After Freedom's Progress
Well, she was really in it this time. It had been a surprise that she woke up at all, but to do so on a Cerberus base was the last thing she would have expected. Her first instinct had been to look for the earliest opportunity to get back the Alliance, but Freedom's Progress made it clear that things were more complicated than that. The Collector threat was real, and the Council wasn't doing anything about it. She couldn't exactly be surprised. Hell, the politicians had blamed Sovereign's attack on the Citadel on the Geth, so what were a few lost colonies to them? Cerberus was giving her a ship, a crew, and resources, and however much she disliked them, the war she left behind 2 years ago still had to be fought.
At the same time, Melanie Shepard couldn't trust her new backers one bit. Cerberus was a terrorist organization run by a racist piece of crap and that meant that eventually she and they were going to come into conflict. In the short run, she wasn't worried about a shot in the back. The Illusive Man hadn't spent 4,000,000,000 credits to revive her just so her could kill her off a week later, but she had to be prepared.
Whatever her complaints about Alliance policy, she'd never expected a betrayal the way she did now. In a way, it was like being back on the streets; there she'd had allies, but friends were a different matter. In the military, on the first Normandy, she'd been able to let her guard down a bit, and going back to the mindset of her childhood, unable to count on the people around her, left her feeling cold.
She wished her old squad was with her but when she discussed it with the Illusive Man, he had an excuse for each of them. Tali, who she'd seen on Freedom's Progress, was caught up in an assignment for the Migrant Fleet. Wrex had left the crew before the Collector attack anyway, and was back on Tuchanka; she just hoped he was doing some good there. Kaidan was on a classified assignment for the Alliance, leaving little chance he could join a Cerberus mission. Garrus was just missing; maybe if she got the chance, she could look for him, but it was a big galaxy.
She asked about Liara last, unwilling to reveal to the Illusive Man that that was the question that mattered most to her. His answer, though, left her confused, claiming that the young asari was working for the Shadow Broker on Illium. She could hardly believe that the idealistic archeologist she knew would have taken a job like that. Melanie hoped Liara hadn't changed that much, but she wasn't currently in a position to check on it.
Right now, she was on her own, surrounded by Cerberus personnel and tech; she'd have to find a way to change the equation before the Illusive Man showed his hand. Of the people already in her crew, Jacob seemed a promising candidate to win away from Cerberus. He was ex-military, and he had an idealistic streak. That didn't explain why he was working for a terrorist organization, but she could try to find out. Miranda, by contrast, seemed like a company woman, ruthless and distant. Of course, it's hard to tell how much of that is for show. Melanie knew all about facades, but even if that was the case, she'd have to be very careful if she was going to get behind Miranda's.
Joker she was confidant she could count on. Kelly Chambers however seemed so pleasant and harmless that it made her suspicious. She had little doubt that the yeoman would fall into her bed if she asked, and though the thought was pleasant enough to a lonely soldier, she knew it wasn't a good idea. As for the rest, she'd get to know them in time. For now though, she had to make sure her mask was firmly in place and that she didn't give away too much. Sitting at the desk in her cabin, she flipped through the dossiers she'd been given. For now, she might as well play along with Miranda and go to Omega. Time to see what this Mordin Solus was all about, and then maybe who, or what, Archangel was.