Normandy-Deck 3
Where to go, where to go? That is the question of the hour, if only I had some magical crystal…oof!
Abigail Shepard looked down as she collided with a solid object, where there shouldn't be a solid object; she looked down and saw a kid blinking up at her, a blond haired girl, clean cheeked, blinked up at her.
"Stacey!" A female voice squealed behind her.
A blond haired woman came running up and blushed as she held her daughter by the shoulder. "I am so sorry Commander Shepard; she just got away from me."
"Uh, no it's ok…though its Captain now." Abigail explained flustered, but managed to bring up a smile.
"Oh, my apologies Captain!" The woman yipped before running off and wagging a scolding figure at her daughter.
Abigail scratched at her chin as she watched them walk away. Children and families on the Normandy, what is this, the Galactica! It was certainly a new experience for her in her command, having to personally tend to civilians.
After escaping the little flotilla they had assembled, a mixture of mining, industrial, passenger, ships and shuttles, was drifting deep into the Terminus Systems trying to find a shore to land on and take cover. But no solutions had presented themselves so there they were, drifting out amongst the stars, the Normandy being the only warship that deserved the name. The rest of the ships hardly had any armaments.
And they had taken on refugees.
Add to that whatever the aide did to the Normandy's systems had a lasting effect. The ship's IES stealth drive was muttering, and several other key systems shut down briefly requiring a reboot. Not even EDI could track down the problem but until they did the Normandy was in a compromised state, as it had to not only worry about them, but the other ships in the convoy.
But Abigail had no time for too much retrospection as she was on a mission; she glanced down towards the med bay and made her way in that direction. The door opened as she entered the med bay, and Chakwas turned at her presence.
"Ah, Captain Shepard, here for your next evaluation?"
"Yeah, let's get this over with." Shepard responded grimly.
Abigail Shepard stood rigidly as the doctor waved her Omni-tool over the wounds and the rest of her ligaments. She felt the need to twitch her foot, but restrained it forcefully. I just hope I don't have to do what I came here to do.
Chakwas frowned as she tried waving the Omni-tool over her patient one more time. The frown turned upside down into a smile as she got the data she clearly wanted.
"There, one minute please." Chakwas parted from Shepard and began entering the data into the computer.
Abigail felt her foot begin to tap against the deck plating as she turned her eyes skyward, hoping, praying, the results would have a desirable outcome. It felt like her foot was about to come apart at the seams as she waited.
"Ah," Chakwas stated, "no neural improvement but some slight physical elasticity, I still think you need to-"
She was cut off as she turned around and saw Abigail's face, and the look which was plastered upon it.
"Doctor, I need a clean bill of health, I need a reinstatement of my full duties."
The woman before her frowned deeply, "I'm afraid I can't do that Captain, I know what you mean when you say a return to full duty, I know where you will go, and you want to lead from the front. I cannot authorize that."
"Well then I have no choice."
"No choice?"
Abigail bit her lip considering her next words very carefully, "One way or another I am taking my command back. One way or another I am returning to duty. I need to return to duty."
"And how will you do so without my express permission?" Chakwas folded her arms over her chest.
"You know what happened to my aide," Abigail pointed out and saw the doctor's eyes widen, "he turned out to be indoctrinated, or a mole. I can have James come in here right now and take you away, claim you have been manipulating my test results to keep me on the bench, that you have been indoctrinated."
"This is blackmail!" Chakwas yelled out.
Abigail blinked at her doctor, no her friend, frozen, waiting for her to make her next move.
"Why are you doing this? You are putting yourself in undue danger."
"Because I can handle myself, and it's not a matter of want, it's a matter of need. I need this, more than ever before, if I don't make a stand, for all we have begun to build since the war... I need to do this."
Chakwas sighed.
Abigail folded her arms over her chest, her sympathy and her reasoning beginning to take over and take the edge off her passion a small bit.
"Look, Karin, I'm sorry…maybe this is wrong of me, hell I hardly know which way is up anymore. But I need this, I know what I'm doing, I've faced far worse than this before."
"Alright, but if you get yourself in trouble, if you cannot handle yourself, then I just hope you either stop, or you don't get anyone else killed. I trust you Shepard, I do, enough that I will give you this one chance no matter what else you have done. But you must be rational for that trust to continue."
She nodded, "Very well Doctor, and thank you." She picked up her BDU vest and got back into it as she left the med bay.
As the door closed behind her she had to use a hand to hold herself up against the wall, her heart was pounding, her chest was heaving, and she breathed heavily in and out, though she managed to keep up a stable rhythm, but her breath still came out in puffs. What did I almost do? She wondered. What is going on with me? I don't know. She knew she had to keep it up though, she knew that niceties weren't going to cut it if she was going to win this war, and she was not going to win the war sleeping in some med bay or twiddling my thumbs in my cabin, it did have a cool hard ruthless logic to it. But so does what Chakways said. She sighed.
"Shepard?" Miranda's voice broke in over the intercom. "Abigail?"
Abby gave a start glaring, never an off moment, "yes, huh, what is it?" She furrowed her brow.
"We are receiving a transmission; I think you may want to see this." Miranda replied.
"Is that really necessary?" Even though I want to get to work, suddenly I just want to collapse in my cabin…just for five minutes.
"Well, it's interesting, and it's a strategic decision about where we go from here." Miranda replied.
Abigail arched an intrigued eyebrow, "I'll be right there."
Normandy-War Room
And so she was, as she walked down the steps into the control pit. Miranda, Traynor, Ashley, and Cameron Shepard were all there waiting for her.
"Ash, you doing OK?" She asked starting off.
"Yeah," Ash said rolling her arms around, "Chakwas is a miracle worker."
That she is, Abby smiled lightly.
"And what is up that requires my presence?"
Miranda and Traynor traded a look.
Traynor cleared her throat and started, "Well we have received a message, a request for a communication from…Ranaak Kurl."
Abigail crossed her arms over her chest, "wanted to gloat did he?"
"No," Miranda frowned, "I think it would be better if we let him explain."
Before Abby could say no, before she could even say yes, the large Krogan warlord towered over her in the center of the table.
"Ah, Captain Abigail Shepard…congratulations on the promotion by the way."
"Save the pleasantries, you are using up valuable bandwidth, and I don't have the time to fence."
He sighed, "I suppose since our last meeting ended in fire you would say that and believe this, but I come here in peace. And to make an offer. The offer is to allow you and your convoy to come to Omega and use it for repairs and a base of operations."
"Convoy? What convoy?" The Captain decided to play dumb, and draw Kurl out.
"Please Captain I am not a fool, little happens in the Terminus System without my notice. Especially a major battle between human or Alliance forces. Quite the noteworthy incident in and of itself."
"Alright," Abby glared, "that brings us to why?"
"I owe you a favor," Kurl replied simply, "and not being a fool I know that an aggressive Alliance could be a danger, to us all, to my meager gains. I know you have a powerful warship and connections, we are obviously stronger together then we are separate. And besides, you need a place to put the civilian population you are now holding down, because you cannot run missions while they are in tow. Everyone wins."
Good point, "Alright," Abigail stated, "We'll think about it."
"Do so quickly." Kurl replied before his image faded from the screen.
Abigail glanced at Miranda arching an eyebrow, "Do we trust him?"
"Do we have a choice?" Cameron shrugged off to her side.
"Perhaps," Miranda mused, "why would he make the offer he wasn't at least partially genuine?"
"He could be trying to capture us and when we are in his clutches, turn us over to the Alliance." Abigail offered.
"Unlikely," Miranda shook her head, "he was right. Soren seems discontent in sticking to Earth only, we know him and his forces are using the Council to gain political leverage and control throughout the entire Galaxy. He knows that Omega is unlikely, even with his efforts, able to withstand such a storm if it comes to his door. He also knows that we are in possession of a powerful warship which could be an effort to him if it comes to that. Plus he does have a major trade depot and control center for much of that region of space."
"Alright," Abigail came forward shrugging, "He could be meaning to deal with us himself, he knows we are vulnerable."
"Also unlikely, but possible." Miranda nodded.
"We have ways of dealing with that possibility." EDI pointed out.
"I suppose," Abby sighed, "Ash? Cameron?"
"I'm for it, better then running around the stars just waiting for someone to kill us." Ashley said leaning against the console.
"I don't know the guy," Cameron grumbled, "I wasn't a part of this situation, I did not fight in a Krogan Civil War…that was Ashley's department…in my universe anyways."
Abigail and Ashley traded smiles at that particular revelation.
"And since Wrex survived…well no that is off topic. The point is we need allies. And Omega is a lot more stable then Horizon, and as long as we can secure Hudson's show…" Cameron glanced at Miranda and EDI.
"We can." EDI replied.
"Then we won't make the same mistake we did the first time and can lie low, for a while, hopefully." Cameron pointed out.
"Alright, if everyone is convinced this is the right course of action…Ashley, set it up. But make sure we have a way out; I only want to take a Kodiak in. Keep the Normandy and the squad safe until I can determine if Kurl is actually genuine or not. I will lead down a minimalist squad."
"Sounds good enough for me, I'll set it up." Ashley said nodding.
"Good, get it done people." Abigail Shepard said nodding herself, and leaving the room.
Deck 3-A little later
Abigail Shepard tapped her fingers on the counter of the dining room as her Frappuccino basically made itself. The new machine whirred and grunted rhythmically trying to mash all the ingredients into a smooth pulp. Some things never change even with modern technology, Abigail muttered to herself.
The beverage finished with a beep and she took it and sniffed at it gingerly before taking a sip, she turned back to the center of the room to watch the two men sitting there, staring back at her.
James was smirking, "So Lola, a Frap maker? Where did you get one of those?"
"It was a gift from the Horizon planetary Governor," Abby smirked over the rim of the drink, "and since I haven't had one of these in…ages…not really since I was assigned to Earth in the wake of Torfan…I just didn't realize how much I had missed taking these drinks."
Cameron and James traded a bemused look.
"So really? What options do you think we have right now? With us going to see Kurl? Any opinions?" Shepard asked.
"It's loco." James shrugged, "We were killing the guy and trying to stop his forces from winning a Civil War?"
Cameron put his cup of coffee down and shrugged, "me? I read the reports, what I could get on them anyways. The guy seems like a nut case…I guess people can change though."
Oh don't I know it, "But the problem is not can they change but if Ranaak Kurl has. Even if he is helping us now he could just be using us for his own agenda."
"Exactly," Cameron muttered. "I would like to believe he is honest, just…"
"We can't be sure, so we are walking into the situation blind." Abigail finished.
Cameron arched his head to the side and nodded slightly.
The three of them were quiet after that, just sipping and enjoying the atmosphere, and with nothing else left to say on this issue they didn't feel the need to say anything, at least as a group.
"Well," Cameron grunted setting his coffee down as he got up, "on that pleasant note I should go…to bed."
"See ya Cameron," Abigail smiled at him as he left.
"Hasta luego loco." James finished.
Abigail stared at James, James stared at Abigail, he turned around in the seat he was on and patted the seat beside him. She moved to join him sitting on his lap.
His hands went around her waist holding her close, "Whoa Lola, you're tense, hard as a rock."
"It's been a long day." She sighed.
"Right," James grunted starting to knead her, she smiled and closed her eyes. "So… Chakwas gave you a clean bill of health?"
Abigail nodded automatically, "Uh huh, well I don't think I'll be doing too much, not at first. Going to be doing a lot of standing around and waiting for someone to come to me with an issue…or deaing with a psychopathic Krogan with delusions of God hood."
"You know what day it is today right?" James asked.
She sighed, "No James, I'm not exactly up on what day it is. You know me." She chuckled nervously.
"It's your birthday."
"My biirtthhhddaaay?" She asked.
"Yeah, April 11th?"
"Wow." Abby grunted.
"Yeah, you are thirty six years old." James teased.
She rolled her eyes, "Thanks for reminding me."
"Yeah, so what do you want to do to celebrate?" He said huskily.
She didn't say anything, thinking on it for a moment.
"Well, who knows Lola?" He muttered. "I just know you've been hard to track down recently, haven't been in the quarters a lot."
"I've been busy," She grunted sitting up straighter, "you know, running a major war."
"Yeah, ok, but you've been hard to find, I've been a bit worried about you."
She smiled slightly sighing, "thanks James, but I'm fine, just needed some time to sort through some stuff."
She felt James nod against her back. "Yeah…well its a few hours before we get to Omega, we have time for a break, want to come to bed?"
She smirked devishly as James began to tickle her neck, "Yeah, now that sounds like a good idea."
She got up and stretched before walking away, James followed her a few seconds later.
…
"Hello, sorry for the delay but the Government forces had successfully invaded us and pushed us out of Horizon. But we are alive, we are secure, and we will continue to stand for as long as we can, against the night, and for the truth. For the freedom and Liberty of all the peoples in the Galaxy.
This is the Voice of the Resistance."
AN: Well as it happens today IS actually Shepard's birthday and I did manage to actually get this out today. Despite having a pretty busy day with a lot of stuff I have been doing throughout the day. Fun fun fun for the whole family.
So happy birthday to Captain Abigail Shepard and to all the other Shepard's out there.