Act I : VII

SSV Normandy

"Remember", Tali began. "If you decide to overcharge the capacitors, the power surge WILL arc and if you're the one standing too close, the surge WILL arc to you." Slade Jordan was wondering if all quarians were this quirky, or if it was specific to Tali'Zorah. The young quarian was permanently encased in her suit, and Slade's only way to gauge her was her pair of glowing, purple eyes. They were usually still and focused, but darted all around in quick, successive motions whenever she began talking about something that excited her. She reminded Slade of a stereotypical, teenage girl he saw in vids from Earth: she was shy and remote - until she got to know you and became comfortable in your presence - then her mouth became an endless stream of snark and sass. It did not bother him; in fact, he enjoyed it. Tali seemed like the only one here - besides the Commander - who was something besides by-the-book discipline. Slade enjoyed talking to Tali, not just because she seemed more "normal", but also because she was like himself: not technically Alliance, but she felt home on the Normandy just as much as anyone else did.

The Normandy had been scouting the Artemis Tau cluster for the past few weeks in search of an Asari, who was believed to know something about Saren or Saren's companion: Matriarch Benezia. In that time, Slade had learned more than he ever did in the twenty plus years he lived on Eden Prime; not only that, but he had finally found a place where everyone accepted him KNOWING he was a biotic. A "home". Slade had become accustomed to suicidal thoughts and spending all his free time alone, where nobody could find him and abuse him; however, now he would eat his meals at the mess hall with everyone else and spend his free time talking to anyone who would listen. He was finally HAPPY, a feat he thought he would never accomplish.

His appointments with Doctor Chakwas became less and less frequent, to the point where he would only see her once a week. She was amazed at his progress - so was Slade - and credited his healthy recovery to his new environment. There were still a few things he did not want to discuss with the Doctor, and managed to hide them thus far, but Slade knew she would figure him out soon: she was far too smart for his secrets to remain secrets. She consistently and relentlessly urged him to consider asking Kaidan or Shepard for biotic training, or at the very least undergo an operation to receive non-combat implants. According to medical studies, long term suppression of biotic potential could lead to uncontrolled and violent outbursts of biotic power - especially in individuals without biotic implants - and it was far better to dissipate his suppressed biotic potential than continue to bottle it up. Slade agreed that she made a good point, but could not bring himself to actually begin the training. His biotic potential was still an underlying, rooted source of shame. Regardless of how many people telling him it was "okay" to be a biotic, he could not bring himself to believe it. Slade was partly in denial about the concept, but he believed if he ignored his biotics for long enough and pretended he was NOT a biotic, it would go away. Slade knew it was impossible, but he still felt this to be the most comfortable solution: merely ignore the problem, and it will go away. He knew his new home definitely helped him feel exponentially better than Eden Prime, but even happiness could not erase years of abuse that made him resent himself and his biotics.

Ashley Williams - the gunnery sergeant - was in charge of the armoury and taught Slade whatever she could whenever he was on the lower level of the ship. As with everyone else, she was always nice to him, but Slade would notice that she was VERY hard on herself. Ashley would terribly punish herself for the smallest mistakes, which was strange considering how nice she was to everyone else. Slade felt immense sympathy for her and wanted to help her realize that nobody here was expecting her to be perfect; however, Slade figured there was probably a reason for her behaviour that she kept to herself, which he also respected.

Garrus Vakarian - an ex cop on the citadel - was not the by-the-books officer Slade had expected; instead, he was headstrong and idealistic. He would listen to rules, regulations and opinions, but would not necessarily listen to them; furthermore, he usually concluded that anyone who disagreed with him was wrong. Garrus was difficult to argue with, but as long as Slade agreed with him, he was almost his best friend at times. Ashley taught him how to maintain his weapons and armour, but Garrus received all the credit for training Slade's marksmanship. In all the hours the pair of them spent at the shooting range, Garrus had not missed a single shot; in fact, the closest he ever came to a "miss" was a round that pierced through the head of one dummy and embedded itself in the eye of the dummy directly behind. Slade never believed he would ever surpass his teacher, but took pride in himself whenever Garrus said "nice shot", which was high praise indeed.

Slade was most comfortable with his pistol - an M-77 Paladin which the Commander had specially requisitioned from the Spectre Armoury, to which Garrus had also taught him how to modify with "questionable" parts - and the rounds it fired seemed to pierce through almost anything. He was even worried that a stray shot would pierce the hull of the ship. Slade was adequately trained with a standard issue M-7 Lancer, but Garrus despised the rifle for using "old school" thermal heat sinks instead of the modern thermal ejection clips. This made it prone to overheating and without a method to eject the internal heat sink, the rifle would need to cool back down to operation temperature before it could be fired again. Slade's marksmanship was deemed "too mediocre" by Garrus to begin training with a sniper rifle, but he promised Slade he would train him once his overall marksmanship improved. Slade did not even want to touch a shotgun, based on what he had seen thus far: he was more likely to break his arm before mastering the weapon's recoil.

Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was the biotic specialist aboard the Normandy, and Slade found a fast friend in him based on how much they had in common. He was a soft spoken man with a smart head on his shoulders and always valued caution above impulse. Slade would always listen intently whenever he talked about his childhood and adolescence, mainly because Kaidan spent time at a "biotic school", which was only a fantasy to Slade until now. Although Kaidan's stories verged on being horror stories at some points due to the intense and unapologetic training regime, Slade could not help but be fascinated by the concept of a place where biotics could use their abilities freely without judgement. Again, Kaidan definitely sold Slade on the idea that the place was horrible and a borderline internment camp, but Slade personally believed it would have been better than Eden Prime and felt bitter that Kaidan seemed to take his past experiences for granted. Regardless, Kaidan had become a close friend and Slade would spend most of his free time with him; however, he constantly remembered Doctor Chakwas' advice to ask Kaidan for training and bit his tongue whenever the topic of biotics came up.

Jeff "Joker" Moreau was the most interesting member of the crew thus far. He was the ship's pilot and was quite literally not allowed to leave the cockpit unless absolutely necessary. Joker suffered from a rare bone degeneracy which caused his skeleton to become incredibly brittle, resulting in a lifestyle that did not allow strenuous movement or rough physical contact. He was mostly confined to his pilot's seat with the exception of bathroom breaks, and did not socialize with anyone unless they came to him. Joker was VERY abrasive and sarcastic - Slade figured it was a result of Jeff constantly knowing he would never be able to be "normal", which Slade could only sympathize with - and came off as a rude, little asshole. His redeeming quality was that although he may not have liked anyone at first, he eventually came to respect people if they showed him respect first. Slade liked to think he was now on Joker's good side, because Joker seemed to always treat him slightly more nicely than others; however, this was not saying much considering Joker's base level of snark.

Commander Zoey Shepard had become more than just a friend to Slade; in fact, she became the first person he went to if he ever had anything to talk about. The first impression she had made on Eden Prime permanently cemented itself in Slade's mind, and he could not help but go to her for anything and everything. He still blushed whenever she talked to him in a gentle manner and he enjoyed laughing to exhaustion with her during her childish moments. Shepard was an amazing leader - more a close friend to everyone than a commanding officer - and she had this aura around her that made you WANT to listen to her. Nobody ever seemed to question or complain about any orders she gave, they just simply followed them trusting that the Commander would not have issued the order if she had not completely considered it necessary. Zoey was the Commander who would rather die in your place, than send you to your death and that accumulated an extraordinary amount of respect from everyone under her command. She really was the perfect spectre and the best humanity had to offer.

Urdnot Wrex.

Slade mentally groaned at the thought of him. He was the broken chip in the otherwise perfect sculpture. Wrex was the only one aboard the ship that reminded Slade of Eden Prime. He openly despised and detested Slade and Wrex found every opportunity possible to notify him that he was not liked. It did not bother Slade - after all he was definitely no stranger to abuse - but Wrex did not seem to hate him because he was a biotic; no, Wrex seemed to hate the very fact that Slade even existed. Slade's very presence in this galaxy seemed to irritate the krogan, and he had concluded that it was not due to the fact that krogan disliked everyone. It was easy to see Wrex respected Commander Shepard, tolerated everyone else, and hated Slade. Slade was too scared and intimidated by Wrex to ask why he was resented to such a degree, but unfortunately he had no one else to ask because they were all just as intimidated as he was. The only person who would know why Wrex hated Slade was the Commander, and she did not know why either. Slade was simply advised to avoid Wrex and immediately call Shepard if he ever became physically hostile. Slade agreed - without much of a choice - but never managed to sleep properly while Wrex was also aboard the ship. This was his first experience of monster nightmares and being afraid of what awaited in the dark of night, except that the monster was indeed very much real, and walked around with a shotgun bigger than Slade's leg. The most confusing part was that Wrex was also a biotic, but no urge to sympathize with Slade ever seemed to crawl into Wrex' mind. Slade sadly concluded there was nothing he, or anyone could do about Wrex and simply accepted him as a new obstacle in his new life.

"There", Tali concluded. "The overload program should now work properly on your omnitool, as long as you don't fry yourself trying to overcharge it. Remember what I said! Don't stand too close to your targets. Humans are mostly water. Water and highly conductive, ionic capacitor discharges do not play nice with each other." Slade gave her a small laugh.

"Thanks, Tali", Slade replied. "It's nice to know you care." They both then looked over towards the sound of approaching boots as Shepard walked up to them.

"Tali", she ordered. "Gear up and meet at the Mako ASAP. Ashley should already be there waiting for us. Pressly thinks we found Benezia's daughter on this planet." Tali nodded and headed off.

"Slade", Shepard continued. "Follow me." She led Slade to the medbay and they walked inside to find Doctor Chakwas at her desk. Karin looked up at them.

"Yes, Commander?" She asked with her posh accent.

"Sorry about this", Shepard began hurriedly. "But this was a kinda last minute impulsive decision on my part. Can you please clear Slade for active combat?"

"Wait, what?" Slade asked nervously.

"What?!" Karin exclaimed. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not until his biotics are completely under control and-

"Sorry again", Commander Shepard interrupted. "But I'm kinda gonna go with my gut on this one. If you don't wanna clear him, that's fine! I'll just invoke spectre authority and take him anyway." Karin now wore a very serious, furious look on her face which was completely uncharacteristic of her, and managed to genuinely frighten Slade.

Oh fuck. I do NOT like where this is going.

"You wouldn't dare", threatened Chakwas. Shepard shrugged with a playful grin on her face.

Oh God, she's ENJOYING this…Chakwas is gonna blow a gasket.

"Commander Zoey Shepard", Chakwas barked. "If you take Slade without my permission I swear to you I will-

The Commander snatched Slade's hand and began sprinting out of the medbay, dragging him along with her. Slade barely managed to stay upright without falling over after the sudden jerk of motion. The sudden burst of adrenaline allowed them both to run inside the elevator and shut the door, while the furious shriek Doctor Chakwas released followed them all the way down to the cargo bay. Slade realized he was out of breath and the elevator seemed to be taking an eternity.

"Well", Shepard began. "That went a lot better than I thought it would. She must be getting slow in her old age." Slade was still under the influence of his adrenaline rush and did not register the joke.

"Ummm…" Slade started. Shepard put a finger to his lips to silence him, causing his cheeks to burn red.

"I'll explain in the Mako", she said quickly.

The Mako? Oh shit… what are you thinking, Commander…