"Captain… please! H-Help me." -Ensign Dan McGee, Star Trek: First Contact, 1996

ACV Horizon, Rayingri/Vahtz Space, Gagarin System, Armstrong Nebula, July 5, 2183

Author's Note: In commemoration of my 10,000th read (3/7 - 7/17, 132 days), I give you this chapter. Enjoy!

Sara is an EMT/Navy Corpsman. Now we get to use it. It won't be any easy read; it wasn't an easy write.

Petty Officer (Second Class) Sara Elaine Ryder was looking at a nightmare.

Lance Corporal Hong 'K-Pop' Jeong was resting against the bulkhead of the Engine Room of the ACV Horizon, armored in his Kass Fabrications' Colossus Medium Engagement Armor save for his helmet. He had been stabbed in the ankle earlier by a Husk during their engagement with the assimilated Humans on Deck Eight, the first time they encountered the entities aboard the Earth-Alliance Carnival Cruise Liner Carrier-Class Vessel.

That incident had been approximately an hour ago.

But now… oh God, K-Pop was being assimilated before her very eyes.

Sara had helped the Lancie take his helmet off to check his vitals, her medical suite in her OmniTool good, but the Corpsman preferred doing actual physical assessments as combat armor and the various softwares and technologies incorporated could throw off readings. When she had done so and had seen Hong's face, both herself and Private First Class Louis 'Brassiere' Broussard had seen what had become of the Marine, both of them jumping back in horror. Jeong's flesh looked ready to rip off on his face, splitting in several places, showing blackened-looking skin underneath with almost-glowing neon-like wiring embedded. Sara could see that his eyes were leaking vitreous humours, the fluids inside the optical organ, though the fluids were almost blackish in nature. His eyes were shriveled and sunken, his eye sockets seemingly swallowing his eyes up as his lips were pulled back in a rictus grin, peeling and cracked as they exposed bleeding gum and bloody teeth. His skin was sallow, pale, pulled taunt over the bones of his skull while veins were engorged, the flesh bloated over the vessels, decorated black. Not one drop of blood he was exhuming was coming out any sort of reddish color, bright or dark. It was blackish, thick, and ran slowly.

"Doc, I'm not feeling so good."

"I'm here, Hong." Sara ignored the horrifying visage of Jeong as she took a knee in front of him, magnetically unlocking her AidBag as she kept a hand near her Smith and Wesson Model 696 MA Revolver while Brassiere aimed his Valerion Kinetics' R36 Karseus Assault Rifle at the infected Marine, ready to shoot at a moments' notice. "T-tell me what you're feeling."

"Pins and needles feeling is everywhere, Doc." Hong licked at his cracked and peeling lips with a blackened, shriveled tongue. "Chest feels like it's on fire. Eyes are hot. My brain feels like it's in a vice. And I'm so tired."

"Stay with me, K-Pop." Sara encouraged, putting on her 'Paramedic' face that she learned while as a CitEMS Emergency Medical Technician working on Skybulance-37. One did not tell a patient that they were going to die, not even if they were trying to ballistic breach Death's Door. Sara learned under the tutelage of Senior Emergency Care Technician Shayla Talis and Barber-Surgeon Alixa Trevalis that one kept a patient talking and awake, no matter how severe the symptoms. One also reassured them that the Health Care Provider in question was helping, to keep the patient describing their level of pain and where it was located, no matter how benign or badly worded. Sara had her AidBag open in front of her, the hardcase opening up like a claim to display her various tools, bandages, devices, and medications, all organized inside. She remembered asking Chief Shayla once what to do whenever the young EMT encountered something she had never seen before.

"It is easy, little one." The Chief had told her with a smile, calling Sara by her 'pet' name, the Asari Emergency Care Technician semi-adopting the young Human woman who worked on her Skybulance. "To keep a sapient alive, all one must do is to keep them talking. If they cannot talk, then one must keep them breathing. If they cannot breath, then one must keep their hearts active and administer assisted-breathing techniques, be it device or personally-assisted. There is nothing so strange that common techniques will not serve. If it bleeds, stop it. If it is ill, hamper it. If the hearts stop…"

"Defibrillation." The Corpsman said to herself, knowing what she needed to do. She had no idea what was happening to Jeong, not in a medical sense, but she knew that it was artificial. Artificial meant inorganic material, likely synthetic.

That meant it needed a power source… but all things could only withstand a certain amount.

"Bra, I need you to take of K-Pop's chestpiece and physically cut his ballistic bodysuit right down the middle, from collar bone to groin." Ryder was in full 'Doc'-mode. Someone or something was trying to kill one of her Marines, but they were going to have to go through her first. Broussard blanched a little at the order, but he complied as he magnetically-locked his Karseus against his chest and went to a knee, unlocking Jeong's chest piece off and tossing it aside before drawing his SAMC-issued KABAR and cutting a line through the durable material meant to help cushion trauma from round strikes when they hit the armor after kinetic shielding failed. Sara was pulling out her portable defibrillator, powering up the Universal Power Cell inside her AidBag meant to power some of her instruments. She was connecting the leads to the device as Louis grabbed the bodysuit and ripped it in half, exposing K-Pop's chest.

"Oh… oh fuck, man…" Private First Class Holland 'Lapdance' Hoss muttered, obviously seeing what everyone else was seeing. The Corpsman winced at the sight of Jeong's chest; it was like his face, but much worse. It looks a great deal more like what a Husk looked like, with the skin ripped around the pectoral muscles and ribs. He didn't have much time.

"Sara, what are you doing?" Captain Jane Catherine Shepard asked from behind her, the Level Three SPECTRE's tone worried.

"Exorcism." The Petty Officer replied as she put a lead by Hong's right shoulder, just above the collar bone, and the other just under his left armpit. Humans were, by nature, semi-conductive, and that meant while electricity could pass through them when connect to two points, it didn't always do so evenly, as planned, or similar from one event to the next. Still, it was well known that having a lead by the heart would shock the heart if in cardiac arrest, potentially bringing a patient back to life.

Doing so to a living person generally killed them.

"Hong?" Sara looked to the Marine as she toggled the portable defibrillator, setting it to its maximum charge of five hundred amperes; twice as much as was necessary for a prolonged cardiac arrest for a Human Being, and in fact a setting meant for species with multiple hearts, like Turians and the Asari. The Marine looked to her, his eyes barely opened, and seemingly deep in his sockets. "Hong? I'm going to barbecue you. There's something inside that medication can't solve, so I'm going to toast it with electricity instead. It will be very fast, and it's going to fucking hurt."

"Do it, Doc." The Lance Corporal replied, his voice weak… and not exactly Human. There was a bit of an electronic buzz to his words, as if talking through a distorted speaker. "I trust you, just…

"…just don't let me come back like one of them."

"That's the plan, K-Pop. Clear!" Everyone took a respectful step back to avoid touching the Marine as Sara toggled the defibrillator and sent five hundred amperes of electricity right through Hong Jeong's heart, depolarizing the sinoartial node, Jeong's natural pacemaker.

The electrocardiogram reading attached to the defibrillator let out a long, non-ending tone; asystole.

Sara went to work, ignoring all else. Years of training and dedication had her calm and focused, everything else around her fading into the background as she entered into battle with the most ancient of enemies; Death itself. She pulled out a laryngoscope and a tracheal intubation tube, inserting the metal bridge into the right side of Jeong's mouth, rotating it to the left to slide his shriveled tongue out of the way while pushing it towards the roof of his mouth so she could view his glottis, vocal cords, and trachea. Sara winced at the sight of the changed anatomy, noting it for future reference as she slid the tracheal intubation tube in to the Lance Corporal's throat until it reached the bronchial tree. She removed the laryngoscope with her left hand and pulled out a Continuous Positive/Negative Airway Pressure machine to induce pulmonary functions, setting the device for five second change overs.

Ryder got onto her knees right next to Jeong, placing the heel of her left hand right over the plural space of his cardiac cavity, overlapping it with her right hand, setting her shoulders and locking her elbows as she began to press downward in fast, even compressions, manually contracting and releasing the Marine's heart to simulate a pulse. Sara used her upper body weight and her shoulders to push down at a rate of one per second, compressing Hong's heart. She kept an eye on the EKG, noting that K-Pop had Pulseless Electrical Activity; there was still electrical activity in his heart, but it wasn't beating on its own. That was pretty normal for cardiac arrest… if the patient in question wasn't a nineteen year old healthy Human male. Her shoulders kept pumping up and down as she continued cardiac compressions, force-feeding oxygenated blood into his cardiopulmonary system, specifically his brain. A Human brain could survive oxygen deprivation for eight minutes, but fifteen with Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

"C'mon." Ryder kept her eye on the EKG readout, seeing the time elapse reach one minute. "Clear!" She defibrillated Jeong again, watching his heart rate plummet to zero; a true flatline. That's where I want you, Sara thought as she went to the settings of her portable defibrillator and began reprogramming it. It wasn't amps that she needed now.

"Sara…" Auntie said softly, but Doc ignored it. She was too focused.

"I'm inverting the power." Sara explained briefly as she toggled the defibrillator's power setting, knowing that it could put out a kilowatt. She lowered the Ampere setting… and in response the voltage was increased. Current time voltage equals watts, so watts divide by current equals voltage, Sara did the math in her head, knowing what she needed; ten thousand volts. She changed the setting to a deciAmp, and the voltmeter read ten thousand; enough to shock every muscle and fiber in a man's body into an automated reflex response colloquially known as 'the Dead Man's Dance'. Ten thousand volts was beyond dangerous; it was four times as much as the old-time capital punishment of the electric chair. But she wasn't trying to kill Jeong.

She was trying to kill what was inside.

"Sara…"

"Clear!" Doc sent ten thousand volts through the defibrillator, making the Marines' body spasm violently as she did so, every muscle, fiber, and tendon in Hong's body jerked in reflex, causing him to flop. The EKG had a sharp spike, but otherwise returned to flatline. She moved back over to K-Pop and began performing chest compressions once again, pumping his heart to get oxygen to his brain, to stave off death. She pumped his chest fifteen times, the CPNAP machine 'breathing' in and out every five seconds as she tried to resuscitate the Lance Corporal, her focus only on her task.

She wasn't going to lose another one of her Marines.

"Sara…"

"Clear!" This time, Sara sent two-hundred and forty amps through Hong, enough to start cardiac rhythm. The EKG pulsed a few times in an arrhythmic state, the pulse weak and palpitating; it wasn't beating normally. The sinoartial node of Jeong's heart had just suffered being shocked a few times, but Sara was going to give it a few seconds to correct itself. At the very least, his heart was beating, blood was being pumped through his body and into his brain, oxygenating the organic systems. She was buying him time. "C'mon, Hong. You can do it." Ryder encouraged softly as she looked at the electrocardiogram's registry, seeing the pulse getting stronger, more in sync with a normal rhythm.

"Sara!"

"I can do this! I can save him!" The Petty Officer snapped, looking to her Auntie, who was looking at her with… sorrow. Jannie merely nodded her head towards Jeong, and Sara looked to the Marine, and her heart broke at the sight.

His eyes were gone, having leaked out their vitreous humours. Yet they were open, and the inner sockets glowed a hellish blue.

"N-nooo…" The dark lines crawled further up his skin as Sara watched, Hong's skin slowly splitting, peeling away to expose more of what he was becoming. Alliance Federal Marshal Samantha Collins stepped up with her Smith and Wesson in hand, the Butcher holding it downward but ready to fire. A hand went on her forearm, and Ryder saw Louis looking at her, nodding to her once. Sara wiped at a falling tear as she looked to the Marshal and shook her head. "I-it's my job, Sam. Not yours."

"Okay." Collins replied as Sara drew her Mammothkiller and put the barrel into Hong's chest, right where his heart laid. She saw him move, his mouth opening up, a wordless growl coming to his nearly-shriveled lips, having pulled so far back and peeled away so much that they were nearly gone. There was nothing Human in his voice anymore.

"You enjoy Heaven, brother." Ryder whispered as she cocked back the hammer on her revolver.

And pulled the trigger.

Captain Jane Catherine Shepard (SAN, N7, OST) saw Sergeant First Class Ashley Williams open the maintenance airlock located on the aft portion of the Engine Room to admit three Naval Coremen, Able Seaman Cindy Hefner, Petty Officer (Third Class) Oliver Greer, and Ensign Lyle Jefferson exiting the Bell Aerospaces' UT-47 Kodiak Utility Transportation Vessel "Rey Kenobi" and boarding the ACV Horizon. Each of them were armored in Aldrin Labs' Onyx Light Armor, the SSV Normandy still in Red Alert where all crew was required to be fully-suited for possible combat and hull breaches. Each were also armed with Hahne-Keder M9 Kessler Combat Pistols in case of engagement upon another vessel. Jannie saw Mark's hand in this, no doubt assigning the weapons more for the reassurance on the Engineers' parts instead of any actual assistance they could give in case of boarding or assault.

"Ma'am, we're ready to begin getting the ship underway." Ensign Jefferson come up to her, saluting her as he spoke. He had graduated the Naval Academy less than seven weeks before, having graduated in the top ten percentile of his class. He had been an addition she had gained on Arcturus, someone to stand Watch over the Engine during the Night Watch when Lieutenant Adams was off-duty. It marked the first time she had addressed the Ensign, though she had seen him on several occasions in the Officers' Galley as well as the Engineering Deck just off of the Cargo Bay.

"Very good, Ensign." The Captain nodded her head once. "Link comms with Specialist Zorah to sync systems with the Bridge. She'll be piloting the vessel back to Alliance Space, so we need a firm handshake and enough systems to make a translation from this system to the Attican Beta Cluster." It was the nearest 'official' Systems Alliance-held location, well within Earth Alliance Space and patrolled by the fleets. The Hercules System, where the Mass Relay terminator was for the Armstrong Nebula, had the Seventh Reconnaissance Flotilla in its battlespace, defending the primary Mass Relay for the cluster, as well as its two Alliance colonies; Amarestu and Feros. Shepard had already established what team members would go onto the Rey to be relocated to the Bridge, to hold the two most vital points of the ship in defense while transporting the Horizon to Alliance-held space. Instead of having four members unnecessarily endangering themselves moving through the vessel once more, Agent Zevin Raeka, Marshal Samantha Collins, Sergeant Ashley Williams, and Lance Corporal Oblong 'Kenyan' Ubantuwould be flown back to the breech point that had been left as a potential escape route if needed, an access way that they could control. Tali had already locked down the turbolift, leaving the conveyance on the Command Deck to halt any potential crawlers from climbing the turbolift shaft and prying the doors open, the lift itself a blockade. Unless there were ventilation shafts not on the ships schematics that something could crawl through, the Bridge was locked down airtight. The Core Room was as well.

"Detective?" Detective Garrus Vakarian looked to her, his helmet off, his left eye obscured by his RRU-issued Kuwashii Visor, cradling his Elanus Risk Control Services' Rapid Response Unit-issued M-15 Vindicator Battle Rifle in his talons. "You have the deck." The Turians' slightly ovaloid eyes darted towards another part of the Core Room, nodding in understanding as he took a couple of steps closer.

"She's handling better than I would have were I in her position." The Special Crimes Detective murmured between his mandibles, glancing at Jannie before his sight went back to whom he was referring to. "She didn't give up or give in, no matter how hopeless it seemed. In her mind, that could have been you. Or even me."

"I know." Jannie sighed, knowing that Garrus was right as she folded her arms across her chest, looking in the same direction as Vakarian was. "I don't think there was a chance in hell, but Sara isn't built that way. If… if we had a chance to think it out, during the first few minutes right after? Yeah, I think she could have done something about it, even if it was an amputation. We were… too late, and she's the one who takes in the hurt." The N7 knew why Sara Ryder became an EMT even if the fifteen-year old young woman never said, not even to this day; her mother. Sara was an extraordinarily smart woman, and reaching a problem she couldn't out-think or outsmart was practically anathema to her. Jannie knew without being told that Sara had based her life upon the fact that her mother had been deathly ill with an incurable cancer and there was nothing that the young woman could do about it. Thirteen-year old Sara Ryder had begun taking courses on Basic First Aid and Basic Nursing via ExtraNet classes and lessons to care for her mother upon learning of Doctor Ellen Ryder's condition, continuing to do so while she was at the Presidium Academy of Education on the Citadel by striving to be a Paramedic. Her being an EMT and later a Corpsman was really her way of saving lives to balance out the one life she couldn't save; her mother's.

But now they were facing something worse than Aggressive Entropic Neurological Dystrophy.

Jannie found Sara sitting down and leaning against a bulkhead away from the rest of TEAM LION, silent and despondent. Seeing her in such a state had Shepard's' heart breaking a little, remembering how Sara was when Aunt Ellen had finally passed away after five heroic years fighting Eezo Cancer. Oh, she knew the truth now; SAM. Uncle Alec had broken every rule and law, had defied fate and reason to save his wife and the mother of his children, and Jannie didn't blame him one bit. So he created an Artificial Intelligence to save lives? More power to him. He had obviously thrown his career in the Alliance Navy away for Ellen, and to buy the woman he loved five more precious years? Jannie sincerely doubted Alec had one Goddamn regret, letting Ellen live longer and in comfort, long enough to see her children graduate Boot Camp, to see her twin children as adults. Alec had done everything a man was suppose to do for his family. The galaxy could use a few more people like him.

A pity her mother was pretty much the complete opposite of Uncle Alec.

The N7 sat next to Sara and slid next to her, seeing the twenty-year old woman sitting there with her knees folded to her chest, hugging them. Jannie didn't need to be told how Sara was feeling; all the visual cues were there. Sara was a lifesaver, as simple as that. All of her education, all of her experience, everything that she was, Sara had the desire to save lives, to be there when someone needed her most, to bring them back from the brink. The brunette had never been one to fail at anything, taking difficulties and solving them. Having lost her Marines on Therum had been a blow, but realistically there was nothing she could have done. Private Mikael Holodansk had been treated by her, but circumstances had been out of her control. Logically, Sara knew that, but Jannie knew that in Ryders' heart Blowjob had died under her watch and care. Now there was Lance Corporal Hong Jeong.

"Hey, kiddo." The redhead slid her arm around Sara's shoulders, scooting over to where they were practically connected at the hip. It was easy to tell that Sara had been crying, her eyes raw and puffy. Oh, Sara… how I wish I could protect your wonderful heart, Jannie thought as she pulled Sara closer, the young woman resting her head on the redhead's armored shoulder as Jannie comforted her. "Proud of you."

"How? Why?" Ryder's voice came, raw and croaking, still mangled by grief. "I couldn't save him."

"But you didn't let that stop you." Shepard reminded the Corpsman, resting her own head on Sara's, remembering the days where Sara was but a little girl, a kid in Cit-oriented childs' robes laughing and playing with her twin brother, their 'Auntie' taking them around the Cit for day trips of fun and mischief. Jannie had spent months at a time with the Ryders' whenever her mother shipped out, or her duties required her to elsewhere other than her Pinnacle Station housing-allotted apartment. Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Kyle Singer, her stepfather, really wasn't more than a stranger to her, the two of them never warming up, mostly thanks to her mother and… yeah, okay, Jannie had something to do with it, too. Hell, Jannie had a little brother she'd practically never met! Nathan was… fifteen now? Sixteen? "Sara, I thought it was hopeless, that there was no saving him. Yet your profession asks for just that; to give people that chance, no matter how hopeless it might be. You didn't give up, give in, or shirk from your duties. You did what you always do, Sara; you stepped up and faced the challenge willingly, no matter the odds or difficulties. I've never known you to actually fail at anything. Perhaps not succeed, but you've never let that stop you. You learn from it and find a way to improve, to make yourself better for the next time."

"I just… God, he didn't deserve that, Auntie. None of them did." Sara sniffled, her thoughts obviously on the people on the Horizon. "What a horrifying way to go. Death can be so cruel, and it seems the Geth went and one-up'ed that. As if just shooting us wasn't enough. Vracking bastards." That had Jannie snort a little as she continued to comfort her friend and sister, hearing her swear in Common Cipritine, the Cit-born in her coming out as it always did whenever she was truly emotional, happy or sad. "Permission to bring his body back for autopsy and evaluation? If I couldn't save his life, perhaps I can learn how it happened. Perhaps I can find something to slow the process down, maybe even reverse it."

"Permission granted." The Captain replied, knowing what Sara was going to do. The Corpsman was going to medically dissect Lance Corporal Jeong and find out how the Geth had done it, what the mechanism and process was. Then she was going to work upon something to halt it, to save lives. At the cost of a life, she was going to bulldoze a way into saving others. That was her Sara, the little newborn Jannie held in her hands the day she was born, blue eyes looking into her own contained in such a precious, fragile package, looking at nine-year old Jannie Shepard in wondering awe. The redheaded girl had felt so touched by the moment, feelings of love and affection for the newborn washing over her as she held the little girl close, remembering her first words to baby Sara Elaine Ryder; I'm your Auntie, I'll be here for you always. Shepard smiled at the memory, still holding Sara close, still there for her. It was a promise she had always kept, and had been reciprocated by Sara, too. When Jannie graduated the Military Academy, Sara had been at the ceremony, cheering her Auntie on. When the N7 had walked in on her husband Mark sleeping with another woman, it had been Sara's shoulder she had eventually cried into, the sixteen-year old young woman holding onto her as Jannie bawled her eyes out. Elysium. Therum. Today.

Sara had her Auntie. And even Lions had their Angels.

It took almost an hour for the ACV Horizon to get underway, and Commander Mark Vanderloo had been hard at work during that time. He and Captain Jane Shepard had spoke at length about the situation the Carnival Cruise Ship represented; a Geth effort that they weren't sure about concerning the endgame. That the ship was a Trojan Horse or a Judas Goat seemed apparent, but no Geth had been spotted on the sensors of the SSV Normandy, its multiple reconnaissance probes, or the combined experience of the CIC. Lieutenant Commander Charles Pressley studied the map of the Gagarin System, the up-to-date map populated with the current position of planets, satellites, belts, comets, debris, and other junk that a solar system contained. The Navigator was all but sure that the Geth were hiding somewhere, ready to spring a trap not on the Horizon, but on the rescue vessel coming to the Horizon's aid. Perhaps with the intent to destroy, or perhaps to make another Trojan Horse. Mark couldn't fault the man for his logic, because it would be an effective strategy if true. While Vanderloo worked out the logistics of the trip bringing the Horizon to the Attican Beta Cluster, Pressley worked the angles for anything that could harm the Normandy or the Horizon.

The request for assistance in the move had been denied by the Alliance Admiralty Board on Arcturus Station, citing that they had no vessels to spare.

What a crock of shit.

"Weapons? Launch five signal probes on this plane, to the ecliptic of Gagarin, towards LaGrange Point Three."

"Aye Aye, Nav." Lieutenant (junior grade) Vanessa Steele acknowledged before toggling her work station at the CIC, turning on her communicator on her terminal. "Gunnery? Give me a Wolf Pack."

Nav had come up with a trick borne out of a World War.

The issue was that the Normandy would be forced to escort the ACV Horizon from Rayingri/Vehtz to the Mass Relay, translating to the Attican Beta Cluster and landing in the Hercules System, and escorting it to the Seventh Reconnaissance Flotilla holding station above Amarestu. The SSV Normandy was an amazing ship, Mark would be the first to admit, but it was a terrible escort. Its main offensive weapon was stealth, with its Internal Emissions System collecting its thermal waste to avoid being easily detected by any scanners, active or passive. Since thermal imagine was the easiest and most effective form of detecting vessels in space, it all but guaranteed that the Frigate would be next-to-impossible to detect. With the addition of its signal-scattering and light-absorbing paneling along the hull, denying the other effective methods of detection, the Normandy could theoretically fly up right next to a ship and only be spotted by means of the naked eye; a feat near impossible in the vastness of space. Vanderloo knew every timeline in which the Normandy could run in stealth depending on its thermalization, and a few tricks to increase that time.

It was a first-strike vessel, not a warship or an escort.

Charles had been hard at work in finding ways to 'spoof' what was going to happen by throwing their scent in case anyone came sniffing, from pirates to the Geth. Flying a CAP for a Cruiser was generally the job for a Wolf Pack; a five-Frigate squadron. Combat Attack Patrols were loud, in the Navy sense, using LADAR and active scans to detect threats, being easily identified as others as a threat. While the Horizon was on the move from Rayingri to the Mass Relay, Lieutenant Charles Pressley used a tactic from the old Operation: Overlord invasion to make it look like there were more Alliance forces than there really were by launching modified signal probes to 'look' like Hastings-Class Alliance Frigates. OmniGel-crated plates would be distributed to radiate heat to look like a low-powered Hastings Frigate drifting as if prowling for enemy combatants, pinging LADAR sweeps for active detection ever few minutes. It was a ruse that generally did well flushing out pirates and slavers since it was only a ruse half the time, the other half of the time actually being a real Wolf Pack of Pirate Hunters.

Now it would be time to see if the trick worked with the Geth.

"Rey to Normandy, Valkyrie request dock to drop off two and redeploy at this time. ETA two mikes out." The voice of Warrant Officer Patricia Holloway came over the CIC's speaker, the Personal Vehicle Pilot flying the Bell Aerospaces' UT-47 Utility Transportation Vessel, the lone Air Force member coming highly recommended through Rear Admiral Steven Hackett for her gallantry during the Skyllian Blitz. Chief Holloway had thirty-seven combat drops to her name during the various actions during the Blitz, to include Camala, one of the massive strikes the Alliance had against Hegemony holdings. It didn't surprise Vanderloo at all that Admiral Hackett, a former shuttle pilot himself, had something of a platonic love for rockjumpers like Chief Holloway. Her three Bronze Stars with Valor Devices spoke for themselves, and her nickname had been given to her by Systems Alliance Marines; die Valkyrie, the Battle Angel of the Gods. The woman was pretty much certifiably insane; perfect, considering she chauffeured a SPECTRE nowadays.

"Request granted, Valkyrie." Mark replied, pressing the toggle on the Captain's Podium to respond to the hail. He knew what Holloway was dropping off. He selected a department on the podium to contact. "XO to MedBay, prepare to receive incoming."

"Acknowledged, XO." Came the cool, refined British accent of Commander Karin Carolyn Chakwas, the Ship's Attending Physician and Surgeon. She had been told what was happening and what to expect. "Everything is prepped, and I have the other Corpsman relieved and in the main Galley at this time."

"Good." Mark didn't doubt that their three Hospital Corpsman wouldn't be looking forward to what was going to happen. None of them were rated for the procedure, though he had an idea from his former niece that their youngest Corpsman, Seaman Monica Negulesco, would likely be a good candidate for an assistant, though Ryder was rated as a Surgeon's Mate as well as a Navy Corpsman. Then again, Karin probably wouldn't appreciate someone vomiting all over the MedBay floor, considering. "Navigation, I'm heading to the Cargo Bay. You have the Conn."

"Aye aye, Commander." The Lieutenant Commander saluted him smartly, not needing an explanation. Charles was a smart man, and likely knew what Mark was doing and why. Vanderloo stepped off the Captain's Podium and headed down to the Main Deck to access the cargo elevator to reach the Cargo Bay, having to suffer the eternally-slow conveyance before stepping off and entering the Orlop Deck where Engineering, Maintenance, and Cargo were located. He came just in time to see the Rey Kenobi setting down upon the deck, steam waifing off the exterior hull from its trip through the Horn of Rayingri/Vahtz. The Commander reached the deployment doors of the UT-47 as they opened and found himself face-to-face with Petty Officer (Second Class) Sara Ryder, kneeling next to an occupied contragravity spineboard that had been magnetically-fixed to the shuttles' deck. On the spineboard was a black bag, occupant one.

"I'll get the front." Mark told the Corpsman, seeing her helmeted head nod once in acknowledgment as the SPECTRE's Second took the back end of the stretcher, hitting a button to release the MagLocs and activate the mass dampeners and contragravity device. Mark took the handles to the front and eased the spineboard out of the raised deck of the Rey as Sara guided it forward, carefully stepping off the shuttle and calling out 'clear' to Chief Holloway, the Colonial Air Force Pilot acknowledging back and spinning up the UT-47 as Mark reversed his grip so he could face forward and guide the stretcher to the cargo elevator. A part of him realized that this was what Sara had once done as a profession back on the Cit as a Skybulance Paramedic, hoisting spineboards out of her Asari-designed Shu'pari-'57 Medical Transportation Vessel with some sapient in need of trauma care. The spineboard eliminated most of the mass of the occupant, and was designed more for dealing with elevations such as stairs or ramps in mind without encountering resistance as Vanderloo entered the elevator and pivoted the contraption so that Ryder could push the rest of the stretcher in horizontally while he toggled the conveyance to go to the Main Deck.

"You didn't have to do this." Sara said softly after she toggled for her helmet to collapse, folding away to the back of her armored cowl around her neck.

"He's a part of my crew too, Sara." The Commander replied, meaning every word. As Navy, his fights were in space, and the only casualties he saw were his own; Alliance vessels suffering damage from hits from GARDIAN lasers, MAC cannons, main guns, missiles, and mines. He never saw the enemy save on sensors. He had dedicated himself into being better so that he could justify himself into making his crew better; one did not expect the best out of others without being the best themselves. His goal was to have missions with zero fatalities; a rare thing, but a completely worthy endeavor. So far, the Normandy hadn't succeeded yet, though their losses were gratefully small. But they still counted.

"As are you."

Once upon a time, Sara Ryder had been his niece; married to Jane Shepard, her family became his family, too. Mark had been rather disappointed in the family that God had let him be born to, and had found his wife's extended family to be rather over-the-top. Most all of them were members of the Bravest Generation, a part of the legendary group known as the Night Stalkers; the most celebrated and successful unit during the First Contact War. Sara had been the daughter of none other than the legendary Pathfinder, Alec Clancy Ryder, just as Jane had been the daughter of John Michael Shepard, considered the greatest Special Forces operative to have ever lived. He had visited the Ryders' often enough that seeing both Sara and Scott became a normal thing, sometimes the twins returning the favor. In some ways, Sara and Scottie had been almost-kids to him, asking questions and listening to his stories about his service and duty in the Alliance Navy, Cit-born kids almost desperate to connect to Humanity as a whole. He felt closer to them than he ever had to his own older sister, who had run off when she was fifteen to be a drug-addicted whore in Amsterdam. They called him Uncle, and Mark had been rather amused when Scott had jokingly called him 'Unkie' to Jane's 'Auntie', what Sara called her. It was a terrible nickname, but Mark had enjoyed it all the same.

"Might want to be careful there, XO." There was a ghost of a smile on Sara's lips, though the stress and the grief of what had happened was still there. "I might just end up finding a way to like you again." He didn't doubt that; Jane and he were working together professionally without any issues, and that no doubt reflected upon Sara as well. If Jane could be nice, Sara would be, too, just like her Auntie. "Just… bad day." Her gaze went to the body bay, her thoughts on what was inside.

"You're doing the right thing, Sara. Right by him, and right by you." Vanderloo replied, knowing what was in the body bag; the body of Lance Corporal Hong Jeong, one of her Marines. Mark knew that Navy Corpsmen saw Marines as no one else's but theirs, having fought long and hard to become a part of that prestigious order of medical provider known as Fleet Marine Force Corpsmen. "If it were me? I would want you to learn all that you could on the hopes you would help someone else in the future, Sara. I know that you're more than smart enough to find a way if one exists. I don't doubt K-Pop would agree to, knowing that he can still save others."

"I know that, logically. Just… my heart…" Yeah, he got that. No matter how tough one was, they were still Human in the end. "I'm going to find out how they did this. If there's a way to halt it, slow it down, reverse it… anything, I'm going to fucking find it." Ryder's blue eyes were hard; it was a promise made, one she fully intended on keeping.

"The Geth are going to regret ever having met you." The cargo elevators' doors opened as Sara flashed him a smile, Vanderloo pulling his end of the stretcher out first and guiding it towards the MedBay. There were Sailors in the the Galley that was connected to the MedBay, those who were off-shift, and the talk went silent as they moved the stretcher into the ships' medical facility, the door opening for them as Commander Chakwas stood aside to give them admittance, already nearly in full BioCom Level Four save for her hood. No one was taking any chances, and as Mark understood it, the ships' surgeon had converted the medical lab behind the MedBay into a quarantine zone for both safety as well as storage. No one was fucking around with the potential possibilities of whatever happened with Jeong, and Chakwas was going to follow safety protocol to the very letter.

"There will be good, Commander." Commander Chakwas' British accent introduced themselves to his thoughts as Mark let go of the stretcher, seeing it hover without his assistance. "The MedBay will be closed for several hours at the very least, and if anything should arise, Able Seamen Basheer and Lowe shall be able to handle any necessaries while Doc Ryder and myself are conducting the autopsy and procedure." Mark noted that even Doctor Chakwas called Sara 'Doc'. Well, she had earned herself a full ride scholarship to John Hopkins University, and Vanderloo hadn't even known that was a possibility for the Medical College.

"Understood." Mark went to leave, but was stopped by Sara, and gentle hand going to his arm, catching him before he left. He saw her blue eyes looking into his own, the stress of the day still etched on her features, her brunette hair held back by both a hairband and a hair-tie to prevent any getting onto her face, opening up her features as she said something that shocked him.

"Thank you… Unkie." That had his throat go dry as Commander Mark Vanderloo nodded once and left the MedBay so that the surgeon and Doc could commence with their operation.

He found himself grinning like an idiot by the time the door closed behind him.

First Lieutenant Kaidan Raphael Alenko stood sentinel upon the Command Deck of the Bridge of the ACV Horizon as Tali'Zorah piloted the vessel out of 'the Horn', the Carrier-Class vessel finally escaping the titanic storm the ran in-between Rayingri and Vahtz. The ride was rough and choppy with turbulence and the lack of inertia dampeners, and though the Horizon weighed in at around one hundred and ninety-two gigagrams, it still got tossed around like a schooner in a storm in the Level Fifteen hurricane that composed of the entirety of the Horn where Rayingri and Vahtz met. XO Mark Vanderloo had probably been ill-advised to take the route from a patrol standpoint, but as a military decision in hostile space? It was the practical choice, no matter the complications. No one in their right damn mind would select being crushed by two planets.

As he understood it, the SSV Normandy had fired a series of probes to imitate a Wolf Pack, and three unknown vessels from the far side of Gagarin had moved to intercept some twenty minutes prior according to probe telemetry.

"ETA to Gagarin Relay, seventy-four minutes." Came the voice of Tali'Zorah nar Reyya, the acting Captain of the Horizon, as well as its pilot. The little Quarian Pilgrim was standing at the holographic suite of the Helm, Haptically controlling the vessel with the aid of her EnviroSuits' on-board systems while using the touch-gesture interfaces of the vessel to pilot it towards the Relay. The unknown vessels had been at the aphelion of the Relay, somewhere near its LaGrange Point Three on the opposite end of the system, moving towards the apogee of the system, too far away to sensor their telemetry, and certainly too far to intercept. Despite the Horizon's flank speed of Mark Five, being half the speed of light, the unknown vessels were at the far end of the system by the planet of Antirumgon heading away to intercept the false hunters while the Horizon made a run for the Relay. Even if the vessels, whether Geth, pirate, or other, pulled a Crazy Ivan and went Mark Nine (if they had the capability), it would take them over eight hours just to reach the Horizon's current position… if they decided to turn off the engines and weight. The Carnival Cruise Liner would reach helioshock in forty-five minutes, and then they would be able to spin up to FTL and make a mad dash for the Tereshkova System, where the Armstrong Nebula's Mass Relay was located. It would be a four-and-a-half hour FTL burn from the Gagarin System to the Tereshkova System, Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau having already sent flight telemetry to Tali to avoid other systems' heliospheres to obtain maximum time spent in FTL. Then it would be another two hours before they reached the Relay.

Seven hours spent on a ghost ship filled with the dead and the damned. No pressure, there.

"Credit for your thoughts, Loot?"

Kaidan looked over to Sergeant First Class Ashley Madeline Williams, the Colonial Army Soldier having doffed her Rosenkov Materials' Titan Heavy Armor helmet after being shuttled to the Bridge to add to the defense of the location in case there were more Husks or Geth they hadn't encountered yet. Well, at least Geth hardware platforms. For the software that Tali had supposedly encountered in the systems of the Horizon, the Pilgrim had amused herself by purging them with a series of malware attacks, logic bomb programs, and cannibalized TRUE/FALSE error systems before eliminating the threat. In all honestly, Zorah had sounded like a teenager with a brand new ARMMORPG game that she had gotten for Christmas by the way she cackled with glee, saying things like take that, bosh'tet! or another one for the deletion bin! Someone had enjoyed themselves. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Member snorted at the Army nickname for Lieutenants, and guessed that he should just be happy she actually hadn't used something silly, like Lost or OPP, for Overpaid Private. The Army was almost as bad as the Marines in such things, and that was saying something.

"Tough day." He had heard what happened to Lance Corporal Hong Jeong, the normally-quiet yet stoic Marine. Getting killed while serving one's species was meant to be an honor, bittersweet yet heralded. What had happened to the young man was horrifying, turned into the enemy right before the eyes of his friends and team members. As he understood it, Petty Officer Sara Ryder had made a last-ditch effort to stop the process she had no real experience with, using her intelligence and training to give her Marine a chance at life by temporarily killing him first as quickly as possible before attempting to fry whatever a Husk had injected him with. It hadn't worked, and Sara had delivered the merciful bullet that ultimately kept Jeong from coming back as a Husk herself. That was a hard thing to do, and Alenko had to admit to himself that he respected the Angel of Illyeria, despite his initial misgivings of Captain Jane Shepard including a woman she saw as a family member onto her ground team. Chief Ryder had proved herself time and again that she was the best at what she did, a Navy Corpsman who risked life and limb for crew, in combat and on vessel.

He felt sorry for her, knowing that she had gone back to the Normandy to perform an autopsy along with Commander Chakwas to discover what happened and any means of preventing it from happening again.

"Yeah, I heard that." Ash agreed, her right hand always on the pistol grip of her Kassa Fabrications' M-76 Reverent Light Machine Gun, the weapon in full combat operations but maglocked to her chestpiece, ready to pull and fire at the first instance of trouble. The both of them stood at the door of the Turbolift, which was magnetically-sealed. Agent Zevin Raeka had distributed a done for seismic sensors in case there was movement behind the walls or possibly in any kind of maintenance shafts. No one was taking any chances with the Husks or the Geth. "Use to think I knew what a tough day was back in the Slag." That was some codeword reference to the Army, Alenko assumed. "I've popped into a few bad ops back on EP. A smugglers' illegal DZ point, some drug manufacturing complex out in the boonies, pirates who thought their shit didn't stink hitting up some of the more rough-and-tumble bars in Constant. Big one was this massive clearing operation about five years back, back during the Blitz. Bats had a hidey-hole out in the mountains, using illegally-modified clearance codes to look like civvie vessels landing out by the Ada Mountain Range for a hideout. Had to clear out a system of caves, several pre-fabs, and hoofed plenty a slope for dig-ins and hold-outs. Took about two weeks of constant round-the-clock ass-kicking to get the Slugs out of their spelunker hotels. Found a few slave pens. That use to be the bad one before June Sixth." Ash was looking at the maglocked door, but Kaidan knew she was lost in her memories. He himself never saw true combat action during the Blitz, called in to de-install explosives in areas held by friendly forces, or dismantling hard targets with demolitions, again held by Alliance forces. Eden Prime had been his first real firefight, though thankfully years in service meant he was at least as prepared and ready as anyone could be facing the synthetic race from beyond the Perseus Veil.

"Trust me, don't be envious not getting a chance to clear out them halls, Loot."

"Believe me, I'm not wishing that on anyone." The Lieutenant replied, knowing only a little of it. He had kept his SquadComm on to listen to the fight in case something needed to be flexed or something unusual came up. Not that they really had the forces for it, but it was better to stay on top of such things, and who was to say what might have gone down? All he had heard once the firing started was an absolute barrage of gunfire, as if Hell itself had flooded that corridor to release its fury upon the enemy. He knew of the plan, and knew that there was likely no other way it could have been done. Twelve against thousands had his mouth go dry, knowing that Husks sprinted right towards TEAM LION without fear or reservation, being killed in droves. What he remembered hearing were the internal commentaries from some of the members of the team; Ash's prayers had been there, as well as Sara's denials of horror. Some of the Marines were vocal about what they had been seeing, many begging God's forgiveness at their acts. Necessary, but still soul-shaking.

Kaidan wasn't envious at all.

"Want to hear a shitty story?" Alenko looked over to Williams, the Soldier giving him a wry look. "C'mon, Army. Promise it's all about a Butterbar fumbling, Sailors laughing at his expense."

"Well, how could I saw no to that?" Ash smirked, the haunted look in her eyes fading a little bit, the one that she, Marshal Sam Collins, and Lance Corporal Oblong 'Kenyan' Ubantu all had.

"So, no shit…"

"There I was." Ash obviously knew how a military story began.

"I was a fresh-frocked Ensign on my first boat, the SSV Civic." Alenko remembered the Corvette-Class vessel well, a part of Battle Group Montezuma. "I had been there all of a week, put on as the Watch Duty Officer of the Engineering Deck for my first assignment. Since Army stares at trees instead of dials," Williams maturely stuck her tongue out at him, "Watch involves making sure that everything runs smooth and proper, that any needs are addressed, and a hand is given to those responsible to fix any issues coming up. For the WuDO, that would be me, my responsibilities entailed that Watch personnel showed up to shift on time, that they were doing their duties correctly, keeping datawork updated and proper, reporting any issues to the Master of the Boat, and sipping coffee." That had Ash snort.

"What? No PowerPoint slides and EN-mails to beat you to death with?"

"Naw, that's when you get a command." Kaidan laughed; guess Navy and Army weren't too different. PowerPoint was the bane of all military existence. Yes, it made for quick and accurate presentations for meetings and OPORDs, but PowerPoint slides were a ridiculous pain in the ass, and nobody liked doing them several times over for accuracy and 'presentation value'. "For the WuDO, it was a terminal with a time schedule, a duty roster, and a laundry list of chores. See me on a terminal in the Galley?" Ash nodded. "I'm the Watch Duty Officer for the Main Deck, and I organize the Watch for the entire deck."

"No shit." Williams looked thoughtful. "Huh, always figured you were, I dunno… secretly playing some mobile app game or whatnot from all the pressing you were doing."

"Yeah, I wish." The Combat Engineer snorted, shaking his head. "No, that's my duty during normal operations, like Sara is a Corpsman in the MedBay when she isn't trying to crack teleportation or some other impossibility with her Sci/Tech Department." Captain Shepard had put together pretty much the five smartest people on the Normandy and tasked them with solving 'anything and everything thrown at us'. The amount of high-grade materials, mods, upgrades, and the state-of-the-air OmniForge meant to craft the best weapons and armors they could come up with was certainly a testament to that endeavor. Sara had mentioned that she had solved Boolian Theory, and Kaidan had looked that up later on. He still wasn't sure what it was save that it hadn't been solved by mathematicians for nearly two centuries, something to do with problem-solving in polynomial time and real time. When the lead Engineer, First Lieutenant Greg Adams, had looked at Sara Ryder with something approaching awe, that was pretty much all the confirmation he needed. "So, I'm the WuDO on Team Two, and the lead Engineer at the time thought it would be a funny gag to prank the wet-behind-the-ears Ensign with a fake emergency."

"And so it happened…" Ash was warming up to the story, a silly lop-sided grin on her face.

"Now, mind you," Kaidan continued, "this was obviously planned without my involvement. I think the intent was to have me run about like a madman during a perceived emergency when everything was actually in the green. Unfortunately, the planning of said operation had a lot left to be desired, and there was, in fact, a real emergency."

"Uh oh."

"So what the plan was, was to have one of the Bosun's Mates to turn off the Emergency Management System on the Engineering Deck, and close up one of the pipes of the Reclamation Battery, Recycling and Decontamination, Internal Cycle." Ash's face got shrewed as she translated the name of the system into an acronym after a moment, mouthing the word.

"Wait… serious? There's a fucking system on a Navy boat called the rubber dick?" Williams guffawed, looking at him as if he were pulling her leg.

"Yep." Lance Corporal Ubantu replied from his station by the Bridge door, obviously overhearing her. Kaidan always wondered if there was some failed comedian on Arcturus who named some of the systems, like the RBRDIC. Everyone called it by its acronym instead of its long-winded actual name. It was a pretty popular prank amongst Sailors ribbing brand-new Ensigns and Seaman, with such orders as 'I need you to see what's plugging up the rubber dick', or 'check to see if the rubber dick is in the hole fully' and watch some cherry Seaman or Ensign get red in the face.

"Oh man, that's hella funny." Army giggled, shaking her head. "And here I thought the Navy had no sense of humor whatsoever."

"Yes, well." Alenko easily remembered the prank-gone-wrong. "So this Bosun's Mate turns off the Emergency Management System so when they shut off the RBRDIC, it doesn't alert the Bridge. The idea was to shut it off, have an alert show up on my screen and force me to announce to the Captain that the rubber dick wasn't functioning like it should." That had Ash cackling, and even Marshal Sam Collins, standing partway down the corridor, snorted. "Now, mind you, the system in question is a real system. Its job is the reclamation of waste water and products."

"It's a poop chute." Williams got the gist of it. The job of the RBRDIC was to filter out reusable water for coolant while storing contaminates in the bilge.

"Essentially. Unfortunately," the Engineer was getting warmed up, "the Bosun's Mate in question that turned off the EMS had gone to the stern bilge pump to close the valve and clog up the system for the prank. He unfortunately had a malfunction in his brain and forgot that righty is tightey, and lefty is loosey."

"No! No way!"

"Yep. He opened the rubber dick and flooded the Engine Room with blackwater." Ash was roaring with laughter, and even Lancie Ubantu and Marshal Collins were laughing as well. "There was a geyser of brackish water just shooting out from the pump, hitting the core of the ship." Williams was still whooping with laughter, slapping her hip as she wiped away a tear. "Now mind you, the core runs at fifteen hundred degrees Celsius. So when waste water hit it, it immediately boiled and cooked shit water, particlizing it and sending it into the ships' atmo processor."

"Oh my fucking God…" Ash was struggling to breath between her laughter. "Whatta fucking idiot."

"So here I am, calling up to the Bridge to tell them that the rubber dick is spewing fluids, and the CIC thinking its a part of the prank since the Emergency Management System is down and they're not getting an alert," Kaidan continued, "while decaLiters of shit water is pounding onto the core and flooding the room while the ripe smell of cooked shit is hammering us and spreading throughout the entire vessel. I'm trying not to throw up all over the place warning the Bridge that the rubber dick is, in fact, broken, and smells like shit, while the Officer of the Deck is laughing at me." The Colonial Soldier is about to keel over laughing, while the Marine several pace back is leaning against the bulkhead, laughing with gusto. Even Sam is amused as hell. "It took five minutes for the smell to flood the Corvette because I couldn't get the Bridge to shut off atmospheric to prevent the rest of the ship from being flooded with shit particles."

"Oh my God. I think I peed myself somewhere in there." Ash's voice was at least an octave high, trying not to laugh. "That has to be the most epic prank fail I've ever heard!"

"Same here. Made the Blotter, and at least half of Navy Command knows of the story, if not the reason behind it." Kaidan shook his head. "Nothing official happened to me since I was the only one who actually did his job as he was suppose to. We had to rotate out of patrols and docked with Arcturus for retrofit to replace all the atmo scrubbers, the filters, and pump out the core. It took three months to scrub the ship from bow to stern to get any contamination out, and they purged the atmosphere at least twice just to get right of any particlization and smell." A couple of people had been relieved of command for that incident, and Alenko knew that somehow he had magically dodge the silver bullet. What had saved his ass was the Automated Captains' Log indicating that he had, in fact, warned the bridge of the incident, recommending proper procedures, and had been ignored. The prank that was suppose to simulate an emergency had turned into a real emergency, and the only person that had done anything right was him. Two weeks later, there was a Navy-wide referendum about using Navy equipment improperly to test individuals on competency levels, and the rumor mill took care of the rest. Thankfully, his name was never mentioned.

"Told you it was a shitty story." Alenko reminded her as the Soldier wiped away at her tears, having laughed so hard.

"Oh God, I'm pretty sure I just self-ejected a kidney out I laughed so hard." The colony-born woman said, shaking her head as she smiled. The dark look in her eyes was gone, replaced with mirth. "Now that's a bad day."

"So that's my story."

"And I'm sticking to it!" Williams, Ubantu, and Collins all replied.

Another seven hours to go on a ghost ship.

Author's Note: I use a good deal of modern medical devices, lingo, and performance in this chapter.

Vitreous Humour - the transparent gelatinous mass that exists inside your eye organ. Funny enough, I didn't even have to look up the name or the spelling thanks to having learned of it long ago… from a Neil Gaimen book?

The Laryngoscope is the 'intubator' lever that you'll see on TV or in movies if you're not an ER staff or an EMT. It is simply a levering device meant to open the mouth, move the tongue out of the way, and let a health care professional actually see down your throat. There's about 10 different types for ten different scenarios. Intubating a conscious person is a bad idea, as gag reflex might choke them to death.

A portable defibrillator - The zap-zap that helps bring people back to life. I think the highest setting nowadays is probably 240 volts in hospitals. Commonly seen as the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) in workplaces. Nowadays these things can practically be operated with very little training or experience, as they come with simple Crayola guides so even a common person can save a life. Amperes (Amps, or current), are the thing that people warn you about when trying to stick Mr. Fork into Ms. Electrical Socket. Volts don't kill you, though they hurt like a son of a bitch.

The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine (CPAP) - What people with Sleep Apnea use so when they involuntarily stop breathing in the middle of the night, this machine helps deliver oxygen by continuously feeding. What I made was a Positive/Negative Pressure Machine that breaths in and out. No more chest beating (btw, CPR breaks ribs if done properly).

The Attican Beta Cluster has two known systems; Hercules and Theseus. The Hercules System is where the Mass Relay is. Theseus is where Feros is. In Canon, Mindoir is a colony somewhere in Alliance Space, so I made it in the Attican Beta Cluster, a part of a non-Canon System on the Canon colony of Amarestu, Mindoir being the name of a city/colonial effort instead of an entire planet.

Wait? Jannie has a brother? Stay tuned!

The trick I mention Pressley using to 'spoof' a ship is Operation Tapdance from D-Day, when the British dropped mannequin paratoopers with lit firecrackers as well as tin foil to 'spread' German firearm retaliation by increasing the probability of them firing on non-persons instead of a soldier. The amount of thought, work, effort, training, and planning that went into Operation: Overlord/D-Day is beyond amazing, something like a year and a half in the concept and 6-8 months in practice. It might still be, to this very day, the most extensive war plan ever crafted. Believe me the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were not even a quarter in the complexity. The best comparison would be the Berlin Airlifts, probably the only other mission I can think of where major operations were continuous, lasting months, involving building airports while flying in supplies to save West Berlin. Check out Operation: Planefare for one of the best missions ever ran!

Commander Karin Carolyn Chakwas - All Military Doctors have rank (Lieutenant through Colonel, with one or two being Generals, as well as Ensigns and Captains). Carolyn Seymore is Chakwas' voice actress, where I got her middle name.

Contragravity spineboard/stretcher - Instead of the collapsible one you see EMT's and Paramedics use today, this one floats like a hoverboard. That's really where I see the future going.

Awww… Vanderloo had a family moment!

The ACV Horizon - I mention that it weighs in at 192 Gigagrams, or 192,000,000 kilograms (approximately 212,000 American Tons). To get this weight, I looked up the displacement weight of the Nimitz-Class Aircraft Carrier, which is about half of its bow length, so I doubled the proportions to get an idea of the mass of a starship by effectively doubling the second largest ship in the world, behind the Ford-Class Carrier. If you've seen the specs for the Gerry Ford, it's a fucking sexy boat.

Nicknames for Lieutenants: El-Tee, Loot, Butterbars, Monorails, Lost, Pointers, Pills, Swag, Stumps, and Captain's Daughters. And those are just the catch-alls. I've personally had a Red Menace, Turkey Neck, Oh-Boy, String Bean, Tickle, Rapestache, Norman the Mormon, Quail-Bait, Pervert, Sickle Cell, and Jewmageddon. Don't worry, folks; in the Army, we have Equal Opportunity Officers. I was, in fact, one of them.

In this universe, no one flies FTL in-system. Heliospheres are where solar winds and extrasystem space meet, and hitting this barrier while at FTL causes significant damage. I am working on the theory that there is too much debris in a system where FTL is safe, and only the truly stupid or desperate try. Captain Rhys Llewellyn from Where The Law Stands Tall did this maneuver twice during the Miracle of Therum fighting a Batarian slaver action/rescue mission, and I detail some of the issues there.

PowerPoint - Yes, we in the military despise Microsoft PowerPoint. Don't get me wrong, it does its job well. But it is a righteous pain in the ass making a dozen slides on a semi-crummy field with several options that never seem to work properly. I usually went with simple bullet points with hard data and filled in the rest with my words. It wasn't like I was trained for it. I guess it's a class in West Point.

So that's what Kaidan does at that terminal! I actually interjected a real Navy duty. If I remember correctly, ME1 states its something about power distribution. Now I haven't actually played ME1 in… 7 years? But from what I understand about the Navy, power distribution is kinda of an important thing, but not exactly constant. Instead, a Watch Duty Officer is a real job and position held by an Officer, and what Kaidan describes is pretty damn close to what one does. Technically, Kaidan's job on the Civic would be the Engineering Officer of the Watch, while on the Normandy he would be a Junior Officer of the Watch.

The 'story' is a complete fabrication. A friend of mine, Leon, a former Bosum's Mate, came up with it. All I did was change the name of the wastewater reclamation and recycling system into something stupid and funny; the rubber dick. There are, after all, military items with unfortunate names like Donkey Dicks (fuel spouts), Monkey Cum (L-SAT), pecker-petters (Barb Wire Gloves), and Ballcrushers (the Swiss Seat for repelling).