It was the middle of the night aboard the Normandy, high in orbit above earth, and there was virtually no activity anywhere on the ship. Most of the crew were staying on the planet while they took part in the rebuilding efforts. Only Liara was still working in her office, looking over images from various ships, hoping to find any evidence to suggest where Shepard was or if he was indeed still alive. She had sat in front the screens for hours, and hadn't slept for almost two days, unable to drag herself away from her quest to find the missing commander. Suddenly, on one of the monitors she spotted what seemed to be tracks in the desolate landscape, barely visible and out of focus, but definitely there. Liara checked the coordinates: 50 kilometres north of London, and after pulling up earlier images of the same area she was sure they'd appeared in the last twelve hours. No Alliance patrols had been through in the last week, and no signs of survivors had been found anywhere close. It had to be the missing Mako, and to Liara that meant it had to be Shepard.
Liara put the coordinates onto a datapad and headed straight for the cargo bay. The ship was deserted, and she took the shuttle out without anyone noticing. It was a few minutes before she was comfortable with the controls having never flown it before, but she descended down through the atmosphere above Europe. Eventually the shuttle reached the location of the tracks from the photo, and Liara began to follow them north. She noticed they traced through the remains of destroyed settlements, the odd half-demolished house standing out against the bleak countryside. Shepard had presumably stopped at various points to find abandoned supplies. Continuing to follow the tracks of the Mako, Liara guessed that he couldn't be much further ahead. Sure enough, she soon saw a faint glimmer as the lights of the shuttle reflected back up off something metallic.
As she moved closer, she could begin to make out the distinctive shape of the vehicle. Landing the shuttle next to it, Liara ran towards the hatch and wrestled it open. Inside, she found Shepard asleep with his arm bandaged, and tried to gently wake him up.
"Shepard" she whispered softly into his ear. Slowly his eyes opened, groaning heavily as he lifted his head slightly.
"Liara? What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you. We thought you were dead." Liara's voice was filled with relief.
"Yeah, I seem to be making a habit of that. What happened to everyone when the Crucible fired?" Shepard was almost fully awake now, and stepped outside towards the shuttle.
"We had to evacuate the system. The shockwave took out most of the ships that the reapers didn't take care of. The Normandy and the crew are mostly okay, but we lost EDI."
"What do you mean, lost her?" Shepard's enthusiasm was completely replaced with concern.
"She's gone, Shepard. According to Tali, it's a similar situation with the geth. Something in the Crucible wiped out every AI." Liara followed him inside the shuttle and powered up the engines.
"Where's the rest of the crew?" Shepard sat next to her in the cockpit and slumped back in his seat.
"A lot of them are on earth. I think everyone left on the Normandy is asleep, although Garrus said something about calibrations."
"Figures."
"I doubt anyone noticed that the shuttle's gone. We'll be back in a few minutes." Liara looked over to the commander, only to find that he had fallen back asleep.
As they exited the shuttle and headed together for the elevator, the door opened to reveal Joker, his smile barely visible in the dim light.
"Welcome back, commander. Actually I guess it'll probably be more like admiral now we've saved the galaxy. Again."
"I'm sorry about EDI, Joker. It must be pretty hard for you." Shepard's voice was sincere, if a little hoarse.
"Don't worry about me. She saved the rest of us, so I guess it's what she would've wanted. You've looked better yourself."
"I'll live, which is better than usual for me. I just need... some rest." He yawned mid-sentence with fatigue.
"Well I'd say you've earned that. But there's one thing you're gonna want to do first." Joker led them into the elevator, and they headed for the Normandy's crew deck. As the three of them stepped outside, Shepard saw his name on the wall and smiled.
"I see." He walked up to the plaque and took it off. "We won't be needing this just yet." He handed it to Joker, who grinned at the other two.
"I'll go and put it somewhere safe. Out the airlock, maybe..."