First Steps
Captain Anderson was standing in the cargo hold with a stern glare on his face as he watched Lieutenants Shaw and Alenko climb aboard the ship with Commander Shepard lying unconscious over Alenko's shoulder and a random female soldier in tow.
"What the hell happened down there?" Anderson snapped at the trio. "I saw five people leave this ship, only four have returned, one of them is unconscious and another I've never seen before…" he said looking at Shepard and then Williams "…and I can't see any sign of a beacon!"
"Sir I can-." Kaidan began.
"Corporal Jenkins died the second we made contact with the enemy. Sir." Derek interrupted him. "We rescued Chief Williams here from hostiles that were pursuing her. Nihlus was shot dead and the Commander made contact with the beacon, before passing out, it blew up straight afterward." He explained without hesitation.
There was a moment of silence as Anderson looked at the lieutenant in disbelief, trying to register what he had just said.
"Who were these hostiles Lieutenant? How is Williams the only survivor you found?" He said eventually, a lot calmer than he was a second ago.
"We believe they were Geth sir. Williams is the only remaining member of the 212 unit who were stationed here."
"Geth? What are the Geth doing attacking a human colony out in the traverse?" Anderson asked with a mix of worry and confusion in his question.
Derek sighed "One of the dock-workers said he witnessed another turian Spectre 'Saren' shoot Nihlus in the back of the head. We never saw him ourselves but that's the only lead we have, Sir."
Anderson face turned into a grimace "Saren?! Why am I not surprised that bastard is tied to this." He said with an underlining tone of disgust. There was a brief pause as Anderson thought over all that had been said. "Ok. Alenko get the Commander into the Med-bay so that Chakwas can take a look at her. Shaw write out the mission report and Williams I'd like to have a word with you here."
As they moved to leave Derek sent a small reassuring nod to the nervous looking Ashley before he got into the elevator with Kaidan.
"Why didn't you tell Anderson that the Commander had to pull me out of the beacons field?" Kaidan said in an annoyed tone.
This made Derek furrow his brow, very confused at the Lieutenants question. "What the hell would be the point in that?"
"I compromised the success of the mission, if Shepard dies as a result of this it's on me, now Anderson will think she was the carless one." Kaidan snapped, more annoyed with himself than with Derek.
"Hey, you've got to take it easy. That mission was compromised from the word 'go'. There's no point trying to disgrace or blame you over what happened."
Kaidan took a deep sigh and ran his free hand through his hair "I guess you're right. I just feel bad about letting that happen to her."
The elevator reached the Crew deck and the doors opened they both stepped out and walked over to the Med-bay
"She chose to pull you out. If you really feel that bad apologise to her when she wakes up and before you say anything, she will wake up."
They walked into the Med-bay. Kaidan laid Shepard on one of the beds and explained to Chakwas what had happened, deciding not mentioning his involvement after all.
After the long explanation Chakwas began attending to Shepard's unconscious body.
"Thanks Derek." Kaidan said quietly. "I think I'll stay here for a while and keep an eye on her."
"Sure, I need to write up that report. I'll catch you later." Derek said giving Kaidan a quick pat on the shoulder and headed out of the Med-bay.
…
About three hours had passed by the time Derek had finished writing the mission report, handed over to Anderson and gotten cleaned up.
After he'd returned his armour to it's locker in the Cargo bay he headed back up to the crew deck for some sleep. The mission had been exhausting; running around chasing a beacon with a hundred killer robots firing at you can take its toll.
He arrived at the Crew deck and headed for the sleeper pods, when he suddenly stopped. Something had caught his eye.
Chief Williams was sitting at the end of one of the Mess hall tables staring into a mug she had her hands wrapped around. Derek made his way over and sat down opposite her slowly, as to not startle her, from her seemingly hypnotic state.
She looked up from her mug at him. Because she had been wearing her helmet for the entire duration of the mission Derek had been unable to get a good look at her face. He had to admit she was exceptionally pretty, not simply for an alliance marine but for a woman in general. Her black hair was tied up in a tight bun; her slightly tanned complexion complemented her dark brown eyes, which were still slightly red; however, Derek could tell she had yet to shed a tear. She had a gentle smooth face, with pronounced cheek bones and a small chin. She had a slightly pointy nose, which fitted neatly into place with the rest of her features. As he was staring he saw her full lips curl up into a small, crooked smile.
"Hey." She said quietly. "Lieutenant Shaw, right?"
He gave a warm smile back "Yeah." He said matching her volume.
"I never got the chance to thank you and the others for saving me."
"That's ok. Being polite is probably the last thing I would want to be in a situation like yours."
She gave a weak chuckle back "I suppose not but I mean it, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you guys hadn't shown up."
"You can't allow yourself dwell on it." Derek said this in a very serious tone, because he knew all too well the dark places ones mind could take you if you allowed it, he had been there himself.
Ashley gave him a look that told him she understood why he had said that.
Derek regretted having said it instantly. He quickly changed the subject.
"So what did Anderson want to talk to you about, if you don't mind my asking?"
"He asked me to tell him what I saw when the attack hit. I explained to him what happened to my unit. Then he said he was going to assign me to the Normandy for the time being."
Derek's eyes widened slightly in surprise "He did? Well then, welcome aboard Chief." He said and gave wide smile.
His friendly manner was infectious for Ashley who had been having one of the worst days of her life up until this point. She gave him the biggest smile she had given anyone that day.
"Please, just call me Ashley." She said.
"It's a pleasure to serve with you Ashley I'm Derek. If it makes you feel anymore comfortable I was only assigned to this ship a few hours before we landed at Eden Prime. I'm just as new to this ship as you are."
"I guess that does make me feel a bit more comfortable knowing I'm not the only new kid on the block, thanks for telling me."
"No problem. I take it you haven't had a good look round the ship yet then?"
She shook her head with a shy smile, predicting what was coming next.
"Come on." He said and stood up. "If Shepard wasn't currently unconscious she would probably be doing this instead but I've got time to kill."
"Alright." She said standing up to take his lead.
Ashley couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness during her tour of the ship. Derek was being very sweet to her by making her feel so welcome but she knew that it would be short lived when he eventually found out the same thing all her superior officers found out about her.
After the tour the two of them headed to their sleeper pods.
…
Another twelve hours passed aboard the Normandy and Shepard began to stir awake from her slumber. For the first time in a long time she had been experiencing what she could only describe as a 'nightmare', something that she hadn't had to deal with since recovering from Akuze. She opened her eyes slowly, the room was spinning but she could just about make out that she was in the Med-bay.
"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think she's waking up." She heard an all too familiar male voice say anxiously.
She heard light footsteps approaching her as she sat up on the side of the bed.
"You had us worried there Shepard. How are you feeling?" She looked up to see the grey-haired woman standing in front of her.
Shepard rubbed her eyes "I've felt better. How long was I out?"
"About fifteen hours. We think something happened between you and the beacon."
"It's my fault." The same familiar voice jumped in. She turned around to see Kaidan leaning against one of the beds. "I must have triggered some sort of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out the way." He continued.
Shepard noticed that his speech was laced with guilt. "You had no way to know what would happen." She said trying to reassure him.
"We don't actually know whether that was what set it off. Unfortunately we will never find out." The Doctor explained.
"The beacon exploded, an overload maybe. You were knocked out cold Williams, Shaw and I carried you back to the ship." Kaidan said, clearly still feeling guilty.
"Kaidan." Shepard said forcefully. "Don't worry about it. I appreciate your help." This time more gently.
Kaidan was surprised by her reaction "Right, sorry Ma'am." He said quietly, neither Shepard nor Chakwas noticed a small smile creep over his face.
"Physically, you are fine, although I detected some abnormal brain activity. Plus you had increased rapid eye movement, a sign typically associated with intense dreaming." The Doctor continued.
"I was more like a nightmare. Death. Destruction. None of it was clear." Shepard mumbled.
The Med-bay door whooshed open and Anderson stepped through.
"How's our XO holding up Doctor?" His deep voice rumbled across the room.
"All the readings look normal. I'd say our commander is going to be fine." The Doctor said confidently.
"That's the first good news we've had all day. Shepard I need to speak with you – in private." Anderson looked at Chakwas and Alenko. They took the hint.
"Aye, aye, Captain. I'll be in the mess if you need me." Kaidan said and snapped of a quick salute before leaving.
Once he had left the Captain began "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard. You sure you're okay?"
"Aside from losing a soldier under my command and Intel dropping the ball on the assignment, yeah I'm fine." She said in a sharp tone, annoyance clearly set in her emerald green eyes.
"I'm sorry about Jenkins; he had a lot of potential; I found it appropriate to assign Gunnery Chief Williams as a replacement. As far as the Geth are concerned, nobody could have predicted that. They haven't been seen outside the Perseus Vale in over two-hundered years." Anderson said calmly, trying to diffuse Shepard's temper.
She gave a deep sigh letting out some of her frustration "Williams is a good soldier at least there's some good news. What is it you wanted to talk about in private Captain?"
"I'm not going to lie to you Shepard things look bad. Nihlus is dead and the beacon was destroyed the council will want answers."
Shepard rolled her eyes at this "I did nothing wrong Captain. Hopefully the council can see that."
"I had Lieutenant Shaw write up the mission report on your behalf, while you were unconscious. Don't worry you're a damned hero in my books. I didn't want to talk about that anyway. It's Saren the other turian Spectre." Anderson said in a grave voice. "If he's working with the Geth it means he has gone rogue. A rogue Spectre is trouble but a rogue Saren…" He shook his head, with fear glazed over his eyes.
"What's so bad about Saren specifically?" Shepard asked.
"He hates humans."
"Why?" She asked, irritated at the notion.
"He believes humans are blight on the galaxy. This wasn't a simple attack; this was an act of war! Now he has the geth following him and the information stored on the beacon." Anderson was beginning to get angry himself.
"Wait, I had some sort of 'vision' after I made contact with the beacon of synthetics, geth maybe, they were slaughtering people." Shepard rubbed her forehead slightly confused at her own explanation.
"We'll have to report this to the council." Anderson said very seriously.
"They'll think I'm crazy!" Shepard said dismissively.
"You'll need any edge you can get over Saren if you want to stop him."
"I'll find someway to take him down." Shepard said in a cold tone.
"I don't doubt you but it won't be that easy. He's a Spectre, he do anything and go anywhere. We need the Council on our side for this one."
"If we dig up some proof and expose Saren to the Council, they'll revoke his Spectre status."
"We're already on our way to the Citadel now. You should head on up to the bridge. I'll contact ambassador Udina to see if can get us an audience with the council. He'll want to see us as soon as we arrive."
"Thanks Captain."
The two of them headed out of the Med-bay. Anderson walked across the mess hall to his cabin.
Shepard stopped in her tracks as soon as she saw Lieutenant Shaw and Chief Williams sitting at a table in the mess hall in the middle of a conversation. They both stopped and stood up when they saw her approach.
"Commander, it's good to see you back up on your feet." Derek said giving her a quick salute.
"Thank you for filling in the mission report Shaw."
"No worries, Ma'am, anytime."
She turned to look at Ashley "I see the Lieutenants been looking after you while I was out." She said with a small smirk on her face. "I hope you're recovering from what happened." She continued, her smirk gone.
"Yes Ma'am." Ashley gave her a quick salute. "I have to admit I was a little nervous about being assigned onto the Normandy, at first. It's nice when someone makes you feel welcome, Derek's been very helpful." She turned and gave him a small smile, however Shepard didn't miss it.
"Already on a first name basis, eh Shaw?" She looked at Derek slyly.
Derek scratched the back of his head "I was just doing my duty as her superior officer, Ma'am." He said coolly, hoping that he was in the clear.
"Good work LT." Shepard said, letting him off the hook, for now. "Williams, we can catch up later but right now I need to head up to the bridge, we will be pulling into the Citadel any minute now. You're welcome to come with."
Just as she said that, the feeling of the ship passing through a mass relay passed through the bodies of the crew.
Shepard led them out of the Crew deck up to the bridge. Kaidan was seated in the co-pilots seat. Derek and Ashley headed over to one of the windows to get a view of the ginormous space station, which acted as the hub of all galactic activity in Council Space, home to individuals from nearly every species in the galactic community.
The Citadel had a large ring at its base, also known as the presidium, directly in the centre of the ring was a large tower, which acted as the Council Chambers. Five huge mechanical arms extended for miles from the ring, each the size of a large city, home to millions of individuals from all over the galaxy; these were the Citadel's wards. The unique structure of the Citadel, along with the purple colour produced by the surrounding nebula made it an awesome sight.
As the Normandy flew in closer they passed the Citadel fleet ships that were stood on guard floating around in the open space.
"Look at the size of that ship!" Ashley said in wonder as they passed a single ship that was well over ten times the size of the Normandy.
"The Ascension, Flagship of the Citadel fleet." Kaidan explained.
"Well, size isn't everything." Joker mumbled unimpressed.
"Why so touchy, Joker?" Derek teased.
"I'm just saying you need firepower too." Joker quickly retorted.
"Look at that monster! Its main gun could rip through the barriers of any ship in the Alliance fleet." Ashley countered.
Joker couldn't respond as he began communicating with the Citadel control, as to gain access to an Alliance controlled dock.
The Normandy glided swiftly into dock. Alenko, Shaw, Shepard and Williams all headed down to the Cargo bay to suit up for their meeting with the council, so as to 'look the part'.