There was still a lot of time before arrival at Geth base. Shepard decided to give Daniel some lesson in using guns so he would be useful in the mission needed to bring Legion back to Normandy.
"Great shooting!" Shepard said while Daniel hit stationary targets, "Now let's see what we can do when the target is moving." He continued and programmed targets to move from side to side. In this case, Daniel wasn't as successful as Shepard would expect.
"Lame! Put there somebody who can do better!" James scoffed. Shepard came closer to Daniel and Daniel took off the ear protection.
"Let James show you how to strike a moving target… James! Come here!" Shepard gestured at James to come closer. James walked up to both of them and Shepard gave him a gun, "Show Daniel how to do the thing. I'll be explaining to him while you do that. Shepard said and James smirked, taking that gun and getting ready for shooting his targets.
"Now Daniel, watch. James knows how to do this." Shepard said and the targets started to move. As soon as James shot his first moving target and continued through others, Shepard explained, "The trick is that you must predict your enemy's moves. Therefore, you can shoot your enemy. You cannot aim at him, but slightly off of him in the direction of his movement."
"That slightly reminds me of Coriolis effect. In this case the bullet is deflected from its original direction."
"Something like that. Now when you saw how James used his gun, try the same." Shepard said and Daniel took the gun from James. James returned to his spot in the shuttle bay, proud of his skill with gun. He continued to watch Daniel in his effort of shooting the targets. This time, however, when the targets started to move, Daniel shot 8 out of 10 which was better than 2 out of 10. James' mouth remained opened wide, Shepard's mouth went in smile, seeing it was not waste of time. Daniel took his ear protection off.
"Good job, Daniel! You can take some free time before we get to the mission. Also you better try out your equipment because we'll enter vacuum space."
"Will do, commander." Daniel said and with no other words left the shuttle bay through the elevator.
"Dios mio…" James shook his head and returned to his work out.
"I wouldn't even say he's got problems, commander. He seems so calm." Cortez said while making adjustments on the shuttle through his console. Shepard turned to face him.
"I can see that Daniel doesn't want me to feel like I am babysitting him. He's doing progress."
"Definitely he is, but this calm side of his is quite cold." Shepard's eyebrows narrowed after Cortez said that.
"Where are you pointing at, Cortez?"
"I saw this before. He hides some pain from the past. It's question why he volunteered to be the test subject for cryo-stasis though."
"You mean he ran away from the world he used to live in?"
"Sounds almost like it. I would guess he didn't have much luck in finding partner though."
"Cortez, correct me if I am wrong, but it almost sounds like you want him for yourself!" Shepard laughed and Cortez smiled in reply.
"He's a cute guy, but I don't want to cause him to be confused during the mission." Cortez said and Shepard shook his head smiling.
"Depends if he's into boys, Cortez. He can also be into aliens."
"Yeah you're the evidence that it's possible, commander!" Cortez laughed at Shepard. Daniel sat in the Life support room. He decided to kill time so he started drawing. He used data pad with stylus pen he found in a locker. Daniel used to draw when he was young but then he simply didn't have enough time as he grew up. Studies and other interests pushed the drawing away and so he forgot how to draw. However, now that there was time before mission, he had time and because he was always interested in space, he wanted to draw something special.
His most favorite objects in the universe were black holes. They are mystic, scary, powerful, simply interesting objects no one really knows much about. His drawing was interrupted once he saw a blue asari looking over his right shoulder to the drawing.
"That is beautiful drawing." Liara started and Daniel with her looked at each other.
"Well… I'm trying to resurrect my forgotten skills from childhood."
"It looks like you draw all the time. Is that a black hole?"
"Yes. More precisely, it's super-massive black hole."
"Sagittarius A*?" Liara asked.
"Yes… what's your name?"
"I'm Liara. Liara T'Soni. And you?"
"I'm Daniel Husk. You're… asari?" Daniel asked and Liara gave him nod, "Shepard told me about the species that I can meet within galaxy.
"Shepard is a good man, Daniel. Tell me, why black holes?"
"Well, I was always interested in them since I studied high school. I was counting critical radius of a matter to know when it will collapse into black hole. I always wondered how would black hole look in real life, not only the gravitational lens."
"Shepard could tell you. He was in the center of galaxy himself." And Liara started to explain Shepard's adventure against Collectors. Finally, there was a time of the mission. Joker announced that Normandy was approaching the Geth space ship. Shepard called for this mission James and Daniel. For Daniel it was his very first mission and it was in space. He had never been to a mission before. He just woke up from cryo-stasis and his whole life was flipped upside down.
James, Daniel and Shepard were standing in the airlock wearing their space suits. James and Daniel standing next to each other, Shepard facing them.
"Daniel, did you get an omni-tool from EDI?" Shepard asked.
"Yes."
"Good. I just want to make sure that I will not have to return on board with only one member of my squad." Shepard said and James chuckled under his helmet, "That's no joke, Vega."
"Sorry, Loco." James said.
"You and I will be the front-liners. Daniel will be right behind us, covering us from behind. Daniel?" Shepard moved his gaze to Daniel.
"Yes, commander?"
"Don't panic in case of some happenings like explosion, collapse of the structure or cross-fire. Whatever you do, stay behind me or James and follow our steps. Did you understand?"
"Understood, commander."
"Then let's go…" Shepard finished and Daniel with James followed him through a corridor of airlock.
"Hey, Dan. I may not be empathic but I'll keep an eye on your ass! Don't ya worry! You'll be fine!" James said.
"Thanks, I guess…" Daniel said and all three of them continued through the corridor until they were at the gate on board of Geth ship.
"Commander?" Shepard caught transmission from Joker.
"Joker. What is it?"
"Normandy has received a distress signal from within the Geth ship." Joker said and Shepard looked at Daniel. His innocent war-untouched eyes met with commander's.
"Are you sure this is no discrepancy?"
"I tried to get specific location of the signal but something is jamming it…"
"What does it mean, Joker?"
"It means 'Watch out! It smells with problems!' Be careful. Joker out." Joker said and left them alone. Commander opened the vault door with button and all of them proceeded through. Suddenly, the door shut behind them, the button turned red.
"Shit!" James exclaimed, "Okay, Loco. What now?"
"Listen, it looks like we fell into a trap and the Geth might not be on our side. We cannot contact Joker, neither open these doors. However, if we stay together we will survive!"
"What's gonna be our next step, Loco?"
"Now we have three goals. First, we need to find Legion and most likely save him. Second, we need to find a source of the signal jammer and destroy it. Third, stay safe and watch for all enemies!" Shepard said and all of them went deeper into the base of the Geth. Shepard, James and Daniel formed a triangle while James and Shepard were in the front, Daniel in the back, all of them holding loaded guns. The base was dark, no oxygen, only vacuum and zero gravity. At one moment, Daniel spotted something crawling on the ceiling.
"What was that?!" Daniel asked silently.
"What was what?" James asked back.
"Something crawled up there." Daniel noted. Shepard didn't take any risk and activated his flashlight. He looked at the ceiling, seeing many Geth on the ceiling. Shepard's eyes widened and sweat appeared on his face.
"Fire!" Shepard ordered. All of them fired at the Geth hanging on the ceiling. Some Geth avoided, some got shot and died. Some started descending to the squad of humans, "RUN!" Shepard shouted and started to run through corridors. James and Daniel followed him, Geth ran behind them. All of them had red visors which signalized they were hostile. Shepard and his squad ran through corridors until they came across a big hall with four entrances.
"Stop!" Shepard said and looked around, "Geth are approaching! Watch out and shoot all of them as long as you have an ammo!" Geth were incoming, many of them were coming through entrances and they were all shooting at the squad of humans. James and Shepard had no problem to use a structure in the center. Daniel did the same, unfortunately for him, he wasn't so experienced in combat and got hit in his hip.
"AH!" Daniel cried out, holding his hip.
"Dan!" Shepard cowered to him, "Dan! Hold that wound tight! James! Take them out!"
"I'm out of ammo, Loco!" James said and some Geth were incoming. Shepard started to think of the worst, but suddenly, Geth started falling to the ground after a hit in head. The perimeter was clear and Shepard looked up at a traverse, seeing bright white blueish shimmer. It drew a figure of Geth with sniper rifle standing there.
"Shepard-commander." The Geth said and Shepard recognized that voice. It belonged to Legion.