Joker told Jo the deal: unlike before when EDI helped him out, now he could only fly the ship solo if they were in a planet's atmosphere, because he could switch to manual controls. Whenever they entered open space he would always need a team of eight navigators at the minimum. Fourteen of them plus a tech team and a doctor were a standard crew from now on. Hence, when the Normandy left Ilos and headed for Earth, most of the crew was on board. The only ones who left in their own ships were Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Jack and Samara.
Jo and Joker let Hadley and Cortez fight it out over who would be in charge at the helm for the duration of the journey. Hadley, who had flown Garrus' and Wrex's ship into the Leviathan hunt, had seized the opportunity to re-join the Normandy crew at least for a few days. Now the two men who had both served as Joker's co-pilots at some point, were allowed free reign - as long as nobody changed Joker's seat settings.
Jo and Joker didn't really know what to think about it, but despite an invitation Javik never showed up to the wedding, nor had anyone seen or heard anything from him in a few months. Alenko and Taylor seemed to be forming an odd sort of friendship based on who saw more flaws in Cerberus. Kolyat had happily joined the techies and Alice found a new passion for organising, after having acted as the mistress of ceremonies at the wedding. She was now glued to Liara's consoles and giving Glyph so many requests that the poor thing sometimes smoked. Oddly, the once-shy and traumatised girl found a good friend in the unlikeliest of places: in Grunt. They seemed to share the same kind of weird, brutal, twisted sense of humour. When he crashed his hover chair into one of the weapon racks in the cargo bay, she was the one who threw a dumbbell from the gym at his head. From that moment on Grunt became her biggest fan. Still, it was Kolyat she was sharing her cabin with and Jo had a feeling that those two were united by something deeper than a teenage crush.
Joker and Jo observed most of this over the screens in their loft, not really in the mood to mingle with the masses. The journey lasted several days, which they spent eating, sleeping, playing one-hand-per-person-origami and strip poker, watching ancient vids with Marilyn Monroe (Joker's favourite actress) and watching the crew interact.
Back in the Sol system, they left everyone in Rome and headed for their real honeymoon. The most recent surveys showed that the least populated and least destroyed region after the war was the Australian coastline. Jo and Joker picked Rainbow Beach, loaded supplies and flew away from Rome and their crew, looking forward to some time alone together.
What used to be a popular tourist place for several centuries was now an abandoned area. Jo and Joker picked a part of the beach that wasn't burned by the Reapers. The scenery looked heart-stoppingly beautiful, just like it had looked a million years ago, probably. The beauty didn't notice human trouble, it didn't care for wars and life loss. It was eternal and being here, walking the sands, lounging in the Normandy's shadow, swimming in the cool ocean, it brought the two of them a sense of tranquillity that even open space couldn't.
They had taken a whole month off, in which they swore to each other not to bother with anyone or anything from the outside world. Yes, orphanages needed money and help, yes, refugees needed food and housing, yes, veterans needed new limbs, but all of that would still be there when they returned. Jo decided - and Joker fully agreed - to be a little selfish for a change. And so they lounged around, skinny-dipped, ate, worked on their tan, took long walks, made love whenever and wherever the mood caught them and got drunk on each other's presence. The sense of freedom and peace was like a drug.
Even so, out of a whole month they only managed to enjoy the bliss for two and a half weeks. Then they started watching news again, checking messages and getting restless for some action outside the bed.
"Hey, listen to this," Jo said to Joker, while they were having breakfast on the beach. She was holding her datapad. "The ICA station is in the last stages of being built. We can go there and oversee the fine touches, like furnishing and painting."
"Would you actually like to do that?" Joker asked, slightly unbelieving. "Play a decorator?"
"Yeah, I would. If I get to run the place, I'd like it to look the way I want. Oh, there is also a list of on-board facilities. Combat simulators similar to the Pinnacle Station, info archives, medical wing with a fantastic lab Mordin would have been proud of. A flight simulator."
"What kind?"
"The CORE system."
"It's good, sure, but it takes a lot more to make a good pilot."
"Nothing is better than real action, I know."
"No, I mean, I've always had a few ideas about what I would like a flight simulator to be, but never had a chance to realise them. Besides, I don't know if some of my ideas are even possible to program."
"This galaxy built the Crucible, we can certainly try," Jo said. "You know what? Let me ask Tali if the quarians or the geth have anything to offer. Could you outline your ideas in a few paragraphs?"
They both got busy, breakfast forgotten. Joker typed down what he wanted a flight sim to be like, and Jo found the handbook describing the main characteristics of the CORE system. Then she composed a message to Tali, asking for a geth contact and for advice on the project.
Despite the communication in the galaxy still being slightly spotty, they got a call in the late evening of the same day. A geth Prime unit stepped into the circle, the flashing hologram towering over both Jo and Joker.
"Commander Shepard-Moreau," the unit said in the rumbling guttural voice common for these units. "This unit has adopted the name Tolus Prime."
"It is very nice to meet you, Tolus Prime. In human culture, if the women go the traditional way and take their husbands' last names, their maiden name isn't mentioned anymore. It's simply Commander Moreau now."
"Thank you for the explanation, Commander Moreau," the geth nodded. "Creator Tali'Zorah sent me your request regarding the Flight Simulator you are building. You asked for advice. I contacted you to offer my perspective, as requested."
"Tolus, I'm going to let you speak to my husband, Lieutenant Moreau. He is the one placing requests regarding this project, and he knows best what he wants."
She stepped aside and let Joker into the QEC ring. The holo table between them flashed and showed a huge schematic.
"I have created a blueprint for the system supporting all your requests, Lieutenant Moreau," Tolus said. Joker choked:
"All of them?"
"Yes."
"Show me."
Jo stayed in the room because she was deeply fascinated by what was going on. Joker and the geth unit were talking tech, and while Joker was most obviously hopping up and down with an unexpected Christmas wish come true, the geth unit also seemed somewhat... pleased. The schematic between them grew in size as Tolus put in more detail and translated Joker's suggestions into a workable design. The conversation lasted over forty minutes.
"This is fantastic. Now, how can we bring that to life?" Joker wondered half to himself, half to her and Tolus.
"If you two give me the list of requirements and cost estimate, I'll work out the budget," Jo said.
Tolus pulled a file up on the holo desk:
"There it is."
"Thanks," she transferred the data onto her datapad and looked at it. "Wait a moment, there are only the material costs. What about technical specialists?"
"If you like, we can come to your station and build this system for you, Commander Moreau. Geth do not require payment, only maintenance."
Jo and Joker both paused, looking at the Prime.
"You would really do that, for free?" Jo asked sceptically.
"We are learning to understand the organics' system of service and payment. Our race does not require valuables in return for our service. All we require is physical maintenance for our platforms. But if the Commander would like to put this work into a balance system, let me put it this way: you saved us from the Reaper control, saved us from destruction by the creators and ended our war. We owe you a great deal of service to rebalance that equation."
Jo and Joker exchanged glances.
"And I am learning to accept gratitude," Jo said. "We accept. We'll let you know when the materials are going to be available for the installation."
"The CORE system is already installed on the station," Tolus said. "We can begin the work immediately by cannibalising parts of it."
"Perfect. See you on the station then. Is there anything specific you need for your maintenance?"
"Only room for our equipment. We'll bring all we need with us."
"You are a dream of a helper, Tolus. Thank you. On another topic, how are things on Rannoch?"
"Some of the creators are still wary of us, but most accept our help. We've collectively built the first settlement. The creators called it Mitra'Baan, New Hope. First attempts are being made to meet the natural planetary environment without the enviro-suits. Up to date the success is 100%."
"I'm so happy to hear that!" Jo grabbed Joker's hand. This was wonderful news.
Once the call was finished and they were back in the CIC, Joker said:
"You know, let's just pack up tomorrow and go check out our new jobs."
"Perfect. It's not that I don't enjoy our honeymoon..."
"But between sleeping, eating, fucking and swimming..." he grinned.
"The relaxation is getting a tad too relaxing."
"I know," Joker said.
They spent another heated evening together. First he made her scream his name on top of her own console in CIC, then she made him scream hers in his seat.
"You know," Jo said to him as casually as she could, considering the topic, once they both relaxed in his chair. "Like every military woman, from the day I joined the service I've had an implant in my side which regularly injects medicaments that prevent me from conceiving."
There was silence.
And more silence.
Jo could sense a whole range of feelings and thoughts running through her husband's head, but she waited for him to say something. Anything. Anything at all.
Eventually his arm around her waist jerked.
"Jo," he said, his voice tortured. "Can we even do that? I mean, have children?"
"Do you know a reason why we can't?"
He almost exploded into her face:
"You forgot about my sickness, AGAIN?"
"What are you concerned about most? The child's health? Your ability to be a father?"
"Both. Child's health mostly, I guess. It is a high maintenance sickness, Jo."
"Did you live through it? Without the kind of medication that is available today? These days the child wouldn't even have to spend much time in the hospitals. It's not the same kind of hardship it used to be."
"I don't know, Jo..."
"If you're not ready for it yet, just say so, I'll understand, I swear. I just thought we should talk about that, now that we're a family."
"It's not that I'm scared or not ready. Not after all we've been through. It's just..." he paused, hiding his face in her neck. "I've spent my life getting used to the idea that I'll never be a father."
"Why not?"
"Oh, Jo," he sobbed. "When I was growing into my teenage years, a kind doctor explained to me that even sex would be difficult to impossible for me. Constant hospitals, medicine, surgeries, treatments, Jo, you have no idea what it's been like. Under such circumstances, finding someone to spend time with was difficult at the best of times, finding a girlfriend was a wild dream. Finding a woman who would actually want my child – about as likely as the Reapers tap-dancing."
"But you've had me for years."
"I taught myself not to think about it, and we never really spoke about it either. Imminent death and all that."
"But you do realise now that it's not only not impossible, there's indeed a very real chance, right?" Jo ran her fingers over his neck. "Personally, after all the beatings I've taken in my life, the fact that I'm still fertile is a miracle in itself. And it's just as likely that the baby won't have the syndrome at all."
"Jo, you're killing me," he whispered, more tortured than before. She kissed his lips lightly:
"I don't mean to. You obviously need some time to adjust to the idea. Just talk to me whenever you feel like it."
Now that they were back in business, it felt strange to be the only two people on the whole ship. They got up next morning with a purpose, packed their beach furniture and set up for lift-off. All that time Joker was particularly quiet, barely answering her questions with monosyllables and grunts. As they were walking towards the cockpit together, though, Joker suddenly exploded out of his stupor. It seemed that the energy that boiled inside him finally blew. He turned on his heel and backed Jo into the main console that ran up the middle of the CIC, with the galaxy map flashing right above them. He pushed her there almost violently, capturing her between his arms.
"Are you crazy, woman?" He whispered into her ear with so much energy that she shivered. "You offer me something I knew I could never have, and then you back up, giving me time to think? I don't need time! What I need is your word that you're serious, that you're not fucking with me right now."
Jo breathed heavily, overwhelmed by her man's intensity. She could only whisper in reply:
"I swear I'm not fucking with you. I want us to have a baby."
"Oh, God," he gasped for air. "Let this be real. Because if it's not..."
"It's real. I'm real," she leaned her forehead against his, sharing the air he breathed. "And I want your baby."
"You've opened a door that I locked many years ago and lost the key. You have no idea what this means to me. To be a father..." He tasted the word with his eyes closed and his chest heaving. "To have a child. Not even adopted, but my own! I swear to you, I'll spend the rest of our lives showing you that this means everything to me. Don't know how, but I'll find a way."
"Jeff, it means everything to me, as well," she couldn't let him think that he was the only affected one, that he was the only one who spent his whole life believing that he would never be a parent. "And it means everything to me to go down that road with you. Nobody else but you."
He leaned back a little and looked at her. No assault rifle packed a punch like the energy he directed at her in that moment. Desperate, somewhat possessive, wild and hopeful. She tried to catch her breath as she looked into his eyes looming over her. She was smitten. Again.
"Well, then..." she breathed. He nodded and let her go.
Jo let out a little 'phew'.
"You just got my heart racing," she gasped for air. "Such power!.."
He gave her a look:
"Well, girlie, that's what you got when you said yes. Enjoy."
"Oh, I intend to."
They dropped the topic for the time being. Karin had to remove the implant before anything could happen anyway, and until then they could live the way they used to. Jo sat in the second pilot's seat and watched Joker lift off but didn't really pay much attention to his actions until something odd about their surroundings rattled her.
"I'm sorry," Jo frowned when he started the landing sequence. "Either my geography knowledge really sucks or this is not Rome."
"You're right, it isn't," he nodded.
"In fact this looks suspiciously like…" Jo looked out of the window at the blackened ruins of a big city.
"Vancouver," Joker nodded.
"What the fuck?"
"We have an unfinished business here."
"No, we don't," she said firmly with the familiar icy fear in her voice that always made an appearance when it came to her home town.
"Trust me, we do."
She let it be and observed the landing as he settled the ship down in one of the wide, open fields on the far outskirts of Vancouver. She said nothing when he took her by the hand and led her through the cargo bay out of the hatch and onto the field. She did however jerk her hand away from him when she realised it wasn't just a green field, it was a cemetery. She stopped like a statue, looking at the wide-spread collection of cheap headstones. She soon realised that this wasn't one of the new cemeteries where the victims of the Reapers had been put to rest. This one seemed to have been in use for a longer time.
"Come, we have a stone to find," Joker tugged her along again and she reluctantly let him guide her between the rows, even though she couldn't even imagine what grave they could possibly be visiting here.
Joker only had an approximate description, so the search took them almost thirty minutes, all of which Jo was quiet but cooperative enough. That ended abruptly when they did find what they were looking for. A small stone plate sunk into the ground, cheap, weathered, overgrown with moss and grass, untended forever, it still read the names: John and Janina Shepard.
Jo hissed in a breath and backed away as if she'd seen a ghost. A vermin infested, rotting, stinking ghost, or something equally vile.
"What the fuck?!" She hissed at him again, backing away further and further.
"Get back here," he commanded uncompromisingly. "Remember, right before we went to Bahak and destroyed the Alpha relay I had an argument with my mum and wanted to leave without saying goodbye, but you made me talk to her and clear the air? You said that people often end up regretting that their last words to their loved ones had been heated. You were right, of course. But the one thing you don't realise is that you're suffering the same condition and you don't even know it."
"Meaning?" She was in a hostile mood, ready to bolt or to strangle him for bringing her here. She hated him with a passion right now, but he knew that she needed to heal and he would risk her hatred to give her something she so desperately needed.
"Meaning that your parents failed you, but you never got the chance to clear the air, to tell them what you think, so you carry that unfinished business around with you every minute of every day without a chance to ever ease the agony, and it's so strong in you that like a fish not knowing it's swimming in water, you don't even realise you live with this hate."
"I don't hate these people," she waved a hand at the stone. "They're simply of no consequence to me."
Joker sighed:
"But you do. And they are of the greatest consequence to you, more than you realise. They're the driving force behind everything you've ever done."
"Oh, really?" Jo snapped sarcastically. "How do you figure?"
"You always say that growing up on the streets you hadn't seen what normal life is like, what family is like, warmth, care, a home. You say you don't even know what you missed out on. But you do, my love, you know exactly what you missed out on. And it's their fault. They didn't love you enough to quit drugs, to get their act together and take good care of you. They didn't love you enough to make personal sacrifices for your well being. So for a long time you told yourself that you didn't need them in the first place. Then, when you discovered that you actually have what both of your parents lacked – a nurturing, caring streak – you set out to prove to the whole world that you're a better mother than Janina Shepard. And you did prove that, becoming the mother of the whole galaxy through unconditional love and unspeakable amount of self-sacrifice. And now we're married. You've committed to this family by quitting fighting and yesterday you offered to give birth to my children. I know exactly what's happening, Jo. You're devoted to your motherhood, no matter what form it takes, and you'll see that our family doesn't end up like yours. I know you'll do all you can that our kids don't grow up without parents. It's more than admirable and I love you more for it than I ever did, but Jo, I need you to do it for the right reasons. Not because you want to prove that you're more capable than your parents, not because you love sacrifice. I need you to realise what issues you have and work them out before we start our own family. It has to be free of that kind of baggage."
She was crying when he finished his speech. A single tear was slowly rolling down her cheek and she trembled all over, arms wrapped protectively around her middle, but there was no hate in her eyes when she looked at him. There was the naked soul of the woman he loved, open to him, as always.
"How am I supposed to do that?" She whispered, when her voice failed her.
"Tell them. Tell them everything you never had a chance to say. How angry you are with them, how hurt. How lonely your life has been, how much hardship they put you through, how you rose above all of it, how you met the man you consider your family now, how you're ready to start a new cycle and make it a better one."
"I am angry," she nodded after a long pause, when a second tear followed the first. "Have been for as long as I remember myself."
"Don't tell me, tell them."
"You want me to talk to the headstone? That's stupid."
"To the stone, to the sky, wherever you think they are."
"They're not anywhere. They're not winged souls sitting on a cloud and listening to us. They went back to the source and that's that."
"All right," he nodded. In the end it didn't matter who she spoke to, as long as she opened up that old would and let the pus out, cleansing herself and their future together in the process. "Just talk, however you're comfortable."
"There isn't much else left to say," she shrugged and tried to push back the tears. "You already said it: they didn't love me enough to quit drugs. Didn't love me enough to make one single sacrifice. Didn't love me enough to take good care of me. They didn't love me at all!"
And suddenly the dam broke. Thirty years of unimaginable pain burst her carefully constructed shell at every seam and she sunk to her knees, bent forward and screamed silently, convulsing and weeping harder than the day Thane died.
Joker sat down on the grass next to her, mindful of his bones. When she felt his presence next to her, she collapsed to the side and put her face against his thigh to muffle her own screams of agony.
Between sobs she spoke, but it was hard to hear what she said through all the tears and spasms.
"They had me but didn't accept the responsibility. I'll never know if they even wanted me! But a child is a blessing and normal parents would... But not mine. Why didn't they love me? What have I done to deserve that?"
Joker slowly rubbed her back, trying hard not to weep as well. Did anyone else in the world even realise that a simple word "orphan" in a biography meant a soul-ripping tragedy to a person, even someone as strong as Commander Shepard? He was actually surprised that nobody but him had ever drawn the correct conclusion about the source of all her problems and the driving force behind all her actions.
Suddenly she jumped to her feet and ran a few dozen steps towards the nearest tree. There she doubled over and threw up. Geez, even he hadn't imagined that the shock to her system from being at her parents' grave would make her lose her breakfast. This would be the fourth time in her whole life when emotions caused that kind of reaction from her. Joker regretted not having any water on him to let her wash away the acidic taste in her mouth, but he also supposed that it hardly mattered, because this whole situation certainly left the taste of bile.
When she came back to sit next to him once more, she was completely drained. Her skin was grey and green, glistening with unhealthy sweat, her eyes and nose red and swollen from the tears, her lips pale and the rest of her body trembling. He didn't say he was sorry for putting her through this because that would have been a lie. She needed this. It was catharsis and a rebirth. Still, seeing her unravel like that ripped him apart.
"They didn't love me enough to be there for me," she said calmly. Her system had dealt with the shock by emptying her stomach, and now she simply sank into a deep sadness. "And I might as well admit that it hurt more than anything else in my life did. It's something I'll never ever understand. Why would two people have a baby if they didn't feel like real parents should feel? They didn't get married because of an accidental pregnancy. I was born a whole year after their wedding. And I don't want to hear that it was their neglect that ultimately made me strong enough to defeat the Reapers and save the galaxy. What about me? About my suffering? Yeah, I know the rule: one woman's plight is nothing compared to the galaxy's need. But why me? I didn't deserve that pain."
"No, you didn't," Joker agreed with all the honesty he was capable of.
"It sucks," she declared stubbornly and again, Joker agreed:
"It totally does."
"They suck."
"Yeah, they pretty much do."
"Is there a 'but' coming?" She almost growled.
"No. Sometimes there is no place for pep talk. Sometimes we just need to acknowledge that something totally sucks, just because it does."
"You've been there and done that, I take it."
"Yes. My own body is my worst enemy and I'm forever trapped in it. I know all about suckage and occasional futility of pep talk."
"But you always soothe me so skilfully when I'm distressed!"
"It isn't always futile. Pep talk works well on you because you're great at motivating yourself, and thus very responsive to what I have to say."
Jo hummed thoughtfully.
"Can we leave already?" She asked. "I don't exactly relish being here."
"Not exactly relishing is a hell of a lot healthier than throwing up from shock, pain and denial, wouldn't you say?"
"Probably. How do you always know what I need?"
"Because I think about you, and I care."
Jo got up and helped Joker to his feet as well. They slowly walked towards the ship. She didn't think she would ever be coming back to this cemetery, unless her twin sister wanted to visit the grave, of course. But after that - never again.
"We have another stop to make," Jo said to Joker when they lifted off again and she had washed her face and mouth.
"Yeah?"
"Patagonian Desert," she said.
"Why there?" Joker frowned at his console, where he started a quick search. There didn't seem to be anything remarkable there. As a man not born on Earth he hadn't even known that name until Jo said it.
"That's where ICA HQ is hidden," his wife smiled.
"I thought it was in Villa Militar in Rio de Janeiro," he looked at her over his shoulder.
"The official office that accepts the mail and serves as the front gate – sure. There are even training facilities there. The real HQ is in the desert. You only get to go there if you've risen above N2. That's where the Invisible Leader is supposed to have been stationed."
"The who?! And I'd like a little bit more specific coordinates than Patagonian Desert, if you please."
Jo sat down in the co-pilot's chair and put her hand on his lower arm to get his full attention.
"Since we're about to start as the N school's new leading officers, you need to know the truth about the program. The real truth. Once I'm sworn in as the Leader, I'll accept your oath and you'll get access to everything inside the program, including my own uncut profile. But for me to get sworn in I need to get to where my predecessor used to work, and that is the facility hidden in the Patagonian Desert. Get us there and you'll learn everything you ever wanted to know about me."
"What about coordinates?" He asked, feeling anticipation run along his spine.
"There is no record of coordinates. The place is never mentioned anywhere and therefore it's very secure. Everyone who ever went there had to learn to navigate by the local landmarks, so I'll show you where it is once we get to Puerto San Julián."
"All right."
"The Invisible Leader, my predecessor," she spoke up once the ship was on the way. "If you noticed, nobody has ever seen or spoken to the official leader of the ICA. Not in person, anyway. There have been no interviews over the years, no statements, no hand-shaking for the pictures, nothing. There is a reason for that. Nobody knows if that person even really exists, if it's a man or a woman, if it's a human or an alien, if they're black, white or mixed – nothing. It had been that way since about two years after the First Contact war. The first leader was one of the high ranking Alliance officers, but when he was killed in action, someone else stepped in and the leadership of the school went deep underground."
Joker hadn't known any of that, but it was time he learned. He remembered that once, before the final battle against the Reapers, Jo had mentioned something about an Invisible Leader to Tali, but Joker never investigated.
"When I passed my N3 initiation test, I was flown over here to meet the instructor who oversaw the recruits' progress up to the higher levels of N. A very enigmatic man, and a stunning personality, too. He introduced himself as Mr Z to us back then, but we soon realised that he introduced himself with a different letter to each and every new group of arrivals. Since then I've known him as Mr. Σ, Mr. P, Mr. Teth, and as of his latest contact, when Vega met him, he was Mr. D."
"Quite an illusive man," Joker was already getting where this was going.
"Quite. Nobody knows his real name, only that he is one of the toughest, best trained and experienced N7s in existence. Also, nobody really knows for sure, but by the time you made N6 or even N7, you realised that this man was either the only person who ever had personal contact with our invisible leader, or he was the leader, posing as an instructor and personally preparing the best of the best of us. He handpicked us for his courses in leadership, coached us, made us the best of what we could be. I liked him a lot. He was a father figure of sorts when I was in training, and even though I've never seen him again since my graduation, I know that he'd followed my career closely, holding a protecting hand over me when I was rumored to be working for Cerberus, when I was in the brig in Vancouver. Unfortunately, Mr. Z is no more. Hackett told us the truth: 95% of all my brothers and sisters from the academy have died in the war or in the final battle against the Reapers. Everyone who's left is either regrouping and waiting for a new leader to step in, or trying to help out with the rebuilding."
Joker took it all in, wondering about this father figure of hers. It must have been a truly remarkable man.
"I'm dreading what we'll find in the desert," she said eventually. "If the Reapers found the place, they could have turned them all into husks."
"We're at the port town," Joker said. "Lead the way."
She stood behind him, telling him where to go for about fifteen minutes. With the Normandy's FTL drive core they could have made the journey in half a second if she told him the coordinates, but she did it the old fashioned way. Eventually they ended up in a very unremarkable place with just a few rocks scattered around the cold, barren valley. At Jo's request he landed the ship and powered down. There was probably some trap door hidden behind one of the rocks that opened the gate to a huge underground facility with amazing technology and incredible people working around the clock. He followed Jo out of the ship, trusting her to lead him to the right place.
She led him to one of the rocks and put her hand on its surface. A plate under her palm sunk an inch deep, then two quick metallic feelers grabbed her wrist and drew blood.
"What the fuck?" Joker jumped, but Jo didn't even flinch as the feelers collected her blood and samples from her skin and flesh.
"Security protocol Alpha One: Under Siege," she explained. "If we tried to fly further into the territory, we would have been shredded by the defence turrets despite all our upgraded shields. We're at the perimeter and can only proceed if I pass the test."
"What test?"
"First, DNA confirmation of identity. Second – they should have added something about indoctrination and Reaper tech during the war, too. They have to make sure I'm not working for the Reapers."
"State your designation and the nature of your business," a disembodied voice of a VI spoke from the rock.
"This is Mama," she said simply. There was a long pause during which nothing happened. Jo kept her hand on the rock with the feelers still under her skin and waited patiently. A minute passed. Then another one. Joker was afraid to even blink, hoping that nobody was about to shoot them down for trespassing, or something.
After about three minutes of tense silence the VI's voice sounded again:
"Authorisation accepted. Mama, welcome home."
The feelers let her hand go and the stone plate rose again, indistinguishable from the rest of the rock surface.
"What's with Mama?" Joker whispered as Jo led him around the stone towards a line of tall rocks in the distance.
"Codename Papa was the authorisation under which our leader signed in. That was how anyone ever knew that the person really existed and that it was probably a man. You can never be sure. Hackett cleared my access within the Alliance network and by assuming the codename Mama I identified myself as the new leader of the ICA to the VI. But the VI doesn't have the authority to clear our passage just because I said the magic word."
"Huh?"
"There is somebody inside the base, alive and in full control of their abilities, Joker. Someone who cleared us for passage. I'm glad the base isn't deserted or overrun." She sounded relieved and excited.
"You assumed the codename Mama. Did you have a codename before?"
"Yes. When I entered the undercover agent training, I was given a codename Cinderella."
Joker snorted:
"Seriously? Cinderella?!"
"Yes. It describes my undercover profile. I'm small, attractive, can pull off a fancy dress as well as dirty rags, and nobody ever sees me coming, they all think I'm this little blond girl, and are very surprised when I take over whole kingdoms."
"Kind of makes sense in a twisted sort of way."
The perimeter turned out to be a lot smaller than Joker expected. They walked for about ten minutes when another turn between tall rocks suddenly landed them in front of a bunker door. Jo placed her hand on it again and the door opened. They stepped into a small cabin, which turned out to be an elevator that took them down, but not far.
When the door opened, he finally got his eyeful of what a secret underground agency was supposed to look like. Sleek, clean corridors, blue lights, secure doors, a barren reception area – and a single man pointing a rifle at them both.
Jo calmly stepped out of the elevator and raised her hands. Joker followed her example and swallowed hard through his dry throat.
