The once scrawny, dirty street kid had over the past eleven years morphed into a strong, smart soldier. Kaie Shepard somehow lucked out. She'd survived many things. Umbelievably, she was chosen for the N7 program. Now she was XO on one of the newest prototype ships for the Alliance Navy. How some punk kid from the streets of Tokyo made it here, she'd never know. She'd passed up people with better life stories than her. People who had grown up in military families who had always known that they were destined to go and serve on a ship. She'd even passed up fellow students who had been smarter than her. She'd never had the best grades considering she had had to learn how to read beyond a very basic elementary level while in boot camp. She'd worked her ass off to get where she was. However, she knew that hard work had only gotten her so far, luck had to have played some part.
Now she was supposed to be standing next to Anderson, her mentor and the closest thing she had to a father. Instead, she was still trying to get dressed. They had spent the last week getting used to the ship, the SSV Normandy, and her crew. The pilot was this crazy guy named Jeff Moreau, though most people called him Joker. At first, she wasn't certain how some scrawny dude was going to be able to pilot this advanced war ship but watching him put the Normandy through her paces was like watching a ballet. His hands flew across the controls as if he could pilot in his sleep.
Shepard found a friend in the ship's doctor, Dr. Chakwas, an older woman, who'd spent all her life aboard different ships. Shepard had found that Chakwas didn't pull any punches after her first routine physical. She'd come from around the table after looking over the computer results.
"You know that arm of yours risks breaking again if you aren't careful." She motioned towards Shepard's left forearm. Unconsciously, Shepard rubbed the arm softly. No one else had ever noticed or mentioned her arm. Chakwas gripped it, turned her palm over, and felt along the bones of her forearm. "Since you've broken this arm multiple times, the bone is more likely to break again. It looks like it wasn't properly set at least once." She probed the area that was perpetually sore. Shepard tried not to wince both from the pressure but also from the painful memory of Johnny breaking her arm at least once.
"I broke it a couple times as a kid. It's never bothered me." She tried to lie convincingly while she maintained her cool. No one needed to know all the abuses she'd suffered, she didn't need their pity. "No one has ever noticed the scarring before. You must be very good at your job."
"Of course I am. How else do you think I got this job, Shepard?" She'd said this with a deadpan delivery that made Shepard uncertain whether she was bragging or joking.
Since then, she'd made it a point to go talk with Chakwas every day for a least a few minutes. She wasn't about to squander any knowledge the woman would share with her.
Then, of course, there was the Lieutenant who was serving under her. Kaidan Alenko. He was a breath of fresh air. She wasn't about to admit that the first time she'd seen him her stomach had done a little flip. But whether she'd admit it or not, it was still true. She wasn't even certain what had caught her eye. Maybe it had been his rich brown eyes that seemed wiser beyond his year. Or maybe it was his voice, the rumble of it going straight to her stomach. He was a biotic who had this unbelievable control over his skills. Shepard had never seen anyone, not even in N school that had that much focus. They hadn't had much of a chance to talk but she was looking forward to their first outing and more talks in the mess hall.
She retreated to the women's head and made sure her hair was still ok and her dress blues didn't have any wrinkles. Her glossy black hair hung in a thick sheet around her head ending abruptly at her chin, always within regulation. Patting down any stray fly aways, she sighed; her tanned skin flushed with excitement and nerves.
Admiral Hackett was coming to inspect the Normandy before she ran her first mission. This was her chance to not mess up and show that she really did deserve her place. They hadn't made a mistake by promoting her. She took a deep breath and stepped back out into the hall and took the steps two at a time up to the CIC.
Later that week it seemed like everything was green and they could finally start doing something with the Normandy. They were finally headed out on their shakedown run to Eden Prime, a human settlement in the Exodus Cluster. Shepard was prepped and ready to go once they arrived. Her N7 armor was clean and polished to a shine. With a shakedown run, you never know who might show up to watch the proceedings.
She didn't really think anything crazy would happen but she was prepared. That was one thing that she'd learned on both the streets and training with the Alliance. Expect things to hit the fan and be pleasantly surprised when they didn't. She decided to head up to the cockpit and watch Joker work his miracles on the controls as he headed into the Arcturus Relay. The ship was buzzing with activity as she walked past the ship display in the CIC.
Nihlus was standing up in the cockpit too. He was an imposing figure and easily dwarfed Shepard. The turian Spectre was an interesting person and someone to be respected but Shepard still wasn't certain why he was there. And that had her on edge.
The small voice telling her that they had discovered the fraud that she was. You're not a good person. They know it. Just waiting for you to mess up. A few deep breaths and she squashed the thoughts back in the dark corner of her mind.
He watched Joker pilot the Normandy beautifully and then his only comment was "Good job."
After he left the cockpit, Joker commented under his breath. "I hate that guy."
Kaidan was sitting in the co-pilot's chair. "Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him."
Their conversation devolved into an argument ending with Shepard agreeing that the presence of a Spectre did seem a little odd. Thankfully, the less than professional conversation was interrupted by Anderson's com and his order to for her to meet him in the com room.
"You get that Commander?" Joker asked, looking over his shoulder at Shepard.
"He sounds angry. Something must have gone wrong with the mission." Anderson was a no nonsense kind of captain but his voice was even more controlled than usual. It must be very important whatever he needed.
"Pff, Captain always sounds like that when he's talking with me." Joker scoffed as she turned to head to the com room.
As she was leaving, she could hear Kaidan add, "Can't possibly imagine why," which made her giggle softly under her breath.
As she walked aft along the neck of ship, she looked over the shoulders of engineers and com specialists doing who knows what. She could decrypt a terminal or hack into a locked room but she'd never been very good with all the science that went on to actually allow space flight. She was much better if you stuck a sniper rifle in her hands. She was serviceable with a pistol, but she certainly wasn't a front line fighter.
Navigator Pressley was having a heated debate with Engineer Adams through the coms. Pressley knew something was up but Adams wasn't quite convinced. Shepard added her two cents and let Pressley know that she would find out what was going on but not to worry too much.
Pressley was also concerned about Nihlus and having a turian on board. He was still one of the holdouts that still didn't fully trust turians even though it had been 30 years since the First Contact War. To Shepard, that was something that happened before her and she'd grown up knowing they weren't alone. But she understood that the older officers had been through it and some the soldiers her age had parents that had served or killed during it. Her bunkmate and eventual friend in boot camp had lost her mother in the First Contact War and she held a grudge against all turians.
Nevertheless, they had to move on past it and work together. This ship was certainly a great example of how turian and human minds could achieve great things. She also understood the distrust between the species. A lot had gone on since the humans had first discovered the mass relays and it was understandable that the rest of the galactic species weren't certain how to react or if to trust humans at all. Humans still had a lot to prove and Shepard hoped she could be one of those that helped prove how beneficial humans could be for the whole galaxy.
Chakwas and Jenkins were having a discussion very similar to Pressley and Adams' conversation. Chakwas seemed to keep a level head about the whole situation but Jenkins was a whole other story. He was ramped up to be headed back to his home planet . He really wanted to show to the brass what he could do. She'd been trying to make him understand that if he did his job well and didn't do anything stupid and rash, the brass would notice. Generally, they didn't promote idiots that created more trouble or situations.
After trying, once again, to calm down Jenkins, she stepped around the two and stood in front of the coms room door and took a deep, steadying breath. Remember Kaie, you can handle anything. Another, deep breath, in through the nose, hold for five beats, out slowly through her mouth. After a few more breaths, she could feel her heart rate slowing and a sense of calm settled on her. She palmed the open plate and stepped into the room.
Nihlus was alone in the room. After what felt like a test masquerading as idle chatter, Anderson finally walked in and relieved Shepard from Nihlus' intense scrutiny.
That was when Anderson told her about the real reason the Normandy was headed to Eden Prime, a Prothean beacon. Something that must be protected so that the information stored on it could be deciphered and catalogued. The Protheans had been the source of much of the advances that all the races had achieved. Then, the real shocking information came. Nihlus was there to observe her, because she was nominated to become a Spectre. If this happened, she'd be the first human Spectre. A street kid from Earth was being considered for a Spectre position. A cold hearted assassin. The cruel small voice in her head accused. She'd never thought she'd be even nominated. And she would have never guessed that she would be the first.
Nihlus said that the reason he'd recommended her was her actions at Skyllian Blitz. She was just doing what she thought necessary, not because she wanted notoriety.
As they were discussing that, Joker interupted them with a com from Eden Prime. A massive ship was landing and attacking Eden Prime. And then the com link was severed.
Well, she was glad that her guns were clean and her armor was ready to be pulled on because it was all hitting the fan.