Chapter Seven: The Pilot's Name is Joker
The SSV Normandy was an amazing ship, that was clear to Garrus the moment he laid eyes on her. Powered by an experimental drive-core (something Tali voiced being very interested in studying), it was a frigate built for reconnaissance—a stealth mode that could hide heat emissions—but it also didn't lack for firepower (compared to other frigates) along with impressive speed and maneuverability. At least that was what he had been told and was inferring as he had yet to really see the ship do any of the such. He couldn't help but wonder what it would be like in a fight, space battles would rise to an entirely different level with the stealth capabilities. For some reason, no one else seemed to have the same view as him in that regard. The group had all met up just outside the docking tube where Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson had been waiting for them.
The human ambassador had informed Shepard that the Captain was stepping down as the commanding officer and that the Normandy was now hers to command. The news didn't seem to please the commander who had been intent on learning the truth behind it from her former captain. They were given their task, rather than try to find Saren specifically they were to look for the Conduit as it would lead them to Saren. The Ambassador and Captain had only come up with three leads for them: a human colony on the planet of Feros that had reported sighting geth before dropping out of contact, the planet Noveria which was also rumored to have witnessed geth, as well as a name—Liara T'Soni. She was the daughter of the asari matriarch, Benezia, a Prothean scientist who was on an archelogoical dig in the Artemis Tau cluster. They didn't know whether she was in league with her mother and Saren, but thought she might be a good option to check out in the possibility she could provide some answers. Shepard had asked the rest of them to go aboard while she spoke to Captain Anderson in private.
Inside, the Normandy was sleek and full of the latest advanced technology. While moving from the bridge towards the Combat Information Center, he had already been noting differences between the human ship and turian vessels but one thing was very familiar, the sight of the CIC—specifically, the CO station being at the back and raised up. He'd heard that human ships normally placed their commanding officers in the middle of a room, apparently an effort to facilitate communication with subordinates compared to the turians who preferred their commanders to look over, rather than be amidst them. He knew he was biased, but he still thought this was an overall better method, and in his mind, he'd never seen a commander have issue communicating orders to the crew from there.
He felt eyes as he moved and many a pair were on him, Tali, and Wrex along with whispering and exchanging of glances. Great, a bunch of xenophobes. He hoped they would prove him wrong in the future, but for now he felt very much like a wild animal on display. He could only imagine how Wrex was feeling. Behind him, he snuck a peak only to see what he considered a blank expression on the krogan, who appeared unaware of his surroundings and the obvious gawking. Tali on the other hand, Garrus could hear the change in her breathing filters as it became heavier and at a faster pace. She also was beginning to wring her three-fingered hands together—most-likely unconsciously. This didn't surprise him, after all she was still newly on her Pilgrimage; her right into adulthood, which meant she was only now being no longer considered a child. Relatively everything was a new environment to her, one that would kill her without her suit.
He decided then that he would try his best to keep any eye on her, make sure she would be okay and such. He felt partially obligated being the only other species aboard who could eat the same food as her (of course he didn't need to filter his) and turians and quarians did have the best relationship of the four species on the vessel. When the Commander boarded, she went straight to the bridge and spoke to the crew over the speaker system. She gave what was definitely received as a rousing speech about their orders to find Saren and about the part humanity was playing in it. The faces of the crewmen surrounding him shown bright and energetic as they nodded their agreement to her words.
Once she was done, he, Wrex, and Tali made their way down to the second deck, and from there the elevator to the cargo bay as they were instructed by Ashley that they would find some empty footlockers down there. Garrus was quite relieved to have an excuse to leave the CIC and head into a rather empty location, especially now that there was a rampant chatter amongst the crew over their vigor from Shepard's words. "Is that a—?" he started when the elevator opened on the third and final deck.
"M35 Mako, yeah," the gunnery chief answered as they stared at the large rover located at the far end of the bay. One side of the human woman's mouth upturned in a smile as she glanced at him, her expression one of impression over his knowledge of the Systems Alliance vehicle. He wasn't about to tell her the only reason he knew about them was because turian soldiers considered it to be a joke. He could recall a conversation aboard one of the turian shuttles used for deployment during his days in the military. Someone had made a comment about the time it was taking to get to the drop zone and their commander had responded with 'imagine how long it would take if we were in a Mako like the humans', which had caused someone else to mention the similarity to the krogan who used Tomkahs. There had been quite a bit of laughter. And to think here he was serving on a human ship and would no doubt be deployed in the very vehicle.
Tali immediately headed through the doors behind them to Engineering, unable to wait any longer to see the drive core. Once Garrus had deposited his items in a locker, he went straight for the Mako. If he was going to be transported in it, then he was going to make sure it was up to his standards—and he had high standards. Opening up a console he began his study and research of the machine, finding that it was definitely going to need a lot of work. Well, looks like I've found what I'll be doing in my downtime. He didn't mind though; in fact, he was excited. During his service he had gotten very familiar with not only repairing but also amplifying and calibrating a range of guns and other such equipment. He had lived for calibrating, well that and any excuse to use his sniper rifle. He had often been told that he would have made a good engineer, although he didn't have any of the patience for understanding drive cores, or ship construction. Put him in charge of building something that wasn't a weapon? It wouldn't turn out right. He was best suited to firearms and making sure they were at their best. So, the Mako has a mass accelerator cannon and a coaxial-mounted machine gun. He could work with that.
"What are you doing?" he heard Ashley's voice demand as she came stomping through the cargo bay towards him the minute he had started getting down to business.
"Calibrating," he replied, "it's in desperate need of it."
"Don't touch that, you don't know what you're doing!" she slapped his hand away, stepping in front of the console. Don't know what I'm doing? Ludicrous. "Skipper," the woman suddenly said, looking past him. He glanced behind to see that the Commander had materialized, a partially amused smile twitching her lips.
"Vakarian, I see you've gotten to work tending the Mako. Will you be able to handle such a task?" It was clear what she was really saying, could he make the vehicle better or would his tampering ruin it. Please, I'm Garrus Vakarian, I may not be able to do a lot of things right but this—this I can do.
"yes ma'am," he assured. With a nod she turned to Ashley.
"Then we best leave him to it, Chief." She saluted the Commander before disparagingly returning to clean some rifles. "Sorry about that, Ashley will come around. She's just…," Shepard started. Racist? He'd seen the way the Gunnery Chief looked at him, Wrex, and Tali. It was clear she was no fan of any species other than her own. Before she could finish, he spoke up.
"It's alright, Commander. She's an Alliance soldier, she's just doing her job." He wouldn't begrudge the woman for that very reason; in fact, he admired her dedication. She was the pinnacle for what a soldier should be and in a strange way he was glad to know that the Alliance had such soldiers. The human in front of him gave a nod of appreciation. He couldn't help but become stuck on his last thought regarding Williams being the pinnacle for a soldier, because then what was the Commander? It was clear that she was a rarity, a rather unknown exemplar and something told him that if there were more people like her in the galaxy, it would be much better off. What would I be considered…?
"What do you think of the ship?" her question saved him from a thought that wad bound to be only discouraging.
"It's great. The Normandy combines the best of Alliance technology and turian engineering. It shows what we're capable of if we work together." His response pleased her, invoking a smile.
"I'd have to agree," she said before leaving him to go speak to Wrex who was remaining permanently fixtured by the footlockers. Maybe he's afraid someone will try to steal his things. Garrus spent the next couple hours tinkering with the Mako before deciding to take a break and headed up in search of the mess hall. It didn't take long to find it, on the second floor of the ship. Seated at one of the tables was Kaidan and Tali, Wrex looming nearby (he hadn't even noticed that the krogan had left his spot in the cargo bay).
"Hey Garrus," the lieutenant called in greeting, "come join us." It seemed Alenko did not share the same reservations as Williams. He took a seat beside Tali.
"Lieutenant Alenko was telling us about Eden Prime and what he witnessed there," the quarian told him.
"Not the cheeriest of tales, I imagine," Garrus replied.
"Not really, no," the man said whilst glancing down—as if reconsidering sharing such things. "Oh, and Tali, please just call me Kaidan, that goes for all of you," he added looking between Garrus and Wrex.
"If you are talking tales that cause cheering, I will win," Wrex grumbled.
"I don't think that was quite what he meant," Tali quietly remarked, causing Kaidan to chuckle.
"Garrus, you were in C-Sec for quite a while. I'm sure you have more than a few stories to tell," the human male looked to him. Before he could open his mouth to answer, Commander Shepard appeared and behind her another man although he walked relatively slow and seemed to hobble. He had a small amount of hair on his chin and jaw (scruff, he believed humans called it) and wore a hat that had SR-1 across the top.
"Sorry to interrupt," she spoke as she neared the table, "but I thought you might be interested to meet our pilot. This is Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau." She then proceeded to introduce the three 'aliens' to the pilot.
"What, Commander, couldn't find any elcor or hanar that wanted to take on Saren?" The man snorted. "You could have at least brought along an asari, they're nice to look at."
"I doubt you'd be able to fly straight with one of them around, Joker," came Ashley's voice as she took a seat beside Kaidan.
"What makes you think I fly straight anyway?"
"That would explain a bit," Shepard jested as the man limped to an open seat.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing," he spoke the words rather menacingly and it caused all of the humans gathered to laugh like it was some sort of well-known joke.
"What's the matter with you?" Wrex brazenly asked, gesturing with a large finger to the man's legs.
"Me? Nothing, just sore from sitting in that seat for hours on end." The pilot's words did not fool anyone. "I think it should be Alliance standard for the seats to be made with leather. And did you know, they're even making some that swivel now?"
"next you're going to be asking for a seat you won't have to get up to take a leak in," Kaidan snickered while 'Joker's' face lit up at the prospect.
"Quarians don't have to worry about that," Tali started causing everyone to look to her, her voice lowering at the sudden attention, "our suits take care of all those kinds of faculties."
"Nice to know you won't require a bathroom break in the middle of a firefight, I mean I might, but who knows," Shepard smirked causing all of them, including Wrex, to chuckle.
"So even on your ships, your people are still always in those suits?" Ashley asked, rather serious as she looked to the masked girl.
"Yes, we originally had a symbiotic relationship with microbes on our home-world which meant our immune systems were weak from the start but it was made worse after the centuries of living in sterile environments. Even being in 'clean' spaces without our suits we risk infection."
"How do you reproduce?"
"leave it to a krogan to always be able to turn a conversation to reproduction," Garrus sighed. If he mentions the Genophage…. After the Rachni Wars, the krogan had begun to breed at an exponential rate and were quickly overwhelming the galaxy. The salarians had sought the aid of the turians to fight the krogan and they had, the Krogan Rebellions only being quelled after the turians released the Genophage on the krogan homeworld of Tuchanka, a bio-weapon made by the salarians which infected all krogan with a genetic mutation—only one in one thousand krogan are born living. It was because of this and partly because of the krogan proclivity to violence that the species was nearing extinction. Krogan loathed the salarians and the turians, it was in their blood now to do so and they specifically loved to make mention whenever possible about their dwindling race and their 'unjust' treatment in the deployment of the Genophage. The Krogan Rebellions had been long, long, before Garrus' time, nearly 1500 years ago, but from what he'd always heard—or been taught rather, the krogan had it coming and the decline of their race is their fault.
Wrex made a growl as he shot the turian with a deadly glare before looking back to the quarian, waiting for his answer.
"Like…everyone else," she mumbled slowly as if expecting to be told differently.
"Except for asari, they do that whole mind-merge thing," Joker said matter-of-factly, "another reason why one of them would be good to have around. I wouldn't have to worry about breaking a hip to get some action."
"You're going to find all the action you need with where we're going," Shepard told the pilot.
"Omega?" he said with a delighted gasp causing her to role her eyes.
"Where are we headed?" Kaidan asked turning to the Commander. Everyone else also looked to her, intent on knowing their first destination.
"I told Joker to set our course for Feros. Udina and Anderson said that the colony there hasn't reported in since spotting geth. If they're under attack, then they're going to need help."
"I can't wait to get my hands on some geth. Payback for Eden Prime," Williams hands knotted together as she seethed.
"And on that note, I'm off to get some shut-eye," the Commander headed originally towards a sleeper pod before faltering and moving rather uneasily towards the captain's cabin. Everyone else started on a conversation Garrus didn't catch the beginning of deciding that now would be as good a chance as any.
"Commander?" he called, starting after her. She stopped upon being addressed, and he stood before her after just a few quick strides. Her eyebrows were raised in recognition for him to speak. "I just wanted to say thanks for bringing me on board. I knew working with a Spectre would be better than life at C-Sec."
"Have you worked with a Spectre before?" she inquired; her curiosity piqued.
"Well, no," he answered rather abash due to his previous statement, only to quickly add, "but I know what they're like. Spectres make their own rules. You're free to handle things your way." He paused as she waved him with her hand to follow him and after a moment of hesitation he did, entering the small cabin. There was what appeared to be two cots pushed together in an effort to make a larger one, a small table with two chairs as well as a desk with a terminal. She took a seat, beginning to untie the laces of her boots and motioned for him to continue. "At C-Sec you're buried by rules. The damn bureaucrats are always on your back." He didn't know why he was saying any of this, it was all true of course but he had originally planned just to thank her not launch into his own personal stances.
"For the most part the rules are there for a reason." Her voice was starting to sound tired yet she still seemed fully engaged and interested in the topic at hand.
"Maybe," he nodded as he thought of her words. He knew the rules at C-Sec were there for a purpose, to his father the rules were what kept the entire society system from falling into chaos. The reflection of his father caused an immediate pang within. "But sometimes it feels like the rules are only there to stop me from doing my work. If I'm trying to take down a suspect, it shouldn't matter how I do it, as long as I do it." He watched her face, trying to gauge her reaction to his words but she didn't give anything away. "But C-Sec wants it done their way. Protocol and procedure come first. That's why I left."
She placed her boots off to the side, standing up and coming to face him. She was a good three feet shorter than him and yet she somehow managed to stare at him with enough concentration and intensity that he could have sworn she was at eye-level.
"So you just quit because you didn't like the way they do things?" Her eyebrows were pulling together, her gaze becoming hard as she tried to read him, trying to figure him out. If you learn anything let me know, he wanted to say to her.
"There's more to it than that." He heard the words he had spoken the way she had heard them. It wasn't coming off good. "It didn't start out bad but as I rose in ranks, I got saddled with more and more red tape. C-Sec's handling of Saren was typical. I just couldn't take it anymore." She nodded along with him, beginning to understand where he was coming from. "I hate leaving…," he admitted and trailed off. He didn't want to finish that thought.
"I hope you made the right choice. I'd hate for you to regret it later." Her tone was earnest, concern touching her features.
"Well, that's sort of why I teamed up with you. It's a chance to get off the Citadel, see how things are done outside C-Sec." Her head bobbed in approval, seeming to be satisfied now with their discussion. At least he'd managed to turn it around somehow as for a moment there, it had been a rather slippery slope. "Either way, I plan to make the most of this," he told her. His tone was just as honest as hers. "And without C-Sec headquarters looking over my shoulder, well, maybe I can get the job done my way for a change." The words were out before he had fully thought them through. This was a bad habit of his, he didn't tend to really scrutinize over what he was going to say before speaking. More the first thing that came to mind would just pop out. He witnessed her physically tense and her tone became rather firm.
"If getting the job done means endangering innocent people, then, no. We get the job done right, not fast. Got it?" Each one of those words hit him like a charge from a krogan.
"I wasn't trying to—," his mind was no longer making sense, he couldn't form a coherent sentence, "I understand Commander." He managed to put together that simple statement.
"You're dismissed Garrus."
"Commander." He was vaguely aware of leaving the cabin. He was loosely conscious of getting in the elevator and returning to the cargo bay. What he was distinctly mindful of was two voices echoing over one another in his head; do things right or don't do them at all and we get the job done right. The phrases overlapped and integrated in his mind and he set to work at the Mako console in an effort to calm the quickening pace of his heart. He would not be sleeping tonight, not until the ringing in his ears stopped.