Chapter Nine
Generally speaking, Shepard was steadfastly against falling asleep in open places. It wasn't safe and it was a great way to get a bullet to the brain, but for some reason she was too exhausted to stray. Mentally and physically. Pressed into Garrus' side as she was, his strange three-fingered hand rubbing nonsensical patterns against her arm, she felt safe. She was comfortable, warm, protected. So, despite all her instincts, she drifted off. The only hope she had was that her training would keep her on edge, that years of instinct would wake her up if something went wrong.
She woke hours later to almost complete darkness and silence. It immediately set her on edge. At her side Garrus was stock still, his hand firm against her and his body tense. "Do you hear that?" he whispered, mandibles flickering just barely. Christ, she wished she could read turian expressions better. She swallowed down the panic that slipped in her throat, forcing herself to fall back on training that she'd never really abandoned. She scanned the immediate area, the benches black shadows against the dark of the observation deck, the only light coming from the stars, the muted orange glow of the emergency lighting underfoot, and the blue glare of Vakarian's visor. There was silence.
"Nothing," she breathed. "The engines are dead."
They untangled slowly, barely moving, and Shepard turned her gaze to the glass wall in front of her. Without the glare of the lights she could see further, past her reflection. She wasn't certain what she was looking for, but she knew that she would know when she found it.
"There," she said quickly, keeping her voice low as she pointed to the edge of their scope. A strange, hulking mass was just out of their vision. Her mind struggled for a moment trying to place the class.
"Is that a ship?" Garrus asked, stepping up beside her and furrowing his brow as he tried to see into the dark.
"It's a modified Kowloon Class freighter," she said, pointing towards the ship, "It's been refurbished several times. Someone took time to add defense turrets along the sides – bad for speed, but I don't think that's what this is meant for."
He looked down at her, a vaguely amused lilt to his mandibles, and she felt an indignant flush burn the back of her neck. "I know ships," she retorted in a hushed voice, turning back to get a closer look at the ship.
"I didn't say anything," he whispered back, raising his hands defensively. One of these days, she was going to punch him. Now clearly wasn't a good time.
The silence was broken by a subtle shudder moving through the ship. Shepard turned quickly, lifting her hand and letting the blue glow of biotics provide a light. For the longest time there was nothing, and then the silent echo of footsteps surrounded them.
Heavy, steady steps. Large foe, bipedal. Armored. Potentially armed. Dangerous.
The footsteps were still far away and for now they were just an echo of what was to come. Shepard steeled her resolve, stepping back to their bench. She lowered her hands only for a moment to grab for her weapons – the few that she was allowed on a passenger liner. The perks of boarding a ship to the Terminus system was a mildly more lax view on personal security.
The sound of a weapon discharging echoed around them, closer than either had expected. "Shit!" Shepard cursed, anxiety taking root. In an instant a barrier was shimmering into existence, wrapping her and Garrus in a protective cocoon.
"What's going on?" Garrus asked, narrowing his eyes and stepping around her to the edge of the barrier. Shepard didn't know what he was thinking, if he was planning on going to investigate or what, but she didn't like having him so close to the barriers edge.
"Don't leave it!" she snapped, the muscles in her jaw ticking. "Don't leave the barrier. We need to stick together."
Garrus opened his mouth, the glint in his eye telling her he planned to argue, but that was when the screaming began – still far away, but the chilling echo was loud enough to alert them. He cursed instead, spinning on the spot and pulling his duffle from the floor to his arms. In an instant he pulled the collapsed form of his sniper rifle from the bag. Her eyes widened.
"You were just carrying that around with you?" she asked. His mandibles flickered, a mix of amusement and exasperation.
"After you fight a few geth, you learn to stay prepared," he said dryly. In an instant the rifle was freed, gleaming in the light of her biotics.
"How the hell did you get that past security?" she wondered, looking at him incredulously. He grinned, cocky and sure of himself.
"There was a reason the Commander recruited me," he offered as explanation. It was enough. "Do you have any weapons?"
"Just a pistol and a pocket knife," she admitted. It was the most she was allowed to take on a civilian vessel, and she knew very well that she'd be able to buy replacements when they hit port. She winced as another shot rang out in the ship. People were starting to wake up, and whoever was running around in the ship was starting to lose patience. "I'm not taking this barrier down. I don't have armor with me." Because I'm a giant idiot who got too used to Earth.
"I do," Garrus countered, pulling a helmet from his bag. He tossed her a spare headset – Jesus, did he have everything in his duffle? "That'll link to the set in my helmet so we can keep in contact."
"Keep in contact, what, are we splitting up?" Shepard asked, a small well of panic building in her stomach. The ship was being boarded by pirates – or at least, she thought they were pirates – and Garrus wanted to split up? She pressed the set into her ear regardless.
"I've got you back," he said, his voice backed with a sort of confidence that somehow managed to ease past layers of panic and sooth her nerves, just a little. "You have your barrier. Besides, you're N6, aren't you?" He slid his helmet on, and the next words were filtered through the tinny sounds of the headset. "Pirates don't stand a chance against you."
"We need to leave," she argued, pointing back towards the shadowed shape of the freighter, "They didn't dock manually, they probably have a shuttle in the lower decks. We make our way there and we can get out and make it to Omega on our own."
She couldn't see his expression through the tinting of his helmet, but his voice broadcasted his dissent very clearly. "There are at least 500 civilians on this ship. You're suggesting we leave them to pirates?"
She sighed heavily, because she didn't want to think of it that way, she didn't want to – but she had no other option. Even as she told herself that they could escape, she knew herself well enough to know it would have never happened. She would have taken the longest route, would have thrown herself in the paths of the pirates and taken them out one by one. She would have complained and pretended it was an accident, but deep down she would know that it wasn't.
Shepard wasn't a hero. She didn't want people to call her that. She didn't deserve the title. But she couldn't leave these people to die – or worse.
"No," she protested with a heavy, resigned sigh. "No, you're right." The sounds of panic were getting louder, they'd wasted too much time here. She picked up her duffle and swung it over her shoulder. Added weight, but it was filled with remnants of her past. She couldn't bring herself to leave it behind. Damn sentiment.
"There are maintenance tunnels running throughout the ship," she said, throwing her mind back to her earlier research. "Large enough for you to get through. Here, let me see your-" She reached out, grabbing his arm and pulling up his omni-tool. She moved quickly, programming it until it synched up to hers. "There. You can track me through the ship with that."
"I don't-"
Garrus didn't have time to protest – the first opponent slid into view, gun raised and aiming towards the gleam of armor in the dark hall. Shepard's biotics reacted instinctively, throwing up a shield that tossed the bullet aside but, unfortunately, alerted the oncoming pirates to their position.
Shepard spun on her feet, pistol raised and ready. She heard the whip-sharp crack of Garrus' rifle and watched as the back of a pirates head blew off. She steeled her resolve, and a moment later the second fell – three shots, straight to the torso. It was nice to see her aim hadn't suffered.
"Go through the tunnels," she ordered again, forcing herself forward as she followed her mental map of the ship. "They'll get you to a good position. They take you by the quarters, so you can use them to guide the civilians to the escape pods. I'll take on the pirates."
She reached what appeared to be a smooth section of hull, separating the viewing deck from the living quarters, and found the small scanner. She pulled up one of her many hacking devices on her omni-tool, custom made and seven kinds of illegal, and in an instant the near-invisible door slid open. She turned to usher Garrus inside but instead felt the firm press of his hand to her back as he shoved her into the tunnels. The walls closed an instant later.
"Garrus!" She cried out, shocked and panicked as her heart leapt up into her throat. She heard the sound of metal rending as he sabotaged the scanner.
"Like you said, you don't have armor," he protested. "I'll take on the pirates head on. You worry about the civilians. We get through the ship and meet up at the shuttle bay."
She wanted to argue, but the enclosed spaces of the tunnels were painting horrors in her mind, panic wrapping around her throat until she thought she were going to choke on fear alone. Garrus was already walking away, she could hear his steps fading, and she knew that getting out through that door wasn't an option.
She forced herself to breath, forced herself to close her eyes and center herself. She had to save people, she had to –
The hull of the ship shuddered under foot and in an instant she was - dark, sandy rocks, tripping her up while the roars of a Thresher Maw echoed around her. Blood dripped down her brow, nearly blinding her, but she had to keep moving. She had to keep moving before it found her because her armor couldn't take another blast-
"Jane!"
The dual-toned voice snapped her from her panic. The memories faded under a veil of shadow, still there beyond the horizon, but gone for now. Her back was pressed against cool metal, sweat making the foreign fabric of a turian shirt stick to her skin. Her stomach burned, and she knew that if she tried to look instead of twisted scar tissue she would see blood and flesh burned beyond recognition and-
"I'm here," She croaked, breathing in deep and forcing her eyes closed. "I'm here, I'm okay."
"What happened in there?" Garrus demanded, and Shepard forced herself to focus on his voice. He was new, he was new, she didn't know him then and as long as she could hear him then she wasn't there.
"Nothing," She said through shaky breaths. "Nothing, I'm alright. Flashbacks."
The unspoken words – panic attack – rang in the empty space between them. But saying that would be admitting she had a problem. There was a long hesitation on the other end, and she wished she knew what Garrus was thinking, but when he finally spoke his voice was soft. Still stern, still ordering, but understanding.
She wondered, how many times did he dream of the Normandy exploding?
"We've have to keep moving," he said. "I'm following your lead. You know the layout better than I do."
"Okay," she agreed, because she had to. Garrus could go through the ship till the cows came home, but unless he knew where he was going and who he was saving, it was useless. She pulled up her omni-tool and her map of the ship. The map zoomed in on a small red dot, blinking with the signs of life. She began moving again, jogging through the tunnels and using the map as a guideline. "Okay, this hallway tapers off into five branches – three on the left, two on the right. The two on the right lead to the bridge of the ship, the three on the left to civilian quarters."
"Where are the pirates?" Garrus pressured.
"Give me a moment," she requested. She fiddled with her maps settings, her breath burning fire in her lungs as panic still gripped anxiously at the edges of her psyche. More dots, these tinted a light blue, appeared on the map. "Five past the first door to your right, headed towards the bridge controls. The second is clear. The right is guarded, a pirate by each door. You have to be careful, Vakarian."
"Where's the fun in that?" he asked, all bravado. She felt the inane urge to reach through her omni-tool and smack him.
"You need to regain control of the ship," she said. "Go to the right, second door. There's a maintenance tunnel between the halls that you can get into, it'll take you right up under the bridge. Once you get there you can take control of the ship, and from there it's a matter of holding your position."
"What then?" he demanded. She took a sharp turn, following the life signs on her omni-tool.
"Then we organize. You lock yourself on the bridge and no one can get to you. Meanwhile, I shepherd the civilians into the designated safe zones. At my signal, we vent the ship. Anyone outside in the halls will be airlocked, while the civilians and us stay safe."
"Sounds like dangerous work, Shepard," he cautioned.
"It's the only plan I have, Vakarian," she countered sharply. "Are you down?"
"No, I haven't even encountered a batarian yet –"
Shepard shook her head violently. Right. Turian. Doesn't understand human colloquialisms. "I meant do you agree, do you copy?"
He hesitated, and it worried her. Fortunately the silence didn't last. "Fine," he agreed. "I'll take back the bridge, you protect the civilians. Now, how the hell do I get in this shaft?"
...
A/N: So sorry for the delay! Hopefully you enjoy this chapter, though? It's got a little action for you, everyone getting to be big goddamn heroes! Also, it's a little shorter than usual, but I owed yall a chapter. Not much to say. College is still hell, but, my grades are up and I'd like to keep it that way. Don't know when my next update will be but hopefully it'll be soon! (Also, I didn't proofread as closely this time around, so if you catch anything let me know please!)
Lots of love,
B.E. Nomads