. "I can't talk right now, sorry," he said, "I'll contact you again soon if I can, but I don't know – " he couldn't even be sure if he was able to contact her at all, any message could trace a fleet to the Normandy's position. "I don't know if I can, just know... tell mother that I did what I knew was right."
"Wait, what are you...?"
Garrus ended the call, wincing at the thought of how rightfully angry Solana would be and hurried back into the cockpit.
"Are we sure this is an act? The ship looks like it's out of control," Nihlus asked as he entered. Outside the Fedele had slowed down but still let out smoke.
Joker pulled up a display of messages on the his left side and said, "I'm like 90% sure that it's an act. I mean, it looks like they're tumbling but they keep their path. And they still send us messages, crazy messages but messages are a good sign, are they not?"
"Crazy messages?" Shepard and Garrus asked at the same time.
Shepard leaned over Joker's shoulder, trying to read the messages on his screens. "What kind of crazy?"
"Well, they don't want to get arrested for playing games with Gate-and-Perimeter. They want us to pull them along with us through the gate. Sort of like catching them in a mass effect net and dragging them after us."
"Is that even possible?"
"Theoretically? Sure!" Joker gave her a sheepish grin but quickly faced forward again when he caught her murderous stare.
"How theoretically are we talking?" Shepard asked and Garrus could have sworn he heard a subharmonic growl from her.
"It's been tested, just not with a ship of our size..."
The ship's VI announced: "Message by Admiral Anderson."
"Let's hear it."
"You're good to go Shepard, hurry, I –" the message cut off.
"What the fuck?" Shepard pressed out between clenched teeth.
They all stared at the indicator glowing in red. Outside, the Fedele was slowly moving back towards the relay with noticeably less smoke trailing behind.
"Come on..." Shepard grumbled. "Can't we pull out?" she asked Joker. "Just rip this shit off?"
"Sure, I bet we don't really need that plating or even that whole emitter, I'm sure we can easily do without that."
"Damnit!" Shepard spat, her hands clenching around the back of Joker's seat.
The indicator turned green. A shiver went through the bulkhead as the docking clamps released and for a moment the ship was swaying.
"Finally. Take us out Joker, nice and slow," Shepard said.
"Aye Commander," Joker said and let the Normandy float out of the dock. The ship moved through the cloud of smoke left behind by the Fedele and made a wide arc towards the Relay.
"Commander?" Kaidan said from the copilot seat. He gestured towards a display showing schematics of flight mechanics. "What Captain Martel suggests sounds a bit crazy but it can be done. We have to extend our mass effect field over their ship, kind of like we do when we pull in the Mako. That way we go through the relay as one object."
Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Is it safe? I can't risk this mission for some crazy idea, as much as I don't want to be an asshole and leave the Fedele behind – Ilos is more important."
"We need them," Joker stated, his fingers gently dancing over the orange glowing interfaces in front of him. "They can get us fuel outside of the Alliance network, Captain Martel has some contacts in the Fortuna system."
"Fortuna is known to harbor pirates and slavers," Garrus said, recalling the C-Sec reports he had read about the system.
Shepard sighed. "We can't exactly stop at a Council station, they'll lock us up."
"I guess we really are pirates," Garrus said, weighing the implications in his mind.
"Do I get an eye-patch and a parrot on my shoulder now?" Joker asked to Garrus' complete bafflement.
Shepard snorted. "I think you still need that depth perception and I won't have a bird shitting in my ship."
"What in the name of...?" Garrus began but stopped when he saw Shepard grin. "Weird human stuff, got it," he said and stopped the translator program from figuring out what Joker and Shepard meant.
The Relay loomed in front of them and Joker let the ship hover for a moment. A section in the displays showed the rear view where the Fedele came closer. The ship had stopped smoking but the lack of the black clouds did its looks no favors. It was a miracle that the thing even stayed on its vector in one piece.
"No alarm from the Citadel so far," Kaidan said with a look over to Pressly. Garrus had been surprised to see the older human in the cockpit, he would have thought that Pressly would not want to risk his career for stealing an Alliance ship.
"Thank you Tevos, Leran, Anderson and whoever else stuck their neck out for us," Shepard said under her breath. In front of them, the relay became larger as they approached, filling out the viewport.
"Almost there," Joker said, turning the Normandy in an arc like an atmospheric glider to align her with the mass effect stream. The Fedele showed as a blip next to them on the proximity display, synchronizing her flight vector with the Normandy.
The rings in the relay started to spin faster. "I'm extending our mass effect field over the Fedele."
Garrus moved behind Kaidan's seat and looked at the displays in front him. He watched how Kaidan transferred energy to the external emitters and the mass effect field that encompassed the Normandy all the time, stretched and wrapped around the Fedele.
"That was surprisingly easy," Garrus said.
Kaidan nodded, "Yes, I expected more problems actually. If the relay takes us through like this, this will be a new step in mass relay mechanics."
"Only if we actually make it through," Joker said between clenched teeth. "Gate Patrol has noticed us, they're coming for us." He switched one of the translucent displays to a backwards view.
Three shuttles flipped over and rapidly closed the distance between them and the Normandy. Joker sped up and on the screen the Fedele almost dipped out of the Normandy's mass effect field.
"Hey, Normandy!" The message crackled over the comm system like it came from an ancient warship. "We're at top speed here, so if you would be so kind and slow down?"
"We're trying to get away from Gate Patrol," Joker answered but he slowed the ship down.
"I got that," the Captain of the Fedele said, "but I'd like to remind you that we had a deal and you need us to get fuel and we're also just too pretty to be left behind like that."
Joker was about to answer but Shepard stopped him and spoke instead. "Captain Martel, I have no intention to leave you behind but you have to fly faster. We are about to –"
The ship shook from an impact and a groan ran through the bulkhead. Shepard pulled up a ship diagram on a display and angrily flipped through the reports. "Did they just fucking shoot us?"
"Yes, Commander," Kaidan reported. "A small impact in our rear, the shields absorbed it."
"Must have been a low energy particle shot," Joker said. "They don't want to make scratches in their flagship."
"Well, let's say our goodbyes then," Shepard said. "It looks like we're not welcome here anymore."
"Aye, Commander," Joker said, "Kaidan, tell Captain Martel to give her all he has, we have to jump now."
Kaidan switched one display to a view of the Fedele and typed a message. The other ship was visibly shaking and a greenish substance was leaking from one side but she sped up and aligned herself with the Normandy again.
"Relay is hot, vector is clear," Joker announced.
"Mass effect field is stable," said Kaidan, nodding towards Joker.
"Here we go," Joker said and hooked the Normandy into the relay field. They could not be stopped now, not even by Gate Patrol. The gravitational shift was more abrupt than usual, making them all stumble for a moment but then the familiar pull drew them forward, the light of the relay filling the cockpit.
Garrus kept his eyes on the displays, watching for tension or tears in the mass effect field. But the field remained stable, holding the Fedele tied to the Normandy and pulling her along.
"Are they following us?" Shepard asked.
Joker checked his interface and shook his head. "No, they stayed behind. If they're not encapsulated by the same mass effect field, the relay could tear them apart."
The Normandy entered the stream and the ride instantly became calm and quiet.
"How's the Fedele?" Garrus asked Kaidan.
"I couldn't even say, I mean she's still leaking something and her surface tension is completely out of whack but she still going, so it's probably good." Joker pointed at a display showing the Fedele. "And she hasn't crashed into us so far."
"Was that an expected outcome?" Shepard asked, her eyebrows raised.
"Well," Kaidan said, "there aren't too many test cases we can look at. I mean, it was more theoretical..."
"Just a theory?" Garrus and Shepard asked at the same time.
"A sound theory, really," Joker hurried to say, "there's been a thesis and all."
"A thesis? One?" Shepard's voice was cutting like a knife. "Do I want to know who the authors are?"
"Probably not, Commander." Joker looked straight ahead, his fingers dancing over the controls.
Shepard looked over to Kaidan who looked like he wanted to disappear into his seat.
"Fine," she said, "where are we heading?"
"Horse Head Nebula. From there we have a few options, courtesy of our friend Captain Martel," Kaidan said.
Shepard turned on her heel to go. "Carry on then." She threw a nod to Garrus and Nihlus and they followed her out of the cockpit.
"Why did you not want to hear about the authors of that thesis?" Garrus asked while they walked to the Captain's cabin.
"I bet you a thousand credits that it was Joker himself who wrote it," Shepard said with an angry grin. "It was probably his own Master's Thesis or something like that." She shook her head and mumbled something under her breath.
Nihlus made a nervous trill as he walked next to Garrus. Shepard led them into her cabin and waited for the door to close before she spoke.
"Okay, Nihlus, why are you here?"
"Like I said, I want to confront Saren. I was probably the closest he had to a friend and maybe I can get through him. And..." he paused and his mandibles twitched in a smirk, "and that's exactly what you had planned to do."
Garrus trilled in surprise. Shepard scowled at him but just when he expected her to get angry, a grin spread on her face.
"Yeah, I guess I did," she said. "At some point I really wanted to see his face when you showed up." She sat down on her desk and offered her chair with a gesture to Nihlus.
Nihlus sat down and the soft hum from his subharmonics told Garrus that he was exhausted. "Thanks, I guess I'm not quite up to form yet. I had to run to get here in time."
Shepard folded her hands and looked at him before she spoke again. "Let's make one thing clear. I'm a Spectre like you, you're not my mentor anymore and this is my ship. On this ship, this mission, my word trumps yours. I'm not sure where you stand in relation to Garrus' rank but for me he is my turian advisor, not you."
Nihlus raised his hands. "I'm not here to undermine your authority. I'm just a passenger, hoping to find an old friend on some spirits forsaken rock in the darkest patch of the galaxy and maybe... ," he hummed in frustration, "maybe I can find a way to..."
"Knock some sense into him?"
"Yes, maybe," Nihlus sighed, "or something else..."
Garrus sat down on the bed and hummed to Nihlus in sympathy. "Do you hope that he will realize what happened to him?"
"We've seen that the block has a range, maybe that combined with the shock..." Nihlus softly touched the implant on the side of his head and hummed again, sadness and loss in his subharmonics. "I know he's an ass, but he was also a good teacher, almost a friend. I just want to try to get through to him."
"Alright," Shepard said, "I'm all for this plan but you will not fight groundside with us on Ilos. I'm expecting some heavy fights with geth and you and Liara will stay in the background until we cleared the space. You're still not well enough and Liara is not a soldier."
"Maybe she should stay on the ship?" Garrus wondered.
"She is our one and only prothean expert and from all we know, Ilos is pretty much one giant prothean artifact." Shepard stretched her neck to release some tension from her shoulders. "She would probably kill me if I left her on the Normandy and I hope she can give us some insights."
"What about the Normandy?" Nihlus asked.
"If Saren plans to attack the Citadel, I can't keep the Normandy tied to Ilos. The best ship of the Alliance fleet has to be there to defend the Citadel."
"But then we'll have no way of getting back," Garrus said.
"I know, I'm not sure what to do yet. We'll have to figure something out. For now I want to use the six days it takes to Ilos for combat simulations and maintenance." She jumped off the desk and gestured to Nihlus to vacate her chair.
"I guess we are dismissed," Nihlus said and pushed himself out of the chair.
Garrus stood up too and nodded towards Shepard. "I'm going to check the programming on the guns and calibrate them again."
"When you're done with that, are you going to check over the Mako?" Shepard asked as she sat down in her chair.
"Yes, Commander, I plan on doing that tomorrow."
"I'll see you later then," Shepard said and turned to Nihlus. "You will have to find a place to sleep in the crew quarters I'm afraid. Speak to Pressly about that."
"Yes, dearest Commander, I'm sure I can manage." Nihlus made an elaborate bow and backed out of the room.
Garrus was about to follow him but turned back to Shepard and leaned down to take her face between his hands. He pressed his forehead against hers, her presence and her scent grounding and calming him. He felt her taking a deep breath and her shoulders lowered.
"How do you always know what I need?" she whispered.
"Are you okay, Sunshine?"
"Yes, I will be fine." She softly kissed his mouthplates and leaned back to look into his eyes. "I'll see you later, my Angel, okay?"
Garrus nodded and left the room to find Nihlus waiting for him. He fell in step next to him and waited till they were alone before he spoke.
"Is Shepard all right? There's a lot of pressure on her."
Garrus sighed. "She's remarkable, so strong. But this would have been so much easier if the Council wasn't so stubborn. What is wrong with them, how can they not see what is going on?"
Nihlus slowed down and stopped behind some lockers, hidden from crew walking past. He took his time to answer, his subharmonics humming in worry. He seemed unusually serious and it made Garrus' plates itch.
"I've been pleading and arguing with Tevos for weeks. Only now, with Dania and me with the implants close to her, have we finally gotten through to her. I doubted it at first but there really is something going on with this influence over asari from somewhere. Tevos is on our side now but the rest of the Council... ." He growled loudly, anger vibrating in his subharmonics. "Sparatus is the most stubborn turian in the galaxy and probably the next one too and he is still angry that humanity is not cowering at turian feet. And our friend the spineless salarian Valern just agrees with what ever Tevos and Sparatus decide on. And since for once they don't agree – Valern just sits at these silent meetings between them and twitches." Nihlus trilled his frustration in an angry hiss.
Garrus trilled with him in sympathy. He had not been aware how hard Nihlus had worked for them behind the scenes.
Nihlus gave him a subharmonic hum, indicating that he was giving him advice. "Take care of Shepard. She's the best hope we have to stop Saren and that damn Reaper."
He hummed his promise to Nihlus. It felt more important than anything else he had ever expressed.
Thanks to divadevi8808 for beta reading and editing and for telling me the truth.