The whole flight-deck had come out to watch them test the Crimson Tactical and take her out on her maiden voyage. Kaidan got the first glimpse of what it must be like to be a Jaeger pilot, glancing at Riley marching next to him, features smoothed and collected though no longer deceiving him as to what went on underneath.
When they'd Drifted earlier, he hadn't the slightest inkling to the amount of guilt and regret she carried with her. All the news broadcasts and Jaeger pilot interviews, she'd been exactly as she was now: like a rock. Immovable. Stoic.
He'd bet his money on her boiling with excitement on the inside. He certainly was.
He was also nervous and not just because this was his first flight in a Valkyrie and first flight in the Drift. Despite the hours of training before Riley's arrival, nothing could compare to the actual thing. To top it off, he was going in with the only person to survive combat in a Jaeger solo.
It was less daunting than he thought it'd be, more daunting than it should have been.
Unlike the lab, the control room here was massive. Monitors and console stations, remote connections to the Crimson Tactical displaying its status, currently inactive monitor that would display their life-signs as soon as they were in the ship. Another that would display the status of the neural bridge.
Miranda Lawson was overseeing operations, under Admiral Anderson. Specialists running around, coordinating the first flight. Everyone stopped what they were doing as soon they entered the control room. Unlike Riley, who seemed to know what to do, Kaidan simply felt a little awkward at the attention and let Riley take the lead.
Being in her head had taught him that she reluctantly accepted the fame that had come with being the sole survivor from Akuze. Fame that had only been made worse once she'd become a Jaeger pilot. Now here she was testing out the first Valkyrie class warship. She knew the steps necessary to get through the attention whereas he was more used to standing outside of the spotlight.
She raised her hands in the air and the cheering that had started as soon as they entered the control room ceased.
Miranda Lawson approached them with a bottle of champagne. "To metaphorically break over the bulkhead."
"How about we save the glasses after the party," Anderson said. Riley handed the champagne to him.
"Take care of it, sir."
"Make me proud."
"We will, sir."
Anderson jerked his head towards the bridge, grinning. "Go on, get out of here."
The conn pod was bigger than the small station they'd tested their Drift Compatibility in earlier, but not by much and of necessity because the pilot rigs took up a majority of the space. So while the square footage was arguably bigger than their test station had been, more of it was occupied by tech. Most of it was occupied by the two pilot rigs in the center.
"Two pilots aboard," the ship AI announced as soon as both of them entered the conn pod. He'd read in the ship specs that the Crimson had been outfitted with an advanced artificial intelligence nicknamed EDI – Enhanced Defense Intelligence. Developed by Cerberus, technically in violation of the statutes against artificial intelligence research, but Cerberus had gotten around that as EDI hadn't been intentionally created. She'd evolved from an Alliance VI program on Luna Base.
He'd led the team that had taken her offline, though then he hadn't known just what she was at the time – only what she was capable of doing, which was spectacularly wrecking a ton of a shit with limited resources.
He moved towards the left rig, Riley towards the right.
Stepping into the rig was a surreal first time experience as the clamps sealed around his boots, locking him in position. The odd weightlessness from standing on the pedals reminded of the time he'd been caught in an enemy pull field. Only quick thinking had gotten him out of that situation alive, sacrificing his omni-tool in the process.
That was also the day he'd learned just how easy it was to destabilize pull fields with extraordinary displays of biotic power. His CO would have been pissed about the damaged armor if he hadn't also been extraordinarily impressed and relieved that his marine came back alive from what was typically certain death.
He pulled his helmet over his head as the technicians wired them in, attaching the harness to their hardsuits.
"Prepare for neural handshake," Miranda Lawson informed them.
He reached out and found Riley's hand as the techs cleared and secured the pod. He turned to look at her and she nodded. Good luck.
"Neural interface drift initiating," EDI announced.
The second time joining in the Drift was certainly a lot easier than the first, but no less a rush of intense emotions, some that didn't belong to him, some that belonged in the past. Some that begged for closer attention and the urge to lose himself had to be resisted.
It wasn't something he ever thought he'd get used to – that flood of emotions and memories, nor the added presence of another human being.
He'd never been more grateful than at that moment for all the hours spent training for this moment.
"Neural bridge... calibrated," EDI announced. Miranda confirmed it over the comm.
"Shepard, Alenko, you two ready for the big drop?"
"Ready for the big drop, sir," Riley answered.
He shared a look with her, a rush of excitement flooding both ways through the connection.
"Countdown in fifteen... fourteen... thirteen..."
If he was honest with himself, and honesty was generally the rule of thumb in his life, this was the part he was looking forward to the most. No airlocks, no docking procedures, no decontamination. Just entering a conn pod stationed within a specially designed docking tube that would be sealed by the techs from the outside that reminded him, if only a little, of the docking tubes from Battlestar: Galactica. Except these were vertical instead of horizontal and their ship was much bigger.
"Why am I not surprised that you're a nerd?" Riley asked.
He glanced at her just as the countdown reached zero and said, "Because you're in my head."
No drive cores in the conn pod meant that the big drop was a unique experience from any other ground or space based vehicle: his belly flipped upwards and momentary weightlessness engulfed his senses. Even Mako drops weren't this dramatically felt, despite the fact that a Mako drop was executed from a significantly higher altitude.
The rig flexed, absorbing most of the impact, as the conn pod connected with the body of the ship. The pod sealed with the rest of the Crimson and the ship became whole.
"EDI, initiate start up sequence," Riley ordered.
"Start up sequence initiating. Bringing the drive core online."
He analyzed the output as systems came online, the Crimson humming with life around them. "Numbers look solid."
"Everything looks good on our end, Crimson. Are you ready to connect to the ship."
"We're ready."
A blue orb representing EDI appeared between his and Riley's displays. "Initiating pilot to Valkyrie connection."
While Kaidan Alenko had read through all the ship spec reports, perused all the data, studied the drift and drift tech, and was no stranger to engineering designs, none of it prepared him for the sensation of the neural circuitry suit activating. The slightly warm buzz of electric signals coordinating his movements with not only Riley but that of the ship.
"This is... different," Riley said.
He could hear the thoughts whispering in the back of his mind. Similar patterns of electric signals but ever so slightly off from what she was used to in a Jaeger.
EDI pulsed. "Drift systems online. Calibrating hemispheres."
The left control mechanism blossomed around his wrist and suddenly he felt as if he was so much more than just a person. He could feel the ship, sense the systems, even feel EDI's presence within her mainframe, running calculations.
"Right hemisphere, calibrated. Left hemisphere, calibrated."
"Fly her on out, Crimson," Anderson said. "Let's see what she's capable of."
He met Riley's eyes. "Let's do this."
They leaned forward in their rigs and the thrusters roared to life deep within the ship. Thinking of his body as an extension through which to control a ship and treating his limbs not as if they were capable of grabbing and walking but rather as mechanical parts of ship that controlled thrust and movement was beyond bizarre. Yet the motions were intuitive, and the hours of practicing had certainly ingrained the not quite 1:1 correlation of pilot to ship control.
Suspended as he was in the rig, he almost felt, for a ludicrous second, that he was superman.
He purposefully avoided eye contact with Riley. It didn't stop the amusement from rolling through, but eye contact would just make it worse.
Though seeing the smile on her face would probably be worth it. Ever since discovering just how much went on beneath her stoic exterior, he took great pleasure in breaking through that barrier. Even if it was at his own expense.
Moving in sync with another human being in order to operate a ship many times bigger than himself was perhaps the oddest experience of his life. Odder than simply joining his mind with another because a healthy dose of sci-fi as a kid and later, becoming familiar with asari and learning of their mating process had familiarized him with the concept of mind-melds. Though the asari scientists working on Drift tech he'd encountered had all said the Drift was a bit more open and fluid in terms of memory sharing.
As a whole, the asari didn't seem entirely sure whether or not to embrace the technology or shut it away behind locked cupboards forever.
"Did you know," Riley said, shutting down his train of thought as they slowly maneuvered the ship out of the docking bay, "with the development of the Valkyries, there's some pretty heavy research by the hanar and elcor to integrate what the Alliance and STG have developed into a rig capable of being controlled by them?"
The underlying current coming through the Drift was that he thought too much and she was surprised by the amount of thinking he did, not because she thought he was stupid but because he, too, could appear a little too stoic.
Not nearly as much as she did.
"There's already modified Jaeger rigs for volus, though that's not too surprising I guess since they're bipedal."
"Not much of a change," Riley agreed.
"Elcor conn pods would require heavy redesigning."
"You think a hanar rig would look like a fishnet?"
Kaidan practically choked as he engaged the rear thrusters in full with Riley as they cleared Jump Zero's perimeter, his limbs moving without second thought in concert with hers. The Crimson shot away from the station, faster than even the Normandy and it was one of the Alliance's best war frigates, not to mention the fastest.
Then again, that was kind of the point of the Valkyries – that they be able to get in quiet and fast, attack, stay on the move, and survive.
And on the off chance that a Valkyrie was taken down, minimal loss of life. The biggest upside for most military operations, especially in the middle of an extended war with no hope of compromise.
They'd finished their second round of advanced maneuvers, completing two circuits around the system and were about to test out the ridiculous maneuver that no ship was currently capable of when Anderson interrupted them on the comm.
"Relay activation, Athena Nebula. Two Leviathans, codenamed Sagar and Timera, breached the network. The asari defense perimeter isn't capable of withstanding a prolonged attack."
"Orders, sir?"
"We're sending you in, Crimson. Rendez-vous with the Normandy at the Citadel, take point from there."
They shared a grim look, eyes hard. "Aye, sir."