"Commander Shepard," said Admiral Hackett walking up the the Normandy's bay door in greeting as she disembarked, "I heard about the change in docks for the Normandy, barely made it here in time to greet you, I was waiting at your usual hangar."
"Thanks for being here, Admiral," said Elissa as she saluted him, "I'm still not sure why the Normandy's been reassigned to the hangar that is usually reserved for merchants and minor fleet frigates. Think it has something to do with the trial?"
"Possibly," said Hackett, "either way, the Council, generals, and admirals are waiting for you in the Council chamber. Who is going in with you, besides me of course?"
"Major Kaidan Alenko, Flight Lieutenant Jeffery Moreau, and Lieutenant Jacob Taylor," replied Elissa and each one in turn had saluted Hackett.
"Good," said Hackett and beckoned to Elissa to speak with him in private.
She told the squad to wait for her there and she went off with Hackett, when he was sure they were out of earshot he spoke, "Listen, Shepard, something fishy is going on, I was not aware of this trial or your discharge until you spoke with me this morning."
"But sir, I received an official memo from you last night by one Lieutenant Thomas," said Elissa bewildered, "He came to my house, in an Alliance Navy issued uniform, the papers had the seal of your office on them."
"I am aware of that, Shepard," said Hackett sternly, "The Council seemed to know about this, as well as the other admirals and the generals that are present, why I was left out of the loop I don't know but it concerns me greatly."
"What do we do about this, sir?" asked Elissa her mind whirring with different scenarios of what could be going on and who was responsible.
Hackett shrugged and looked dejected, "The only thing we can do, Shepard, take charge of the situation head on and deal with the consequences later."
"Sir, thank you, for being here," said Elissa extending her hand and Hackett gladly shook it, despite everything, he had remained by her side through thick and thin and she knew he would be there to the end.
The group of soldiers walked to the elevator and went down to C-Sec, the hustle and bustle still the same, only a few passerby looked over at them not taking much interest in who they were or where they were going. They walked over to the Citadel rapid transit and Elissa allowed Hackett to summon the taxi, her hands were shaking too badly for her to press any buttons without making the wrong choice. When the cab arrived everyone piled in, Hackett up front with the driver, Kaidan and Jacob were sitting in the middle, Elissa and Joker in the backseat.
"Elissa," said Jacob, turning to in his seat to face her better, "why am I here? I'm only a consultant to the Alliance and a lieutenant in name alone."
"You're here because I trust you, Jacob," said Elissa, putting her hand on his arm, "and if they try to bring up my time with Cerberus, I'm going to need someone on my side who knew the inner workings of the organization. You're perfect for this, Jacob."
"Okay, we know why Jacob's here," said Joker, "and we all know for sure why the Major's here, other than the obvious reasons of being a Spectre and Alliance officer, so why am I here, Ellie?"
"Character witness," said Elissa, leaning back in the seat, "you've been with me since the beginning, during my time with Cerberus, and you were there while I was recruiting an army against the Reapers. You know me pretty damn well, so you are perfect to tell them about my accomplishments and attributes."
"Until he starts mouthing off about Ilos or something of equal resentment," said Jacob and everyone laughed, even Hackett.
"How do you even know about that?" asked Joker, defensively, "You weren't even with us then."
"I read it in the file," said Jacob, shrugging his shoulders, "there's stuff in that file you'd think wouldn't be in there."
"Like what?" asked Joker, his curiosity piqued.
"Like those websites you used to visit on a slow night," said Jacob trying to be serious but smiling as he spoke and Joker turned bright red, unable to speak to defend himself as everyone around him snickered.
"Lighten up, Joker," said Elissa, elbowing him gently in the arm, "he's just screwing with you."
"She's right, Joker," said Jacob, "there are also websites in there that Kaidan was looking at as well." It was Kaidan's turn to become red as everyone in the taxi laughed at his expense.
"Lighten up, Maj," said Joker, echoing Elissa's words, "he's just screwing with you."
"Joker, I'm going to kill you," sighed Kaidan, his hand glowing blue with his biotic aura.
"No biotics in the cab," said Hackett from the front, "my God, you'd think you all were still teenagers the way you talk to each other." The group laughed and Hackett smiled, this crew of soldiers were like his children, he cared about each one and wanted this trial to turn out well so nothing would come between them.
They arrived at the Citadel Tower, all exiting the cab almost in chain of command, Elissa swallowed hard this was the deciding factor in her career with the Alliance and if something went wrong with the trial she could kiss her job good bye. Kaidan walked up beside her and took her hand in his, gently squeezing it to reassure her that everything would work out in the end, much to her relief.
"Ready to do this?" asked Kaidan quietly as they entered the Tower, the various ambassadors and representatives were now watching them, whispering behind their hands.
"Ready as I'll ever be," muttered Elissa as they made their way to the Council chamber, she could feel her body trembling with each step up to the platform, when she got up there she saw someone waiting for her she had not seen in a very long time.
"Mom!" exclaimed Elissa and she practically ran to her mother's waiting arms.
"Hey kiddo," said Hannah Shepard, hugging her daughter tightly against her, "glad you're alright, I've missed you so much!"
"I've missed you, too, Mom," said Elissa, not wanting to let go of her mother, but she pulled apart enough to look her mother in the face, "What are you doing here?"
"I was contacted by Hackett this morning," said Hannah, indicating the admiral, "he said something about you needing moral support." Elissa looked at the admiral and smiled, he was still looking out for her, this gesture proved the loyalty and trust he still had for her.
"I'm glad you came, Mom," said Elissa, hugging her mother again, "we have a lot to catch up on, I have so much to tell you."
"After today's portion of the trial," said Hannah, resuming her composure of both admiral and mother, "I'll take you and your squad out to dinner, we can talk then, Jackie."
"Jackie?" said Joker, a grin on his face, "Your mom calls you Jackie?"
"Well," said Hannah, looking at Joker and smiling, "everyone else took her nicknames so I came up with one that was unique to only me."
"Mom," moaned Elissa, "can we wait until after my trial to humiliate me?"
"Yes, Jackie, of course, dear," said Hannah, trying to conceal her grin.
"What did her dad call her?" asked Joker in a whisper as they all took their seats around the console, Elissa and Hackett were standing at the console getting ready to greet the Council and the rest of the board who had yet to make their appearance.
"Ellie Belly," said Hannah in a whisper so Elissa could not hear them talking, Joker had to bite his knuckle so he would not laugh out loud, the nickname was way too cute to not use on occasion.
"Commander Elissa J. Shepard, please step forward," said the Turian councilor, Elissa shook off her trepidation and nervousness, replacing them with confidence and bravery as she took her place before the council.
"Commander Shepard," said the Asari councilor, "you are on trial today concerning your continuation in both the Alliance Military, Navy branch and the title of Spectre, today's portion of the trial will concern the charges being brought against you and given the chance to defend yourself. Tomorrow you will be visited by a psychologist and evaluated on whether or not you will be fit for duty, his findings will be taken into account on our verdict, and then two days later, we will have our verdict ready for you. Do you understand how these court proceedings will work?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Elissa, and the various people nodded.
"Flight Lieutenant Jeffery P. Moreau, please stand next to your commander," said the Turian councilor and everyone looked at Joker, they had all thought this trial was for Elissa, not for multiple crew members. Joker stood with some help from both Kaidan and Hannah, and he walked over to Elissa and she helped him stand up as straight as he could before the Council.
"Flight Lieutenant Moreau," said the Asari councilor, "you are on trial today concerning your continuation in the Alliance Military, Navy branch, today's portion of the trial will concern the charges being brought against you and given the chance to defend yourself. Tomorrow you will be visited by a psychologist and evaluated on whether or not you will be fit for duty, his findings will be taken into account on our verdict, and then two days later, we will have our verdict ready for you. Do you understand how these court proceedings will work?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Joker, his voice strong.
"The first charge is concerning your defection to the terrorist organization, Cerberus," said the Salarian councilor, "Do either of you deny that you did in fact defected to and then assisted the formerly mentioned organization?"
"I would like to point out to the Council and esteemed members of the military that I was proclaimed dead for two years," said Elissa sternly, "so technically, I was no longer affiliated with the Alliance when I was brought back to life and therefore did not truly defect to said terrorist organization."
There was muttering amongst the Council and the military officers over what Elissa had just said, she was actually rather impressed with her argument. They stopped muttering and the Council members turned to Elissa again.
"You have a point," said the Asari councilor, "but that—"
"That does not explain why you maintained you affiliation with Cerberus after you were reinstated as a member of the Alliance and as a Spectre!" interrupted the Turian councilor. "You could have left Cerberus and returned to the Alliance without question."
"Despite the fact Cerberus conducted questionable research," said Elissa defensively, pointing her finger at the Council, "they at least listened to me about the Collectors and the Reapers they were trying to do something about the impending invasion, unlike you three who practically waited until the last minute to believe the truth!"
"Not to mention," said Joker sharply, "you said nothing then about her affiliation with Cerberus even though you knew about it when you reinstated her as a Spectre and as a Commander."
"You will hold your tongue, Flight Lieutenant!" snapped the Turian councilor. Joker looked up at him menacingly, he wanted so badly to leap across the platform and beat the hell out of the councilor but knew that would not help his case.
"You mean you knew about Shepard being with Cerberus when you reinstated her?" asked Alliance Army General Windsor.
"Well, we, uh were told that she, uh. . ." said the Turian councilor, unable to form a decent defense. Elissa nearly did a backflip, no one had ever managed to leave any of the Councilors speechless, and Joker had shut the worst one of them up with just a simple statement of fact.
"I propose that since the Council was aware of Shepard's affiliation with Cerberus when they reinstated her as a Spectre, we dismiss this charge against her," said General Windsor and there was a murmur of speaking around him.
"I second the General's proposal," said Fleet Admiral Washburn, "there is no reason to put this against her if the Council has already accepted her affiliation with Cerberus by allowing her to retain her Spectre status."
"Was the Flight Lieutenant still with the Alliance when he was approached by Cerberus?" asked General Rowland of the Marines.
"Our reports say he was relieved of duty after the crash of the Normandy SR-1," said the Salarian councilor, "he was stripped of his rank and his pilot's license was taken away temporarily, after a period of time both were given back by the late Councilor Anderson."
"Fine, but was he with Cerberus when Anderson reinstated him back into the Alliance Navy?" asked General Rowland.
"Yes," said the Asari councilor, "based on the timeline, he was with Cerberus when he was reinstated by Councilor Anderson."
"Then the charge no longer applies to him either since he was not an Alliance soldier at the time he was with Cerberus," said General Rowland simply, "Anderson certainly saw to everything, didn't he?"
"Wait a minute," said the Turian councilor angrily, "What is going on here? We are supposed to be having a trial about these two, and now we are just dropping charges?"
"We gave them the chance to defend themselves against our accusations," said General Windsor solemnly, "They have both done so, quickly and efficiently, I might add."
"Well, this portion of the trial might not matter if the others provide the evidence we need," said the Turian councilor, waving his hand as he spoke.
"Commander Shepard, Flight Lieutenant Moreau," said the Asari councilor kindly, "you are free to go until this time tomorrow when you will both be evaluated by an Alliance psychologist."
"Thank you, Councilors, Generals," said Elissa and she saluted them, as did Joker, and they were given a salute in return from the generals. Everyone began to file out of the room, no one saying a word until they were out of ear shot, they did not want what they were saying to be used in the trial as potential evidence.
When they were outside Elissa rushed to Joker and embraced him, he was taken by surprise and had to brace himself quickly so he did not fall over with the force of her hug.
"Jeff, that was incredible!" exclaimed Elissa as they hugged, she loosened her hold on him enough to look at his face as she spoke, "I've never seen anyone shut that bastard up like that before, how did you do that?"
Joker blushed, his arms still around her waist, and he smiled at her this was the best compliment he had ever received for something that had nothing to do with flying, "It was nothing, Ellie, he had it coming besides it was a lot of fun to tell him off. I could not believe the crap that was coming out of his mouth, it's damn near disrespect."
"If we're done here, maybe we could go eat?" said Kaidan, his tone stern and almost angry as he stood there with his arms crossed.
"Great, where are we going?" asked Hannah, noticing the stance Kaidan was taking as he looked at Elissa and Joker embracing.
Elissa released her hold on Joker and went over to her mother, she hooked her arm through her mother's and they walked to the cab Hackett had summoned while they were standing outside of the Tower. "We're going to this great kabob place down in the Wards, it's run by this Greek chef from Earth, he makes phenomenal steak kabobs."
"I guess I better get EDI then," said Joker, as he fell in behind Elissa and her mother, "I'll take my own cab over to C-Sec, you guys go on ahead and get some lunch."
"I'll join you, Joker," said Jacob, "I wanted to call Brynn anyhow, see how Nick is doing, she said he was coming down with a cold."
"Cool, someone to split the fare with," said Joker smirking. He watched Hannah and Admiral Hackett get into the cab and he was amazed at how much Elissa looked like her mother, they could have been sisters they looked so much alike except for the eyes, Hannah's were bright blue whereas Elissa's were the perfect shade of green.
"See you there, uh, what was your name?" asked Hannah through the passenger's side window, obviously embarrassed that she had neglected to ask the young man's name earlier.
"Joker," said Joker grinning at her, almost laughing when she gave him a puzzled look. "It's my nickname from flight school, I'll tell you about it over lunch."
"Sounds like it is going to be very interesting," said Hannah smiling sweetly as she rolled up the cab window.
"See you over there, Joker, Jacob," said Kaidan as he got into the cab behind the driver.
Elissa waited by the door, not getting in right away, instead she brought Joker in for another hug, but this one was not as enthusiastic as before with this one she was trying to let him know how much she really appreciated him rushing to her defense. He wrapped his arms around her, keeping his hands above her waist, but she could feel him pull her closer to his body and she rested her head on his shoulder.
"Jeff, thank you so much," said Elissa, "I don't think I could have gotten through that without you."
"Hey, what are friends for, Ellie?" asked Joker as his cheeks turned a bright pink color. She smiled at him and nodded, and then he released her, turning to the cab he opened her door for her and helped her in she slid next to Kaidan.
"Don't be too late," said Elissa as he closed the door, she looked at him through the window, and they shared a smile before the cab pulled away. She turned around and watched as Joker and Jacob grew smaller the further they drove, she felt kind of bad for leaving them behind but knew it was for a good reason. Looking over, she saw Kaidan appearing to be quite upset so she reached over and held his hand, feeling the warmth and power in his grip as their fingers laced.
"So who is this handsome young man you're holding hands with, Jackie?" asked Hannah, turning around to face her daughter.
"Mom, this is Major Kaidan Alenko, my fiance," said Elissa happily, beaming at Kaidan who smiled back at her.
"Fiance?" asked Hannah, surprised, "How long have you two known each other?"
"Over three years, Mom," said Elissa defensively, "we met on the Normandy when I first took command."
"Oh," said Hannah in an understanding manner, "Where does your family hail from, Major Alenko?"
"Kaidan, ma'am," said Kaidan, "and my family comes from Vancouver, British Columbia."
"It's beautiful there this time of year," commented Hannah, "I visited there when I managed to get some shore leave on Earth, Elissa's father and I had a great time visiting the beach."
"Where is Ella's father currently, ma'am?" asked Kaidan and immediately regretted asking when he saw the looks on both of the women's faces.
"He died a while back," said Elissa softly, "about the time I was on Elysium actually, the day I got my medal for bravery, I was also given a flag in honor of his service to the Alliance."
"I'm sorry, Ella, I didn't know," said Kaidan quietly, feeling like an absolute idiot.
"It's fine," said Hannah, dismissively, "Anyway, have you two decided on a place to get married yet?"
"Yeah, we were thinking of getting married in my family's orchard in Vancouver," said Kaidan before Elissa had the chance to speak.
"How nice," said Hannah in a tone that sounded almost too kind, "When were you planning on telling me, Jackie?"
"We just got engaged yesterday, Mom," snapped Elissa feeling overwhelmed, "I was going to tell you once this trial travesty was over."
"Okay, honey, I was just trying to make conversation," said Hannah in a snarky tone, "no need to bite my head off."
They sat in an awkward silence the rest of the cab ride over to the Wards entrance, when they got there, Hackett said something about needing to speak with a merchant about a delivery so he stayed in the cab and the rest got out and went into the markets. The place seemed less busy than before but there were still people crowding everywhere, going this way and that, making it difficult to navigate to the food court. When they arrived at the food court, Elissa directed them over to the kabob stand, where the line was longest.
"Ella, why do you always insist on eating here?" whined Kaidan as they waited in line, "There are perfectly good restaurants topside."
"Where else can you get fresh souvlaki that doesn't taste like it was made with imitation chicken?" asked Elissa, as she looked over the crowd on her tiptoes.
"Damn, it's a mad house in here," said Joker as he got in line with them, EDI on his arm, Elissa smiled at her but EDI merely looked away pulling Joker's arm closer to her body.
"Tell me about it," sighed Kaidan, shaking his head, "How were you able to find us, the place is packed with people?"
"I saw Ellie's head bobbing above the crowd," said Joker and he winked at her, she blushed a bright shade of pink. "Is Kostopolous still behind the grill?"
"I think so, either that or his son," replied Elissa as she continued to look over the heads of the people in front of her.
"Glad to see you again, Admiral Shepard," said Joker happily, "may I introduce my lovely girlfriend, EDI."
"Pleased to meet you, Admiral Shepard," said EDI, shaking Hannah's hand eagerly, still not taking her arm from Joker's, "I have read many articles on the extranet about your various accomplishments, you have quite the impressive record."
"Thank you, EDI," said Hannah uneasily, "Jackie, are you sure you want to eat here, we are going to a very nice restaurant tonight?"
"Yes," said Elissa, emphasizing the word, "Why is everyone asking me if I'm sure I want to eat here, I love this place?"
"Hey, I'm on your side here, Ellie," said Joker then he jumped in pain, "Damn, EDI, watch how tight you grip my arm it's not a toy."
"Why don't you three go and find us a table," said Kaidan, "there's no need for all of us to stand here in this line." The three of them nodded and left the line.
"You alright, Joker?" asked Hannah, eyeing the AI suspiciously, as they walked to the nearest empty table, "No broken bones?"
"Nah, I'm fine," said Joker, sitting down, rubbing his arm while glaring at EDI. "How did you know that I get broken bones easily?"
"In her all too infrequent emails, Elissa talked a great deal about you, often praising your abilities as a pilot," said Hannah kindly, as she too sat down, "In one sentence, I actually almost missed it since it was such a short line, she mentioned that you had Vrolik Syndrome."
"Really? She emailed you about me?" asked Joker, looking over at Elissa who was being held by Kaidan, seeing her in his arms caused him to tense up.
"Yeah, if it weren't for those missions of hers I'm sure you would have been the only thing she wrote about," said Hannah, ruffling Joker's cap like Elissa did.
"Was there any mention of me in her emails to you?" asked EDI, jealously creeping into her voice.
"Yeah, I think so, she said something about an evil robot that was being inhabited by the ship's AI," said Hannah coldly, and she watched as EDI narrowed her eyes at her, the malice behind them very real.
Elissa and Kaidan appeared with three trays full of souvlaki and baklava and they sat down across from EDI and Joker, placing the food in between. They ate in silence, all were too hungry to really talk about what had happened at the trial, and then Elissa heard a beep from her omni-tool. She opened it to find an anonymous message that read:
Beware the three-headed beast that guards the gates to Hell, it has many keepers.
