Miranda Lawson had lost count of how many times she considered Shepard the luckiest human in existence. She was never one to believe that luck shaped someone's life, but she started believing otherwise after meeting the commander. There were so many situations she ran into that would have guaranteed death to any lesser being. Shouldering her way into Tuchanka to help a young krogan go through his rite of passage, and being declared his battlemaster despite no other alien taking part in the ritual was one of Miranda's favorite stories. Everything the ex-Cerberus officer knew came from understanding, study, and analysis … Shepard came from blind determination and an air of recklessness. Admittedly, she would never fully understand how the commander accomplished all she had, or how she obtained so many people to be close to her. But Miranda was beginning to see that part. Oriana was her sister and her friend, and Tali surprised her with regular contact, not just about Shepard, but about life in general. That was curious, because she was certain the quarian woman hated her. She took the offered steps toward friendship with reluctant hopefulness. Maybe now that she didn't have to run anymore, she could focus on living a "normal" life.

Now, for the benefit of Shepard, Miranda was able to show off her understanding of the world. She made a mental note to use a joke about picking up Shepard's pieces at some point. The commander had to be put under for the initial process, much to her dismay. Explaining that she would have to cut into the length of her arm changed Shepard's protests rather quickly, though. Reaching her cybernetics would be a complicated process for a while, especially since she would have to, essentially, re-wire them to accept the prosthetic.

In one of the surgery rooms, Laura and Kirron began to assist her. Miranda had to be impressed with the young nurse's knowledge of Shepard's physical condition, even before she arrived to offer assistance. Laura confessed to researching cybernetics in her free time, hoping to eventually take part in genetic engineering. If she ever had to do something similar to her last project with Shepard again, Miranda noted to get a hold of the young woman.

Adapting the artificial arm onto Shepard's existing form wasn't impossible. It wasn't a completely foreign operation, since artificial limbs had been commonplace with modern technology. Several beings had false limbs to help them after accidents, genetic mutations, birth defects … even some that had enough money to improve their bodies the way they wanted. Cybernetics were used in almost every instance as well, but Miranda suspected that none of the previous patients had the extent of cybernetics that Shepard did.

In the coldest terms, Shepard's body was the shell, and the operations of the Lazarus Project were her innards. After all, she had died. The commander was quite literally built during the project, using her existing organs and body and interlacing them with cybernetics. Every system inside the woman was assisted with cybernetics, and Miranda was hoping to use this to her advantage. Commonly, when using cybernetics, people receiving artificial limbs were able to move them at will, functioning as the original limb would have. Some could walk on a false leg without any appearance of struggle; others could move their shoulders, elbows, and wrists in their arms.

Movement of the fingers or toes were by far the most difficult to succeed in. Patients with artificial hands and fingers commented on having to concentrate much harder on moving their fingers than any other part of their body. The use of hand-eye coordination and instinctual motor skills made using your hands part of nature, so forcing one's brain to relearn the activity was challenging. Miranda had a feeling Shepard would be too stubborn to let the difficulty stop her, however.

Truthfully, Miranda hoped to use the commander's cybernetics to her advantage. Movement and basic usage of artificial limbs were possible for any recipient, but all patients lost feeling in those limbs. They were, of course, artificial, so they could appear normal, but they would never feel normal to the patient. If the limb was damaged, the patient wouldn't be able to notice, because there were no nerves in the limb to warn the patient. Basically, Miranda wanted to make sure Shepard could feel her arm.

Feeling when it was hit, or pinned, even possibly connecting her feelings of pain was her goal. Most would believe having a limb with no sensation would be interesting, maybe even fun, but, if Shepard ever hoped to return to her duties as a Spectre, she would need to feel the limb again. Handling weaponry, even operating a terminal, would have to come as second nature.

Miranda had argued with herself about this idea for a long period of time in the four months after finding Shepard. It was true the commander earned a break after doing so much for the galaxy … but the feeling that this soldier was meant for more than happy retirement on an island in her honor made her hesitate. For his own reasons, The Illusive Man believed Commander Shepard had to be completely functional, and Miranda accomplished the task. To leave Shepard only partial intact, only fixing the problem at face value, was not her style.

As much as she hoped the commander's job was finally finished, she couldn't be sure of it.

"Admiral Tali'Zorah," a voice came over the communications of the ship.

Tali had forgotten how loud quarian ships could be. Amazingly she was beginning to miss the Normandy and its quiet engines. She stopped typing out the message on her omni-tool, wishing Shepard luck since the woman was about to receive a new arm. Curious, she answered the XO's call.

"There is a communications from Admiral Zaal'Koris."

Ah, Koris. He was coordinating the quarian fleet at the mass relay in the Tikkun system. Part of her felt jealous toward the group that was stationed there. They were just a few days' travel away from the home world, Rannoch. It was true, she had yet to make a home there, but she hoped to soon. Unconsciously, she ran her finger over the stone Shepard offered to her after landing on the planet. She kept it in a pocket of her enviro-suit to admire in peace every once in a while.

Rannoch was not perfect, though. The geth had been wiped out, very similar to what happened to EDI after the Crucible launched. This meant that the quarian people were left to their own devices in understanding their home world. Miraculously, the geths' consciousness that linked with quarian suits were still intact after the beam of the Crucible traveled through the galaxy. No one had complete understanding for why this happened, including the geth, but those left alive continued to coordinate with the quarians to better Rannoch.

Koris was the one of the first to volunteer sharing his suit with the consciousness of a geth, naming his companion Qwib-Qwib, in honor of his own ship that was lost during the Reaper War. The geth did not understand the necessity of a name, but accepted Qwib-Qwib as his title. The quarian admiral put together a group of engineers and researchers to attend to the relay, keeping in regular contact with Tali all the while.

Upon accepting the communication, Tali stood up from her bed and headed to the simple video console in the corner of her "office," which was about the third the size of Shepard's cabin on the Normandy. All the same, she appreciated having her own area. Pressing the communications button, the holographic image of Admiral Zaal'Koris came into view.

"Hello, Tali," Koris nodded.

"Greetings, Creator'Zorah," a mechanical geth voice, slightly deeper than Legion's, said.

"Koris, Qwib-Qwib," Tali answered. "How are things in Tikkun?"

"Actually, we've come across some interesting developments," Koris explained. "The geth that are linked with the engineers have been attempting to sync with some the relay's operations."

"What do you mean?"

"If they managed to coordinate with it, basically, the geth could have control of the relay. This will help us have better understanding of the relay itself."

"Hmm, that's an idea." Tali crossed her arms and leaned back slightly, not sure if she was comfortable with the thought of the geth controlling one of the most complex technologies in their known universe. It wasn't that she didn't want to trust the geth. Legion had helped to show her that they were not seeking to destroy the quarians or any other life, they just wanted to be accepted as beings themselves. Though she had grown up since her first encounters with them, the long-inserted distrust didn't go away overnight. "How has it been going?"

"Much better than expected, actually," Koris said. Tali could note the smile in the older quarian's voice.

"All connections have proven successful," Qwib-Qwib's voice explained. "With assistance from the creators, geth have managed to infiltrate the relay interface, indicating that the creators can, indeed, find them operational."

Tali shook her head. "So the geth managed to show you how the relay works?"

"Even better than that," Koris answered. "Tali, it's operational. As we speak, the mass relay is turning before us."

A/N: Apologies for any upcoming delays in chapter posting. In all honesty, I've just bought Grand Theft Auto V, and it's already proven to be a big distraction for me. Don't worry, though, Aftermath is still on-going!