Getting back to work was a matter of rounding up people. The obvious rendezvous point was the Citadel, where the Normandy awaited, as well as a very highly-strung asari. Liara had messaged Shepard cryptically about 'her friend Feron' and his 'off-world vacation' to Hagalaz, which was a sure sign they were needed back to business as usual.

Considering the conditions on that planet, Shepard really hoped Liara realized how suspicious that message was. On the other hand, if it was a deliberate intimidation tactic on the asari's part, she hoped instead that Liara understood she was also kind of intimidating Shepard herself.

Because of this, she was confident that by this time next week she was going to be exposed to the magnetic dangers of the Shadow Broker's base, several systems away. No rest for the wicked. Or for Liara's enemies.

In the meantime, however, she needed to make sure she had a crew to populate the ship. She knew they'd been summoned, but she also knew that at least half of her squad was still on Omega awaiting pickup. And what she encountered upon arriving at the Citadel wasn't encouraging.

The minute the doors to Purgatory – statistically, she'd figured she'd find at least one person there, which made it as good a place to start as any – whistled open, her eyes landed on a table to her right, where Steve Cortez was animatedly talking to a bemused-looking man. She'd barely taken a step in their direction when he made eye contact.

"Shepard," he called, grinning. His companion, who she now assumed was his husband, snapped his head her way. "Over here."

"So, this is what you're doing with your time," she groused, grinning back. "What the hell passes for service nowadays?" She reached for a chair while Kaidan sat across her.

Steve snorted. "If you're judging me, just wait until you see Vega, who was sober enough when he called me up to meet." And then he deliberately pointed directly at the man in question. "The fool tried to drink Gunnery Chief Williams under the table."

"Again?" Kaidan exclaimed, craning his neck to follow Steve's finger. Sure enough, the two soldiers were perched on the bar, a trail of glasses littering their surroundings, and Shepard mentally filed that as a problem for later.

Steve's husband laughed under his breath, which seemed to remind everyone introductions were in order. "Well, not to draw attention away from Mr. Vega, we all know he hates that, but – Commander, Lieutenant, this is my husband Robert – Robert, Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Alenko."

Shepard held out a hand and Robert took it uneasily. "It's Shepard," she corrected. "Steve's told me a lot about you. It's good to finally meet."

"It's an honor," he replied, sounding flattered. "And, uh, same here."

"What he means by that is, he threatened me at gunpoint until I provided detailed descriptions of everything from the scar on your eyebrow to your training regimens." Kaidan snickered, and Shepard kicked him under the table.

"Yeah, and since I don't see that scar now, you and I are gonna have words later, sweetheart," Robert quipped back in a mock-threatening tone.

"I told you, it's not my fault time anomalies and resurrections keep picking and choosing which scars come and go."

And that was clearly the main thing on Robert's mind, from the way the amusement dimmed. "Moving on from my facial disfigurements," Shepard deadpanned, reclaiming the table's attention. "Surely you have something else in mind?" she hinted pointedly.

"I-" Robert exchanged a look with his husband. "Steve's been telling me – well, some strange stuff."

"It's okay, you can say you think I'm insane," Steve provoked.

"But only in the best way," Robert retorted, smiling. "Though seriously – tell me he was using flowery language, Shepard," he joked. "I'm not ready to accept a time-travel transition from sci-fi to reality."

"Afraid not," she said sympathetically. "Accepting unacceptable things tends to come with the territory for people in my near vicinity."

Kaidan agreed. "And anyone who's ever witnessed his conversations with Vega will tell you there's nothing flowery about Cortez's language."

Steve shoved his shoulder in retaliation while Robert snorted. "Right. Then - could you walk me through it, if you don't mind? Steve's told me what he can, but he doesn't- Well, I get the feeling you're the main character in this tale."

Shepard shrugged, and Kaidan left, presumably to acquire alcohol. "Sure."


By the time they were done, Shepard was feeling rather sorry for Robert. He kept picking at the label on his long-emptied beer bottle, frowning thoughtfully. It was a lot to dump on someone, and the story didn't get any more normal with each person that heard it.

She couldn't even tell if she'd been believed; it was a weird sort of middle ground between Ashley – who'd trusted the story by trusting the source and by witnessing the proof first hand, serving on the Normandy – and Aethyta – who hadn't believed a word and made no secret of it. Robert seemed torn between the blatant destruction of his suspension of disbelief and his husband's earnest honesty.

"There's just something I don't get," he finally said, after a long silence. "If the reapers can so quickly trash the galaxy once they arrive, how's one weapon going to stop them? Because the way I understand it, that's the current plan, isn't it?"

Shepard decided to allow the military shift of focus. If trust and belief were things he needed to work out for himself, that suited her just fine. "We need everyone. Every race's last ship. My job for the near future, besides sidelining the collectors out of this conflict," she reminded, glancing at Steve, "is making sure we're all on the same page."

"How are you planning on doing that?" was the instant follow-up.

She drummed her fingers on the table, listing out the tasks ahead in her mind as she said them. "The quarians need a world to shelter non-combatants," she began. "The geth need to be freed from reaper control. The salarians and the krogan need to work out their differences. Doing away with the genophage should do the trick. You'd think the current council races don't need further incentive to join forces – not after the Citadel attack. Hopefully, once all that's done, we should be ready."

"Oh, so a couple weeks, then? There's nothing too terribly complicated about any of that."

"Well, that's just not true," Shepard denied, refraining from acknowledging the sarcasm. "But it's doable. As long as I have the right people around."

Robert glanced at his husband, who appeared to have found something fascinating on the ceiling of the seedy club. "Who would that be?"

She leaned back. "I have a place for both of you on the Normandy. From EDI's reports, I'm getting a new Kodiak and a Hammerhead on the ship. Someone has to drive. And for some reason I keep getting the feeling my squad would rather it wasn't me."

Kaidan coughed to cover up the instant laughter that bubbled up at her words. Steve grinned widely at the fascinating thing on the ceiling. Robert shifted on his seat, clearly pondering his options. "And – this is what you want?" he asked, addressing his husband, who immediately gave him his full attention. "Whatever else- even disregarding the- time-travel thing. You really want to serve on a war ship?"

Steve spared Shepard a glance. "I want to serve on Shepard's ship. And so do you. Don't pretend," he teased, but sobered quickly. "The time I spent on the Normandy, it was – few things are that rewarding, is all. It's a selfish reason, but there you go. I can't be anywhere else when the reapers hit, not now."

Robert ran a hand through his hair and nodded. "Yeah, okay. You really offering me a post, Commander?"

"I am."

"Then I'm at your service, ma'am."

Shepard stood up, pleased. "We ship out in a few hours, I expect. Report to dock D24 as soon as possible. Joker can show you around."

Steve saluted ironically and Robert did it very, very seriously, and they both headed for the exit immediately, speaking back and forth in fast, hushed whispers. Shepard's attention then travelled to James and Ashley, who had both neither moved nor noticed her. Kaidan considered them carefully. "Solution: neither of us deals with it and we get Liara to come drag them away by the ear."

"I like what you're selling, but I'm supposed to deal with my subordinates myself."

With that, she approached them cautiously, and began overhearing their conversation before being noticed.

"You know, Lola and Alenko call you Chief. Or Ash," James mused, and even if Shepard hadn't smelled or seen the alcohol, she could tell he was more than a little impaired from his speech alone. "So it'd be boring if I just called you that."

"Why would it be boring? You always call me Ashley," Ashley complained, and yeah, so was she.

Shepard deliberated whether or not she wanted to intervene, and then Vega leaned perilously into Ashley's personal space, the gunnery chief leaned further in, and Shepard decided she did not in fact want to get near them now or in the near future.

"Because that is your name," he proclaimed, and Shepard was already too far away to see him lean back. "Is there even a stereotype for a hot little sister?"

Shepard was frankly impressed that Ashley hadn't done him in yet, but didn't stick around to observe her receptiveness to his words.

"Liara," was her only comment as Kaidan followed her out.

"I won't ask."

"Thank you."


Liara was supposed to be waiting for her in the cafeteria area of the commons, but when Shepard got there, the only familiar faces she found were her helmsman and ship AI. They were sitting around a café table in what was a clear and painfully awkward silence, and noticing her seemed to be a lifeline for the pilot.

"Hey, Shepard," Joker greeted, and she noted he had a fake smile plastered on his face. EDI was looking particularly stony even taking the metal in her face into account, and with the two of them was a young teenage girl Shepard couldn't place. "This is Hillary."

Shepard's eyes widened. "Oh. Your sister."

Hillary considered her. "Hullo. Jeff tells you more about me than he tells me about you," she noted unprompted.

Joker's cheek twitched, but EDI seemed to take some pleasure in his discomfort, exchanging a look with Shepard that was weirdly vindictive for an AI.

"You know, Shepard, Cortez should really have someone show him around, he doesn't know this ship," Kaidan said, correctly reading the room and offering himself an escape route.

"Yeah, and neither do you," Joker countered, in an excellent demonstration of one of his many qualities – spreading misery. "Not with the renovations."

Kaidan had gone temporarily deaf, however, and waved at the four of them as he walked off.

"Where's Liara?" Shepard took a seat, resigned to her situation.

"She said something about an urgent transmission, and something else about Aria T'Loak, and then something about Thane Krios, I'm pretty sure, and then she disappeared. Oh, also, she was grumbling about the Shadow Broker the whole time."

"Wh-"

"She's aboard the Normandy while the rest of the crew boards, Shepard," EDI supplied, a great deal more helpfully. "Spectre Kryik is also aboard. She seems anxious to take off, but is awaiting a message before she does."

Shepard acknowledged that and glanced over at the teenager, who was surprisingly talented at pretending not to be listening raptly. "So, what brings you here, Hillary? Surely it wasn't your brother's company."

That brought a smirk out of her, and a scowl out of Joker. "It wasn't," she confirmed. "Not that he would have even said he was here. I found out because I track him through his extranet address. Warns me if he's near some important galaxy hub, like the Citadel," Joker hissed something about boundaries, which Hillary didn't hear. Shepard was too impressed to comment. "My dad had to come take care of immigration paperwork."

"And he's taking way too long," Joker added under his breath. Shepard glanced at him briefly.

"Oh?" she said, addressing his sister again. "You're moving out of your colony?"

"Yeah," she said, looking at Joker with a speculative look on her face. For his part, he pretended not to notice. "Dad thinks it'll be safer here. Before the reapers come," she elaborated. "He said that part of human space will be lost quickly."

Shepard blinked several times, now under Hillary's scrutiny herself. "Really? Why does he think that?"

The girl shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe more people are thinking in a military kind of way, nowadays. Ideas getting spread around."

Joker coughed obnoxiously. Yeah, he'd most assuredly shared classified information with his family. The future kind of classified. Shepard cleared her throat. "Well, maybe he's just being cautious. The Citadel's the safest place in the galaxy."

"Maybe, though caution has never been a trait in our family. I mean, by the Normandy vids alone, I know Jeff hasn't changed."

Shepard was now grinning. "True enough," she agreed. "Would you rather stay in the colony, then?"

"I'm not sure." She seemed sincere. "I can't say I don't wish I knew a bit more about defending myself. I won't be much help to anyone, though. Maybe the smart thing to do is to stay put and – safe." She appeared to feel some disdain for the word.

"It is," Joker snapped. "You don't need to learn how to defend yourself, thank you. Teenagers," he added under his breath.

"I didn't say needed," she argued. "Clearly, you're the only one who needs to be right up front in this war, right?" Shepard didn't know armed conflicts were subject to sibling-level petulance too. "I want to."

"You're not going to," he informed her in no uncertain tones. "Stay away from the Alliance."

Hillary huffed. "I bet half the reason you're saying that is because you're scared of what I might find out about you."

Shepard laughed at that. "You think the Alliance has some deep dark secrets on your brother?"

The girl's lips twitched. "Sure. He lies to us enough, at any rate."

"True," EDI confirmed unnecessarily. Joker glared.

At her interjection, Hillary leaned forward interestedly. "You're being quiet. On purpose," she noted. EDI stared back at her curiously. "You're an AI."

"No," Joker immediately denied. "She's a personal mech assistant. What are you talking ab-"

"I am the Normandy's AI, yes," EDI said, once again ignoring him. "Does that bother you?"

"Of course not." Hillary sounded delighted. "You help my brother at the helm, then?"

"I do."

Joker seemed to be painfully restraining himself from interrupting, but his sister pressed on. "I bet he's a pain."

"Some minutes more than others."

Hillary found that hysterical, and Joker broke. "Alright, enough of that," he said sharply, glowering at the girl. "Watch yourself, young lady."

If Shepard didn't know any better, she'd say Joker was almost intimidated by his own sister, with how out-of-character he was acting. It'd been more than five minutes since she'd heard his last snide quip.

Hillary pretended he wasn't there. "I heard you before – you were talking about the Normandy," she commented, looking between EDI and Shepard. "You had some upgrades done over Jeff's leave?"

"So I hear," Shepard said. "I have as much to find out as you do, Hillary."

EDI was gratified at the question. "The Normandy is a pinnacle of engineering, the culmination of the best technological advances of many species. It's a massively successful collaborative project, and as improvements were available, we thought to add to it."

"I've read a bit about it," Hillary admitted hesitatingly. "I've always thought – well, don't the quarians have that multicore shielding tech? That could be useful, you know, when Joker's doing his dodge and nose dive thing beyond enemy lines," she said, attempting to sound disinterested.

EDI was clearly warming up to her quickly. "It is, which is why we installed it."

Overtly excited, Hillary leaned forward. "How many cores? I calculated four at first, but then I figured, you'd probably up the energy output anyway. I'm thinking enough that the ship could handle about six, seven?"

"Six," EDI confirmed. "You'd need classified data to do the math. How did you know the old energy output numbers?" she asked, a small smile bellying the statement.

Hillary shifted guiltily. "Jeff's security sucks. Appalling passwords. And I stole biometrics copies from him years ago."

"I hate you so much, Gunny," Joker said fervently, and Hillary turned her nose up at him, hiding – badly – a certain amount of smugness.

Joker looked like he was counting on support from Shepard and EDI, loyal servants of the Alliance that they were, but they were endlessly entertained and not about to chide the girl when she'd obviously earned the right to her entitlement.

"Joker, update your security," was what Shepard settled on instead.

"He has," Hillary recalled mournfully, over Joker's squawking protests. "A few months ago. Can't get near any of it now."

EDI said nothing but looked pleased with herself.

"I see," Shepard said, straight-faced. Joker shut up sullenly. "So the shielding's more than up to date, then," she added, switching the subject.

"Everything is," EDI continued. "The final product is unlike any ship any fleet has ever developed."

"Not to tout our own horn," Joker interjected, explicitly bragging, "but yeah, not a detail spared. Even those miniature ships that stand around and look pretty you like, Shepard, EDI got a hold of those."

Hillary's eyes snapped up to meet Shepard's. "You build model ships?"

Shepard shook her head. "Not build them, no. I don't have steady fingers," she said, wiggling them around. Joker mumbled something about shooting weapons and Hillary cracked a smile. Shepard ignored him. "But I like 'em. Buy them when I can."

The girl seemed to me chewing on whether she should say something, so Shepard kept a questioning gaze on her and hoped she'd give into the pressure. "I've been building a few," she revealed. "Only have two complete so far. I'm working on one that - it's taking a while."

"You build model ships?" Joker echoed, surprised. Hillary shrugged and didn't answer.

"What's the name of the model you're building now?"

Hillary's gaze stuttered over to the dock behind them and back. "It's the Normandy SR-1. The old design, anyway."

Shepard grinned at her. "You should send me a holo when you're done, I want to see it. I've got one too, inside. Wanna come see?"

"No," Joker shouted, and all three women turned to glare at him. He went red and didn't make eye contact with anyone. "I mean - we're shipping out soon. And I've got to get Hillary back to my dad, I'm sure he'll want to get going too," he said quickly.

No one called him out on his bullshit. Hillary looked disappointed, EDI was looking at something to the far east with a completely blank expression on her face, and Shepard was just glancing between all of them, bemused and suspicious.

But Joker was in charge of the kid, so she exchanged contact information with Hillary, offered her a fist bump, and was left alone with EDI while Joker took Hillary away. Shepard wanted to ask what was up, but the stony silence advised her not to. Soon enough, he got back, the silence got stonier, and the unanimous decision was to get back to the dock.

Halfway through, Shepard noticed her ship for the first time and stopped in her tracks, the distraction effectively diverting away some of the awkwardness.

"Woah."

"Yeah."

She hadn't expected to notice the changes from the outside, but clearly, the extent to which EDI had decided to go in upgrading the Normandy had gone over Shepard's head. She could vaguely recognize the skeleton of the old SR-1 in the ship before her now, but the re-design evidence was stark, in particular the new size. It wrought a distinct and nostalgic echo of the SR-2, like a hybrid shrine to the two ships. The plating had obviously been fully substituted, and its color was at least a couple of shades lighter.

Shepard walked the length of it, taking in the full picture. "You messed with the hull, too?"

Joker shrugged. "Needed the space. Got everything from the SR-2 and then some – the shielding, the cannons, the shiny new core EDI spent days doing the math for - it's the best of the technology available now and the near future. Literally," he joked.

EDI took over. "The crew needed to be added to, of course. Miranda and Liara pooled connections and the Alliance approved the final assignment list."

Shepard blinked at her. "Just like that? You gave marching orders to their marines and they said 'okay'?"

Joker patted her shoulder. "You're underestimating the clout you currently have."

Shepard turned to EDI for clarification and the AI shrugged. "A significant portion of the Alliance Navy was involved in the Citadel defense. As a result, the whole fleet is now enjoying notably improved social standing. They hold you accountable for that."

"EDI name-dropped, is the point we're making. Keeping away from Cerberus makes you unproblematic."

"My hardware was replaced," EDI went on, and the three of them started toward the airlock again. "Several interfaces for me were also added throughout the ship, as in the SR-2. It is fully Alliance-compliant, but creative licenses were taken in some respects."

Joker snorted, but EDI was still ignoring him. Shepard pretended not to notice, and instead chose to address a far more immediate point. "Who had the funds for this?"

"Everyone," Joker said, shrugging. Finally inside, Shepard did a three-sixty, taking in the new and improved bridge. "Alliance was willing enough to dump money on their best ship. Council opened up their purse strings like their lives depend on it. Which, y'know, they do." He then spared her a furtive look. "Also you. Had the funds, I mean."

Right. The timely and extensive budget reports EDI kept issuing for her. Shepard was fifty per cent sure Kaidan was on top of that. "Well, what are you waiting for? Show me around, then."


The ship resembled the SR-2 in a lot of ways, with a few uncanny valley differences that jumped out to the eye. For a start, space limitations had to be taken into consideration. The ship had been enlarged and refitted, but the existing structure was not discarded, naturally, so that certain rooms either combined, disappeared entirely, or relocated.

Her cabin, for instance, remained in its more appropriate place near the bridge, per regular human design protocols, even if the interior suffered a complete overhaul. She couldn't tell if it was Joker's idea of a joke or EDI's idea of a gift, but either way, Shepard was now back to feeling, as she had while living in the SR-2, that someone else entirely should be sleeping on that bed. Like a queen. The aquarium was back as a feature on the wall, as were all the model ships she had collected and hung over her desk. EDI. Definitely EDI.

Meanwhile, down in engineering, Adams, Gabby and Ken couldn't be more excited to tell Shepard (for lack of Tali, in all likelihood) about all the cool new toys they could play with. Toys, they said, that not even the SR-2 had had. Like a pet project EDI and Tali had been collaborating on, which, in Shepard's opinion, the engineering team had no business going near. The way they described it, it was a practical application for a theoretical corollary of mass effect physics laws, relating to a conservative system including a partitioned eezo core in which a dark energy current was introduced.

Tali had wondered aloud, bored one day, what the effects would be in small, self-contained physical systems like that, for instance, when applied to ammunition. The key difference from already available ammo was that the system would be fully isolated. Dangerously so. Using mass effect to do it was one thing, but conventional, normal physics laws tended to output unpredictable results in these situations. Mass would decrease, but the energy would be maintained – which part of the surrounding area would explode? Shepard's money was on all of it.

EDI had taken it as a challenge and worked out the math to see what kind of materials and dimensions it would take, and it seemed the peanut gallery had developed a prototype. Gabby, who'd never held a gun in her life, was fascinated by the ammo (the possibly illegal ammo) and demanding to test it herself as soon as possible, which Shepard vetoed out of common sense.

"You can test it the next time we're on the Citadel, I'll even give you access to the Spectre shooting range," she said to quell protests. "Not inside the ship." As long as it was kept far away from anyone's implant, which would work out disastrously, Shepard might even join in on the fun.

"But I think it'll decay-"

"So will we, if you blow a hole on the hull that we can't plug."

Admittedly, the shiny new dangerous tech distracted her for a good while longer than the cabin had, and only when Joker coughed 'nerd' did she snap out of it to glare at him very unscientifically.

The cargo hold and engineering had been redesigned and readjusted to the new space so that both now had additional room and more separation. All military equipment was stored near the vehicles, which were a novelty in and of themselves. She did not ask why she needed both a Hammerhead and a Kodiak, because she felt the answer would not be satisfactory by any metric. She knew Steve had a moral objection to the Mako, which explained why it was gone. A pity, Shepard really liked to drive that one.

The brand new Thanix would have Garrus very pleased, particularly considering those didn't technically exist yet. EDI had told her the turians were in the process of studying the tech they'd recovered from Sovereign, and to go from there to weapon development, a few months would pass. So instead, EDI had come up with the design from memory, outfitted it to the Normandy, and distributed the blueprints open-source for the allied fleets to prepare for the reaper invasion appropriately. As of yet, she still had the only available prototype.

Shepard chose not to mention EDI's actions might have political consequences, because she didn't feel as though the AI necessarily needed to learn anything about politics. Udina could yell at her about giving precious 'human tech' away to other races' armies later.

The reallocation of the cargo hold and engineering had left a very big empty space that EDI had seemingly copy-pasted from the off-duty crew areas on the SR-2. There was now an observation deck complete with all the entirely unnecessary activities available on the previous two decks. The med-bay was the same, just restocked with anything EDI could get away with reinventing before its time, and there was a more open environment about the mess hall.

Very slowly, Shepard came to the realization that this was EDI's brainchild. In all the possible senses. "I approve," she praised, looking around the gun maintenance area, which they visited last. "You've outdone yourself."

"Thanks."

"I believe Shepard was speaking to me, Joker," EDI sounded from everywhere. Shepard told herself she could not hear smugness in the AI's voice. "Thank you, Shepard."

"I know," Joker said.

There was no reply, and Shepard arched an eyebrow at her pilot after thinking for a total of twenty milliseconds. "What did you do?"

Joker looked offended but also concerned. "Me? I didn't do anything!" The concern overpowered the offense. "Did I?"

Shepard made a face at him. "Being clueless is stereotypical, Joker," she informed him, and then strolled back to the mess hall and through the stairs right up to the bridge, certain it was explanation enough. Joker scrambled after her.

"That's sexist," he accused, as soon as he was able to drop down into his chair in obvious relief.

"What did he do?" Shepard asked EDI by way of greeting.

EDI crossed her arms and acknowledged Shepard's curiosity at last. "Joker does not trust me around his sister," she stated.

Joker whirled around so fast that Shepard's intention to hit him over the head at EDI's words turned into concern he might accidentally snap his own neck. "What? That's what you think the problem is?"

"Is it not?" If Shepard didn't know any better, she'd say EDI had grown defensive.

"I don't trust her around you," he clarified very pointedly. "The girl is too smart for her own good, and she's always pulling these, these - manipulative little schemes. I don't want that around you. You're just way too- good-natured to handle her."

Shepard could honestly say that was the first time she'd seen anyone shock EDI into shutting up. In the silence, she decided to cough twice to remind her audience she was still there. "I liked her," was her only input.

"Yeah, course you do, she's you, 'cept, y'know, evil," Joker grumbled.

"You do notthink your sister's evil, Jeff," EDI rebuked, voice much softer than it'd been a few minutes ago. "Asking questions about your unconventional situation is not a scheme, silly man. Hilary is your sibling."

Right, and that was veering dangerously close to pet names, which was exactly the point at which Shepard had once theorized she was obligated to remove herself from any narrative. "Good talk, you seem to have worked it all out. Glad I could help," she said, and then made herself scarce.

They did not acknowledge her presence or departure. "And do not lie to me, Jeff. You have missed her, and you were devastated when no one could tell you what had happened to her on Triptree. I saw the way you hugged her."

"Yeah, and then she opened her mouth." The bridge gate locked behind her, and Shepard breathed a sigh of relief.

Passing through the CIC reacquainted her with the spaceship rhythm. There was no steady flow of increasingly grim reports from all over the galaxy, not yet, but the impressive command center was there. She was much more comfortable with the new interfaces, the same ones she'd pored over extensively through months of war, and everyone was back at their stations with the well-oiled familiarity she'd come to expect.

Shepard noted that Liara, however, was nowhere to be seen, which never bode well. Considering the whole day had basically been reduced to a quest to meet with her, it was especially concerning. She decided to wait for the asari to search her out, giving up on trying to peek into any more corners. She was hardly a difficult person to find, after all, and Liara was obviously busy, probably in an alarming sort of way. And there was definitely paperwork to complete in her cabin, which would only become a greater pain the longer she put them off.

Unfortunately for her, her cabin wasn't empty.

Nihlus was inspecting several private documents strewn across her desk, and wasn't particularly ashamed when she caught him. In fact, he made a show of looking around broadly before addressing her.

"Nice digs," the other Spectre told her, grinning. He picked up a model Sovereign. "Is this like a trophy? Will you mount Saren's head on the wall, too?"

She snatched the model ship from his hands and put it back carefully, which obviously only made him laugh harder. "I did not ask for this," she informed him, "and hands off my ships."

He held both hands up in surrender. "Duly noted," he accepted with a smirk. "I suppose it's for morale, right?" He was staring at the shower, which somehow looked more obnoxious than the old SR-2's had. "Yours? Maybe Alenko's."

She glared. "Watch it. And by the way, I'm shocked you came back, you know. Probably merits an explanation or twenty," she pointed out. "Don't tell me you got attached."

"Never," he declared. "However, the Council doesn't quite know what to do with me. Our – relationship – has deteriorated significantly in recent memory."

She maintained a straight face. "What? No way. How did that happen?"

He scowled, respectably self-aware, and returned to his point. "Bottom line is, I'm hoping you'll see the value in having me aboard."

"Good to have you back, Nihlus. Avoid coming into my cabin and manhandling my ships in the future."

He snorted. "That's what you call manhandling?"

"Of my ships. Yes."

He held up two hands and focused on something behind her. "Alright, I'm leaving."

Shepard turned back to watch Kaidan get out of the way to let Nihlus exit. "You. Deserter," she accused.

Kaidan feigned stupidity. "Don't know what you're talking about. Liara wants to speak to you urgently. I think she's received some signal she was waiting for." Then he presented her with a cup of coffee, which was shameless bribery. "Vega and Ashley are aboard. I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine, you're forgiven."

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, me neither," she agreed, taking a sip. "Liara, then."


"Shepard, you're here. Good," Liara breezed past Shepard, who'd just walked into what was supposed to be the new XO quarters, to the terminal near the back of the room. "Come here, I need to show you something."

Shepard decided to follow instructions and temporarily withhold questions. Several pages of information appeared and disappeared on the screen, too fast for her to be able to read, before settling on a short message without recipient or signature.

It said 'Info good. Agent here. This is as far as I go. You'll have to track him down yourself.'

"Feron?" Shepard guessed accurately.

Liara nodded. "Yes. He's on Omega. Aria tipped me that Thane was planet-side, and I had Feron confirm it."

"And – why would Aria think Thane's whereabouts concern you?"

"You'll see," she said cryptically. "But this is a good opportunity to touch base with him anyway. We need to get to Omega as soon as possible, Shepard," she insisted urgently. "I have Garrus and Tali on notice, they're waiting for us there."

"I – Liara, slow down. What does this have to do with the Shadow Broker?"

Liara gave the message a dark glare. "Thane has something I need. Before I go after him. But I'm making my move."

Shepard ran both hands over her face. "Joker," she called in a vague upwards direction, "set a course for Omega."

"Got it."

"Thank you, Shepard. I promise I'll explain everything soon, but I need to contact Feron as soon as possible. Can we talk later?" she requested, already distracted with a datapad, even with the terminal still active in front of her.

If nothing else, Shepard figured she wanted to be on Omega to do damage control. Holding up two hands in surrender, she walked back out of the cabin. "I'll be around for your next short bout of attention." Liara didn't seem to hear her.

Neither Vega nor Ashley were probably in any condition to do weapon maintenance, so she headed down to the cargo hold. Omega wasn't the kind of place she visited without a pistol, and she was feeling somewhat excited to inspect the new gear in more detail anyway.

"Hey, Shepard," Steve grinned, watching her walk out of the elevator. He was already elbow deep in tools, hologram blueprints and metal parts. Robert was bemusedly leaning against his worktable, looking entertained. "I hear we're heading out. Gonna need me soon?"

"No, next stop is Omega. I'm on foot. What's all this?" she asked, gesturing at the area of roughly two square meters covered by complicated-looking tech, which had definitely not been there an hour ago. "Are you taking the new ship apart already?"

"The Kodiak, actually," he corrected. "I wouldn't touch the Hammerhead, but that brick is straight off the factory. A disgrace. It's the old model, too. I'm just touching up the mass effect tech, adding some chassis mods, redundancy upkeep prep, plus my pet upgrades outside factory norms. You know how it is. Damper filters, windows, extra firepower. Up to standard, everything to satisfy your particular needs. Usual stuff."

"That's English," Robert supplied helpfully.

"Oh, so that's why I recognized a couple of words in there."

Steve crossed his arms. "You're a pair of regular Seinfelds, you are."

Shepard said, "You watch too much classical comedy," at the same time Robert said, "Your references are literally a century outdated."

"This was a horrible mistake," Steve noted while she high-fived his husband, cracking up. "You two are monsters."

Shepard ignored him, addressing Robert. "I've got a job for you, by the way," she told him, and he straightened immediately, moving past the jokes. "I tend to take a three-person team with me when I head out, so I don't have a real need for a small army. I do, however, have a need for someone with management duties, especially now that the ship – and the crew – are larger."

"Yes, ma'am. Give me an outline of what my responsibilities are, and I'm on it, Commander."

She called on EDI for that, mostly because working with her was the main part of the job. Quickly enough, they established a rapport that excluded her entirely, and Steve gave her a smile that she interpreted as gratitude for not dragging Robert into the fray with her. He'd never say it aloud, but she accepted it, clapping his shoulder, and walked over to the adjacent table, circumventing the mess on the floor.

There was nothing remotely imperfect about any of the weapons on hand, because EDI kept exceeding expectations every time someone set them. Her sidearm had accompanied her on vacation, but she unearthed her sniper rifle from behind several shotguns she assumed Wrex had left behind. Someone had clearly made sure her usual maintenance routine was kept up with religious zeal, from the looks of it – a hint of Alliance pampering that Shepard was very much enjoying. She placed the rifle somewhere easily accessible for when they landed, and left to put on her equipment.

She was definitely back to work.


Omega looked every bit as terrible as Shepard remembered it. A bomb could explode on the place and, one second later, no one would be able to tell the difference. Liara seemed oblivious to the curiosity aroused by their out-of-place appearance, but Shepard had to glare at at least three people before they were given an appropriately wide berth.

"Shepard," Garrus called, waiting for them at the dock's entrance. He pushed off the wall when they approached him. Shepard noted there was still no disfigurement on his face, which she took as a positive development. "T'Soni. Good trip?" He went on without waiting for an answer. "So, which of you is responsible for the assassin shadowing me for about six hours now?"

Shepard glanced at Liara, who flinched, and that seemed answer enough. "He hasn't attacked you-?"

"No," he interrupted, "don't worry, nothing like that. He's just been watching. Think I shook him about half an hour ago. Tali's holding down the fort, in case he changes his mind."

"The fort?" Shepard echoed, and Garrus beckoned them to follow him.

"Mordin's clinic," he explained, leading the way to the apartments. "We set up shop there weeks ago."

"Really?" Liara was surprised. "You've established an alliance with him?"

Garrus made a weird face. "We're cool," he said alternatively. "He likes the extra security. Not that he needed it, but redundancy, you know. Plus, Tali did some helpful tinkering on his stuff."

"Why does he need security?" Shepard asked slowly.

"Because he sheltered Archangel from the Blue Sons a month ago." He exchanged a humorous look with her.

"What happened?"

"Tali and I sorta, uh, bit off more than we could chew," he cleared his throat and turned a corner into an area Shepard didn't recognize. "They backed us into their own turf, and I threw my knee out. It occurred to her that we were near Mordin's place, and they had less presence over there anyway. She cut a path to him, dragged me along. He fixed me up in short order, and then the Blue Suns showed up in force. After we'd dealt with them, Mordin decided having us around was a good idea."

"That was lucky," Shepard reprimanded him.

"It was skill," he corrected. "Mostly Tali's."

The hushed whisper of a hospital waiting room reached their ears, and they turned the last corner to arrive at the old, run-down clinic Mordin ran on Omega. The commotion and traffic was much less pronounced than it had been during the height of the plague Mordin had cured, but there were enough people there for Shepard to know this was the only accessible medical facility around these people could feasibly frequent.

The receptionist said nothing as Garrus passed her, only sparing Shepard and Liara an uninterested glance, and before Shepard noticed anything else, a door to her right opened. Tali popped her head out. "Shepard," she greeted happily, and pulled Liara for a hug. "Finally."

Garrus poked her shoulder as he walked in after the women, giving the quarian a mock-offended look. "Hello to you too."

"Oh, don't give me that, Vakarian. You were supposed to get back here with my capacitors an hour ago."

He produced several small metal objects, waving them around in Tali's face. "I had to fight two Blood Pack krogan platoons and three Eclipse fleets for these," he stated dramatically.

She snatched the loot out of his hand. "Is that all? And it took you this long?"

He glared at her playfully, but before they all had to stand around and keep watching their alternative form of flirting, Mordin made his appearance.

The lab coat was maybe a little less shabby, and the lines on his face slightly less sunken, but the same heaviness tugged his shoulders down, shadowed his pupils. Shepard thought about the first time she'd met him, and the complete lack of interest he'd initially shown. A question of priorities, she thought. It was different now.

"You've returned." The salarian's face was sporting a neutral expression, but his eyes were trained on Shepard. There was no recognition in them, which was predictable. "No trouble?"

"Nothing worth mentioning," Garrus reported. "Mordin, this is Shepard, Liara."

Mordin nodded at each of them. "Heard some about you, Commander. Here for the drell, Dr. T'Soni?"

"Yes," Liara answered. "Garrus said Mr. Krios was following him."

"Following all of us. Cannot track. Impressive skill." He paused to breathe in. "Vakarian main focus, yes. Appears to be natural magnet for attention of wrong kind of people."

"Hey."

"He's got a point," Tali pitched in cheerfully. She was fiddling with an inactive terminal, using the miniature capacitors Garrus had brought back. "There's a bounty on both our heads from every merc organization on this rock."

"So it stands to reason, you're as much a magnet as I am."

"What are you doing, Tali?" Shepard wondered, eyeing the surgical way in which the quarian was switching and snipping wires.

"Trying to get this piece of-" She cut herself off, clearing her throat. "I was using this for monitoring Eclipse comms. It fried a week ago. I can't get my hands on proper materials on this planet."

Mordin made an emphatic noise of agreement. Shepard looked around, taking note of the mix of medical and military supplies littering the room. "They still a threat?"

"Course," Garrus piped up. "They know we're here. The losses the Blue Suns took, we made them angry. Haven't come near since, but I know they haven't given up."

Liara wandered over to the door and peeked outside. "And – how many men did you say you fought to steal that?" she asked, pointing at the pieces Tali was fiddling with.

Mordin and Shepard caught onto her meaning, reaching for weapons, and Garrus gave it a moment's pause before answering. "Too many." Warily, he grabbed his sniper rifle and looked at Tali, who was feverishly hurrying to bring the terminal to life. "Think you can use that to figure out if we have a problem?"

Tali pursed her lips. "Maybe. It sounds like you met organized resistance, though, Garrus. Chances are there is a problem."

"I don't need to remind you what happened last time, right?"

"Will get assistant to bring staff and patients inside." Mordin fixed his gaze on Shepard. "Should take up defensive positions outside. One way in only."

A sharp beeping noise came from the system in Tali's expert hands, and they turned to her to find it had come to life. The quarian pressed her fingers against several places on the screen in speedy succession, and paused on a screen that Shepard could only evaluate from the expression on her friend's face, which in itself revealed little through the suit.

"Shepard," Tali said uneasily. "We need to get out there."

"Move."


Garrus walked across the hallway, manufactured confidence in his footing, rifle held loosely and uselessly over his shoulder. At first glance, the space seemed empty of other living beings. His eyes lingered on the body of an Eclipse mercenary who'd wandered over his sights a few short minutes ago.

One second later, he froze at the feeling of a shotgun against his back plating.

"Drop the weapon," a human man snapped, sneering. His voice expressed an unflattering satisfaction with his capture.

Garrus slowly bent to carefully deposit the gun on the floor, possibly out of zealous care for all his equipment. Which was cancelled out by the man kicking it away without mercy or fanfare. Garrus glared at the wall, but no one was paying him all that much attention anymore.

Another man wandered over, reassured by his companion's apparent control over the situation.

"Where's the other one?" the first goon grunted.

The second merc blinked stupidly. "Other one?"

"There's two of them, piss-head," the first man shouted. "Archangel is a turian and a quarian bitch!"

Before his friend had time to work that out, his head blew clean off. "Ah, well, he wasn't using it anyway," Tali reasoned, kicking the body away. She made the merc back up with a gun trained on his forehead. "Much like you. Call me a bitch again."

"Drop it," Garrus said sharply as soon as the threat had withdrawn. The man let go of his shotgun and Garrus picked his rifle back up. "You shouldn't fall for obvious bait so easily," he advised as a form of mockery. "Particularly when you're the last one standing in your squad."

Several things then happened at once – Tali relaxed her hand, the goon's hand flew to another pistol strapped to his back, and a single sniper rifle shot sounded. It hit its mark against the side of the merc's head, and he collapsed instantly, dead on impact.

"All good?" Shepard called, coming out of her cover.

"Yes," Mordin replied, taking critical stock of their surroundings. Liara rolled her shoulders and popped her neck with a wince, muttering about biotic overcharges.

Shepard walked over and pressed a finger against a stiff node at the top of the asari's spine, which acted instant relief. Every muscle on her body relaxed. "Woah," she muttered faintly. "Did Kaidan teach you that?" she asked, at once teasing and impressed.

Shepard chose to shrug and not answer. Mordin hummed approvingly. "Crude but effective. Lymph nodes only the side effect."

"Yes, but the side effects are most of the problem."

"Not to interrupt an important biotic biology discussion, but someone should go tell the terrified people in the clinic they're clear."

Mordin nodded once. "I will." He turned to Shepard first, however. "You are on a mission." It wasn't a question.

"Helping a friend," she corrected.

"Not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"The reapers."

"Yes."

"Would like to provide assistance. Did my homework on you. Have talented medical expert on board already, but am capable fighter. Also willing to add to potential research on reapers."

She mulled over how she should accept. "Why?"

"Watched you. Know who stands beside you," he said, glancing at Garrus and Tali, watching silently a ways to the side. "Consider you are the best chance this galaxy has. Can do more for people at your side than here."

Shepard assented, counting this as an easy victory and holding back a smile. "Wrap up your business here, doc. Garrus and Tali can take you back to the ship."

Mordin did not say anything further, just acknowledged her before walking off. Garrus and Tali followed, and the quarian simply exchanged a high-five with Shepard before disappearing around the corner.

"Right." She turned to Liara. "Well – now we've gotten Omega's standard welcome bash, let's find Thane Krios, shall we?"