Normandy-Shepard's Office
Captain Abigail Shepard stood leaning against the data displays, the other figure in the room standing behind her looking at the picture that was on her display screen.
"Starting to miss it?" James asked.
"Home?" Abby glanced looking up at the picture, "Yeah." She snorted. "It's funny when I am here of late I cannot wait to get back to…home…my new home now that I have been promoted. But when I am there it's almost like I can't wait to get out here again."
"I know the feeling." James remarked looping his arms around her waist and pulling her back.
She responded by rubbing his arm and moving to kiss him on the cheek. He grunted sympathetically.
"But you get to come out here regularly, as you pointed out," She smirked wryly, "I am now important, I have to stay behind and make the 'big decisions' while you get to play the big godamn hero." She said the last with her best Zaeed imitation.
Her husband smirked wryly, "What, are you starting to suffer from buyer's remorse? Getting tired of being a house wife?"
"I am not a housewife." She frowned. "But I suppose that's it in the long run…I feel like I am being torn by the need to relax, to stay there, and move on with my life, build a new life, and my desire to come out here and do the right thing, to experience the taste of adventure."
She held her head low separating the two of them for a second, "And maybe, just maybe, the need to actually create a new life, after the time I have spent taking and destroying it, after the time I have spent surrounded by death maybe it would be good to…" She choked… "Hold a life in my arms, to mold it, to protect it, personally, not in the grand way I protect life as an Alliance officer. Still serving though."
"Damn Lola, your biological clock finally ticking?" James teased.
She shot him a look.
"Sorry." He replied.
She sighed, "It's just that, I guess if I were to put a rationalization to it…for my entire life I have done only two things. I have served life…or I have taken it. I have protected what already is, or my values, but I have never truly added anything new and unique to the universe. Sure what I have done for the universe is good, but…what will be my legacy? It needs to be personal, I need the connection, and maybe I can add a truly good force to the universe? Share what I know with it so that maybe, just maybe the Galaxy doesn't make my mistakes, or theirs, ever again…I don't know it just is so crazy."
"Good crazy though." Vega smiled sympathetically.
"Yeah," She sighed. "So…what do you think about our new guest?"
"The whole thing is just loco," James arched his eyebrow, "way above my pay grade, also I make things explode, and Science really isn't my thing."
"And?" Abby arched her eyebrow.
"And…nothing."
She arched both her eyebrows, pulling her head back.
"What?" James exclaimed, "I barely know the guy, I have barely interacted with him. Though I am a bit concerned…"
"What?" Abigail smirked.
"Well he's…you…just he has…you know…man parts."
She snorted at the bewilderment going through his mind. "I don't think he is very much like me."
James knitted his brows and frowned, "Yeah…just I worry about having another you around, someone who can probably get into your head like no one else can."
"I don't think you have anything to worry about James," Abby assured, "I do tend to take my commitments seriously."
"Uh huh." James nodded, "Well I have the next shift in the armory, have to run a scenario with my team, make sure they get their pushups in on a starship you know…"
"Yeah, tell them hello from me." She chuckled.
He joined her, "Will do Shepard."
She followed him out, but turned left where he went right into the elevator to head down to the shuttle bay, while she continued down into the semi crowded mess hall. She rounded the corner looking for a place to sit, now that she was one of the crew she had limited options in where she could eat, and saw…Cameron eating.
If by eating you mean ravenously attack it. The Spectre snarled to herself at the sight.
Cameron, with spoon in hand that could double as a shovel some kid would use to build sand castles on the beach, attacking a large…platter…of Spaghetti. The plate was still chalk full, overflowing with Spaghetti touching the table, but it looked as though Cameron had made a good start on the caldera.
Abigail patted the stomach of her Battle Dress self-consciously before heading on over to join him. He did not notice her approach.
Approaching the table she waited for a second, hoping he would see her, but she did not get a reaction. She cleared her throat.
Cameron looked up at her, spinning on her, spoon protruding from his mouth with his hand still on it. He looked at her, took a gulping finishing bite of it, and continued to look at her for a second.
"Sorry." He grunted.
"May I join you?" She asked, do I want to? But she was kinda curious.
"Sure, have a seat" He gestured to the bench across from her.
A crewman eagerly came to her side as she sat down and took her order…so to speak…some men are so quick to please. She mused.
"Well…you eat like a man who hasn't seen a decent meal in a while."
"I haven't." Cameron said around yet another spoon full of food. "This is the first chance I have had to really eat anything. And considering most of the meals I had, in private, in my cabin…heck I never allowed Miranda in my quarters when I was eating…after a mission…that often."
"And what is up with that?" Abigail pressed folding her arms up under her.
"I'm a biotic… you know that."
"Yes…is the difference really that bad?"
Cameron nodded slowly, "Yeah, human biotics aren't exactly natural without either accidental element zero exposure, some other freak accident, or humans really tampering with the genetic code and put in biotic amps. We push our bodies through tremendous strains to get the job done. So we burn up calories at a much higher rate than the rest of the natural population."
"They have energy bars for that you know." Abigail suggested.
"Yeah, sure, they are good in a pinch," Cameron shrugged, "But there is no heart behind them, no passion, no real substance either. They are just stamped out in a Government factory somewhere and shipped to the troops in mechanical precision. I eat them when I can, but this…this is where it is at."
"Uh huh." Abby continued.
"This is nothing though," He chuckled, "You should see breakfast…ever hear of a two Bagel Breakfast?"
She nodded.
"Well I have a three bagel breakfast…with sausage."
"You really burn through that many calories?"
He nodded, "And on top of things biotics tend to have a higher metabolism even when they are just going about their daily lives."
She smiled, "Soldiers don't have that problem."
"I guess not." He said getting back to eating.
She let him eat, watching him finish the meal before she sprung the next bit of information on him.
He was finishing up the last of the plate, mopping it up precisely, making sure he got every single scrap and noodle of food.
A spike of annoyance arched through her.
"We need to go interrogate the prisoner."
He arched an eyebrow at her in his clean-up operations, "You sure that is not your area of responsibility?"
"You haven't interrogated anyone before?" Abigail asked trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.
"Well there was this one crime lord on the Citadel who was plotting an assassination of a Turian xenophobe…"
"Good times." Abby smirked.
"Yeah…"
"So you want to be good cop or bad cop?"
"We have to do that?" Cameron frowned leaning back in his chair.
"It makes sense, and with James on with his team."
He sighed, "It tends to make me nervous is all, how will you play bad cop? How can I play the good one? Will you torture him then I swoop in and promise him the world?"
"We'll go as far as we have to." Abigail grunted.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Cameron arched his eyebrows, "What is this mission to you?"
"We need to get to the bottom of this if we hope to do our jobs, since you are stuck in this universe with me."
He sighed, "Fine, lead on."
Normandy-Engineering
Abigail Shepard leaned over the console showing the view of the prisoner. He was restrained, bolted down, to a chair in the Port Cargo Bay. He was calm, serene, but every once and a while he strained at the restraints testing them, seeing if he could get free.
"At least you didn't put him in my old room." Cameron mused standing behind Abby making her jump a bit.
"Well, actually truth be told I usually put prisoners down there, since the Normandy does not actually have a brig…which seems to be a major design oversight."
"He will be transferred to Alliance Authorities in eight hours' time when we rendezvous with a prison ship" EDI announced over the com.
"Thank you EDI." Abby mused.
"Well shall we?" Cameron asked heading for the door.
The Special Forces Captain's eyes stayed on the display screen for a few minutes, her body felt tense, before she moved to join him.
They marched in a single file line into the cargo bay the Batarian looking up at their entrance.
"Captain Abigail Shepard, I see I am at a decisive disadvantage."
"Who's behind this?"
The Batarian pulled his mouth back into a sneer, "Behind what? All I am responsible for is my own actions."
"Please, do you honestly expect us to believe that you acted on your own? Without help? How could a Batarian gain access to a Council sponsored relay station?" Cameron asked.
"An abandoned relay station out in the middle of nowhere?" The Batarian looked at Cameron. "And I don't recognize you, you seem…familiar…but I can't place you. As if I should know you."
"He is a friend." Abigail cut in before Cameron could say anything. "And this is not the point of this meeting."
He chuckled, "No, the point of this meeting is to see the big spikey monsters, lying in the darkness, waiting to come out of the darkness to rule us all."
"What did you say?" Abigail felt a shiver go through herself consciously, what he was saying, sounded familiar.
The Batarians chuckle grew louder, bordering on a laugh, "you have no idea what you are dealing with, are you human, what we are willing to do to make sure you suffer for the sins you have committed."
"I suggest you cooperate," Cameron started, "I do not know if I can persuade her to stay calm."
Nice try Cam. She smirked.
"Do what you want to me." The Batarian said turning away from her.
"Hey!" She snapped at him marching up the chair, "don't ignore me, we need to know what you know, who are you working for?"
The Batarian did not make the least indication that he heard her.
She grabbed him by the neck ripping his face to turn it around to face her, and backhanded him, causing his face to flinch back.
"Abigail." Cameron said behind her, tense.
"Who are you working for?!" Abigail shouted.
"I'm not working for anyone." The Batarian choked.
"Hey, Abby, ease up." Cameron said grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around.
The Batarian began to chuckle again, lowly.
Abigail wrenched her hand from Cameron's grasp, ripped her pistol from its holster, took aim, and fired. The Batarian yelled and flinched in the chair, dragging it across the decking as the bullet embedded in his knee cap.
She was on top of him in a second, holding down on the gaping wound and rubbing her finger across it.
"Tell me…who…you…are…working for." She hissed, "Or this is going to be the least of your problems."
"I'm not working for anyone!" He cried out.
She squeezed tighter.
The Batarian made a choking noise, "OK! OK! I don't know! Honest! I get a message every now and then in a satchel on a planet in the Terminus Systems giving me instructions. It is done through a Batarian intermediary but I only answer to the person you took down the other day!"
She let go, and smiled, "What are the coordinates?"
"They are in my Omni-tool," The Batarian said, glancing down, defeated.
"There Cameron, thank you for the assist." She said getting up, stretching, smiling at him, turning on the ball of her feet, and heading out to inform Ashley of the good news.
This left Cameron staring at the damage his opposite number did, and being most unsettled by the experience.
AN: Well as I was starting to write this chapter I heard some tragic news: Robin Sachs, the voice actor for Zaeed Massani, and a prolific actor starring in other video games, Star Trek, Babylon 5, and probably many other shows, has died today. While Zaeed wasn't my favorite character in the series Robin's voice acting was one of the most distinct and recognizable of the entire series, and one of my favorites. So this is my small tribute to the man, and to the character, God speed.
Also…the eating scene…a bit of an oddity eh?