AN:- By this point in the first game I had already recruited Liara. By this point int he second game I was well on the way to Omega and Garrus. Funny just how different the pacing of the three games is.

Chapter Six: New Normandy

Udina was pacing his office as she walked through the door. He glanced over and when he saw who it was he started ranting immediately. "They're a bunch of self-concerned jackasses Shepard! We may have a spot on the Council, but humanity will always be considered second rate."

For the first time she was actually agreeing with him. "How can they be so blind?"

Udina snorted. "They're scared. And they're looking out for themselves."

"Our people are scared." It was the turian councillor, as casual as if they were discussing the décor of the office. "And we're looking out for them the best we know how."

"Councillor." She nodded her head respectfully.

"Commander. I can't give you what you need, but I can tell you how to get it."

"It's Captain actually." For the first time that information seemed relevant. She folded her arms and waited, but he didn't elaborate. "I'm listening."

"Primarch Fedorian called the War Summit, but… we lost contact with him when the Reapers hit Palaven." She managed to restrain a jolt of surprise. She hadn't even been told that the Reapers had landed anywhere else. "Those meetings won't proceed without him. The Normandy is one of the few ships that can extract Primarch Fedorian undetected."

"So far you've only explained how I can help you."

"It might seem that way. But the leaders of this summit will be the ones deciding our future. The fate of our fleets, where they fight." He paused to make sure his meaning was fully understood. "And with whom. A grateful Primarch would be a tremendous ally in your bid for us to work together."

"We're at war, and you want me to play politician?"

He actually had the gall to shrug. "If it gets you what you need, what does it matter?" He called up his omni-tool. "Our latest intelligence says that the Primarch was moved to a base on Palaven's largest moon." Her own omni-tool pinged that she had received the data packet. "I've done all I can to help, the rest is up to you."

He moved to leave the room, pausing at the door and turning back. "There is one other thing. The Council wanted me to tell you. We've chosen to uphold your SPECTRE status. And various resources will be made available to you. Good day." And with that he was gone.

Shepard snorted. "Well that went well."

"It's a start." Udina went over to his desk and sat down, calling up something on his screen. "I'll talk to the others in the meantime, see if we can support this summit. Move things along."

She nodded. "Thanks." The word felt a little strange to her, directing it to Udina in particular. But it might just have been appropriate. Turns out they really were on the same side after all, though maybe coming at it from different angles.

She left the office and at once spotted the logo of the SPECTRE offices. At the very least she hadn't burned that bridge. They could offer a lot of help. She activated the keypad and waited for it to verify her status before she headed through into the office, finding the expected requisitions terminals, the shooting range and the intelligence files. Nothing unexpected, even if she had never had a real chance to access any of this information since she had been commissioned.

There was only one pertinent piece of information, but it terrified her to read it. A Quarian on Pilgrim had just bought up a huge quantity of high end weapons and technology. The Quarians were recalling their Pilgrims and preparing for war.

There wasn't much more she could do than mark the message as received and understood. Maybe she would have a chance to contact Tali and ask her if she had any idea what was going on. But Palaven had to come first.

She eyed the target range wistfully, then headed out of the office and back towards the central embassy. As far as she could tell it stood right where the old embassy had been, but if so then it had been completely remodelled, and for that she was thankful. Enough bad memories were contained in the Council Chamber, she didn't need them elsewhere on the Citadel.

She shouldn't have been surprised to see Khalisah right in front of the elevators. She had probably been waiting specifically for Shepard.

"Commander Shepard. Commander the people of the Alliance have questions."

She stepped over and held up her hand to stifle any immediate questioning. "Firstly, it's Captain now, the promotion officially went through before I left Earth. Secondly, I am on a tight deadline, you might have noticed the war happening."

"I'll be brief," she said, activating her cameras. "Isn't it true that you were on Earth when the Reapers attacked? How do you justify running away while millions of people on Earth die? Is that the best we can expect from the Alliance?"

"I came to get help for Earth, for everyone."

"What about all the people suffering while you play politics with the Council? What about them?" Shepard cocked her head, hearing the real emotion hidden behind the bluster and the rhetoric. "How can you stand here while our families die? What are you going to do?" And there it was. The very real fear.

Shepard reach out and gently rested her hand on Khalisah's shoulder. "Khalisah, we're doing everything we can."

The woman crumpled under her touch. Her voice broke with her first word. "Before they cut the feeds, there were so many dead."

She needed stability now. Shepard kept her voice as calm as she could. "I'm going to stop the Reapers or die trying, but I need your help. Keep asking the hard questions." She locked eyes with Khalisah and tried to will her more strength. "Don't let the Council forget about Earth."

"I will." She straightened, and a little life came back into her voice. "Thank you Commander."

"We haven't always seen eye to eye." That was putting it mildly, and she got a little smile out of al-Jilani. "But I'm glad you're on our side."

There wasn't much more to say. She shut down her camera and walked away, leaving Shepard to scan the embassies, picking out another familiar face from the crowds. Vega stood by the window, looking down at the pools of water and the people milling around them.

"Hey Captain," he said as she stepped up beside him. "Liara told me the Council's not interested in helping us."

"Something like that."

"Why would they. Look at this place." He waved out the window. "There's no war here. People are whispering about it. They're talking about it. But they don't really believe it."

She smirked. "I take it this is your first time here, with the elite of the galaxy."

"I've been to the Citadel, but never up here on the Presidium." He shrugged. "It's not right. It looks pretty. Calm and peaceful, but it's not right. It's all just an illusion."

She remembered vividly her first time on the Presidium. "It was peaceful, once."

"But was it? Really?" She had to admit that he was probably right there. "I mean when push comes to shove they're just gonna turtle up, hope it don't hit them too right? They'd rather believe in this." He waved again. encapsulating all of the people currently talking about politics or shopping or any number of things that were about to become completely irrelevant. "Than face the truth."

"I can hardly believe it myself." She glanced out of the window, wishing that she could return to that first trip, even for a moment. "Like everything back on Earth was some kind of nightmare."

"Yeah that's what I hate most. It's like this place wants you to forget that."

She looked back to him. "So. You still wanna go back to Earth?"

"Hell yeah. But…"

"But?"

"You were right, so was Anderson, we can't stop them alone." He grinned. "Besides, looks like you're gonna have your hands full convincing these pendejo politicians to help us. And I'm up for it. Whatever it takes."

"Glad to hear it."

He flexed his shoulders and cracked his neck. "I'm gonna head down to some of the lower levels where they keep it real. You got some spare time, you should come find me."

She nodded. "Maybe I'll do that."

Before she headed back for the Normandy she checked in with Huerta Memorial to hear that Ashley was still unconscious, but her vitals were strong. Dr Michel was optimistic, which wasn't nothing. She signed off and decided to head straight back to the Normandy. Liara had pinged her to say she was heading there to continue her research, and it would be good to have some time to catch up.

Despite Vega's observations, there was a definite undercurrent of tension on the Citadel that she hadn't felt before. A turian soldier on the docks was clearly saying goodbye to a friend or partner, and she overheard a volus saying something about the Alliance military. Everywhere people were making preparations, or shipping out, even if the majority of the populace remained unaware. All the way back through the dock she felt the tinge of unease down her spine. They were at war now.

/|\

Back on the Normandy she was more than a little irritated to find that her quarters had been stripped again. All of her ship models, all of her pictures and personal effects. She hadn't exactly expected them to leave them out for her, but they could at least have kept them in ship's storage instead of back on Earth. She sighed and brought up her private messages. Flicking through them quickly.

First and foremost were two messages noted as Urgent. The first was the general alert from Admiral Hackett to all Alliance forces. The broadcast that Earth was under attack. She scanned it, but didn't bother to take any of the data in. Whatever it said wouldn't be nearly enough to convey the enormity of the situation, and any orders it contained wouldn't apply to her anyway.

The next message was a personal one, direct from Hackett to herself. A Cerberus lab had been discovered on Sanctum, could the Normandy please survey the situation? She made a note of the location and transmitted it to Joker to save into the data banks for when their mission to Palaven was completed.

Under that the less urgent messages needed attending to. She had been officially reinstated now, and at the new rank of Captain. Nothing she didn't already know, but it was nice to have it in writing. She also had diplomatic authority to negotiate and make deals with other species and official command of the Normandy again.

An Alliance News Network bulletin followed that message, confirming that the Quarian Migrant Fleet was apparently missing in action. Coupled with what she had read earlier in the SPECTRE office none of the news boded well. A message had come through on an encrypted line telling her that she had research upgrades waiting for her, but the location of the research was unmarked. She flagged it as possible spam.

The final message intrigued her. Something had been pinged to her about a discovery at Eden Prime. Nothing was certain, but it was believed to be related to the Protheans. She could only hope it might be another beacon. Any additional data they could find about the new weapon would help. She forwarded it to Liara. Before closing down the terminal she decided to route the Tennyson directly to Ashley for when she woke up. They might have been out and away when she woke up, and Shepard wanted her to know that she was being thought of, even if they couldn't be there in person when she awoke.

Her door chimed and she leaned back in her chair. "Come."

The door cycled open and Liara walked through. Shepard jumped up out of her chair and walked over to her, feeling the smile spreading across her face. "Liara, can I help you?"

"I've been forwarding the turian councillor information on the Prothean device. It can't be built without Council support, but he's not budging until their Primarch is safe."

She nodded. "I figured as much."

Liara frowned at her. "Shepard, Maia, are you alright?"

Curse her ability to know what I'm thinking. Honesty was always the best policy. "Earth."

Liara led her back into the cabin proper and sat her at the desk. "Talk to me."

Shepard sighed and leaned back in her chair, trying to ease some of the tension she felt crawling across her shoulders. "When the Reapers hit, I could hear people screaming in the streets below me. We left a lot of them behind."

"There's no way for you to save them all." Liara smiled. "But I know you're doing everything you can, and you'll get back there in time to help."

"I hope you're right."

"Don't blame yourself Maia." She was reaching out her hand when the sound of boots brought them out of their moment and they looked over to see a woman standing just outside the elevator.

"Commander Shepard." She snapped to smart attention. "I'm Specialist…" She registered that there was someone else there, and that she had possibly intruded on something private. "Oh. I… uh, I beg your pardon, I thought you were alone."

Liara's hand dropped and she pushed away from the desk. "Not to worry, I was just leaving."

They waited until the elevator doors had closed. When the woman looked back to Shepard it was with much more uncertainty.

"Commander Shepard? I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, with Alliance R&D. I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy, after you turned it over to the Alliance. There weren't many of us aboard when the Reapers hit…"

She was beginning to babble. Shepard held up a hand and her mouth closed. "Slow down Specialist Traynor, you're doing fine."

"Thank you. I worked in a lab, I never thought I'd be serving on a ship." That much Shepard could have told from her manner. She was as green as a rookie holding their first rifle.

Be nice to the newbies. "Why don't you tell me about the retrofits?"

She had picked the right subject. Traynor perked up immediately and walked into the small office. "The ship's in line with Alliance regs now and it has new, top-of-the-line quantum entanglement communicators." She paused and looked around the room, which of course included Shepard's quarters. She had never fully understood that particular design quirk. "In fact, Admiral Anderson had intended to use the Normandy as his mobile command centre."

"That's no longer an option."

"Yes. I heard he chose to stay and fight…" It was getting hard not to feel inadequate. Though of course she knew exactly how they felt at not having the venerable warrior on board. "In any event I'm honoured to serve under you, Commander." Nice save Traynor. "For as long as you need me, that is." Her confidence ebbed and flowed on a whim it seemed. "They only sent me here to oversee the retrofits."

Before Shepard could think of something generically positive to say EDI chimed in from the nearby speaker. "Shepard. Some of our systems require further testing, and Specialist Traynor has been extremely effective during installation." Shepard's eyebrow quirked up. That was quite the recommendation from EDI. "I would prefer that she remain."

"Got it EDI."

Traynor was frowning. "Wait, since when does a Virtual Intelligence make requests?"

Ah. Alliance brass didn't know everything it seemed. "EDI's an AI." She said, enjoying watching Traynor's face go slack, her eyes widening. "Fully self-aware."

"Oh, I knew it! I knew Joker was lying!"

"Jeff requested that I pretend to be a simple VI to protect myself. I apologise for the deception." EDI was being unusually friendly.

"Thanks EDI… and I apologise for all those times I talked about how… attractive your voice was." Oh my. Well that explained the familiarity. "Anyway, shall I give you a tour? I think you'll be impressed by the new upgrades."

It was going to be one of those days. Pasting the patented Shepard Smile ™ on her face Shepard gestured to her console. "Feel free."

Traynor wasn't as bad as she had feared. She ran through the primary systems first, then onto the newly outfitted sections, such as the War Room and the new Research facilities. All very straightforward, and she would have some time to familiarise herself with the intricacies as well. As Traynor was finishing up she added, "Oh, and I believe Admiral Hackett would like to speak to you on the vid comm."

"Thank you Specialist." As she saluted Shepard couldn't resist one final dig. "And it's Captain, by the way. I got promoted back on Earth."

Specialist Traynor looked a special sort of mortified at having addressed her the wrong way all through the conversation. She saluted and beat a hasty retreat, leaving Shepard smiling bemusedly at the door. "She seems… peppy," she said to thin air.

"I have found Specialist Traynor to be an invaluable asset in bringing the Normandy to full operational capacity."

"You seem quite taken with her EDI."

"She has a grasp of virtual systems that is… impressive."

"Well don't let her grasp too tightly. Be gentle with her."

"I…" There was a pause. And not just a programmed pause. EDI had stuttered over a response! Shepard grinned triumphantly. "Our relationship is strictly professional."

"I'm sure." She pushed back from the desk. "I'm heading to the communications room. Carry on EDI."

AN:- I like Traynor. I also approve of her. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with her in this fic, but I do approve of her.

So far I'm adding very little of my own original content to this story, but it will be in there, I promise.