A/N: Alright guys... sorry for such a long wait on this one... life plus a big old dose of "I don't wanna look at edits" delayed this... like a LOT.

I can't promise a short wait for chapter 5, but it will definitely be a much shorter wait than before :)

Enjoy! 3

I woke up to the sound of low conversation and the smell of antiseptic. Keeping my eyes shut, I tried to place my surroundings, and what the hell happened to get me to where I was. The last thing I remembered was….

Shit, I was shot!

Next I had to figure out which medical facility was I in, as well as if my dad had been notified.

I slowly opened my eyes, grateful that the med-bay had been dimmed. I turned my head towards the sound of the voices; they were coming from the opposite end of the bay. It looked like Bitch-face… Williams… was having a conversation with a woman in a medical uniform. The Commander…. Shepard… was lying on the bed next to them.

I continued to look around the room, still wondering where the hell I was. The turian… Nihlus… was on a bed on my side of the room. IV's had been inserted into both arms and a weird bandage covered most of his face.

I sat up awkwardly, fumbling when my left arm wouldn't move the way I had expected it to, and then realized it was in a sling. My shoulder throbbed with a dull pain, but the rest of my body felt numb and heavy, as if I had been given a large dose of pain meds.

The doctor noticed me and came right over, Williams staying at Shepard's side. "I wouldn't recommend moving around too much at the moment, Miss Harris," The woman said, her voice holding a motherly edge, even through the strange accent.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice sounding rough.

"You were shot, but it went clean through." She replied as she raised her omni-tool and started scanning me. "Lieutenant Alenko managed to get a good dose of medi-gel into the wound relatively quickly, however you lost a lot of blood. No permanent damage has been done, although I still recommend a lot of rest. Keep that sling on for the next few days and you'll be fine."

"Good." I mumbled. "Thanks, Doctor…"

"Chakwas, Doctor Karin Chakwas. I'm the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Normandy…. Well, the only medical person on staff at the moment. Our trip to Eden Prime was supposed to be a quick in and out mission."

"Wait, the Normandy?" I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Where am I?"

"You're on the SSV Normandy." The doctor replied. "It was quicker to bring you aboard for treatment than finding a local medical center, which would have likely already been full to capacity."

"Thanks, I guess." I replied. "Can someone let my dad know where I am at least? Or get me a channel to him? We got separated and I just want to let him know I'm okay."

"That can be arranged." Dr. Chakwas said as she finished her scan. "Your vitals are returning to normal, Miss Harris. I'd like you to stay for another hour or two, and then you're free to return to the colony. I'll get a datapad with an extranet connection to help you get ahold of your father."

"Thanks, again." I replied as she turned to her desk.

She picked up a datapad from the top of the stack and punched in a few commands before handing it to me. "You're good to go. We're currently patched into Eden Prime's network, so you shouldn't have any issues with connectivity."

I smiled with gratitude as I settled the datapad in my lap, propping it up against my legs.

She nodded before returning to the Commander. I watched her for another few moments as she started to scan him.

To pass the time, since I knew I was going to be there for a while, I decided to do an extranet search of the Geth. I knew a little about them, but only from what I'd heard in rumors. They were created by the Quarians for manual labor, and somewhere along the line developed self-awareness. A war between the Geth and Quarians happened and the Geth drove the Quarians from their home world; the Quarians had been migrating from system to system ever since.

I wanted to know if there was more technical information about them, though. While I was able to hack into one unit, it had been by itself. I was positive if there were more units around it, I wouldn't have been able to do so.

Before I could pull up any searches, my omni-tool blipped to indicate I had a priority message. I transferred my messages to the datapad and examined the new message from an "unknown sender". It was heavily encrypted, and took me a few minutes to break the code before allowing me access.

The message contained a link to video footage. Curious, I lowered the volume and pressed play. The angle of the shot, along with the very shaky picture, told me it was a helmet cam – an alliance soldier's judging by the armor of the men and women moving around in the frame.

The soldier was breathing heavily, as if he'd been running for some time. "Sergeant, what's going on here?" He asked the soldier nearest him.

The man turned and saluted. "Sir, we have discovered a number of these… things around the colony. The men have nicknamed them dragon's teeth." The soldier indicated somewhere off camera – the camera followed and showed giant white spike sticking up into the air, held in place by three spindly legs. The camera turned back to the soldier as he began to speak again. "We're attempting to get these people down before they turn into those husks."

The camera then looked down at the ground, a little to the left of where he was standing. There was a pile of what resembled bodies, but they were all black and burnt looking. The camera began to walk up to them, and the closer it got, the more I realized that the bodies weren't burnt humans at all, they were human shaped, but they looked like they had been infused with some kind of robotics.

"The dragon's teeth are turning people into these?" The camera asked, his voice incredulous. "How?" He turned to face the Sergeant again.

"No idea, sir." The Sergeant said with a shrug. "We're hoping that if we can get these people down, we'll be able to save them, or at the very least, study them and attempt to figure out how this happens."

A few seconds later, one of the dragon's teeth collapsed in on itself, sending the person who had been impaled on it flying face first into the ground. I cringed as the man hit the dirt, and then continued to stare at the screen as a medic rushed forward to start work on the man.

I couldn't imagine that he would make it; he had a freaking giant hole in his abdomen, going straight through his back.

How had he not already bled out?

Camera made his way toward the man and the medic to see what was going on. He had gotten close enough that I could make out some of the details on the fallen man. I began to feel a sense of dread as I realized that his shirt and pants looked awfully familiar, as did his shock of black hair. The medic was busy scanning him, but the man didn't move.

"Sir, this one's gone." The medic said, sounding frustrated. "I'd still like to bring him with us, for study." The camera shook as the soldier wearing it nodded.

"You two," the camera's arm lifted and he indicated two soldiers. "Get this man back to the shuttle so the medics can study him. The rest of you, carry on."

The two soldiers stepped forward, but as soon as they bent to pick the man up, he lunged at the camera in a blur of motion. The camera crashed to the ground, the feed flickering a few times before it resolved into a steady image. The man who had pretty much been dead just seconds before, now sounded feral; he clawed and kicked and snapped as he fought for control.

I watched, horrified as I recognized his face. The crazy man, with a hole in his middle and strange, glowing mechanical eyes; the man who should be dead… the husk… was my dad.

I sat in shock, too dumbfounded to register anything else.

"Miss Harris? Miss Harris…?" It took me a while to figure out the Doctor was talking to me. "Is everything alright, Miss Harris?"

I swallowed, my eyes full of tears. "My dad…" I started to sob. I caught the look of bewilderment on Doctor Chakwas' face as I buried my face in my pillows. I heard the video continue as I cried, the sound of snarling, struggling, yelling… then a gunshot and all was quiet.

I continued to sob into my pillows, barely registering the doctor walking away. I was grateful she was leaving me alone for the moment; I needed a little bit of time with my grief.

My dad was the one thing in my life that I loved more than myself. He was the one thing that tied me back to my home; the one thing that kept me going after my mother left. I dealt with a lot of abandonment issues when she walked away, especially because she was the one who had pushed so hard to get me away from Eden Prime. I knew I'd be more successful on the Citadel, but damn if I didn't miss the simple life of a farmer sometimes.

Life was going to be a hell of a lot harder from this point out.

"I love you, daddy." I whispered. May you rest in peace…

I sat staring blankly into space, hearing and seeing what was going on around me, but not really processing it. I knew some time had passed since I learned of my father's death; maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours. It felt like time had stood still, each second of grief lasting an eternity.

I'd lost the one person who meant the most to me; my rock, my pillar. My dad.

We spoke every day - whether it was just a few messages back and forth, or an actual call. It was going to take some time for me to process that I no longer had someone I could call on a whim and complain about Chellick being an ass, or to cry to when yet another man broke up with me because I was too engrossed in my work.

Maybe I need to get some actual friends.

The problem was I enjoyed my work too much; I could talk with the other people in my department, and even go out occasionally with them and a few others in the office building we occupied. I considered them my "friends" but I'd never felt as close with them as I had with my father.

A deep voice saying my name brought me out of my stupor. I looked slightly to my right and examined the man who spoke to me: tall and dark, his features lined with age and the telltale signs of being an Alliance lifer. His rank insignia indicated he was the Captain.

"Miss Harris … are you okay?" He was asking.

I nodded slowly, and then shook my head. "Not really," I croaked out, the words making my throat burn.

The captain simply nodded. "I can understand that. I'm very sorry for your loss." I stifled a sob and gave him a jerky nod. He stood at parade rest, his hands clasped lightly behind his back as he continued. "I'm Captain David Anderson. I wanted to come personally thank you for your help on Eden Prime. I'm not sure the team would have made it out of there if they hadn't run into you."

"I'm just glad I happened to be in the right place at the right time." I replied, trying to pull myself together. "And thank you for bringing me aboard. I know my injuries are minor compared to some of your crew."

The captain waved his hand dismissively. "You were injured alongside my crew, it was nothing." He placed a hand on my right shoulder, his expression softening. "You take as much time as you need, and then contact me so that I can get a statement from you for the mission report. After that we can return you to the colony."

I shook my head in response. "It's ok," I cleared my throat to get rid of the lump there. "I've lived on the Citadel for the past thirteen years, I was only here visiting my dad. I don't think I can go back to the colony quite yet. If you can help me secure transport to the Citadel I'd be grateful."

Anderson smiled and gave my shoulder a small squeeze. "As a matter of fact, we'll be leaving Eden Prime shortly for the Citadel. We need to make a report to the Council in person, so if you'd like to stay aboard you're more than welcome."

"Thank you, sir." I nodded.

"Captain or Anderson is fine." He chuckled. "The mess is just outside the med-bay here, and my cabin is just beyond that. Take the time you need, grab a bite to eat, and come see me. We've got a twelve hour trip ahead of us." He let go of my shoulder, gave me a nod and then went over to the group surrounding Shepard.

I watched them for a few minutes, before turning my attention to Nihlus. I stood and walked over to him, examining the bandages. The swelling behind his facial plates had gone down tremendously, and the doctor had done a good job of cleaning him up.

Now that the swelling had gone down, Nihlus was striking to look at; his bright white colony markings a stark contrast to the deep burgundy of his plates. His face, arms, and torso were littered with old scars and a few cracks; signs of age, and battle.

I stared at him a little longer, and then chided myself for not recognizing him sooner. This was Nihlus Kryik, best spectre in the galaxy after Saren. I frowned as I thought over what had supposedly happened at the dock between Nihlus and Saren. They had fought, which made no sense because Saren was Nihlus' mentor. They should have been close, not trying to kill each other.

"I'm having the weirdest dream…" I said to myself. Glancing over at the group surrounding Shepard, I decided it was time for me to slip out of the med-bay. I walked away from Nihlus and the group, into the mess hall and nearly got run over by the lieutenant.

"Oh, uh, hi there." He said awkwardly. "I was just going in to check on you and the commander." He held out his hand. "We haven't been properly introduced, I'm Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko."

I took his hand and shook it. "Nikki Harris, but you already knew that." I grinned and let go of his hand. I always hated shaking hands with biotics; their skin gave off a weird, prickly feeling that I found really unpleasant.

"Yeah so, looks like you're doing okay Miss Harris." He continued in his awkward manner. This time I did roll my eyes.

"Please, call me Nikki. You don't seem that much older than me, and I can't even stand it when older people call me 'Miss Harris'." I said, probably sounding a bit more annoyed than I should have been. "Can you help me get some food? I'm starving."

Kaidan grinned, apparently overjoyed to help. "Sure. I'll get you set up."

I watched him as he gathered up the prepackaged meal and heated it for me, deciding he wasn't really all that bad. At least he was pretty easy on the eyes, with his tall, dark demeanor and adorable puppy-dog gaze.

Five minutes later I was sitting at the table with a military ration of what appeared to be spaghetti. Kaidan had grabbed himself a power bar and sat across from me. Feeling self-conscious, I took a tentative bite.

"Ugh…" I groaned around my mouthful of mushy noodles and artificial sauce. I forced myself to swallow. "Are you sure this isn't a dextro-ration? This is awful." I said it teasingly, but he apparently misunderstood.

Kaidan's brown eyes got big as he went back into the kitchen area. I turned in my chair to see what he was doing to find him chest deep into the trash receptacle. He pulled out the little baggie the meal had come in and read it over carefully.

"No," He said returning to his seat and showing me the package. "It's not dextro. It's just disgusting." He chuckled.

"I was joking, Kaidan." I said, bracing myself for another bite. I really didn't want to eat the stuff, but it had to have been more than ten hours since that pizza at my dad's house. "Why would a human Alliance ship have dextro rations on board?"

Kaidan raised his eyebrows. "Didn't anyone tell you about the ship?" When I shook my head he continued. "She's a prototype, co-developed by the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. I can't get into all the technical aspects of it, other than she's a brand new ship with an experimental drive core. "

I nearly dropped my spork at that tidbit. "The turian hierarchy worked with the Alliance to build this ship?" I asked in disbelief. I steadied my eating utensil as I looked up at Kaidan, impatiently waiting for him to answer.

Most turians I ran into wanted nothing to do with humans – old hostilities and prejudices left over from the first contact war. The thought of humans and turians collaborating to build a top of the line ship… well that was in interesting thought.

"Yeah." Kaidan replied. "The council paid for the Normandy to be designed and built, as a way to get our governments to work together. This mission to Eden Prime was supposed to just be a quick pick up run apparently, just to test the stealth system."

I nodded as he spoke, hoping to get him to stop talking. I'd learned a bit from him, which I appreciated, but I really just wanted to be left alone. At some point on our journey to the Citadel I'd be able to get into the Normandy's computer banks and find out more about the ship, so I didn't need him to explain everything.

I pretended to enjoy my mock-spaghetti as Kaidan droned on and on about how he was selected to be a part of the crew and then something about the first captain of the ship not getting along with the turian representative, so that's how Anderson came to be the captain….

I had almost finished what was on my tray when the doors to the med-bay hissed open and the captain walked out. Kaidan jumped up and quickly saluted, earning a headshake from Anderson.

"At ease, Alenko." Anderson said. I stood up to greet him as well. "Sorry the food's not the best, Nikki, but I'm glad to see you've eaten."

I shrugged my right shoulder. "Beggars can't be choosers."

"Rightly so." He grinned and winked. "Are you feeling up to talking about what happened down there?"

I shrugged again. "Not really, but if I don't talk now, it won't be as fresh." I replied.

Anderson simply nodded and motioned me to follow him as he turned toward his cabin. I made to grab my tray, but it had already disappeared. Kaidan was standing at the counter, rinsing the plate and utensils off.

"I got it. You go ahead with Anderson." He said. I stared at him blankly, wondering what was with him. He seemed overly eager to please anyone.

Anderson had already gone into his cabin, so I quickly made my way over and stepped inside. The door shut behind me and Anderson indicated to have a seat at the table close to the door.

It felt a little odd, being in the space he stayed in, mostly because the bed was in full view, but then I thought of my own apartment on the citadel. It was a studio with everything laid out. You could see my bed from my dining room table. Suddenly I felt a little more relaxed.

We went over what happened, his major questions centered more on how I was able to hack into the geth platform.

"That's not supposed to be possible." He said quietly. "Do you have all the data from its memory banks?"

"Not everything, the unit is still intact and my omni-tool doesn't have the capacity to store that much data." I replied. "I haven't really had a chance to go through it in detail, but from what I've seen, Saren is working with the geth to bring back these ancient machines to wipe out all organic life. It should implicate him as leading the attack."

Anderson nodded, his fingertips touching and resting against his chin. "I'll have you transfer the information over to our navigation officer, Pressley. He can help you sort through some of the data." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Please continue."

"There's not much after that." I admitted. "I headed towards the spaceport to disarm the bombs and met up with your team. Nihlus had already been unconscious by the time I saw him. We disarmed the bombs, Shepard found the beacon, and here we are."

I purposely skipped over the fact that I had sent my dad off to run away from the colony, but Anderson didn't ask any questions about it. He was easy enough to talk to, mostly because he had a fatherly appeal to him. He genuinely listened to what was being said, and carefully considered the words he was going to say before saying them.

In the very short time I'd known him; I'd grown to really like him.

"So, you said you work for C-Sec?" Anderson asked, still leaning on his knees.

I nodded. "Yes. I'm a cyber-security specialist. I handle monitoring the security algorithms around high-risk or sensitive data; most of it surrounding the Council and Spectres. Although I had no idea that this ship was being built, or that one of the council's most trusted spectres was aboard. Usually I'm in the know about council commissioned items." I grinned smugly.

Anderson's brows rose. "Would you know anything about Saren's activities?" He asked, straightening up. "Anything that may help implicate him in the attack on Eden Prime? If Nihlus doesn't survive his injuries, we have no one to validate that Saren was actually there. The Council is unlikely to believe the story of a dock worker who refused to come with us."

I shook my head. "No, nothing comes to mind. Although once we get back to the citadel I'll do what I can to look into him. And what about the data I have from the geth?" I added, a slightly hysterical edge to my voice. If the council didn't believe the dock worker, and Nihlus died, the data I had gotten from the geth unit surely had to be relevant.

Anderson slowly shook his head. "I may be wrong, but I'm not sure the council will believe the data on its own." He leaned back in his chair crossing his foot over his knee as well as his arms over his chest. "As hard as it is to believe you've actually hacked a geth unit, there's just too much that you seem to know for you to have made it up."

"Thank you for believing me." I smiled, feeling pride well up inside me alongside the fear that sat in the pit of my stomach. Saren was the council's pet; and Anderson was right, the only evidence we had to prove his involvement was a scared dockworker and who knew what in the data I had. Nihlus had to make it. "Are Nihlus' injuries so bad that you don't think he's going to live?" I asked quietly.

Anderson sighed, suddenly looking years older. "Doctor Chakwas was able to stabilize him until we get to the Citadel; however, she isn't so optimistic about brain activity. Turians don't do head injuries very well - their facial plates aren't very forgiving. Because he had so much swelling for such an extended period of time, Chakwas thinks he may have sustained some brain injuries."

I gasped in surprise. "You seem to know quite a bit about Turians."

Anderson responded with a chuckle. "I wish I could take the credit for that. Doctor Chakwas was chosen for the Normandy because of her extensive knowledge on turian physiology. The original plan for this crew was to have both human and turian crew members; however, we got called out to Eden Prime before we could fully staff her. Regardless, we won't know for sure about Nihlus until we get him to a hospital on the Citadel. Doctor Chakwas is good, but she's not a neuro-specialist."

I nodded. "She patched me up pretty good. I'm glad your team brought me on board."

"It seemed to be the quickest course of action at the time." Anderson replied. He stood up and began to slowly pace, his hands behind his back. "There's one more thing in the reports here I need to ask you about, but I understand if you can't speak openly about it."

I tilted my head in confusion, watching him move across the room. "Okay?" I asked.

He stopped pacing and looked down at me, his expression odd, as if he were choosing his words carefully. "In Alenko and William's reports, they both stated that you seemed to… teleport… between the bombs. Are you at liberty to explain how you did that?"

I laughed so hard my shoulder began to complain. "They thought I teleported?" I studied his face as I took deep breaths to calm myself. His expression was serious, and I quickly sobered. "I'm sorry. I didn't teleport, I cloaked. I've been working on a program on my omni-tool to make me invisible, but the cloaking field is only stable for about two seconds. After that it overloads the power cells on the omni-tool and fails."

Anderson sat back down and crossed his arms over his chest. "Were you commissioned to do this?" He arched an eyebrow as he asked his question.

I shook my head in response. "I went undercover on an investigation and the agent I was with had mentioned how much easier the whole operation would have been if we could just go in and not be seen at all." I chuckled at the memory. "After the sting was over I sat and talked with him, and we made a bet to see who could come up with the cloaking program first."

Both of Anderson's eyebrows were raised. "You went undercover?"

I shrugged my right shoulder. "They said they needed a pretty face that wasn't recognizable as a cop, but was still C-Sec and would follow protocol. I fit the bill since I don't do patrols."

"Did you have any plans for this cloaking program once it was complete?" He leaned forward on his knees again.

"Not really." I chuckled and looked at the floor for a moment before meeting his gaze. "I honestly never expected it to work. If I can figure out how to make the cloak last longer than two seconds, I'll probably sell the rights to the Council for Spectres; or maybe the Alliance for saving my ass on Eden Prime."

He grinned and stood once more. "Atta girl."