Sometime Between the Therum and Virmire Missions of Mass Effect 1

"Commander Shepard to the CIC, Commander Shepard to the CIC."

Inside the Captain's Quarters on the Normandy SR-1's crew deck, Shepard's thoughts were interrupted when he heard Joker page him over the intercom. He checked the time but was surprised to see that it wasn't the time he was expecting. Joker was not supposed to call him to the CIC until they were about to reach the mass relay that would take them out of the Han System of the Gemini Sigma cluster and into the Horsehead Nebula. According to the time that was still at least an hour away.

The Normandy had originally come to the Han System to complete an assignment Shepard had picked up on the Citadel during one of their visits. It started when he stumbled onto a C-SEC report saying that C-SEC was monitoring a woman named Helena Blake who was believed to be involved with a powerful crime syndicate. Shepard decided to look into the matter himself and went to the Presidium's financial district which was where Blake was last seen. He didn't have to look far as Blake actually called him over to her. Blake had heard about Shepard and his recent induction into the Spectres and wanted to offer him a job. She revealed that she was acquainted with two powerful crime bosses and was willing to give Shepard their locations so that he could "do the galaxy a favor" by taking them out. However Shepard knew the real reason Blake wanted the crime bosses killed was so that she could take over their parts of the operation. He told Blake that he refused to become part of a gang war. Despite that, Blake gave him the coordinates anyway and asked if he could really allow the men to live despite the fact they were involved with drug distribution and slavery.

That question made Shepard conclude that ultimately Blake was right. If the two crime bosses were indeed big drug movers and slave traders, he had to do something about it. He would just tell himself that he was not doing it for Blake but because it was his duty as a Spectre to bring the criminals to justice. The fights were rough but Shepard and his squad managed to shut down the bases at both locations and killed the crime lords when they refused to surrender. With both bases gone, Blake wanted Shepard to meet her in the Horsehead Nebula to give him a reward. Unknown to her, Shepard had no intention of collecting it. Instead he was planning on making Blake shut the gang down completely. He was thinking about how he was going to get her to do it when Joker paged him.

Still slightly confused as to why Joker was paging him when they shouldn't be leaving the Gemini cluster yet, Shepard left his quarters and walked up the steps to the CIC deck. He took his place at the galaxy map. The map zoomed in to show the Normandy's current location. Sure enough the cluster's relay was still an hour away. He was about to scold Joker for calling him to the CIC too soon when suddenly the map zoomed out from the Han System and focused on the neighboring Ming System. A blip then appeared along the first planet's orbit to indicate a ship.

"Is this why you called me up here Joker?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Joker replied over the intercom, "this is going to sound strange but that ship was in that same location when we first arrived in this cluster."

"Really? That's a long time for a ship to be stationary. Did you try to hail them?"

"I've been trying but no one is answering."

This wasn't making any sense to Shepard. In the mystery ship's current position there were no nearby habitable planets or space stations. There was no reason for it to have remained stationary during the time it took the Normandy to complete their assignment. The fact the ship wasn't answering their hails either made the situation more suspicious. He decided that Blake was going to have to wait a little longer. Right now he needed to investigate what was wrong with the mystery ship.

"Get us to the Ming System Joker," he said, "I want to take a team on board that ship to investigate."

"Roger that Commander," Joker replied.

When Joker had signed off, Shepard turned away from the galaxy map and left the CIC to go back down to the crew deck. He walked past the mess hall and headed for his locker to get his gear.

"Hey skipper," a voice behind him said.

Shepard didn't need to turn around to know who the voice belonged to. He smiled as he turned around to see Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams waving to him from one of the mess tables. Seeing Ashley always brought a smile to Shepard's face. The two of them had been getting pretty close the last few days and Shepard was beginning to feel that there was something growing between them. True they hadn't really talked about becoming a couple but the subtle flirting and teasing they shared indicated to Shepard that Ashley was feeling the same way. Shepard knew that eventually he and Ashley would need to talk about if they were going to pursue a relationship but he knew it might have to wait until their mission was over.

"Hey Ash," he said as he walked over to Ashley's table, "are you just sitting down for chow?"

"Yeah," Ashley replied, "I stopped by your quarters to see if you wanted to join me. Where were you?"

"I was up on the CIC deck."

"Is everything okay?"

"Not sure, Joker picked up a ship that appears to be adrift and it's not responding to our hails. I'm having him take us in to investigate. Would you be willing to have chow later and come along?"

Ashley nodded.

"Good. Find Liara and tell her to suit up. I'll meet you both back here when you're ready and we'll head up to the airlock."

"Aye-aye skipper."

"Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere," the voice of the Normandy's VI said while Shepard and his squad waited to board the mystery ship.

It always annoyed Shepard every time he had to go through this process before leaving the Normandy. Not only because the process seemed like it took a while but because of the noise. The process of equalizing the cabin pressure was always loud. Finally the doors opened allowing Shepard and the squad access to the ship and everything became quiet…a little too quiet.

Right away Shepard knew that something was wrong. This ship could easily hold a maximum of thirty people. With that many people someone should have been there to greet them. Yet there wasn't a soul in sight. Shepard cautiously pulled out his shotgun. Ashley and Liara followed suit with their own weapons. They then slowly made their way deeper into the ship.

"Guess nobody's home," said Ashley.

"Most of the systems seem to be disabled," said Liara, "only basic life support appears to be functioning."

They had now reached the main cargo hold. Shepard was about to make a comment about how it appeared clear when suddenly a noise caught everyone's attention. It sounded like footsteps.

"Hear that?" Ashley asked. "We're not alone."

The situation just continued to get creepier. Shepard wasn't one to scare easily on an assignment but that was because he would usually have a rough idea of what he was walking into. In this case the ship was practically dead minus the life support and they hadn't seen anyone. And yet they could hear someone moving around. Having no idea if the person they were hearing was a friend or foe wasn't helping either. When they didn't hear any other sounds, they decided to continue forward. All their eyes were moving around looking for any sign of life.

Suddenly Shepard spread his arms out stopping Ashley and Liara in their tracks. Before they could ask what was wrong, Shepard pointed down to a wire that ran across the floor. They followed the wire to an explosive canister not too far away. If they had tripped the wire, they would have been blown to smithereens. Shepard ordered Ashley and Liara back while he pulled out his pistol and pointed it at the canister. Ashley and Liara looked at him with confusion so Shepard explained that if they set off the explosive it might make whoever was hiding think that they were dead. He fired his pistol and the tank exploded.

Ashley shook her head, "somebody set that trap. The whole place could be wired."

Shepard agreed and that was the other reason why he set off the first trap. If they had waited until they reached the other side of the hold, the person in hiding might have suspected the ruse. Now as long as they didn't stumble onto that person, they could proceed slowly and carefully thus allowing them to look out for any other traps. There were indeed more traps along the way but they were able to see them in time and stepped over each one. As they proceeded, Shepard couldn't help but wonder where the rest of the crew was. If the crew had been killed somehow he figured he should have seen a body by now. His thoughts were interrupted when they reached the other end of the hold. To his relief, they had made it without incident.

They proceeded to enter the adjacent hallway and came across an intersection. According to the signs, the rooms were the med bay, the bridge and the crew quarters going from left to right. Shepard chose to search the med bay first. He figured maybe the crew came down with an illness and were all in there. However it wasn't the entire crew they found but only one man lying on a bed. On the one hand Shepard was happy to have finally seen someone on board. On the other hand the guy didn't appear to be conscious.

"Looks like that machine is keeping him alive," said Ashley.

Shepard asked Liara to take a look at the man. He knew that she wasn't a medical doctor but she did have more medical knowledge than he and Ashley did. It took Liara a minute to read all the machines. When she was finished, she somberly shook her head.

"I do not see any brain activity on the readouts," she said, "he is dead. This body is just an empty shell."

Shepard bowed his head. They had finally found someone but the man was basically dead. Shepard couldn't help noticing the irony in their current situation. They had found a brain dead man being kept alive by life support on a ship that was practically dead except for the running life support. After shaking off the irony, Shepard looked at the man and contemplated what to do. It didn't seem right to just leave the guy like this.

"Maybe we should shut the machine down," he said, "it's the merciful thing to do."

"It is your decision Shepard," Liara said though there was some doubt in her voice, "but perhaps we should wait until we have more information before we do anything."

Shepard nodded. Liara was right. It was always better to have all the facts before making a decision. He trusted Liara's judgment on the man's condition but it would help if they could find any of the doctor's records to collaborate it. Also they still had to find out what happened to the rest of the crew and more importantly who the person was they heard moving around earlier.

The first place Shepard looked was the doctor's terminal in the back of the med bay. Most of the stuff on the terminal was medical data that was over Shepard's head but he did find the most recent audio log that the doctor left. He hit play and hoped that the log would give a layman's synopsis of the man's condition so that he wouldn't have to read any of the charts. The first words the doctor said were easily understandable but they weren't good.

"Jacob's not going to make it. His brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. There's nothing any of us can do for him now except let him die with dignity. It's what he would want. I'm more worried about Julia now. She's showing signs of severe depression. I gave her some meds that should help but I better warn the captain."

The log confirmed everyone's suspicions. The man on the table, now identified as Jacob couldn't be saved. There appeared to be no reason for them to leave Jacob's life support on. At least there wasn't a medical reason for it. The only thing keeping Shepard from turning the machines off was the woman the doctor mentioned. Whoever she was, it sounded like she wasn't taking Jacob's situation well. If she was the person they heard walking around in the cargo hold, there was no telling how she would react once the machines were off. The only thing Shepard could do at the moment was continue looking around for more clues.

Shepard then led his squad out of the med bay and to the bridge. The bridge was just as deserted as almost every other room on the ship. The good news was that the pilot's instruments were online. Shepard tapped a few buttons until he stumbled upon the captain's log. The latest entry was time-stamped sometime after the doctor's log they had just heard. Shepard pushed the play button and the captain's voice was heard.

"Jacob is showing no sign of brain activity. There's nothing more we can do for him. He wouldn't want to be kept alive by machine so we're going to disconnect the life support. Dr. Smith is worried about Julia's reaction though. She can't seem to let Jacob go. The stress is making her implants flare up causing intense migraines. It'll probably be easier for everyone if we don't tell her until after we've shut the life support down. Give her a chance to...Julia, what are you doing here?! Why are you...ahhhh!"

Shepard shared a nervous look with Ashley and Liara. The ending of the log did not sound good at all. They were all starting to get a strong feeling as to what had happened to the rest of the ship's crew. Based on the comment the captain made about Julia, Shepard determined that Julia was a biotic. He remembered how Kaiden, his other human squadmate, would mention having similar headache inducing flare ups from his biotic implants. Considering how bad the side effects for biotics with L2 implants could get, Kaiden was lucky to only have migraines. Shepard couldn't imagine that Julia was as lucky as Kaiden was but could she really have snapped so much that she killed the rest of the crew?

The only place left for Shepard and the squad to look was the crew's quarters. The first thing they noticed was the twenty empty beds. They already knew Jacob was in the med bay and Julia was probably lurking in the cargo hold. That meant there were at most eighteen people still unaccounted for and nowhere left to look. Shepard was now thinking he would rather not know what happened to the rest of the crew. Although he was still having a hard time wrapping his head around the thought that Julia could have killed all eighteen people on her own. He was proven wrong however when he checked the console in the back of the room and pulled up the latest audio log. Based on the content and the voice, Shepard figured it was Julia.

"They say Jacob's gone. They say his brain isn't functioning anymore and they want to shut off his machines. But Jacob's the only thing in the world that matters to me. I don't know how to help him and it's tearing me up inside. I just feel so helpless, so damn angry! Dr. Smith gave me some meds to calm down but I didn't take them. I can't! Not until I figure out a way to help Jacob. I won't give up on him. I won't!"

Now there was no doubt in Shepard's mind about what had happened. Based on how much Julia cared for Jacob, Shepard figured that the two of them were a couple. When Jacob had gone into his coma and the rest of the crew decided to shut off his life support, the combined effects of Julia's depression and her implant induced headaches had caused her to snap. In a misguided attempt to keep Jacob alive, she killed everyone on the ship. No doubt she had a little help from her biotics. She probably set up the booby traps Shepard and the others found to keep anyone who found the ship from coming aboard. The mystery was solved but they still needed to decide what to do about Jacob…and Julia.

Shepard was about to power down the console when he heard something that caused him to tense up. The door to the crew quarters was opening up. With Ashley and Liara standing right behind him, he knew it couldn't be one of them opening the door. That left only one possibility.

"GET DOWN!"

The trio were barely able to get behind some cover when a biotic wave blew threw the room. Once the wave passed, Shepard cautiously peeked over the table he was hiding behind. Standing in the doorway was a woman Shepard figured was Julia. A blue glow emitted from her indicating her biotics were still warmed up. To Shepard's surprise however, she didn't follow up with another biotic attack. She instead raised her pistol and pointed in Shepard's direction. Shepard ducked back down just before the gun fired. He could feel the bullet ricochet off the table and fly over his head. A quick glance to Ashley and Liara confirmed they were okay but the look on their faces indicated they were waiting for Shepard to come up with a plan.

Julia may have been outnumbered by Shepard and his squad but she had the biggest advantage of all: the high ground. From her position she could see any move Shepard and his squad made. On top of that, the room they were in was small and cover was limited so there wasn't a lot of room to move anyway. The ideal place for a battle on this ship was the cargo bay. True it still had traps but it would still offer more maneuverability for Shepard and his squad. As far as Shepard was concerned, there was only one way out of this situation. They were going to have to fight fire with fire. And in this case, fire was biotics. He just needed to distract Julia so that she wouldn't see Liara's attack coming until it was too late. Shepard silently explained the plan to Ashley and Liara. They nodded to indicate they understood and readied themselves for the attack. Unfortunately Shepard knew that once the attack was launched, it was going to be an absolute certainty that Julia was going to end up dead. In a last ditch to resolve the situation peacefully, Shepard's attempt to distract Julia was also going to be his plea for her to surrender.

"Julia," he said, "I'm Commander Shepard with Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air."

"Why?" Julia replied. "So you can kill Jacob just like everyone else tried to do?"

As Shepard and Julia's exchange continued, Shepard held up three fingers toward Ashley and Liara. He wasn't ready to give up on Julia yet but he had to be ready for the worst case scenario. His fingers would give a silent countdown for the attack. Once his last finger was down, that would be the signal to execute the attack.

"Julia, if there was anything that we could do to help Jacob, we would do it. I'm sorry but he's just an empty shell being kept alive by machines. Your crew knew that and that's why they wanted to shut off the life support."

"They gave up and they wanted me to give up on Jacob as well. I love him and there is no way in hell I was going to let him die. Everything I'm doing is to help keep Jacob alive long enough for me to find a way to help him."

(Two)

"And you think that justifies killing the entire crew?" he said.

"When you love someone strongly enough Commander, you will do anything to help them. Jacob will pull through and if I have to kill you and your squad to make sure he does, so be it.

(One)

Shepard sighed as he saw Liara warming up her biotics, "Please Julia. This has to stop. There's no need for anyone else to die. Come out with your hands up and we can talk."

"Go to hell!"

As a much as Shepard wanted to bring Julia in alive, a part of him knew that it was a long shot for him to try. It was time to launch the attack. He dropped his last finger. The moment she saw the signal, Liara stepped out from her cover and launched a singularity attack. Julia was lifted off the ground and floated aimlessly in air. Shepard and Ashley stepped out of their cover and raised their weapons. Before they could pull the trigger however, Shepard noticed a blue glow coming from Julia. Liara's singularity may have been lifting her off the ground but it shouldn't be making her glow. Unless…

Shepard's eyes widened when saw one of the traps from the cargo hold emerge in the doorway. Julia was using her biotics to bring it into the room and Shepard knew where she was planning to send it. Instinctively Shepard pushed Ashley towards Liara and then dived to the side toward the rack of bunk beds. Julia threw the canister at Shepard but it flew over him and instead hit the beds. The explosion shattered the bed into pieces and the debris fell on top of Shepard burying him.

"SHEPARD!" Ashley shouted.

Ashley's concern for Shepard had distracted Liara causing her singularity attack to cease. Julia managed to land on her feet and followed up with a slash attack. The attack yanked Ashley and Liara's weapons straight out of their hands. Julia stepped into the room and used her biotics to lift Ashley and Liara off the ground and threw them against the wall. When they hit the ground, Ashley and Liara landed on their heads putting them into a dazed state. They weren't able to shake it off before Julia walked over to them with her weapon raised. Realizing there was no hope of escape, Ashley and Liara closed their eyes and waited for the end.

(BOOM!)

The sound they heard was too loud to have been a pistol shot. They opened their eyes and saw Julia falling forward. When she hit the ground, Ashley and Liara saw several bullet entry wounds on her back. They looked past where Julia had been standing. What they saw made them smile and breathe a sigh of relief. Kneeling and covered with debris from the destroyed beds was Shepard. In his hand he was holding a smoking shotgun. He slowly got up on his feet and walked over to help Ashley and Liara up.

"I know the shotgun might have been a little overkill but I couldn't take any chances," he said.

"I don't think either one of us is complaining Shepard," said Liara, "you saved our lives."

Ashley shook her head, "I still can't believe it. All this death just because of one woman's misguided attempt to save the man she loved."

"Love can make people do crazy things Chief but I don't think that's solely to blame for this. Julia suffered the perfect storm of emotions: love, stress, and pain from her migraines. You put those altogether and it would make any sane person snap. Let's go, there's one more thing we need to take care of."

With that said, the trio walked in somber silence out of the crew quarters and into the med bay. Jacob was still on table with the life support machines continuously beeping. After taking a moment with Ashley to say a prayer for Jacob, Shepard stepped towards the machine and carefully powered it down. The body never stirred as Jacob passed away peacefully. Once he was gone, the trio observed a moment of silence.

"That was the compassionate thing to do, Shepard," Liara said when the moment was over.

Shepard nodded but didn't say anything. There wasn't a need to say anything more. With nothing left for them to do, the trio walked in somber silence out of the med bay and made their way back to the Normandy.

Present Day

"I don't understand Shepard," Tali said after Shepard had finished recapping the events on the Worthington, "that was a case of self-defense. Julia had murdered her entire crew and would have killed you if you hadn't killed her first."

"Yeah," said Garrus, "why would her sister think you killed her in cold blood?"

Shepard sighed, "after we got back on the Normandy, I called the local authorities and they sent a recovery team. When they arrived, they recovered Jacob and Julia's bodies but they weren't able to find the logs that explained what had happened before we arrived. The terminals on the ship had a security protocol requiring a password be entered at the same time every day or else all the data is deleted. We just happened to have been on the ship before that happened. Because the authorities couldn't find the logs, the only evidence they had that Julia had snapped was our word of mouth. If it wasn't for my Spectre status, they probably would have insisted that I had to go in for questioning. (chuckle) It's ironic you know. We were criticizing the Council for taking Saren's word over ours about Eden Prime because he was a Spectre and then there I was asking others to do the same thing."

"But Dana couldn't," said Garrus, "I know if someone had told me that my sister had snapped and murdered a lot of people, there's no way I would believe it without proof."

Shepard nodded, "we all know that Spectres are allowed to complete their missions however they deem necessary and sometimes they take the extreme route even if they didn't have to. Dana probably figures that I killed Julia unnecessarily and used my Spectre status to get away with it."

Tali shook her head, "that's terrible. If she really knew you Shepard then she would know you're not a killer."

"Tali she also thinks her sister couldn't have become a killer," said Garrus, "apparently she's not a good judge of character."

Shepard held up his hand to silence them, "we could spend all day trying to understand why Dana's doing this but it doesn't matter. Tali was right earlier when she said we need to end this once and for all. Ashley is counting on us to save her and we need a plan to do it. Garrus, you were right as well about how Dana has always been able to anticipate our every move. We need a plan that she will never see coming. I have an idea that might work but we will need some more help."

Suddenly Shepard's eyes lit up and a sly smile appeared on his face, "and I know just the crewmembers to ask for it."