Author's Note: Another non-human Shepard finally shows up. This one is mostly a few side missions to introduce more Sheps, but Noveria will be our destination next chapter! Wanderer D, P Shepard is for you.

Back on board, they started cruising around the various systems. To Angela's consternation, it seemed like every single system they visited necessitated a ground mission. Distress beacons, Cerberus outposts, or "requests" from Admiral Hackett. Sighing, she got off the comm. with yet another request. "Hmm, Jared and Marid, you're with me. Kaidan, you too," she called into the mess. The two other Shepards put down the cards, folding out of the game of gin rummy.

"What's up, Comm, er, Angela?" Kaidan asked, picking his way through the dozen Shepards.

"Apparently there's a bunch of L2 biotics who've taken one of the Senators from Parliament hostage," she explained as they followed her up the stairs. "Kaidan, I want you there as an L2; Jared and Marid, you're both biotic and will be good for additional backup."

"So you're taking two Sentinels, an Adept, and yourself as an Engineer?" Marid asked. "That's … unusual."

"If you don't think you can handle it," Angela retorted.

"Oh no, no, I'm in." He held up his hands placatingly.

"This should be fascinating," Jared said. "How are we going to take down these terrorists?"

"I was hoping we could talk them down," Angela said.

"How … boring," the adept said.

"Hey, most of the L2s didn't ask to end up the way they did," Kaidan said. "You think I like having killer migraines every couple of days?"

"Ease down, K," Marid said. "We'll do this with as little loss of life as possible."

"Here's hoping," Angela said as Joker pulled up to join airlocks with the floating freighter. Apparently, no one was looking out the windows to spot their approach, and they merged with the other ship with hardly a bump. They stormed into the ship in a perfect diamond formation, Jared leading and Angela in the rear.

The biotics in the larger bay were openly hostile, letting loose with gravity slams and small-arms fire, which they returned swiftly. Jared's superior implants and skill proved their worth here, tossing the struggling biotics aside, enough to restrain many of them long enough to slap handcuffs on. They moved up to the front of the ship, checking the empty crew bay and cockpit before pausing outside the last door.

Angela nodded to the others, hitting the door button. "He's the man who can help you get out of this," echoed a cultured British voice, "and you're not doing other biotics any favors by holding him hostage like this."

The senator and the terrorist holding a shotgun to his head both blinked, looked at each other, and then back to the man in N7 armor standing inside the room. "What is this? Some kind of trick to get my hopes up? I already promised to reopen the reparations bill!" Burns protested.

"Look, you and the rest of you, just get back!" the man with the shotgun threatened, hand trembling. "I don't know how you just appeared there, but I'm not giving up that easily."

"I want to help you get out of this," the British voice said again, and as though waiting for the opportunity, all four of them said in unison, "I'm Commander Shepard." He paused, turning slowly and looking over his shoulder at the group of them in the doorway. "Well, isn't this unexpected. Kaidan, you're an L2, why don't you have a chat with these gentlemen while we speak in the hallway." He stepped calmly out, and the other three Shepards uniformly shoved Kaidan inside the room.

"Angela Shepard. This is Jared and Marid. You must be 'N'."

"Neville Reginald Shepard, charmed." As she extended her omni-tool to etch the letter into his armor, he actually took her hand and bowed over it. "I daresay you seem to be taking this quite calmly. What happened to Wrex?"

"He was down in the cargo bay, arguing philosophy with Havok, last I saw," Jared added. "Havok's a ferret."

Neville blinked at this, the effect quite odd behind the carefully etched monocle on his helmet visor. "A … ferret? That discusses philosophy?"

"He's rather charming," Marid said, "but it is odd to talk to a ferret in N7 armor who's taller than I am."

"Smashing. So, any idea how many of us Sheps there are? Or why?"

"Not a clue," Angela muttered. "But I'm just praying it stops at twenty-six." The Brit considered this for a moment before nodding. "Kaidan, you done in there, or do I need to call the other ten Commanders Shepard?"

"I think we've come to an agreement," Alenko said. "Chairman Burns, if you could head out that way, we'll bring you back through the Citadel in a day or so."

"But, the guy, just appeared, and the accent, and he wasn't there a minute ago," Burns rambled as Kaidan took him by the elbow and gently escorted him along. "He just appeared! Like a magic trick, only not magic, and the voices," he faded out of hearing range as the Shepards collected the weapons and Angela disabled the propulsion.

Six hours later, they received another priority from Hackett, detouring out to some planet in the middle of nowhere to find a former Alliance officer, set up with his own personal cult. Angela sighed and looked at the list of counterparts to decide who to bring. "Oh hell, might as well get it over with," she muttered. "Deirdre and Havok, hit the Mako!"

The three of them cruised around the planet, taking out a thresher maw, without leaving the protective shell of the Mako, to Havok's extreme disappointment. "Come on, don't tell me the thrill, the exhilaration, doesn't call to you!" the ferret complained from the gunnery turret.

"You stupid tube rat," Deirdre mocked him, "that thing would have eaten the whole damn vehicle if it came up underneath us, and you want to take it mano a mano?"

"I agree with the redhead," Angela added, "minus the tube rat comment. Nobody in their right mind would take on one of those on foot."

The ferret sniffed disdainfully. "Wrex has."

"I rest my case," Deirdre said. "Hey, mercenaries! Run them down!"

"Last time I did that, Garrus bitched for two hours about having to pick fleshy bits out of the undercarriage," Angela said. "Now, these guys, we can fight on foot."

"Once more into the breach!" Havok cried. "Let slip the dogs of war!"

"I wonder if his universe actually has dogs?" Deirdre wondered, sniping from underneath the Mako and sending a salarian tumbling backwards missing the top of his helmet. "Hah, suck on that, slimeface!"

"If they do, they probably actually play poker," Angela said, overloading a turian's shields and putting three rounds in his head.

"Huh?"

"Guess you never saw that painting. Never mind."

Piling back in the Mako, they paused only to mark some promising ore loads, and finally pulled up in front of Kyle's compound. "Alright. Let's get in there and talk him into giving up."

"Why?" Deirdre asked. "Demand his surrender, and if he doesn't, we blow them away. Preferably from orbit."

"You seem to be quite lacking any inherent honor," Havok chided her as he disembarked.

"Honor usually leads to death, and when it comes to death, I prefer to dish it out from long range," the redhead muttered.

Angela managed to get them peaceful entry to the compound, and they headed to the rear of the building. Opening the door to Kyle's sanctum, Angela stepped inside and greeted him. "I'm Commander Shepard," she said, being echoed with a faint Russian accent.

"Another one for the collection!" Havok said, and Kyle stared at the group of them like he feared he was losing his mind.

"I'm Angela Shepard," she tried again, "and I'm here about the two Alliance negotiators who vanished."

"Cough 'em up and nobody has to get hurt," Deirdre said.

"Desist, lady," Havok muttered.

"What … who are you? What is that?" he pointed a shaking hand at Havok. "Can't you people just leave us alone?"

"C'mon, Major," the new Shepard said. "Torfan was a bloody mess, and you need help from it. You can come with us and get treatment, or," she reached up and tapped the sniper rifle on her back, "a whole lot of people are going to suffer. Again." She looked pensive, putting one finger to her mouth in an obviously feigned attempt to look innocent. "I wonder how long they'll survive when I march them out to the ship without suits?"

"Are all Infiltrators bloodthirsty lunatics, or did I just get lucky with you two?" Angela growled. "I am not marching unarmed prisoners out an airlock!"

"It's part of the training," Deirdre shot back. "Two part lesson, 'Why Ethics Suck,' and 'How to be Amoral and Like It.'"

"Things are just going to get worse from here if I don't, aren't they?" Kyle broke in.

"More than likely," Havok said calmly. "So long as the person responsible for the disappearance of the Alliance officers steps forward, there's no reason to punish anyone else in the compound."

"But you should know better than anyone," the Russian Shepard continued, "the lengths that the Alliance will go to. It would be such a pity for anything to happen here," she added, her voice dripping with false sympathy.

Kyle drew himself up to attention. "May I please have the chance to say goodbye to my followers?"

"Of course," Angela said graciously, grabbing the newcomer by the shoulder and pulling her out of the room. "What's your name?"

She grinned saucily. "Commander Shepard. What's yours?" One hand started caressing up the side of Angela's armor.

Swatting away the hand irritably, Angela activated her omni-tool and etched an 'O' into the armor. "First name. I'm Angela, this is Deirdre and Havok. You can meet the rest of the Commanders Shepard when we get back on board the Normandy."

The new girl sighed dramatically, and started slowly walking towards the exit. "Oksana Shepard. Are we going to spend all day here? I'd like to find out what's going on here, and we can't do that sitting around on this dirtball."

Fighting the urge to rub her face through her helmet, Angela followed, muttering imprecations to herself.

The next day went by without, to Angela's great surprise, another Shepard appearing. She took out two criminal hideouts, recovered some ancestral krogan armor from a turian of ill repute, and finally stopped in to see Helena Blake, who had given her the coordinates of those criminal hideouts in the first place.

With some reluctance, she piled Lilitu and Neville into the Mako, and cruised the surface for a while, collecting mineral surveys and another cool turian insignia before pulling up in front of the base. "So, what are we expecting from the lady?" Neville said. "Bribe attempts? Blubbering? Maybe a snide, 'Good night, good work, I'll most likely kill you in the morning'?"

Lilitu snickered, checking her pistol and sniper rifle before clambering out of the vehicle. "It's like she thinks Spectres just take orders from crime lords all over the galaxy."

Angela shrugged. "Well, there is Saren as an example. It's not like I've had a chance to talk to any other Spectres." She flexed her gun hand before opening the door.

Inside, the three of them stopped dead in their tracks, staring. "And you think you can just order me to disband my organization on your say so?"

"You're darn tootin'! You shut it down today. You're already known for slavery and worse. You need to get out of the crime business before," the feminine voice dropped to a whisper more appropriate for a turian, or maybe Batman, "someone decides to foreclose on your place of business."

"By the Queen's whiskers," Neville whispered. "This is just too precious!"

"This is all your fault," Lilitu whispered to Angela. "I'm sure if this whole alternate-Shepard thing were based on someone like Charles this wouldn't be happening.

Angela just turned, faced the wall, and started banging her helmet forehead. "I'm going *bang* to have *bang* to apologize *bang* to Ashley *bang*."

Helena Blake leaned around the doorframe just far enough to see what was going on. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've been introduced. Mind telling me what you're doing in my apparently not so secret headquarters?"

Angela (interrupted slightly with a bang in the middle), Lilitu, and Neville, all chimed in, "I'm Commander Shepard."

The armored unicorn turned to look at them. "Hey, that's my line!"

"And yet, none of you look like the two Commander Shepards I met on the Citadel," Helena mused. "I suppose it's horribly cliché, but I have to ask what you plan on doing if I don't decide to mend my wicked ways and abandon my crime syndicate," she added sarcastically.

"I'm going to shove a lightning bolt so far up your ass you'll taste static!" the unicorn threatened.

Everyone present stared at her. "Um, sure. What she said," Lilitu added. "Except I'm more likely to just stalk you and blow your head off from three hundred meters."

"Alright, you've convinced me. If nothing else, I'm disbanding just to ensure I never find out how many Commander Shepards are out there," Helena added. "In fact, as a gesture of good faith," she turned and barked orders at several of her mercenaries, two of whom came from the back carrying a crate which proved to be full of experimental weapon mods.

"Thank you, and please for the love of God, who is apparently taking a personal interest in tormenting me," Angela muttered, "don't ever let me see you again."

"I plan on finding myself a very deep hole to crawl into," Helena said sincerely.

"Good. C'mon, Pony Shepard, let's get moving."

"My name," the unicorn said acerbically, "is Polarity."

"Does that have something to do with the paint mark on your flank?" Neville asked politely as they moved to depart the building.

"That's my cutie mark, it finally showed up during basic training," she said happily. "Say, I don't suppose you stashed my Garrus and Tali somewhere?"

"Not yours, no, but hers are on board the Normandy," Lilitu said.

"Oh good, I'm glad Garrus didn't get lost. He's such a stud," Polarity gushed, causing Neville to walk right into the edge of the doorway.