A/N: This chapter contains darker content. I deleted nearly all of the Mindoir content and the flashbacks, but some of it is still present. Warning that this chapter does contain snippets (in italics) to a flashback of an attempted rape.
CHAPTER 26: SKYFALL
The Normandy had continued to patrol the Argos Rho cluster for two more days, finding no further signs of geth presence. Shepard had them quickly jump after connecting to the comm buoys, putting nothing of their next destinations in the message. Just a week ago she would have thought that nothing could penetrate the Alliance's secure comms and encryption, but having a geth ship waiting for them above Tuntau had changed her mind. She didn't know if the geth were reading all of their mail, but she wasn't going to take that chance.
With no other leads to pursue, the Normandy was on her way to Terra Nova to resupply and for a quick press conference that Shepard to attend. It was always a benefit to pick up fresh foodstuffs whenever possible, Shepard knew, and they could reload the missiles they had fired in their engagement over Tuntau, or at least most of them. The downside was that she would have to attend a press conference.
The commander closed her eyes and rubbed her head, taking some time while they were at FTL to reflect on the past four weeks. Five weeks, she thought to herself. Five weeks ago today at this time…I had just gone to bed after finding out that morning that I was to be XO of the Normandy. In that time, she had been put under consideration for the Spectres, had it revoked, then made a Spectre anyway. They had attempted to recover a prothean artifact that Saren had sabotaged, which had dumped a disjointed series of visions into her head that she couldn't make heads or tails of, other than it was a slaughter and she should be very, very afraid. They had saved the daughter of Saren's top deputy, and had then eliminated said deputy, and in the process she had let the rachni go free, millennia after their prior rampage throughout the galaxy. They had killed two and a half geth ships, and the commander had another set of nightmares from being up close and personal with a thresher maw.
She reflected on the crew, both Alliance and those picked up since Eden Prime. To her delight they were starting to gel as one crew, not one Alliance crew and a few separate tagalongs. Ashley and Garrus had had bonded very well over their shared interests of firearms and military vehicles, despite the former's misgivings about aliens. Her lingering mistrust towards turians had been noticeably reduced. Tali had proven her talents to the engineering crew with her knowledge of ships and of the geth. Wrex mostly kept to himself, but would snark with any others who approached the corner of the loading bay he called home. Most of the time it was with her or Garrus, and she was pleased that the old krogan had seemed to put aside a little of the prejudice towards turians behind him. After their one discussion over the rachni decision, though, he refused to talk about Noveria any further.
They had been keeping a bit of odd hours due to their frequent engagement. Most Alliance ships had the crew on "port and starboard" duty watches, six hours on and six hours off, when in hostile territory. Captain Anderson and Commander Shepard had moved the crew to three eight hour shifts just before the latter had been appointed a Spectre. It had been a gamble, but they had both believed that it would work better than the standard six on, six off. While on-duty crew would be very busy on their shifts, with some of them having to monitor two systems, the extra ten hours off between the longer shifts was judged that it would pay off in the long run.
Duty watches had indeed been interrupted with significant events occurring at startling frequency, such as engagements or planetary stops, which occurred more frequently than on other ships due to the stealth frigate's much higher speed. While the Normandy was highly automated, the crew of less than thirty was starting to show signs of slight fatigue. They weren't always eating normal meals, with most people opting for more breakfast foods based on consumption and much more coffee drank by the crew. The crew mess, which also functioned as a combined officer and enlisted lounge since the Normandy was far too small to rate both a wardroom for officers and a separate mess for enlisted, was empty most of the time, while usually there would have been three or four crewmembers talking, playing cards, or watching vids. Something that was quite telling to the commander was that while most of the crew had gone "ashore" to Arcturus for a couple hours last time they were there, for most of the time that leave had been scheduled, the crew had stayed onboard and slept. That made Shepard feel even guiltier that she had been sleeping or in the medbay much of the time that the rest of the crew was on duty.
Doctor Chakwas had told her that the crew would adjust to the frequent calls to general quarters, the landings, and the transits, though the doctor conceded that their last month had certainly been far more exciting than normal on a ship. There were many signs that the crew had adjusted to the frequent interrupts, and the doctor told the commander that she didn't need to worry. Shepard worried.
Joker's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Dropping out of FTL in 3…2…1…"
She stretched her arms, suppressing a yawn, expecting an entirely uneventful approach and landing on Terra Nova.
"Commander. You're going to want to see this. Now," Chief Grieco said, his tone adding unknown urgency.
She hurried over to his console. "What is it, Chief?"
"There's nine MPDTs active on an asteroid. They're changing its orbit."
She blinked in momentary disbelief. "What?" she asked simply in surprise. "Changing its orbit how?"
"They're decelerating it…and it's going to impact Terra Nova." Both of them looked over the console that displayed the orbital elements on the asteroid. "Asteroid X57. The colonial administration plans to relocate it into a supersync orbit and mine it, then use it for storage."
"Terra Nova…" she breathed as she reviewed the orbital parameters. "We may only have a couple days, and there may not be enough fuel left to stop it…"
"At its current orbital velocity, the asteroid will collide with Terra Nova in approximately forty-four hours. The orbit has actually been slowed down enough to result in planetary impact, and…now it is accelerating towards Terra Nova under the planet's gravity and further assisted by the MPDTs," the chief said, his face turning pale.
Shepard looked at the current orbital parameters for the asteroid. She ran the numbers for a moment in her head on the thrust of the MPDTs listed on X57. Largest asteroid movers, 35 million kN thrust apiece, with the mass effect fields boosting specific impulse to maybe 75 million seconds… Assuming enough fuel to power through impact… "With this acceleration, we maybe have only forty hours to impact. And if they burn all of the fuel, we won't be able to adjust its course," she said, suppressing the sudden panic at the thought. "Try to raise the asteroid control center, and get word out to the Alliance garrison on Terra Nova. Then contact the colonial administration," she ordered. "Joker, get us on an approach course. Set Condition-1."
"Got it, Commander."
"Engage the stealth system."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
"Inform Second Fleet."
"Aye aye, Commander."
The next two minutes were frantic, as the Normandy rapidly ascertained the situation. Apparently the team on the asteroid had dropped out of contact, citing difficulties with their communication gear, an occurrence that apparently happened on a semi-regular basis. The ground station monitoring the operations on the asteroid had also recently had a large fire that had consumed much of the equipment, and it wasn't considered high priority for repairs, something that Shepard found both incredulous and very stupid. Redirecting an asteroid to a high planetary orbit seemed like a very bad idea to the commander, as the downside was now readily apparent to all. The fact the asteroid was on a collision course for the planet, with no response from the asteroid, and surprised responses from the colony, left her with only one likely conclusion.
"Condition-1 set throughout the ship."
"Ma'am, every ship that can respond is on their way to assist with evacuations."
"We'll be lucky if we could evacuate even half of the population before impact, even with all available Alliance ships and assistance from other species," Shepard said. "Alenko, Williams, Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Liara: suit up now. We're going to control the MPDTs to perform a course correction, and deal with any hostiles present."
"Hostiles, ma'am?" Williams asked.
"The asteroid is heading for the planet, with no response from the station, and the colony just as surprised as we are. It's likely someone hijacked the station. No one in their right mind would redirect an asteroid to a colony," she responded. So that just leaves people in their WRONG mind…but who? As crew rushed to their stations across the ship, Shepard brought up a scan of the system. No warships in system, Alliance or anyone else's, a number of standard civilian traffic and automated transports... "Chief, any unidentified vessels in system?"
"None detected, ma'am. We can't see the control center on X57 from this angle, however."
"Keep an eye on any ships hidden in the asteroid's shadow when we maneuver around. Don't use active scanners, keep us dark. XO, you have the deck."
Shepard ran down to change into her armor, joining the rest of the ground crew.
"Commander, we have four ships docked at the asteroid's control center. Two personnel shuttles, registered to a Terra Nova company. Two unregistered vessels, both batarian. Both FTL-capable."
Screams…blood…bodies –
Memories from that day flooded into her mind, and she forced them out. She had a job to do. "What classes are they? How many batarians could they conceivably transport between the two?" she asked.
"Presuming they were all batarians, probably about a hundred between the two. Vessels of these classes are often used in slave raids, and are nearly always configured to carry captives, so the number would likely be fewer."
"Mommy! Daddy!"
She quickly shuddered as her past memories returned to haunt her, and after a moment her mind put them back in the dark box they had came unbidden from. "Understood. So we could be going up against platoon of batarians."
The chief nodded. "That would be my estimate."
"S-somebody help!"
Shepard felt a sinking feeling in her gut, not at the odds, but at the batarians. Every time she fought them, every time she saw them, the memories of Mindoir returned to haunt her. But, just as she always managed to, she had to put them aside and do her job. This time, millions of lives were on the line, not just thousands on Elysium. "How many ships are able to respond?"
"Everything that the Alliance can deploy. All of the dreadnoughts and carriers at Arcturus, every civilian ship that can reach here before impact, and even a pair of fuel freighters."
The Alliance capital ships would be useful, as they could carry a lot of civilians, and she would take all of the extra fuel they could get. But the civilians still needed shuttles to depart the planet and reach the Alliance capital ships, and none of that would matter if they couldn't stop the terrorists on board, and the closer X57 got to the planet the more fuel it would take to redirect, the amount growing exponentially. How much fuel remained on the asteroid was anyone's guess.
"And please also ask exactly why the colonial administration didn't seem to know that they don't have control of their planet-killing asteroid anymore," Shepard ordered sourly.
The ground team finished their preps and stuffed themselves into the Normandy's stealth shuttle, which already powered up and immediately departed as soon as the loading bay opened. It was incredibly cramped due to the size and number of the occupants, and Shepard ended up part standing, part crouching between the larger members of the ground crew. She ordered a squad of the Normandy's crew to suit up for potential ground combat that the shuttle could bring in a second wave. It would take several minutes, and may or may not be needed, but she was taking no chances. While the personnel were not marines, all had received extensive small arms training as part of the navy, moreso than nearly all other naval personnel due to their assignment to the prototype frigate. She was glad that Williams had been providing extra small arms training to the crew. It very well might come in handy now.
Shepard looked again at the dimensions of the asteroid: 7.4 km across in its largest dimension, 304 billion metric tons. An asteroid of this size would be of comparable damage to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. All lives on the planet would soon be lost, as they would either be incinerated by the impact or would die from the subsequent effects unless they could quickly be evacuated. That did not count the effects from the inevitable mass panic. And just why would batarians redirect an asteroid to hit a colony? What would they hope to gain?
She put those thoughts aside. She had a job to do, and quickly.
The Normandy's stealth shuttle approached for a rapid docking at the asteroid's control center. "Okay," Shepard addressed the ground team. "The asteroid has been redirected to impact Terra Nova, probably by batarian terrorists. They can't detect the Normandy's shuttle without active scans, and scans don't detect any life signs at the docks themselves. We should be in the clear when we dock. I don't know if we'll receive a welcoming committee there, but you can bet we will encounter hostiles as we move in." She brought up a holographic map of the facility. "According to the maps that colonial records were kind enough to share with us, the control room is here. We rescue any engineers on the way, as they help us reorient this rock. If not, we need to reach it ASAP. Once there, we call up the ground controllers so they can help us reorient the asteroid and fire the thrusters to change orbit."
"We're docked," the crewman who doubled as the shuttle pilot said. There was a slight jolt as the artificial gravity took over for the station and a hiss of air as the atmospheres equalized.
The door on the asteroid side, however, was locked and would not respond to overrides. "Tali, override it. Alenko, you and I will help her."
It took fifteen seconds for the three of them to override the lock and the door to open. Shepard was in the doorway, barrier up and biotics at the ready. But no one waited there to greet them, just as the scans had shown… "Let's move," she said quietly. "Pakti, take the shuttle and re-dock with the Normandy. Get the second squad loaded up."
"Aye aye, Commander."
"Emerson, you're in charge of the second squad. Stand by to deploy."
"Aye aye, ma'am."
The facility had artificial gravity at half of earth's, so it made moving around much easier than zero gee. The squad advanced quickly and stealthily through the docking room, and moved into a room that held space suits and an array of drilling and repair equipment. Still there were no friendlies, no hostiles, no signs of any fighting...
Advancing towards the next room, Shepard made a stop motion to the squad, and she slowly peeked around the corner. She suppressed growing anger and a shudder at who she saw. She quickly turned back to the squad, gesturing orders. She got nods for responses.
Shepard put one of the far batarians in a stasis that made a rumble as the target was trapped. Alenko's stasis silently trapped a second batarian. Wrex leapt forward at a speed that almost seemed impossible for one his size. He grabbed one of the batarians heads in his massive hands, and using his forearms as leverage he snapped the neck with a sickening crack in one quick motion, silently lowering the corpse to the floor. At the same time Garrus leapt towards a batarian and stabbed his combat knife into the terrorist's neck, thrusting it deep into the spine and twisting it. A grotesque gurgling sound emanated from the batarian's mouth as the spinal cord was severed, and Garrus caught the body and silently deposited it on the ground, a pool of blood rapidly forming around the batarian's neck wound.
Alenko focused on the dark energy encasing his batarian. With focus and effort, he twisted the stasis around the batarian's neck. The dark energy remained silent, but the crack of the neck wasn't. Shepard shot a slightly alarmed glance at the lieutenant, eyes slightly widened in surprise.
Wrex and Garrus then ran to the two batarians still in stasis. The moment the stasis fields dropped, the last living batarian fell silently with a snapped neck from Wrex, while Garrus silently lowered the batarian's corpse killed by Alenko.
The lieutenant brought up a holographic map of the facility on his Omni-tool. "The administrative center is here, through this corridor and past this guard room. You can bet there're at least two squads in there," he said quietly.
Shepard nodded. "Probably most of their force, and worst case we could be looking at the better part of a company. But a platoon is more likely. When we get to the administrative center, we push to the control room. Kaidan, Wrex, and I use biotics to shred them at close range. Ashley, Garrus, pick them off at range, and focus on snipers and sappers. Tali, Liara, use tech and biotics in support." She then gestured to what their map showed as a guard room neraby. "Tali, let's hack it. See if we can get any camera feeds of the facility." The rest of the squad kept watch for the few seconds it took the two to open the door.
Weapons and powers were immediately leveled at the now open doorway, where four humans stood. Shepard immediately stepped in, holding up her hands and letting her biotics dissipate to assuage the frightened civilians. "I know you're scared," she said softly. "But we need to redirect this rock."
The eldest of the men approached. "We need to get to the central control room. We hid in this room and tried to redirect from here. No luck so far, it looks like we were locked out. We can't even access the camera feeds," he replied.
So much for that hope, Shepard thought. At least we found some of the station's crew that can help us redirect. "Is the only place to override the engine controls in central control?"
"Yes."
"How much fuel is left?"
The man told her the amount of fuel.
"No…" Shepard whispered as she did the math in her head in a moment. "We have forty-five minutes to get control and reorient. Otherwise there won't be enough fuel and the asteroid will impact."
He nodded grimly. "Just under forty-seven minutes."
"We'll get you to the control center, and you do whatever it takes to redirect this rock," the commander said. "Let's go." The squad hurried off, followed by the four engineers.
"I'm warning you, there's a probably a whole damn platoon of batarians in the control room. It's just on the other side of the living and research area."
"We can take care of them," Shepard said, her barrier flaring.
"I sure hope so. Their leader looks like one mean sonuvabitch."
"Trust me, I've dealt with meaner," Shepard replied. She didn't break stride, opening the door and sprinting in, but –
"TRAP!" Alenko shouted on seeing the explosives. He felt himself lifted into the air, but he felt oddly detached from the situation. He landed, or at least he thought he did, his ears ringing loudly from the blast. His head turned lazily around as he saw Garrus lying on his side, slowly rolling over on his back. Wrex still stood, but he staggered over to the wall…there hadn't been a wall there, the lieutenant remembered, especially one that looked like a pile of debris.
Layla…he realized as his mind forced his body to shakily stand. He wobbled to his feet, he knew he needed to get the commander out of the rubble that had a few seconds ago had been a wall with a doorway.
The ringing in the lieutenant's ears faded. "Dammit," Wrex cursed.
"Where's…where's Shepard?" the lieutenant rasped.
"Other side of this debris," he growled. "Door's gone, we'll have to get through the old fashioned way." He picked up a huge chunk of debris and hurled it aside without the aid of biotics. "Fucking traps."
Alenko brought up Shepard's lifesigns on his omni-tool. Not moving, likely knocked unconscious, the medical status on the 'tool said. "Is there another way in?"
"No," Simon replied, shaking his head. He ran to a still-intact console, with Tali quickly joining him.
"I still can't get remote access to the asteroid controls to redirect it," Tali said.
His heart suddenly sank at the thought of Shepard trapped in the room, unconscious with savage batarians. He charged his biotics to remove the rubble with Wrex, soon joined by Liara. "Get access to the video feeds," Alenko ordered. His lift and subsequent throw sent the remains of the door across the room.
"I'm in," Tali said ten seconds later.
"Figure out where the rest of the batarians are," Alenko ordered.
"I see Shepard, with several batarians and – oh keelah," Tali breathed.
Alenko glanced at the camera display now on his omni-tool. "Oh God," he whispered. He redoubled his efforts to move the debris out of the way. He had to get in there, and now.
Commander Shepard moaned as she slowly tried to sit up, her eyes fluttering open and closed. She should have expected the batarians to set traps on the sole entrance to the asteroid's control center. The fact they were in a rush didn't make her feel any better about falling for the trap, or excuse her rushing headlong into the room. Upon entering, she realized it also seemed to function as the administrative center, with oddly luxurious decorations complete with trees in the open anteroom, perhaps a hundred meters on each side. When the trap detonated, it had launched the commander's body more than ten meters forward. She got her arms out in front of her to absorb the impact, which seemed to have partially worked, as her right elbow hurt like hell. The force had still been enough to knock the wind out of her.
Her eyes lazily opened as she surveyed her surroundings as tried to sit up. Strangely, she couldn't. Something heavy lay on her chest, preventing her from moving. It took her dazed mind a moment to realize someone was pinning her to the ground.
But then she heard the voice. "Get her implant out."
The batarian threw her to the floor of the slaver ship. She put her arms out to break her fall, which succeeded until a boot slammed down onto her back. She gasped as she was pushed against the ground, trying to scamper to her feet, but massive hands roughly flipped her over onto her back. She looked to see an enormous batarian leer over her, his eyes –
"Balak, we – "
"Later," the massive batarian growled back.
Shepard froze, reliving Mindoir not just in her mind anymore.
"Balak, we – "
"Get it out now. Before she fully wakes up."
The batarian pinned her to the ground, straddling her hips. She let out a cry as he released the leg pads, grinning at her. "Hmm," he growled. "You're a pretty one. We're fetching a very good price for you. But I may just keep you for myself instead."
She tried to push the batarian off of her, but she had no leverage and a fraction of his strength. The batarian simply laughed as her fists struck him. He began to unfasten his armor's undersuit –
Shepard tried to push the batarian off of her, but her mind swirled, trapped in the memories of that day, and she couldn't focus on her biotics. And with those memories, she no longer was a Spectre, or an N7. She was a sixteen year old girl reliving that day on Mindoir.
A batarian roughly forced her head up and pushed her hair out of the way of her neck. Her fist connected with the batarian's jaw. The batarian cursed, and a moment later she was rewarded with a hard blow to the stomach.
"You escaped me last time. But this time you're not."
She tried to push him off of her, but her efforts had no effect. The batarian simply grinned, ignoring her punches as he pushed himself on her torso. "I'm going to have so much fun with you," he growled quietly as he pushed her dress up. She frantically looked around for something, anything she could use to hit her assailant, but nothing was within her grasp. This couldn't be happening everything had to be a nightmare she couldn't get free –
Biotics. She had to use her biotics. That was the only way she would get free.
Her breath came in ragged gasps. She tried to focus on her biotics, but a sudden noise –
Sixteen year old Layla Shepard charged her biotics in anger for the first time in her life. Blue energy swirled around her, and the batarian was too focused on removing his undersuit to even think that this small human could possess biotics. By the time he overcame the surprise at the sheer amount of dark energy surrounding the girl, both of her hands came up, sheathed in dark energy. The powerful biotic blast knocked Balak into the ceiling, leaving a large dent. He screamed as blood rushed from a large gash in his face. The girl scampered to her feet, rushing out of the room as her panicking mind tried to remember how she was brought aboard, towards the exit, towards freedom.
She ran down the narrow corridor, her breath in ragged gasps. She heard batarians yell behind her, and she didn't look back as her legs pumped harder than ever before. She had to get off the ship, had to leave before they departed, had to get back to her parents.
Her parents were back at they had to still be alive couldn't be dead
She ran headlong into a batarian, sending her airborne before crashing to the floor, rolling to a stop against the wall. The surprised slaver toppled to the ground from the impact before looking towards the small human that had caused it. Layla tried to push herself to her feet, but she felt something on her right foot, instinctively responding with a kick from her left. A yell of pain immediately followed the impact. She had to fight back.
Her biotics charged again, pulsing unsteadily as she hit the slaver with dark energy. The batarian screamed as he crashed into the wall five meters away. Layla scampered to her feet, the exit just in front of her. She jumped out the ship, landing on the turquoise grass of Mindoir, and sprinted away from the surprised slavers.
The batarian that had grabbed the base of her neck looked up at the sudden commotion from the rubble, before his look transformed into one of disbelief. Before he could register further surprise, dark energy surrounded the woman underneath him.
A biotic punch snapped his neck and set his limp body and into another terrorist. Shepard scampered to her feet, but a third batarian tripped her up.
Kaidan frantically biotically pulled chunks of rubble, cursing the migraine he knew would appear in a minute, but he had to get to Shepard, had to help her. Batarians were brutal, and took perverse attention towards female captives. His HUD showed that her heart rate had skyrocketed since coming back to consciousness. Enough of the rubble had been removed that they could now –
"Wrex!" he shouted.
"On it," the krogan growled. Everyone stood back as the krogan stood several meters away, a maelstrom of dark energy swirling around him. Even though everyone expected it, the raw power from Wrex's nova catapulted everyone, even Liara, into the air. Kaidan leapt back to his feet in time to see the krogan charge through the opening he had just created. The lieutenant heard a biotic explosion and a batarian scream get cut short.
Alenko jumped through the rubble in time to see Wrex's shockwave toss a pair of batarians high into the air. "Fucker!" the krogan shouted to a third that he had grabbed by the arm, physically tossing the shrieking terrorist several meters into a wall.
Kaidan's breath hitched as he saw a batarian trip Shepard as she tried to flee. The slaver turned terrorist lunged at her as she tried to crawl to her feet. He couldn't shoot the batarian; the rounds would deflect off of the hostile's barrier and could hit Shepard. And with his biotics, he would –
Biotics. She seemed to be immune to biotics, so if he –
His barrier had already been charged, and he shifted the dark energy to his charge and hurtled towards the batarian, hoping that her apparent biotic immunity didn't require any effort or focus on her part.
Kaidan hurtled towards the batarian, launching the batarian five meters away into a wall. He looked down to Shepard as his corona faded from the attack, and he breathed a sigh of relief that she had been unaffected by his biotics. He quickly picked her up by her shoulders and pulled her behind a low wall. But what he saw scared him.
Layla Shepard stared back at Kaidan in terror, eyes wide as saucers, mouth hanging open. Her body shook enough that he could even feel it through their armor. He wondered what the hell had put her into a catatonic state. The first human Spectre looked like anything but, gripped in panic as she stared wide eyed back at him. His projected HUD showed her heart racing at nearly 150 beats per minute.
He realized she was probably having a panic attack.
"Layla. Layla. It's me. It's Kaidan," he said as calmly and gently as he could in the situation. A particularly loud overload detonated behind him, followed by a batarian scream.
She did nothing in response before a sudden shudder wracked her body and her eyes came back into focus, staring back at him, blinking. "K-Kaidan I-I-I I-It's – " she stammered rapidly.
A pained batarian scream was cut suddenly short by a biotic explosion. "I need to – "
She shook her head. "W-we need to s-stop the batarians," she said, her breath hitching in rapid gasps. "Stop the batarians. R-redirect the asteroid."
Before he could stop her, her biotics rapidly charged and she attacked a pair of batarians. Alenko hesitated, wondering what he should do in the situation. He had no idea which Alliance rules applied to command situations for a commanding officer who happened to be the first human Spectre having a panic attack during firefight with terrorists that were forty minutes away from crashing an asteroid into a colony with millions of people. He had to keep a close eye on her, but these batarians needed to be stopped. Another biotic attack from the commander was followed by a batarian shriek and an explosion.
Despite whatever had caused Commander Shepard to panic, she apparently needed little encouragement to turn her biotics on the batarians, with a surprising, uncontrolled violence in their use that he had never seen from her before, even when fighting Benezia.
Alenko emerged from cover, and before could even use a throw on another pair of batarians, a singularity appeared in their midst that pulled them in as well as a third terrorist. His throw had the effect of detonating the singularity and killing all three. Next came a shockwave from the commander as Alenko appraised the area, keeping an eye on Shepard as she moved to a better vantage point. He didn't have further time to dwell on the situation as a batarian opened fire on him. His response came in the form of a biotic throw.
A batarian voice from somewhere shouted in the trade language. "Take the human female alive!"
The lieutenant saw Wrex grab a large, heavily armored batarian in both his hands, then he biotically charged a wall ten meters from him. The wall did not budge, and Wrex did not budge, so the batarian ended up absorbing all of the impact force. From the state of the remains, Alenko didn't need any sort of training in medicine to know the terrorist was truly dead.
Tali quickly sapped shields from several slavers. Garrus and Ashley stood back, firing at any batarian that came into view, finishing off the unshielded batarians with ease. Liara used her biotics nearly continuously; a throw splattered a batarian sapper against a wall, and a subsequent wave of dark energy launched a shock trooper through a window. But he saw a squad of batarians run towards –
"They're heading to the control room!" the lead X57 engineer shouted into their comms. "Don't let them sabotage it!"
Layla Shepard's heart felt like it would explode out of her chest. She suppressed the fear and terror of that day on Mindoir enough to fight. With the initial shock of the situation fading, self-doubt came back in full force she repeatedly cursed herself for locking up again, just like she had froze on Mindoir and watched her parents get killed on her behalf. Balak would pay for what he did, what he tried to do. She would make sure of it.
She watched Alenko re-enter the fight, and she followed up with her own biotic singularity.
"Take the human female alive!" Balak screamed.
Shepard shuddered ducked into cover, remembering Mindoir, but fear wasn't the first thought on her mind anymore. The panic began to fade, and her mind now focused on one thing: vengeance. She had the ability and the skill to rip Balak apart, and she would do so.
Layla glared at the batarian as dark energy began to swirl around her. She watched Balak biotically throw a large crate at Tali. The Spectre caught the crate with her own biotics just a few meters from Balak, crushed it, and hurled it back at him. The batarian barely had time to jump away as the crushed crate rocketed past him and crashed through a wall, embedding itself into a second wall on the far side of the administrative center. He biotically leapt to the highest level of the facility to get a better vantage point.
Balak watched his trusted second in command throw the human male out of the way, sending him sprawling on the floor and away from Shepard. He found himself pleased with this development; his lieutenant had the best training available in the Hegemony, was equipped with the best biotic-resistant armor in the galaxy, and was perfectly capable of subduing her. If he succeeded, Balak just might let him have a piece of her, too.
His hope evaporated a moment later. All of his lieutenant's advantages didn't matter in the least. He never even got close to her. Shepard's biotics charged, far faster than he had ever seen from anyone, and the biotic blast instantly killed his lieutenant. The attack ripped him into several pieces, and the subsequent impact with the wall a few meters away simply turned the pieces into smears.
He disabled her shields with an overload as she stood between him and the human male that lay on the ground. Her biotics immediately charged, faster than even asari he had seen, and he barely jumped out of the way just as a biotic wave ripped away the floor and wall behind him that he had vacated just a second ago. He looked back to her as he prepared to charge away and to safety, watching as she dragged the human male into cover.
One of his best sappers jumped at the first human Spectre, but he didn't make it. One of her arms was still wrapped around the male to pull him to cover, and her other only released him for a second. The arm became immediately sheathed in dark energy as she punched the sapper. The biotic blast buckled the chest armor and caused the sapper to crumple to the ground, screaming in pain. The screams stopped a moment later as a single shot from a turian entered the batarian's head.
Shepard pulled the male human soldier into cover, and then Balak saw her look up at him, dark energy rippling around her.
Balak had hoped he could capture Layla Shepard. While her biotics would present some problems to containment, and her advanced military training would complicate the torture used to condition slaves to docility, the Hegemony had successfully dealt with both of these issues before. Seeing the raw power she put forth, however, he had no chance, and he had no choice.
"Sabotage the controls!" he ordered his batarians. He hoped that would give him time to flee.
Balak charged into the supply processing area where they had first docked. He heard a male voice shout something in the human language that his translator didn't catch over the commotion of battle. He closed the sturdy security door behind him as he leapt through another doorway, sealing the second door, and sprinted into the docking area. He thought that the heavy doors should keep her out for a while.
A crunch and a hollow boom a moment later told him how incorrect his assessment was. He sprinted towards the smallest FTL-capable ship, fear rising up in his gut as he expected a biotic attack to rip him apart at any moment.
Layla Shepard destroyed the first reinforced security door with a single biotic attack. Balak was going to die for killing her parents, for what he tried to do to her, and she was only seconds behind him when –
The lead engineer's voice shouted into the fireteam's comm, desperation in the engineer's voice, causing her to pause for a second. She was close, so close, to revenge, just seconds behind Balak. She could get revenge for that day, for the death of her parents, for what happened to Mindoir. Her mind screamed for his death, for her own family and the hundreds of families that perished on her homeworld. She looked left to the door to the docks, and to the right towards the security room exit that led to the asteroid controls.
She was an officer in the Alliance. And as much as she wanted vengeance for that day, she had a job to do. If the batarians could sabotage the controls, and the asteroid was to strike Terra Nova, millions of families would perish. And if she followed him into the dock, all he had to do was to vent the dock into space.
She screamed in frustration as she unleashed a wave of dark energy at the floor beneath her. She returned to the hole in the wall that had been a door a few moments ago, looking down at the combat occurring below. Batarians moved quickly towards a large door in the back of the administrative center. She had to stop them. She had to block their entrance to the control room.
She used her biotics to hurtle across the room; the charge impacted the batarian nearest to the control room. She bounced twice on the ground and rolled to a stop in front of the door. The terrorist was less far lucky. He screamed as he flipped end over end in the air, suddenly falling silent as he impacted the wall with a loud crunch.
Slightly disoriented, she shook her head clear, opening her comm as she pulled herself to her feet, her corona barrier still glowing brightly as she defended the door. "Shepard to Ghostrider, a ship – " she paused as she threw an approaching batarian into a pillar " - is departing the asteroid. Destroy it," she ordered.
"Aye aye, ma'am. Maneuvering into position now. We don't have a clear shot. If we miss, the round will impact Terra Nova," Pressly responded.
"Get a clear angle where you won't hit the planet, and take that ship down!" she shouted, lifting another batarian into the air. The batarian scream cut off suddenly as the second part of her attack slammed him back into the floor.
"Charging gun and approaching position," the WSO replied.
"Target just bugged out to FTL," Greico said at the same time.
"NO!" Shepard screamed in anguish, jerking a fist down and unconsciously unleashing a biotic wave towards the ground, making a large, crumpled dent in the floor. She was tempted to order the Normandy to FTL to the nearest relay on that vector, but she knew the ship was needed here. She felt angry at the Normandy's location – the one time she really needed them to shoot, more than ever, they couldn't. It wasn't their fault at all; they just happened to be in the wrong spot for those few key seconds.
She would just have to settle for her getting her vengeance against these remaining batarians.
A bright blue flash appeared from Tali's left as Wrex biotically charged into two terrorists, launching each of them into the nearest walls. He immediately followed up with a massive nova that finished them off as threats. He charged to join Shepard in blocking off the door to the control room as Alenko quickly led the rest of the fireteam forward.
Shepard dropped a singularity, this one almost blinding to look at, in the middle of a batarian fireteam. She didn't even wait to detonate it as she hurtled towards a pair of terrorists thirty meters away, splattering them onto the wall. A split second later she unleashed a shockwave towards another batarian trying to hide, sending him so far into the air that he nearly the ceiling. The singularity then detonated with a deafening roar that sounded more like lightning than an explosion, and when the dark energy dissipated, only bits of the batarians remained. She charged back to join Wrex, but her violent attacks had prevented any terrorists from reaching him.
With two powerful biotics protecting their objective, and a deadly fireteam quickly cutting them off from their ships, the last few batarians realized the hopelessness of their situation, from consensus at viewing the raw destruction the squad was capable of rather than any spoken word. Shepard wasn't finished with them yet, however.
"Stop! We sur- " one batarian started to say before he and his compatriot were swept off of the ground and splattered against the wall by Shepard's biotics.
Alenko picked his head up behind cover to witness another trio of terrorists who had dropped their weapons and held their hands high into the air as they stood out of cover. "Stop! We surrender! Please don't kill us!" one exclaimed in panic.
Shepard turned towards them, pulsing from forehead to toe with dark energy.
"Please!" the batarian pleaded. "We didn't sign on to this! We didn't want to destroy a colony!"
Shepard's corona suddenly brightened as she reached towards the surrendered trio, sweeping them off their feet to panicked yells.
Kaidan now wondered what regulations applied. While Shepard's pulse had slowed according to his HUD, she had probably just had a panic attack. The armor cams and microphones recorded everything, and would certainly receive intense scrutiny after an event like this. He didn't particularly care about the fate of these batarians, but he did care for Shepard. With all of the eyes on her, she couldn't afford to have a lapse in judgment. Executing combatants attempting to surrender, even when said combatants were batarians terrorists that were attempting to crash an asteroid into a colony, even when she was a Spectre and technically above the law, could create a publicity problem with some in the Alliance that Shepard didn't have time to deal with, and one she shouldn't have to.
He then heard a pair of moans from two of the batarians, soon followed by a third voice. He felt a bit of relief that she hadn't killed them; not for their sake, but rather for her own. Two more batarians staggered out from behind a wall, blood seeping from shoulder wounds, shouting "surrender!" in the trade language. All of their weapons had been discarded as they slowly approached.
"Get on the fucking ground! NOW!" Shepard screamed at them. The commander's voice stopped Alenko in his tracks. She had always been calm and collected, and she rarely swore, and never so strongly. He glanced at her apprehensively; he found the anger and rage from her both concerning, and a little terrifying.
"Just don't kill us!" one of the batarians pleaded as both complied.
"Wrex, Garrus, watch the surrendered batarians. If they even try to move, kill them," she said coldly, a sharp edge in her voice that no one had heard from her before.
"With pleasure," the krogan said, kicking one of them in the stomach. To his minor surprise and greater amusement, the terrorist yelped in pain. The chance of any of the remaining terrorists moving very far was very remote. They had all suffered firearm wounds or shattered bones from the biotic blasts.
The X57 engineers opened the control room and instantly got to work, briefly aided by Tali and Shepard. The engineers raced from console to console, with the lead asking questions and receiving answers from the trio of engineers. He calmly began to issue instructions as one by one the blaring alarms in the control room fell silent.
"You guys got this? Can you reorient?" Shepard asked after thirty seconds, her corona still glowing brightly.
"Yes, we're reorienting now. We'll make it," the lead engineer stated stated, not taking his eyes off of the console. "We have enough time, and enough fuel to give us some extra altitude margin at periapsis. But in this case, I want more."
Shepard nodded curtly as she turned and marched out of the room, leaving the engineers to their tasks. She turned to address the squad, though she didn't have the typical smile on her face that she normally would after a successful mission. "The engineers are going to be able to redirect the asteroid so it will miss Terra Nova. Excellent work, everyone," she said, her voice empty and monotone, her face expressionless.
The squad dispersed to watch the prisoners, and after they did, Wrex walked deliberately towards the Spectre. "Shepard," he began.
"Not now," she replied quickly with a shake of her head.
"What the hell happened with – "
"Not NOW, Wrex," she snapped angrily at him, eyes narrowed and biotics suddenly pulsing in anger. The krogan didn't flinch, and a moment later she looked up to the krogan, the glare replaced with a remorseful look on her face as her corona faded. "I'm sorry, Wrex…it's…we'll talk later."
He regarded her for a moment with narrowed eyes, crossing his arms. A barely perceptible "hm" escaped his mouth as he stared at her.
"Let's first make sure X57 is redirected." She walked towards the control room.
Wrex's narrowed gaze followed her as she departed before he looked at Alenko for a moment. He grunted something in a krogan language that the lieutenant's translator didn't catch as he lumbered off.
The engineers had already reoriented X57, and had begun the long burn to change its orbit. "There is more than enough fuel to change our orbit," the chief engineer reported. "Terra Nova periapsis will be 823 kilometers in altitude after we burn all of the fuel on site. After we get more fuel, we will be able to adjust at apoapsis so the next periapsis will completely be out of the exosphere." He paused for a moment, straightening himself and continuing solemnly. "Commander, you and your squad saved over ten million lives today. Including my family's. You have my thanks." He extended his hand.
Alenko saw Shepard hesitate, staring at the engineer, before finally shaking his hand without a smile. "Thank you for what you've done, and getting that asteroid redirected. We couldn't have gotten familiar with the systems and controls in time." Her voice had zero emotion, her expression still blank.
He sighed with a shake of his head. "I don't understand why the batarians would do this. They run criminal gangs. Unethical, but profitable. Why would they try to destroy a colony?"
"They're simply monsters," came her simple response. She turned away from the engineers, taking an energy injection into her side as she moved to a bench away from everyone else, unceremoniously plopping down on it.
The lieutenant looked at a dispatch forwarded from the Normandy, reading it before looking over to Shepard. She hadn't moved from her spot on the bench, staring blankly forward at the white wall. He hesitated before slowly approaching her.
"Uh…Commander, the Kilimanjaro battle group is on their way. ETA five-five minutes. They were retasked to provide support. We should have a fuel shipment in about three hours. That will provide even more margin at periapsis."
"Thanks for the update, Lieutenant." Again there was no emotion in her voice, and a long silence returned. "The ship that escaped…any news on it? Where Balak fled to?" she asked him several moments later, not making eye contact.
"The Normandy tracked it jumping to FTL. The vector was straight to the nearest secondary relay. It's the only one nearby, there wasn't much point in deceptive tactics," the lieutenant responded, before he paused, wondering how he should phrase his next question. He slowly sat down next to her, hesitating before speaking. "Layla…" he began quietly, "can I help…"
"I'm fine, Lieutenant," she quickly cut him off before looking to her side to give him an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry…I…shouldn't snap at you."
"Sorry, ma'am," he said quickly. "I just want to make sure you're okay," he told her quietly.
She gave him a glance before looking away, taking a deep breath. "I-it's something…it's…I'll tell you later. Let's…but I want to get info from these batarians. Why they would do this." She took another deep, shaky breath and stood. She closed her eyes for a moment, then began slowly walking towards the prisoners.
The conscious batarians traded nervous looks between each other and the weapons aimed at them. The terrorists then began to back up as the first human Spectre approached them. Alenko wanted answers; why the batarians decided to crash an asteroid into a planet, and just what caused Shepard to have a panic attack. The commander stopped just several meters from the surviving batarians.
She glared at the terrorists. "How long have you been planning this?"
"I-it wasn't p-p-planned. At l-least nothing we knew about. B-Balak just said we should try to hit a-a larger colony. But we never thought it would be this, that w-we would crash an asteroid into a planet." He shook his head. "We're just slavers."
Shepard scowled, her corona flaring slightly in reaction. "Just slavers? The same slavers that attack colonies and kidnap people for slaves? The same slavers that use women and girls as sex slaves!?" Her biotics pulsed, the manifestation of her anger sending vibrations through the floor.
A batarian looked alarmed by the last statement. "Girls? I would never – "
"Bullshit," Shepard cut him off. "If left to me, I would not hesitate to kill each and every one of you, slowly and painfully." The surviving batarians cowered away from her as her corona subconsciously continued to pulse. "But despite what you've done, you may have some information that the Alliance might find valuable, maybe even valuable enough for you to keep your heads." She shook her head, frowning. "Even after everything you've done…you'd better start telling us everything, and I mean everything, about why you decided to coldly exterminate millions of people."
Lieutenant Alenko watched the commander, continuing to wonder just what would cause Shepard to act so out-of-character from what he had seen of her so far. Sure, no one in Council space particularly liked batarians, he knew, but she seemed to have a particular hatred for them. Who was this Balak batarian, and why did she seem so intent on killing him? And what had caused her to freeze and panic just minutes ago?
After Alliance reinforcements had arrived, the Normandy was promptly ordered to return to Arcturus. The crew had all been debriefed, and from the state of the personnel on the station, the Alliance was in a bit of a panic after a redirected asteroid had nearly obliterated a colony. The X57 situation soon broke to the media, and it was the story dominating the galactic news cycle, easily eclipsing Eden Prime and the geth, and only elevating to additional prominence any stories about "Spectre Shepard". While word had gotten out about Shepard being present, other than the asteroid had been redirected for planetary impact and that catastrophic collision had been avoided, nothing had else had been released about what had happened. It also appeared to Alenko that the Alliance was working very hard to keep it that way.
Kaidan sat in the mess as the Normandy docked, his mind slightly groggy at being up so long, and unable to sleep after X57 despite pushing his biotics hard and his shoulder being sore after being hit from a biotic attack. He silently ate rations to supplement his energy intake. He thought the encounter, about how Shepard had frozen up on seeing that batarian Balak. The commander had been pulled into calls, and Doctor Chakwas had wanted her to rest further after the biotic exertion on X57. There hadn't been an opportunity for Alenko to talk with his CO since then, but he did take a bit of time in the comm room to look up intel on the batarian that Shepard had called Balak.
Ka'hairal Balak had a surprising large Alliance intel dossier. While not officially a member of the Hegemony's military or intelligence apparatus, he frequently received confirmed aid from both. He had started out with a gang "sanctioned" slavers that hit Alliance colonies in the mid 2160s, and by the early 2170s, he had been regarded by the Hegemony as one of their premier slaver leaders. Now few slave raids occurred without his input, and he frequented many of the raids, where he was known to be particularly brutal, especially with female captives. Now he had begun to take on acts of state-sponsored terrorism. He had a long list of planets his gang had raided for slaves. Twice AIA had determined his location, and twice a squad of N's had been sent to eliminate him. Both times he had escaped. Balak turned out to be one of the Alliance's highest-priority batarian targets. Kaidan wondered the odds of Shepard having encountering him before in such a vast galaxy. Was she on one of the N teams that had been sent to kill him? Given the relatively small number of N's the Alliance had, it remained a possibility in Alenko's mind. But what would cause her to panic in such a way after being caught by batarians?
The commander left her cabin just a few minutes after he sat down, and noticed the lieutenant at the mess table. He looked up to greet her. "Layla," he said softly. He appraised his CO, quickly noticing that she looked…not much better now than she did after X57, he noticed.
"Alenko," she responded neutrally as she sat down next to him.
"Debrief, I take it?"
"Yeah," she responded with a sigh. Alliance personnel had been talking with practically anyone involved in the X57 redirect. They had talked with people remotely in the comm room, but now that the Normandy had docked, it made sense that they would want to talk to the CO in person for the ship that saved the colony.
"I'm…well, I'm glad that we were able to stop impact," he responded carefully.
"So am I," came her simple reply.
"I suspect colonies will want to review the practice of adjusting the orbits of asteroids, though. Nothing about redirecting asteroids seems to be a good idea," he said, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"I think you're right on that count," she replied, but there was no humor in her expression or in her tone.
He remained silent for a while, and she did not seem eager to break it. "May…I ask a question?" he finally asked.
There was a long silence before she finally replied, anxiety evident in her voice. "About what?"
He never got a chance to ask. To the lieutenant's disbelief, Captain Anderson entered the mess. He blinked several times, as if the act would correct his eyes to remove the likely hallucination, for a split second wondering if he had actually had been eating rations appropriate for Alliance personnel or something else entirely. He thought the O-6 was on the Citadel. Just when did he get to Arcturus, much less when did he come aboard the Normandy? Nothing had been announced, so what the hell was he doing here? "David," she said quietly.
The captain looked closely at the commander. "Layla. Are you ready?" Anderson asked softly.
She let out a sigh. "Yeah." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, standing and straightening her skirt. "I'll…I'll talk to you in a while, Alenko," she said to him quietly, making brief eye contact, before walking towards the stairs, leaving the ship a minute later. Alenko watched in surprise as the two officers disappeared out of sight a moment later, his mind reeling with yet more questions.
Alenko remained in the mess, idly reading through the myriad lists of ships that had redirected to help Terra Nova while waiting for Shepard to return. He still tried to process what he knew, and how he should ask Shepard about her past. Had she been sent after Balak? Had she been caught? But why was Captain Anderson now with Shepard? Shepard was Anderson's protégé of sorts – had he been the one to order her after Balak? And had it gone horribly wrong? But Anderson seemed to have a closer, more protective relationship to Shepard than just a mentor.
Not thirty minutes had passed when Alenko noticed the elevator open and Shepard quickly hurry to her quarters without a word. Anderson followed, not acknowledging the lieutenant's presence slowly heading up the stairs to CIC.
The lieutenant paused for a good minute, considering what he should so and how he should approach Shepard, and even if he should. He thought he had a decent picture of what had happened with Balak, but what could he even say to her after what might have happened? Should he even ask? But she had so many things to worry about…could he possibly help her a little?
He took a deep breath and slowly walked to the commander's quarters. He paged the comm on the door. "Commander…it's Lieutenant Alenko."
"Just a minute," was the response. Perhaps thirty seconds later the door opened, revealing Shepard to be standing a meter from the doorway. Her eyes were moist, her mood sullen.
He rubbed his shoulder nervously. "I was wondering if you had a few minutes."
She sighed, nodding her head after a long pause. She closed her eyes. "Yeah…come in." He entered her quarters and closed the door behind him.
Alenko slowly entered, unconsciously surveying the room. It was surprisingly tiny and austere for a CO's quarters. The room had a small bed, with a desk, vidscreen and chair crammed in next to the bed. A tiny closet and a private bathroom rounded out the quarters. All in all, it was probably only about ten square meters total. Her uniform jacket had been tossed unceremoniously over the top of the chair, and the lieutenant noticed a trio of used tissues in the wastecan next to his feet.
She gestured to the chair, as she sat on the edge of the bed less than a meter away. "You wanted to talk?" she asked.
"Actually…I thought you might want to talk a while."
She didn't respond immediately. "About what?" she finally asked, softly.
"It seems you…it looks like you've had better days. And this Balak…" Alenko noticed tense up at the mention of the name, accompanied with a sharp intake of breath. "Well, I-I…didn't know if you would like to talk, if talking would help."
Shepard sat on the bed with her back straight, crossing her legs at the ankles as she placed her hands in her lap. She let out a long sigh, with a sad look in her blue eyes that seemed so out of place to the lieutenant. She shifted her arms, holding her elbows in her palms as if she was drawing into herself for protection, and then she finally spoke. "Do you remember much about the batarian slave raids in the early 2170s?" she asked quietly, almost a whisper, still not making direct eye contact with him.
He furrowed his brow, thinking for several moments. "I had enlisted around that time. I heard some of the raids were bad," he said quietly.
"In one of the raids, seven batarian ships landed around the administrative district on Mindoir. There was only a tiny garrison and a small militia, since Mindoir was a fairly out of the way colony," she explained in a detached voice. "The garrison and militia were soon overrun. There were too many batarians to hold off. The batarians soon broke through, shooting anyone who resisted. They were in the process of rounding up many of the women as slaves when the Einstein battlegroup arrived. The first platoon of marines from the screening frigate flotilla touched down just as the batarians were preparing to leave. Two ships got away before the battlegroup could do anything about it. The marines sustained heavy losses trying to rescuing captives and disable ships."
Shepard paused for several moments, sorrow on her face. Then reality slapped Alenko in the face like a power cell, remembering her comments a few days ago about where she had grown up, how she had always glossed over her younger years...his guess had been entirely wrong. "W-w-wha…" he stammered out, nearly shouting, "y-you were there? During a slave raid?"
She nodded, closing her eyes. "I was in high school, sixteen, at the time. I was walking home…"
My God…Alenko thought, himself shuddering at the description of the attack. Shepard's parents dying trying to protect her, Balak abducting her and attempting to rape her, her narrow escape. And having to hide amongst – he stopped, he needed to focus on her, and what she needed now. "Layla…" Kaidan said softly.
"My parents…"
She sniffled twice in quick succession, looking down, her eyes wet. Kaidan moved from the chair to sit on the bed to the right to her, his instinct to comfort her subconsciously kicking in. "Layla," he said, putting his left arm around her shoulder.
"I could have saved my parents, but I didn't – "
"Layla, you did everything you could," Kaidan replied softly, taking one of her hands in his.
"No I didn't," she cried back. "I had my biotics. I could have saved them, but I didn't."
"You were a sixteen year old girl with no biotic training," he replied. "You could have killed yourself too."
"I used my biotics fine on the slaver ship, but I just sat there and watched my parents die. I did nothing except freeze and watch it happen!" A sob hitched in her throat. "I didn't do anything, I just watched. I didn't fight back…just like today, when I saw Balak, I didn't fight. I RAN!" she choked out, finally breaking down. Kaidan instinctively pulled her shuddering body to him and gently held her head with his right hand.
Kaidan held her while she cried. As a sixteen year old girl, biotics or not, she couldn't have done much to help. She would have gotten herself killed, or worse. And he knew she was frankly incredibly lucky that she was even able to escape the ship. "There was nothing more you could have done," he said softly. "You did everything you could just to survive and escape."
It took a couple minutes for her crying to stop. The lieutenant had been able to reach her desk for a tissue box and had handed it to her. She dried her face and eyes. "Sorry." Another sniffle. "You don't need your CO crying into your chest."
Right now he didn't care. "You need to talk about it. You…can't just leave it bottled up. You have to talk."
A long silence settled between the two. "Yeah…I guess," she whispered finally. "It's…something that I…but seeing…him on X57…it's not something I can fully recover from. But…thank you, for listening."
"Did…talking help a bit?" he asked softly, still holding her close, handing her another tissue.
"A little…yeah, it did." She sniffled again. "It…it can help a bit to talk about it, sometimes. I think…" She was mostly back under control, and they disengaged. She slowly stood and walked to the bathroom. The lieutenant stood and followed her towards the cabin exit. "I think…I'm going to try and get some rest for a while," she said quietly as she turned to face him.
"I'll make sure no one bothers you," he assured her, pausing for several moments. What should he do? What should he say? She was his CO, but what she had been through... He stood up straight as he spoke softly. "If…you ever want to talk about anything at all…Layla, it's…just know…just know that I'll help you however I can. With this or with anything else."
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I appreciate that." Her eyes were red and moist from the extended crying. For the first time since X57, however, he noticed something slightly different in her expression, something he couldn't quite place. He found himself even more surprised when after a moment's pause she gently embraced him, putting her arms up around his shoulders. He was slightly taken aback by the gesture, but returned it, slowly putting his arms around her back. He pulled her close to him, his head resting on top of hers, before disengaging after several seconds and one final sniffle. "You're a good man. Thank you for listening, Kaidan," Layla Shepard said softly.