A/N: For Vshard, whose idea it was. Reap what you sow. :)
Sand Blasted
Now
The young woman known to her comrades as Hailstorm lay on her back on an exam table in the Normandy's medbay. Her hands were neatly folded across her chest and, though her body was still, her eyes flicked rapidly side to side, up and down; testament to her whirling thoughts and heightened perceptions.
As she lay on the table, myriad colours swirling against the insides of her eyelids, she became aware of a dull humming emanating from within the ship - the normally almost inaudible background thrum of the Normandy's element zero core. And to Hayley's almost supernaturally-tuned hearing, the thrumming carried an oddly discordant note like a piano just slightly out of tune. Slowly, the lieutenant placed a hand against the bulkhead beside her, and felt the hum vibrate through the palm of her hand, the heartbeat of the frigate. Hayley removed her hand yet still felt her skin tingling and she saw blue flicker and flash through the lines of her palm, almost too quickly to see.
Slowly and carefully, the lieutenant sat up, feeling the blood flowing through her veins and arteries as she moved. Hayley swung her feet over the side of the table and, for an instant, her entire universe tilted sharply to one side then another before steadying again. The metal decking felt intensely cold against the soles of her bare feet as she stepped to a comm unit on the bulkhead near the door.
"Just need to make a quick call, then I'll go right back to bed," she said aloud to the empty air, as though to forestall any arguments from the bulkheads. Hayley thumbed the intercom button and a not unpleasant tingle ran from her fingertips and up through her arm and shoulder.
"Engineering," the voice of Technician Second Class Anders spoke through the comm. Hayley winced and dialed back the volume on the speaker.
"Anders, Lieutenant Storm," she said, managing to keep her voice level.
"Storm?" Anders sounded surprised to hear from her. No doubt the rumour mill had already spun up a tale of just how she'd ended up in the medbay whacked out of her mind on red sand. "I thought you were off with the fairies?"
"I still am. The fairies brought me a message. I need to speak to Adams," she said, voice still very matter of fact despite the auras of rainbow colours that tinged her peripheral vision.
"Uh...sure," Anders replied sounding anything but sure, "He's right here."
"Adams," the chief engineer said after a moment. "Why aren't you bed, Hayley?" he asked in fatherly tones.
"I'm coming off a red sand high, Adams. It's not like I'm pregnant or something," Storm answered. "You need to run a diagnostic pattern on the eezo core," she stated.
"I just completed one," Adams replied patiently, "All systems are nominal."
Hayley pressed a hand against the bulkhead by the comm. Again she felt that slightly off-kilter note in the symphony that was the core's pulse. "Run it again, level eight, at least. You'll find it. It's so subtle the regular scans wouldn't have picked it up."
"But you managed to?" Adams sounded unconvinced and his tone of voice suggested he was merely humouring her.
"I heard it through the bulkheads, sir. Felt it."
"I...see," Adams said after a moment. Then, no doubt still humouring her, "I'll run another pattern. Are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm past the worst of it. Chakwas will be around soon to talk to me some more. I better go, sir," Storm said and clicked off. She turned back to the exam table and contemplated the trip back.
In layman's terms, Hayley was sandblasted out of her mind. A very faint blue-white corona shimmered into being around her, the most widely-known effect of red sand: temporary telekinetic ability in those with no biotic capabilities. Compared to a trained biotic like Commander Shepard, the effect was extremely subtle, enough for Hailstorm, if she concentrated intensely, to send a handful of paperclips flying from Doctor Chakwas' desk and across the room. Which she had done. Likewise a sheaf of hardcopy which had taken flight with a snapping sound like bird's wings.
The effort had been enough to leave the young Lieutenant physically drained and now she lay back on the table motionless, save for her flicking eyes. Those wide hazel eyes, bloodshot from the effects of the red sand flicked to the right as the door to the medbay slid aside with a quiet hiss. To her heightened senses however, the quiet hiss was as loud and piercing as a blast from a semi-trailer's airbrakes and Hailstorm flinched as the doctor stepped into the room. Chakwas' normally soft footsteps seemed to boom and echo off the cold metal bulkheads and Hailstorm's eyes squeezed closed as she tried to block out her perceptions.
As she entered her workspace, Dr Chakwas consulted the datapad held in one hand. The device held the complete medical history of her patient from treatment of a childhood allergy to wasp stings, to the genetic modifications she'd received upon enlistment in the Systems Alliance Marine Corp. Chakwas' gaze quickly took in her patient's basic data:
Name: Storm, Hayley Anne
Date of Birth: 23 May 2159
Place of Birth: San Francisco, Earth
Height: 1.75m
Weight: Undisclosed
Date of Enlistment: 23 May 2177
Military Specialisation: Infiltrator
Hayley, the doctor noted had no prior history of alcohol or drug abuse and Commander Shepard had requested that the Doctor be the one to discuss what had happened during the last operation, rather than leave the young officer in the dubious care of an Alliance Military appointed counsellor.
Dr Chakwas pulled out the office chair from her desk and wheeled it up beside the exam table upon which Hayley lay and seated herself. The chair's gas-operated height adjustment made a faint squeaking sound and Hayley cringed.
"Are you feeling all right, Hayley?" Chakwas asked gently.
"So loud, the noises," Hayley muttered, "They're so loud!"
Chakwas removed a stylus from the inside of her white lab coat and made a note in the file, Heightened senses.
"Try not to worry about it," she advised her patient, "It's a side-effect of exposure to red sand."
"They're gonna kick me outta the Marines for this, aren't they?" Hayley asked, voice rising. "I mean, hell, a person can't be exposed to that much red sand and not end up hooked on the stuff, right?"
When she next spoke, Chakwas' voice was low and soothing, "Even in the event that you have developed an addiction to red sand, there are treatment options available to help kick the habit. This doesn't have to be the end of you career."
Slowly, Hayley turned her head to the right to face the doctor, eyes narrowing as a line appeared in her forehead, "End of my career?" she whispered harshly, "Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you!"
Chakwas' eyebrows raised themselves slightly at this change in her patient's demeanour.
Hayley went on, "I know what you're up to, Doctor! I won't let you, any of you bring me down." Hayley turned her face away and the doctor saw her eyes glimmering with unshed tears, "You're all against me, aren't you? But I won't break! I won't give you the satisfaction!"
Chakwas recoiled in her seat as, on the last word, Hayley sat bolt upright on the bed and shouted at the ceiling before slumping back on the table, chest rising and falling rapidly with exertion. Extremely faint filaments of blue-white power danced momentarily from one gritted tooth to the next before vanishing.
Paranoid behaviour Chakwas noted.
Hayley seemed to crumple in on herself and, when she turned back to face the doctor, all the rage had left her face and she looked years younger than her actual age, almost like a child. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, that wasn't right of me. I'm sorry," she said again, even more quietly.
Rapid mood fluctuations Chakwas entered into the file. So far, this was all par for the course for somebody coming off a red sand high.
"Why don't we start at the beginning?" Chakwas asked when the young woman had calmed somewhat.
"The beginning? Yes! Good, great idea!" Hayley nodded enthusiastically. "I was born on Earth, twenty-five years ago. Wait, wait. I suppose the real beginning would have been when my parents first met...or maybe even before that when their parents met. Jesus, how far back do you want me to go?"
Chakwas spoke carefully, "Perhaps you should begin with telling me about the particular mission during which you were exposed to the red sand?"
Hayley's tired-looking eyes blinked rapidly as she digested this proposal then she nodded and with a breath, began to speak.
---
Then
"Commander, we're picking up a coded message on the secure Spectre channel," Joker advised the Normandy's commanding officer over the ship's PA system. Lieutenant Commander Alison Shepard looked up in surprise from her station above the holographic galaxy map in the centre of the CIC.
The Spectre-only channel was reserved solely for communications between one Spectre and another. Not even the likes of Donnel Udina or Admiral Hackett had the authority to transmit across it. "Patch it through to the comm room," Shepard instructed and turned to her navigator, Pressly who stood at his station, hands folded behind his back.
"Commander Pressly, you have the deck," Shepard said as she stepped from the platform above the galaxy map and headed aft.
"Aye, Commander," Pressly acknowledged, "I have the deck."
As Shepard strode towards the comm room, the doors automatically opened to admit her and slid shut on her heels. The rear wall of the comm room was dominated by a large holographic viewscreen, used to project streams of information or video feeds from units in the field.
The display currently contained the image of a familiar turian with blue tribal markings on his face and an optical interface swung into position over his right eye.
"Garrus. This is a welcome surprise," Shepard said in greeting as she fell into parade rest in the centre of the room. The image of the turian Spectre nodded at Shepard.
"Commander, good to see you looking well," Garrus said, his flanging voice seeming to echo from the hidden speakers. "The reason I contacted you-" he began.
Shepard smiled, "I figured it wasn't to wish me a happy birthday," she said with a wry smile.
The turian's mandibles twitched in amusement, "Same old Shepard," he bantered before his voice turned serious, "I've been on the trail of a syndicate of red sand dealers and slavers with ties to batarian interests."
Shepard's jaw tightened. Scum like red sand dealers destroyed peoples' lives and the more ruthless among them tended to sell addicts who couldn't afford to continue to pay for their drug habits to batarian slavers. "What can you tell me about them?" she asked, voice low.
"They've mostly been active throughout the Terminus Systems but intelligence from salarian STG teams points to a sizeable red sand processing and distribution facility in the Hades Gamma cluster." Garrus folded his arms across the front of his grey Phantom hardsuit. "My team is capable but I feel we could use backup from people who aren't tied down by procedures and red tape."
Shepard nodded, a smirk flitting across her lips, "I'm guessing you aren't feeling inclined to read them their rights when you find them?"
Garrus' mandibles quivered and when he next spoke, his voice was low and cold, "I'll deliver their rights to them from the barrel of my sniper rifle, Commander. I saw too many drug peddlers go free with barely a slap on the wrist when I was in C-Sec and I saw, first hand, the kind of damage they went on to cause later on." The turian shook his head emphatically, "I won't let that happen again. Can I count on you, Shepard?"
Shepard smiled wryly. "A chance for an honest to God shootout with criminal scum? How can I say no? Hell, it'll be just like that time we cleaned out Chora's together." Shepard sighed to herself, "I miss Wrex."
Garrus' mandibles spread in the turian equivalent of a smile, "I ran across Wrex recently. He sends his regards."
Shepard laughed softly and bade the turian Spectre farewell.
---
The Normandy emerged from the mass relay into the Dis system amid an intense blue-white flash as the ancient relay system had its wicked way with the fabric of space-time. Not to mention drugging the laws of physics before shaving off its eyebrows.
"Transit is complete, Commander," Joker commed from the bridge, "All systems nominal, stealth system engaged."
Shepard nodded from her place in the bridge behind the helmsman's chair. "Good work, Joker. We should be receiving a coded burst from Garrus soon. His ship is hiding out in the shadow of an asteroid."
The field of asteroids, composed mainly of extremely dense metal-rich rock, provided enough interference for spacecraft to lurk in-system without detection. Soon, the Alliance frigate received a tight-beamed transmission. The source was a sleek, angular frigate-class vessel of turian design. "SSV Hecate hailing SSV Normandy."
Joker keyed the comm, "We receive you loud and clear, Hecate. Go ahead."
When the Hecate sent its next transmission, the voice carried over the comm was a familiar one. "Normandy, this is Agent Vakarian. We request permission to dock."
Joker looked over at the Commander who stood quietly behind him and to his left, hands clasped behind her back. She nodded once and Joker replied to the Hecate "Permission to dock granted, Hecate. Moving into position now. ETA four minutes."
Shepard, already wearing her Armax Arsenal hardsuit, turned on her heel and left the bridge, confident that Joker could handle the docking operation with his eyes closed. As she made her way towards the main elevator, she placed a hand to her ear, keying her personal comm unit. "Storm?"
Hayley, in the process of securing the catches holding the breastplate of her Titan hardsuit to the rear armour panel, looked up as her comm unit bleeped. She paused to pick up the device, awkwardly holding the breastplate against herself with the other arm. It would be typical of her luck for her to lose her tenuous hold on the armour and expose herself to anybody looking in her direction. Say Mike the Requisitions officer at his station over by the elevator. Or even worse, PFC Fredericks, whom Hailstorm had caught with bootleg asari fetish OSDs on more than one occasion. What was with human males and asari? Or human males and females in general, she often pondered.
"Storm here," she spoke calmly as though she stood around by the lockers in the garage semi-naked as a matter of course.
Shepard's voice was low as though she didn't want anybody to overhear her and Storm listened closely. "Hayley," she began and the use of her given name tipped the Lieutenant off the fact that this wasn't just Shepard checking to make sure her squad was ready to drop. "Can I see you in my quarters?"
"Is there some kind of problem, Ma'am?" Storm replied evenly.
"We'll discuss it when you arrive. Shepard, out."
Storm shook her head, thumbed the comm off and resumed fastening the hardsuit into place.
When Storm arrived at Shepard's quarters, helmet tucked under her arm, the Commander was seated at her desk, looking somewhat pensive. Shepard rose as Storm entered the room. "Lieutenant Storm reporting as requested," she rapped out.
"At ease. Please, sit," Shepard gestured to the bed secured to the bulkhead. The sheets were crisp and the bed had been made with the kind of precision born of long years of service. Storm settled herself on the bed, placing the helmet on the deck by her feet. "Permission to speak freely?" she requested and Shepard nodded.
"What's up, Shepard?" Storm asked, coming straight to why her presence in the CO's quarters had been requested. "People are gonna start talking...two good looking women, alone together, you know." Shepard didn't smile, nor did the intensity in her blue eyes fade.
"I want you to reconsider taking part in this operation, Lieutenant," Shepard said after a moment. She took a breath and continued. "After what happened the last time we tried to take down a group of red sand manufacturers...I'm hesitant to put you into that kind of situation again."
Hayley sat back on the bed, somewhat surprised by Shepard's admission. It didn't seem right to her, the Commander letting her personal feelings cloud her judgement. "With respect, Commander, have you had this same discussion with Williams? Or is just me you're worried will crack under the pressure?"
"I...Williams has assured me she's ready to go."
Storm leaned in towards Shepard, deliberately getting inside her personal space, her hazel eyes locking with Shepard's blue ones "And I can also assure you that I'm ready to go. Dr Chakwas put me back on active duty status, as you must know," Storm had to struggle to keep her voice level. It was one thing to question her own abilities but for Shepard to do it? "Ma'am, if you have some problems with my performance to date, I want you to come right out and tell me but please, don't hide behind our friendship and use it to keep me on the ship." Now, Hayley's voice did begin to rise and it shook slightly with emotion.
Shepard was unable to hold the Lieutenant's gaze and broke eye contact, looking instead at the deck between her booted feet. After a moment, she looked up again. Storm had resumed her original posture on the bed but Shepard could still see the anger simmering just beneath the surface, could see the set of her body under her armour. Storm didn't get angry very often but she was angry now. "I didn't mean to offend you, Hayley and you're right," Shepard sighed, "I had no right to manipulate our friendship like that. Chakwas says you're good to go, physically and emotionally and you're certainly fired up enough that I wouldn't want to be in your sights any time soon."
Hayley snorted laughter and just like that, the tension dissipated. "I suppose I should be glad to be serving with an officer who doesn't view her troops as cannon fodder. Are we OK? We shouldn't keep Agent Vakarian waiting."
Shepard nodded and the two officers rose from their seats, Hayley straightening out the bedsheets without being consciously aware of it. "What's the bet that inside of twelve hours, the rumour mill will be thrumming with lurid tales of steamy lesbian sex between the first human Spectre and her comely young lieutenant?" Storm asked in mock seriousness as they left the office.
Shepard snickered. "You have a sick sense of humour, do you know that, Hayles? I like that in a person."
---
The comm room aboard the Normandy was quite a bit more crowded than usual. Aside from Shepard's usual ground team of Lieutenant Storm, Gunnery Chief Williams and Private Fredericks there was the turian Spectre Garrus Vakarian and his team of elite turian military commandos. The newcomers were heavily armed and armoured, and Hayley saw several hundred thousand credits' worth of Haliat Armoury and Armax Arsenal gear clipped to various hardpoints on the turians' amour. She looked down at her new Titan-model hardsuit and, carrying only a sniper rifle and sidearm along with a field medical kit, felt distinctly under-dressed for the occasion.
"These guys look like they could fight a small war all by themselves," Storm murmured to Williams as they took their seats prior to the briefing.
Williams nodded, "And they'd win, too."
Williams' initial distrust of Shepard's non-human allies had long dissipated and she well knew that Garrus would have her back when the excrement interfaced with the air recirculators. Garrus operated with a high level of professionalism, matching her own and Williams knew he would expect nothing less from his squad members. The other three turians, who were yet to speak to anybody, all bore the same blue tribal markings on their faces, and Williams knew that they along with Garrus had all originally came from the same turian colony.
Shepard and Garrus clasped each other by the right forearm in greeting, a turian gesture that hearkened back to human handshakes. Williams had read that both forms of greeting had originated as a means by which two warriors made sure neither one had a blade up his sleeve. Garrus and Shepard both carried several. Up their sleeves and strapped to their thighs or calves. A Spectre was adept at dealing death from any distance and Shepard and Garrus were no exception.
"Commander, with your permission, I'll begin the briefing," Garrus requested after everybody had found a seat. Hayley found herself sandwiched between Williams and one of Garrus' squad members. Even seated, the top of the turian's head loomed several inches above her own. Shepard nodded and Garrus removed an OSD from a pocket on his hardsuit and inserted it into the comm room's data projector.
The holographic display came to life with footage filmed by recon drones. The red sand production facility comprised several of the pre-fabricated buildings that were the mainstay of any Alliance colony. Ringing the outside of the compound were numerous guard towers as well as heavy anti-vehicle turrets.
Garrus began speaking, "This footage was captured by drones dispatched by a salarian STG team operating in-system. They provided the intelligence for this operation but are committed in actions elsewhere at this time. We're on our own."
Garrus indicated the turrets, "These heavy weapon emplacements will make a direct vehicular approach impossible; I propose we drop the ground teams here," he pointed a talon at some low rolling hills to the north and east of the compound. "These hills will give us cover enough to approach the flanks undetected and once we're inside the effective targeting range of the turrets, the launchers will be unable to get a clear shot. This particular model of turret features safety cut off circuits to prevent them firing while friendlies are within range. Of course, they may have over-ridden the safeties so be ready to run. Just in case." Garrus' mandibles flicked in amusement.
Storm raised a hand and Garrus nodded to her. "Any chance we can use a targeting laser to paint the turrets for an orbital strike from the frigates?"
Shepard looked over at her squad second, "I like how you think, Storm. What do you think, Garrus?"
"It could work. Your lieutenant and I can fit spotting lasers to our rifles and paint the targets from the hills. They won't know hit them." Garrus nodded decisively. "While the Hecate is providing orbital bombardment, we can use the confusion to gain entry to the main facility. Then it's a by the numbers sweep and clear operation. Let's be clear," Garrus paused to make eye contact with everybody in the room. His keen-eyed gaze seemed to linger on Hayley for a moment longer before he looked to Williams. "We're not taking prisoners. As the human saying goes, terminate with extreme prejudice."
This time it was Williams who spoke up, "What if they surrender? Alliance combat protocols dictate that we can't kill a hostile if he surrenders."
"They won't back down, Chief," Garrus answered after a moment, "We've dealt with their like before. Any questions?"
When none eventuated, Shepard rose from her seat. "Crew dismissed. Assemble in the garage in twenty. We'll be hot dropping right out of the cargo hold."
---
"Well, this is unexpected," Storm said to herself as she peered through the rifle scope at the base laid out below the hills where she and Garrus had taken position.
The turrets and guard towers that had ringed the perimeter had been reduced to twisted piles of smoking metal and the lieutenant could see several bodies contorted in unnatural positions scattered amidst blast craters. The walls of the buildings bore dozens of holes from mass accelerator fire that had missed its target.
Storm keyed her comm, transmitting across the general freak so the combined unit could hear her. "This is Hailstorm. I have visual on the base...somebody got here before us and they've been busy. The exterior defences are down and I see several bodies. I have no contact with hostiles. Orders?"
Shepard's voice came over the channel, "I want you and Vakarian to rendezvous with us, assume hostile presence in the area until we confirm otherwise. Clear?"
In other words, don't stumble into an ambush just because it only looks like everybody's dead. Yes, Mother. Storm thought, smiling to herself. "Roger that, Commander, moving out."
"Damn," Hailstorm said to Garrus as they moved out, keeping low to avoid skylining themselves and presenting a target, "I was looking forward to unleashing Hell on them."
As the human Marine officer and turian Spectre made their way through the gently waving thigh-high grasses of the hill sides Storm turned to Garrus, "You were with the Commander while she was going after Saren. What was that like?"
Garrus tilted his head to one side as he considered his answer. "It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying," he replied and Storm nodded. "Being free of the restrictions and bureaucracy of C-Sec and seeing the way things are done by humans was most interesting. Finding out our true enemy was a millenia-old AI construct, that was terrifying. A lesser person than Commander Shepard would have baulked at their duty but she saw us through to the end."
As they continued falling back to the rally point, Garrus went on, voice contemplative, "The Commander is an interesting person."
"How so?"
"She has kindness and a depth of compassion for her allies...but that masks a sometimes brutal ruthlessness in the face of her enemies. The galaxy is lucky to have her."
"Yeah," Storm said softly. "It is...we are."
Conversation lulled as they met up with the rest of the combined unit; Garrus' turian forces covering their approach from where they had bunkered down in the hills.
"Sitrep," Shepard ordered briskly when Storm and Vakarian arrived. Hailstorm activated her omni-tool and, with a few key-presses, sent the video feed from her hardsuit's helmet cams to Shepard for the Commander to view with her own helmet's holographic HUD.
Shepard's eyes moved up, down and across as she took in the images playing out before her. From the looks of things, whoever the mysterious third party was, they'd comprehensively terminated the exterior sentries and point defenses. Shepard closed the feed and signalled for her troops to fall in.
"Here's how things are," she began, sweeping her gaze across the assembled human/turian unit, "An unknown third party, possibly hostile to us, possibly not is on-site and doing our job for us." Meeting the eye of each turian in turn, she went on, "Our people have a saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. When we go in, stay alert and check your targets. If the gatecrashers are hostile, use of lethal force is authorised. Otherwise use your own common sense. I'm looking at you, Fredericks," Shepard said with slightly upturned lips.
The private turned pink but nodded. Williams bit on her lower lip, a bray of laughter struggling to escape. Hailstorm snickered to herself before turning her mind back to business. Shepard nodded at her. "Hailstorm, take point and lead us in."
---
Inside the red sand production facility gunfire and screams echoed from distant corridors and a strange red dust had coated the walls and floors. The fine particulate matter floated in the air like dust motes.
"Tell me that isn't red sand," Hailstorm groaned as an amber warning indicator flashed on her HUD. The indicator warned that her Titan's particulate filters were unable to screen out the very fine particles which were even now infiltrating her lungs. Keying the comm, she broadcast across the general channel, "We've got airborne red dust and my suit filters aren't...oh hell..." she trailed off as she began to experience feelings of light-headedness coupled with a rapidly rising feeling of euphoria. "I'm inhaling red sand dust and you know what? I feel fine!"
All eyes turned to see the tall hardsuited figure execute a strangely compelling twirling dance, head thrown back and arms extended as the red dust formed a patina across her helmet visor. Still broadcasting across the open comm channel, Storm giggled with child-like delight at the rainbow of colours that flickered and flashed across her field of vision. Somewhere at the back of her mind, a voice was saying something about having a mission to complete but Hayley ignored the voice utterly.
It was such a beautiful day! Why worry about such things? Coming to a halt, arms falling by her sides, she all but skipped across the floor, booted feet kicking up yet more red sand and headed towards Shepard who was staring at her in unbelief, arms crossed over her chest. Clearly her suit filters were working just fine. Pity, thought Hayley. Standing before the Commander, a lopsided grin on her face, eyes crinkling at the corners, Hayley, now almost perfectly sandblasted, placed her hands on the other woman's shoulders and touched her helmet visor to Shepard's so they could look eye to eye.
Shepard attempted to wiggle out of the lieutenant's embrace but her hold was quite insistent. The rest of the squad members merely looked on, wearing expressions ranging from concern and bemusement to barely suppressed hilarity. "Hey Commander," Hailstorm giggled, "Have I ever told you how much I admire you? I mean, if I were a man, I'd be hitting on you like all the time!"
Fredericks burst into laughter and Hailstorm turned to face him, "What? Like you haven't gone there every night in your dreams!"
Whilst she was distracted, Shepard gently but firmly removed Storm's hands from her shoulders and carefully led her outside. "Where we goin?" the now high as a kite Hailstorm asked.
"We're going for a nice leisurely walk outside. You need some fresh air," Shepard replied, no longer bothering to keep the smile off her own face. Into her comm she addressed Garrus, "Can you take care of things without us, Garrus?"
When Garrus replied, he did an admirable job of keeping a straight face, "I think we can just about manage it, Commander."
---
Now
"Oh God!" Hayley moaned, hands on her face, "I practically came out and said I love Shepard!"
Dr Chakwas nodded solemnly, remembering the reaction from a certain asari, "Yes," Chakwas answered, "She does have that effect of on people, Lieutenant."
Hayley went on, apparently not hearing the doctor, "Which I totally don't, by the way! Not like that! I mean, yeah, she's a really great person and her eyes! God, a person could lose themselves in her eyes...um," eventually she turned to face the doctor, "This isn't going in my permanent file, is it?"
"I'm afraid so," Chakwas said and, seeing the alarmed look on her patient's face, hastened to add, "But I think I can see my way clear to...omitting certain sections from my final report. And don't worry, Lieutenant, this falls under doctor-patient confidentiality." Not that it will stop Joker and the rumour mill Chakwas thought ruefully.
Eventually, Dr Chakwas gave her patient a clean bill of health and ushered her from the medbay.
As Hayley headed out the door, the doctor called her back. "One last thing, Lieutenant."
"Doctor?"
"I don't want to see you in my medbay again." the warmth in the doctor's eyes told Storm she was only half-serious.
Hayley nodded and left.
A/N: Credit goes to Vshard, who suggested the basic premise to me. I hope you like the way it came out. I was going to elaborate on who the gatecrashers were but decided to leave that open to the imagination. In Mass Effect canon, the only things I could find on a red sand high was the biotic effect so I winged it for everything else including the colours and heightened perceptions.
I could probably keep coming up with stuff for this series forever but I have one more chapter to come.