Chapter 13: Worth of a Hero

Trial Room

"Wayne Shepherd, you are here by stripped of your rank and your ship will be locked down, from now on it is Alliance property" the judge said. "Since you are still a spectre, you will be confined Alliance headquarters until we have word of your spectre status being revoked"

"And if it gets revoked?" Natalia asked grimly.

"Then he will receive the death penalty, for attempted genocide" he said. "Court is now adjourned"

The banging of the gavel echoed in the air, as the trial room emptied, Shepherd just sat there. Natalia walked up to him and place a hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry Shepherd, I will appeal this, I will make sure of it…" Shepherd tried to smile to reassure that he believed her but he knew the truth, there was not going to be an appeal. He had brought a huge shit-storm to the Alliance and they just wanted it gone.

"Thank you…" Anderson came up to them.

"Let's get out of here, son, this had to be draining to you" Shepherd nodded and went back to his room with the others closely behind.

The Committee Room

As Shepherd left the trial room, the committee members watched the whole thing from their seats. They were quite happy with the results, they got rid of their image problem, and they replaced Shepherd with a new poster boy. Unlike Shepherd, Kaiden Alenko didn't have the type of baggage that the spectre had, his record was perfect, he would be the one to repair humanities' image. The committee door opened to reveal Lt. John Li. "Ah Lieutenant, good job on your testimony against Shepherd, I'm sure it was hard for you" Mutuku said.

Li shook his head. "Not at all, sir, I was happy to" he said. "Shepherd got what was coming to him, he should have been court martialed and jailed for Torfan, better late than never" Mukutu smirked, Li was very model of an Alliance soldier, dedicated, by-the-book, and respectful to his superiors. Though some people would never appreciate that kind of loyalty, it was what humanity needed; it was what the Alliance needed. The dark skinned man nodded and Li walked out of the room, he then faced his colleague.

"Now that that's out of the way, what's next?"

"We deal with his crew" Tui said. "They're just traitors; I doubt the public will care what happens to them, as for the aliens…deport them"

"That may be a problem…" Shriver said. "Hackett bypassed us an went to parliament, if Shepherd surrenders, his crew will be spared" It was more than that, because Hackett had some pull due to the relationships he's made throughout the years…per Shepherd's request his crew were to be pardoned and admitted as members of the Alliance for when his trial went south.

Mutuku groaned. "Steven Hackett…that man has been a thorn to our side for years…" he said. "How is Udina on revoking Shepherd's spectre status?"

"Slow, despite the ruling, the Council has slow with any talks about Shepherd's status" Alexendros said with a scoff. "Though I'm not really surprised"

"Aliens…" Shriver said. "Now we need to do something with the Normandy"

"Call the engineering corps; tell them I want the Normandy flying Alliance colors ASAP"

The Normandy

Joker sat in his chair depressed; he had just watched the verdict from his pilot chair since he couldn't be there in person. He just couldn't believe a jury of all humans sided with the batarians, after everything Shepherd done for them. Then he thought about the reapers, he knew they were coming, they all knew and the only one who could stop them was looking at a death sentence. By ruling against Shepherd, they killed any chance of survival.

"Jeff, are you okay?" Joker looked to the side to see EDI's avatar staring at him, Joker thought he was going crazy, but the AI almost sounded concerned. His head started to lower, now that Shepherd was in the hoosegow, the AI no longer had any protection, soon the Committee would send someone to take the ship and they would find out about EDI and try to erase her. Despite their rough start, Joker has come to consider the AI as a friend, he didn't think he could have so much in common with her, but he did, it was only showing up now that she was unshackled. "Jeff?"

"Oh I'm fine EDI…just wondering what's next…" Joker said. "This is bullshit…Shepherd deserve better…"

"Do not worry Jeff; I believe Shepherd can get through this…" Joker looked at her surprised, he never expected EDI to be optimistic, the AI was surprising him every time. "Shepherd survived Saren, he survived death, the Collectors, and Cerberus, I believe he can survive this…."

Joker smiled. "I guess if you believe, I can too…" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement from the outside camera, there was a group of people walking towards the ship. In the front were two women in Alliance uniform carrying rifles, the first one was a red-haired with fair skin who had a passive bored look on her face, the other was dark-haired with olive skin who had frown on her face like someone had crapped in her coffee this morning. Behind them, was a short woman with medium black hair and dark-skinned, she was bouncing on her toes excited about something. Next to her was a man who Joker recognized, Gregory Adams, the chief engineer for the original Normandy. When Joker came to him with news that Shepherd was alive, Adams flat-out didn't believe him saying that Cerberus was lying to him. Ultimately, Joker went with Chakwas to join Shepherd, while Adams stayed with the Alliance. "Shit…EDI play it cool, don't let them know you're a AI"

"Of course, Jeff" Joker got up out of his seat, to meet the boarding party. He went to the Airlock, to see two rifles being pointed at him. Adams came forward and lowered the guns.

"At ease girls, Joker is harmless…" he said.

"Can't be too sure with Cerberus…" The dark hair girl said narrowing her eyes at Joker. The pilot wanted to correct her, but he really didn't feel like pissing the woman off more. The other woman seemed more agreeable than her friend, and stood down, seeing her standing down calmed her down though she still looked at Joker with hard eyes. Adams looked at Joker and held out a hand.

"Been a long time, Joker"

Joker hesitantly shook his hand. "Yeah, it has…" Adams nodded his head and the people walked into the ship, leaving the pilot with Adams.

"So this is the new Normandy huh….?" He asked. "It's big…"

"Yeah…." There was silence between them. "Adams, about Shepherd…" Adams sighed looking away.

"Look I'm not going to lecture you about your choices" Adams said. "I just have to ask, was it worth it?"

"We did what we had to…"

Adams frowned. "And what has that brought you?" he asked. "You are criminals now, I should let the guards arrest you, but since we were once comrades…." The engineer sighed. "Look we'll talk later…don't worry about Westmoreland and Campbell, I'll try to keep them in line" Adams walked to the elevator.

"Thank you Adams…"

Trial Room

Natalia was talking to the Judge on trying to appeal the ruling; however the judge was blocked from making such a decision by order of the Committee. The Judge walked away as Natalia sat in a chair frustrated with the turn of events, back in law school, her professors taught her not to get close to their client. A lawyer had to care about their client's plight, it was how they maximized their effectiveness in the courtroom but doing that carried the risk of getting too close. And she was too close, when she heard Shepherd was the former boyfriend of her dead niece, she should have recused herself but his trial became personal. She shook her head, she had gotten sloppy, when Natalia got too close, and she opened herself and her client to questions about his past. The door opened to show James and Lia walking towards them.

"Any luck?" James asked. Natalia shook her head and James and Lia lowered their head. "What else can we do?"

Natalia sighed. "We can appeal to the Parliament, since they're higher than the committee, but…"

"But?" Lia asked.

"It would take months to get an answer from them, we don't have months" Natalia said. "Not to mention, I doubt they want to go through the media circus again…"

"Damn we got to do something…" Just they trying to think of ways to help Shepherd, they heard yelling to their side. "What the hell?" The three of them went to a room to the left and saw a bunch of people yelling a holding up signs on TV. He walked up to one of the soldiers that was watching the scene. "Hey, what are you watching?"

"Protests have broken out outside of the building." He said. "Apparently a lot of people were not very happy about the verdict" James looked back to the TV as the screen changed to show different cities around the world, they all held out signs each with different languages but meant the same thing: they wanted justice for Shepherd. There were even protests at the hotel the Batarian representatives were staying at, some of the people outside were soldiers, they were risking a lot as they could get in trouble for insubordination but were there regardless.

"Keelah, look at them all" Lia said shocked. James looked on with a smirk on his face, part of the Alliance may have forgotten Shepherd's service, but most haven't. He walked away, and Lia looked back. "Jimmy?"

"I'm going to Shepherd; he needs to see this…"

Shepherd is not out of the ball game yet. But will it be enough?

Next time….as always Review and Comment.