In the storage room on the far side of the kitchen Shepard had found two backpacks. When they had finished their drinks, they went back inside and began packing one of them for tomorrow's exploration. Shepard advised that they not go further than half-a-day's walk, so they would not need a lot of supplies. "It shouldn't take us that long to find something, but it we don't we should probably plan on being back here before dark." Once that task was completed, they each refilled their drinks and went back out to the deck.

"Tell me about yourself, Lt. Commander," Shepard said, "How long have you been with the Alliance?"

"Twelve years now. I joined up straight out of high school. My family wasn't poor but my parents were already putting my sister through college. Her grades had been good enough that she got scholarships and my parents made up the difference. My teachers said I was smart but 'didn't apply myself,' and at least the latter part was true. I did better under the imposed discipline of the Alliance and became a decent engineer."

"How long have you been a Lt. Commander?"

"About two years now."

"'Decent' engineers don't become Lt. Commander's in ten years," Shepard said, "and they don't work directly for Admiral Hackett. How did you end up in that role?"

"You. Or, to be specific, your discovery of the Prothean beacon and stopping Saren on the Citadel. Admiral Hackett decided he needed a team dedicated to gathering intel related to the Reapers. The problem was the brass wanted to downplay Sovereign's role and say it was all Saren. He didn't even tell us that the Reapers were the focus. We were chartered to learn all that we could about advanced technology that Cerberus was researching. But we were a task force dedicated to investigating Cerberus and most of our missions were Cerberus related because they knew about the Reapers."

"Did you find out anything about Project Lazarus?" Shepard asked.

Edwards smiled and answered, "Not until after you were fighting the Collectors and had been in touch with Anderson. At least not by that name. We had evidence that there was a top-secret project that was receiving massive funding. Figuring out what that project was became a major focus for the team for the two months prior to your return. Cerberus was good at hiding what they were doing but the security on the Lazarus project was outstanding."

"Post your meeting with Anderson, we were able to guess where they had been spending that money. Claudia, Lt. Commander Crichton, raided the Lazarus facility after you left. Crazy mechs all over the place and a lot of dead bodies. Someone, I'd guess Miranda Lawson, had wiped the main data-banks. There were some records, mostly personal log entries that lacked any technical detail. They just confirmed that you had been the subject and which Cerberus agents had been involved. But by then we already knew that information.

"It was a turning point though," Edwards continued. "The elephant in the room was the question of why Cerberus would spend so much money to bring you back. Sure, the Collectors were a threat. But our intel said that when the Lazarus Project was launched, Cerberus didn't know it was them. So, why you?"

"Reapers," Shepard answered.

"Reapers," Edwards affirmed. "Anyway, back at the start, the Old Man wanted five people. The first four were easy choices for him. All were biotics who had been through ICT. I made the shortlist for the fifth slot, but Hackett was leaning towards another biotic. I had went through ICT with the first person chosen for the team and she convinced Hackett that having an engineer on the team was a good idea."

The corners of Shepard's mouth turned up and she asked, "Lt. Commander Crichton, I assume, since you are on a first name basis. Are you and she close?"

Edwards had about half his glass of Thessia Red left and downed it. "Claudia's dead, Commander. Sorry, but that wound's still raw right now. Besides, your stories have to be more interesting than mine. You mentioned that the Alliance destroyed the main Cerberus base before coming to earth with the Crucible. I've been tracking them for so long I'm curious about what you found."

Shepard told Edwards about going to Sanctuary and finding the location of the base from the tracker that Miranda had put on Kai Leng. Continuing the story with the trip to the base to find out what the Catalyst was and to shut down Cerberus. "But we were too late. The Illusive Man got away and fled to the Citadel. We got the data we needed and destroyed the base, but there are bound to be cells still operational. Those will need to be cleaned up but Cerberus shouldn't be threat it was."

They sat quietly for a while, then Shepard, always wanting to know the people she was working with, asked, "You mentioned a sister. Is your family still alive?"

"Last I heard, yes. We lived in St. Louis when I was growing up but my parents moved back to old family farm shortly after I joined the service. The Reapers have been focusing on large population centers so my parents are okay. My sister, Jill, and her family serve on an Alliance research vessel. She and my brother-in-law Nic are civilian contractors, not military, with two, Maria and Rafael. Jill's been helping with the Crucible. Nic and the kids are a remote base set up for family members of people working on the Crucible. We've been fortunate. Your mother's an Admiral, right?"

"Yes, her ship took part in the attack to reclaim earth. I don't know if she survived or not but I'm hopeful. She's a good leader and she's got a lot of experience. She raised me on ships. All this room seems strange to me. I can see how people would get used to it though," Shepard said.

When Edwards didn't continue to talk about his family or ask another question of her, Shepard said, "Any idea if the Crucible somehow sent us somewhere else?"

"I'm the wrong Edwards for that question. I'm a tech guy and that's a question that would require a theoretical physicist like Jill to answer. I would assume it's possible, given that your reports said that the Citadel itself is a mass relay, but I would also assume such a trip would have killed us, if it occurred."

The sun, Shepard realized, had gotten lower in the sky quicker than she would have expected and it didn't quite look like Sol to her. "Can your omni-tool tell us, relatively, what time it is? The sun seems to be setting quickly."

Edwards checked with SAI and, based on the sun's movements and the elapsed time SAI was tracking, determined that the days here were shorter than Earth days by just over four hours. "Guess we're not on Earth," Edwards said.

"It also means we have less travel time tomorrow," Shepard said. "Guess we should fix something to eat and then get a good night's rest if possible." With that she grabbed her cup and headed into the house. Edwards sat there a few minutes longer, scanning the water and looking at his empty glass. "Just one more," he thought as he picked up the bottle and went inside as well.