* * * 64 * * *

Presrop, Debrief

The outer airlock door opened; Shepard was followed by Ash, Wrex, and Garrus.

"Kaidan, I'm hoping for a call from Hackett's office; can you pilot us back?"

"Will do, sir."

Shepard reached through the open hatch and Kiggs field to grab the bar on the overhead and pull himself up and in with a grunt. He ducked forward into the EIO seat and stepped over the centre console controls, noticing the holographic controls "moved out of his way" as he did.

With a swipe of his hand, he turned off the "windscreen" forward VR display, and peered out the slim viewport as Ash, Garrus, and Wrex climbed in behind him.

He sat, waiting for a call back, looking out at the bright, steady stars visible on the horizon opposite the dawn. Kyle seems to have some serious mental issues. I can't put him in a brig we don't have…but maybe get him in one of the sleep pods and just let him nap until we can hand him off.

Would they want us to take him to Arcturus? Can we just drop him off at the Citadel?

He didn't have time to consider it further; his comm system sounded a message chime in his helmet; presumably Normandy had relayed the signal from the Fifth Fleet Admiral's office.

Shepard gestured to accept the call with a lingering sense of dread. "Shepard; go."

The gravelly voice was instantly recognizable. "Commander, this is Admiral Hackett. I'd like to thank you for handling this Major Kyle situation so quickly. I understand you need an official visit."

"If you can, Admiral, it would help me a lot."

"I have a Condor on its way to you, but it will be at least a day before they get there; the nearest relay is in the Chandrasekhar system, and a Condor isn't nearly as fast as Normandy. You can do point-eight-eight, I believe. You cruise at point-eight-four. It may not make much difference when transiting between relays in a system, but to reach a system without a relay takes time."

Shepard nodded. "Actually, we haven't really had a chance to see what she can do, sir, but I see your point. My concern is Kyle himself. I don't have a brig, and even if I did, I'd be really unhappy putting him in it. I don't think he's a serious threat, but he confessed to the double murder of those officials, and – even if we don't treat him as a potential danger – we'd still need to confine him, and I simply don't have the space or facilities. I could put him in shackles and assign a security detail, but if you're really trying to help him, I don't think that's the way to do it."

Hackett nodded understanding, but said nothing.

"Could you have your people meet us as far as you can get? We can design for rendezvous once you have an outbound vector from the relay. A four-seater could slip into Normandy's hangar, and we could probably just keep him on close watch until."

"We could do that, but then he'll wonder why he's on a slow boat. The alternative is to rendezvous with my Condor at Chandrasekhar, and then go your separate ways."

Shepard paused to think. "Sounds like we need to get him all the way to the relay." Shepard paused, gestured for 4x acceleration to give himself time to think. "Will you have any objections if we set his sleep pod to keep him in repair mode until rendezvous?"

# # #

Kyle had watched Shepard turn his back and exit, and been gripped by the realisation that an hour was probably not going to be enough time.

He had become a flurry of activity: First, handing the grenade to Mo, confident he would use it only as a last resort, assigning duties to Jim and Vinidia, reminding them to delegate, or find ways to enroll others of the co-op to assist. "Tell them I will return as soon as I am able; you must handle things for me until I do. Remember, some of them need more help than others."

He located his footlocker, dumped it out, and began to re-pack, prioritising things he would need.

He was forty minutes into his hurry when Vinidia's voice preceded her entrance to his inner sanctum. "Father Kyle, we're being hailed by the SSV Normandy."

"Has it been an hour? I need more time!"

"It has not been an hour; I do not know what they want, but they are asking to speak with you by name."

Kyle did not take time to don his official garb; he simply went to the communications gear and stood where the camera would not see him. "This is Father Kyle; with whom do I speak?"

"Comms Officer Gladstone on behalf of Commander Shepard, SSV Normandy. Major, is an hour going to be enough time for you to pack and exit the facility? Commander Shepard appreciates your efforts to be prompt, but also recognises that one hour may not be sufficient."

Though still out of its field of view, Kyle turned to the camera in surprise. "Are you offering more time? How much?"

"I've been told we can offer you an entire day if you need it, Major."

"A day…?!" Kyle's mouth dropped open in surprise. It took several seconds for him to recover; Gladstone waited patiently for a reply. "That…that would be much appreciated. Uh…thank you, Normandy."

"Very good, sir. We'll expect you outside the airlock at 1700 Coordinated Zulu tomorrow."

# # #

Shepard had been on the call with Hackett for most of the drive back to the pickup zone. Joker had brought Normandy into an orbit behind the Mako, and the Air Boss had coordinated the timing on Mako's launch off the surface of Presrop.

"Secure for return jump," Kaidan's voice sounded in everyone's helmets.

Ash docked the control grips and flipped up a mechanical switch; the turret spun aft, dropping the barrel of the 10mm cannon into a special "cradle" there. "Weapons secure for jump."

The rest of the team grabbed or jostled their overhead harnesses and shook them to make sure they were secure, then each member mashed a large button at the centre of their harness to signal readiness (Wrex, using two at a time, mashed his simultaneously – and vigorously – with one fist each.)

Garrus looked around and saw the team all had green lights on their restraints. "Cabin secure for jump."

"Closing on your position, Mako. Synch looks good here." Normandy's Air Boss had a rich basso voice; hearing it always made Kaidan smile. "Return booster engage in two…one…go."

The sequencer's program was configured to have the forward jump jets "kick" the Mako's nose to fifty degrees off the horizontal as the MEFG spun up; computers synched the rectified mass down to about 188 grams and then the rear jets fired, launching the Mako into the sky. Besides giving the APC more traction than a mountain goat with sticky feet, the horizontally-oriented MEFG kept the passengers protected from sudden changes in orientation and velocity without requiring a full compensator system (and its associated extra mass and volume.)

Kaidan only had to watch the sequencer milestones flying by, and be ready to act in the event it failed; as each line item obtained, its description on the status display switched from red to green.

As the aft boosters engaged, the Mako's undercarriage retracted as far as it could, the airless tyres retracting to their minimum width, and then smashing upward against the wheel wells, deforming slightly, configuring the APC into its "lifting body" mode. With these mostly hidden behind the Mako's distinctive razor prow, the tiny APC generated a second type of Kiggs field for its underside: One that would deflect fast-moving air past the areas of potential turbulence inherently present there.

Though his hands were on the joystick and throttle, at this point, Kaidan was essentially a passenger. But he was watching the instruments to get a sense of what a good solid-fuel jump looked like; he also glanced to the right, looking out the virtualised "viewport" at the distant horizon, slowly dropping away behind them. Because Presrop had effectively no atmosphere, there was no sonic boom as the Mako accelerated through 340.3 m/s.

Kobunde read from his display, "Sixteen kilometres, about two by three, but ascent vector looks good to IP, acceleration is on track."

Kaidan nudged the joystick to the left, lining up the yaw a bit earlier than the automation was going to do so. "Looks good here; thank you, Normandy." Kaidan hardly had to work to compare the optimal values with their actual performance; they were right next to each other on the overhead display, and any out-of-range readings would show up in red (yellow if they were looking troublesome but still correctable.)

Their path was beginning to arc toward the massive moon, and another display showed this in green wireframe; this was by design so the APC could be properly oriented as it reached the altitude and speed at which Normandy would collect it.

Another display lit, showing a field of stars and the moon's limb, partly in shadow; a tag flashed three times and then steadily held on one particular star that seemed to be moving not quite in synch with the others: SSV Normandy SR-1: 10772m. The distance was counting down quickly, though the rate at which it counted also seemed to be slowing as the Mako continued to accelerate.

Liara and Tali were both craning their necks as far as they could to try and watch the displays on the pilot's instrument panel. "I want to drive this," Tali announced. "I mean…I want to fly this. Not be stuck back here in the baggage compartment."

"Not today," Kaidan said without looking away from the displays.

"Then tonight! When nobody's awake! I'll sneak aboard and have an adventure on my own!"

"If you can't behave, you'll have to sleep outside."

"You can't do that to me! I have my own crate!"

Kaidan shrugged. "Okay, have it your way."

Tali nodded firmly. "Thank you. Now, driver, please take me home."

As they were about to be collected by Normandy, Kaidan could only smile as he adjusted the joystick and throttle; his feet were on a steering plate, and although he was taking the opportunity to practice flying the Mako by hand, the automation was there to take over if things went truly awry.

Liara was watching from the opposite side of the cabin, her eyes flicking back and forth between Kaidan and Tali. Her smile was becoming increasingly impish.

Wrex turned slightly, regarding the quarian with his left eye. "Wait…you have your own crate?"

# # #

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for retrieving the Mako involved a full-burn acceleration to match Normandy's orbital speed, but because of the LZ's location and Normandy's low – and therefore fast – orbit, the mismatch was so great that the burn continued almost until Normandy's hangar door hinged up under the APC.

As they felt the docking waldoes clamp onto the Mako, Shepard said, "Capture is good." The APC was being drawn carefully into the hangar when he turned and spoke over his shoulder, "Debrief in fifteen, sooner if everyone's there." The hangar door began to close in front of them. He waved two fingers past his right ear, "Department heads, there's a briefing in fifteen minutes, CommCon. Telepresence is okay." On a ship as small as Normandy, this was almost irrelevant; he was simply used to saying so aboard a cruiser with a crew of thousands spread across hundreds of hectares of deck space.

Lowering his hand, he gave Kaidan a thumbs-up. "Good jump. Need any help shuttin' down?"

"Thanks, no," Kaidan worked his way through the postflight checklist. "There's a lot more automation on a Mako than a Grizzly, and AirBoss will hand me my head if I try to do too much of his job. Gonna have to be able to do this myself anyway when we lose Rich." With a final, comforting jostle and kludunk-kunk, both armoured hatches opened and the rest of the team began noisily exiting the Mako; Shepard didn't bother to get up, giving everyone aft of him a chance to exit the Mako first.

K. Alenko: Is that Torfan stuff going to be a problem? Do you have Next Steps on Kyle?

Shepard lit his omnitool as though doing something with it, but his hand hesitated over it. I just hope it doesn't come up in the debrief. Have to check on what's been declassified since.

K. Alenko: Glad to help distract if you need it. I've got your back, buddy. Just let me know what I can do.

Shepard grabbed the overhead bar and lifted himself out of the EIO seat, stepping backwards over the console. As he did, he made a fist with his left hand and brought it down on the biotic's shoulder.

With the Kiggs field already powered down, Wrex was just squeezing himself through the portside hatch; he was impressively nimble for having such mass and volume, though Shepard was interested to note the unusual ways the krogan's armour bent and flexed to allow it. Shepard gripped the bar over the hatch and swung his feet out, dropping to the hangar deck. Safely back aboard Normandy, helmets were being retracted as the team crossed the hangar to their lockers.

Ash approached. "Never even fired a shot," she pulled her sniper rifle off her SmartPak to lay it on the workbench and raised her voice to address the rest of the team as they gathered at their lockers, "Okay, team: I'm glad to service your gear if you want, but considering how this one came off, I'm officially saying you won't get any flak from me about securing your gear back in your lockers for a VI checkup. I'll handle any service that the notifier sends me."

Shepard would have joined them to do this, but his locker was on the middeck. So he headed for the lift directly, waiting only briefly for Garrus, who had exited the Mako already, secured his weapons, and was right behind him. Wrex was talking with Tali and Liara, and Kaidan was just exiting the Mako when the lift door closed and the lift began to crawl up its shaft.

Shepard put two finger next to his right ear, "CHENG, not as if you don't have enough to do, but as a project, what would it take to get my locker moved down to the hangar by the weapons bench instead of the tech bench? Thanks. Victor Indigo, sign my name and send."

Garrus nodded thoughtfully. "I did kind of wonder why that was set up that way."

"At the time, it seemed to make more sense. My berth is here, my station is up there," he pointed up to the CIC. "Or at least they were. As an XO, I didn't expect to go on nearly as many drops. Now that I'm a Spectre, there's more direct interaction, and with a larger variety of people."

The lift door dropped to the hangar deck; Shepard stepped out to starboard (left, because the middeck lift doors faced aft,) while the turian went to the ladders. As he walked, Shepard pulled his sniper and assault rifles off his SmartPak (the SmartPak's VI had inspected and installed drivers for compatibility with the Spectre armour,) and gently kicked his locker open.

Securing his weapons in the back of the locker (First In, Last Out,) he started to release the larger, outer plates and assemblies of his armour, lifting them off and stowing each in turn. Leaving the DCE layer on, he levered open and stepped out of the boots, stepped into pants, pulled on his shirt and officer's jacket.

C-suit "tabi" came out of the locker, Spectre office combat boots went in their place. As he headed for the ladders, the lift door was just opening; Ash, Liara, Tali, and Wrex were coming up from the hangar.

Because his armour fit directly over his shipboard attire, Wrex had changed faster than almost everyone else. "Not much to debrief about the mission, is there?"

"We came, we saw, you conquered," Ash punched Shepard playfully in the shoulder as he passed in front of her. They started up the portside ladder behind him.

Shepard nodded toward the krogan. "True, not a lot to discuss. But a debriefing is for everyone." The door at the top of the ladder opened for Shepard; his hand was already on its way to a salute for the one he knew he was about to receive from the door guard. "The time to resolve stuff is as close to when it happened as possible. SOPs, Best Practices, Long View stuff…you know…" He left the sentence unfinished.

"Questions, comments, sarcastic remarks," Ash added as she followed Wrex up the ladder.

Shepard smiled privately; the CommCon door hissed aside.

Chakwas and Adams were talking with Garrus. Pressly was standing in front of the large holo, using it as his workstation; Shepard's ARO tagged the tiles and added two-to-six-word summary descriptions of their contents.

"Looks like the whole ground team's already here," Shepard said as he headed to the aftmost chair.

Pressly turned his head slightly and spoke over his shoulder, "Joker's still limping his way back."

"Hey, be nice," Greg Adams said.

"That was nice. I didn't say a thing about his attitude. Everywhere he walks, nothing ever grows again."

"You probably wouldn't like being in pain all the time either."

Even though Pressly might have argued the point ("Only when he walks,") he merely shrugged, continued manipulating data in the holo.

"Right, then," Shepard sat in the chair just forward of where Pressly was standing. "No point wasting his time making Joker sit through the ground debrief, or ours waiting for him to get here before we do." He looked left and right, addressing the ground team, "Excellent work, everyone. Good mission. It might have seemed like we were overpowered for what we did, but I think we intimidated them so much that they caused very little trouble."

The krogan snorted, which Shepard's ARO tagged as Amusement. "They're your species; I'd have spaced the lot of 'em. Bunch of defective runts."

Shepard tipped his head at the krogan, "Which reminds me: I'd like to acknowledge your restraint today."

Though he did not acknowledge the human as a battlemaster, Wrex shrugged with a single hand gesture, "You're the boss." It was a human expression that he knew would keep the peace.

Garrus tapped a talon on his collar, "What about me? I hardly killed anyone, either."

"You'll have to kill a few by accident before you get thanked for that."

The two aliens would have continued sniping, but the compartment's one door slid open; Joker hobbled in.

Shepard turned to Pressly, spoke quietly, "You got your show ready?"

The XO was sliding tiles into order on one side of the size-reduced display. "Just a few seconds, sir."

Noticing Joker had one arm extended to the bulkhead and was eyeing the nearest seats, Shepard pointed at Garrus and then to an empty seat. Even though it was next to Wrex, Garrus moved without hesitation.

Joker didn't seem to be looking that direction, though as soon as the turian had evacuated he seat, the Flight Officer pushed himself away from the wall and struggled toward the open chair.

Pressly gathered the tiles into a corner of the display, and pulled them to his omnitool. "Big board is yours, Commander."

"Thank you." Shepard rose, addressed the gathered ground team and department heads. "Although the ground operation was a resounding success, the mission is not yet complete. Major Kyle has surrendered, and will be available for collection at 1700 tomorrow. I'm inclined to land the ship and extend every courtesy to my former CO, but he is still a confessed killer, and he is officially under arrest. However, he may have significant psych damage, which may mitigate his fate once he gets to Trident."

He flicked the first page of Kyle's service record (with stills) on the holo, shook his head. "Just so you all know, he's a decorated combat veteran, 25 years' service…cared about his people."

He turned to face the ground team and officers. "I would have preferred Admiral Hackett's office send someone to pick him up, but they sent a long-range transport, a UT-38, and it'll take too long to get here. There's also a small risk that Kyle may crack again, so I want to be present during his surrender. We'll head toward the Chandrasekhar relay at best speed, and rendezvous with the Admiral's shuttle." He turned and looked over his shoulder at Pressly, who was just stepping back from the large display.

"Presrop was a destination, and there's nothing else here that concerns us," the Navigator said, pointing to the display. "It's a day's travel at FTL to make it back to the relay, but from there, we can go to the Citadel, and they can go to Arcturus." The holographic display of the relevant area of the galaxy showed the relays, the paths between them, and the systems they connected as the man spoke of them.

Joker was still lowering himself into the seat, "You make me come all the way back here for bad news?"

"No whining," Shepard chided.

The pilot shook his head with a scowl, pointed at the display. "You don't want to land the ship on a point-nine planet to pick up a prisoner. It's gonna burn thirteen liters of fuel to make it to the surface and back. The Mako will use one."

"Hm." Shepard put his hands behind his back, looked at the holographis display for a few seconds, and nodded. "That's a very good argument." He paused. "Still leaves us almost twenty hours for turnaround, saves fuel, and at no cost elsewhere."

He nodded once. "Good; change of plans. We'll do the pickup as a drop. Kaidan, Ash: You'll be with me in the Mako; be on the Ready Line by 1630. Ahh…" He frowned, shook his head, and looked up, "Doctor T'Soni, may I impose on you again? I think he noticed you, and…I think it kept him from doing anything rash."

Liara sat up suddenly in her chair, leaned slightly forward. "Of course, Commander. It would be my honour. What shall I do?"

"Be in the hangar, ready to board the Mako, at 1630. Be in your CEVA suit, no weapons required. In your case, it might even be better if you're not packing."

"Heh," Wrex chuckled, "Everyone here knows that; she's an Adept. Could lay out a whole squad by herself."

"True, it's largely about appearances." Shepard turned back to Liara, "As a biotic, I'm hoping you'll command the Major's attention such that he won't have occasion to cause any mischief."

Shepard looked around the room, speaking to the entire assemblage, "The larger issue is that the Major will officially be under arrest, and should be confined to a brig. But Normandy doesn't have a brig, and he is a little unstable. I don't think he's dangerous, but I do think he's damaged. I want him kept off the command deck as much as possible.

"Galley and Hangar are best, Engineering if he gets too antsy and needs a distraction, and there's nothing else ready to hand." He paused to take a breath, "And for Pete's sake, under no circumstances should you address him as 'Father Kyle.' Since he will be unofficially under arrest as soon as we pick him up, please only use 'sir,' or 'Major,' or 'Major Kyle.'"

He turned to the CFS, "Doctor, you could probably eat up a lot of time with a battery of 'Returning from the Colonies' tests. Please actively help him sleep as long and as often as possible; reprogram his sleep pod at night if you can do so without his knowing. If we can keep him out of everyone's hair, that's the next best option.

He turned to Pressly, "If he wants to talk with his people on Presrop, I'll allow that, but I want someone with him if he does. Have him make the call from his personal device, route it through the main board." Shepard turned and addressed the group, "He started that outpost to help biotics, I think he just got a little carried away. So as much as you can, have him talk about that. Reassure him they'll be okay. I'm hoping we'll be able to hand him off within a day, two at most, so I'd like you all to keep him occupied and distracted."

He looked at Tali. "Tali, you have a question?"

The quarian put her hand down as she rose from her seat, "Commander, do you know how he got damaged? And who is the Butcher of Torfan?"

Shepard steeled himself. "In fact, I do not know what happened to Major Kyle since last I spoke with him years ago, though I did notice he was getting dissociative when I asked him about the two Alliance officials. But I suspect it was our mission to Torfan that cracked him. It's mostly classified, but what I can tell you about it is that…the Major and I were the only survivors of a team of fourteen. And we lost a lot of friends there, so I'm…"

–

Shepard pulled the magazine release, saw it was full. He instantly looked toward Douglass' body, saw the man had four other drums in the blood-covered pockets of his suit.

–

Finnigsmeier was chained to a pole at the throat, Glaze was missing her head, Perling and Edwards were only certain IDs because of the Alliance ERFID tags in their bloodstream. Sylwester, obviously wounded before being killed, was riddled with bullets, still on the ground, unarmed.

–

When Shepard touched a shoulder, the combat-suited soldier slid limply to the ground. His nametag read Nordberg. Shepard's HUD noted the death had been logged.

Paul. He settled to the floor next to the man, shaking his head. How did I screw this up so badly? Why did this all go so wrong? Why can't I help anyone?

–

Even expecting the implant's recall behaviour, Shepard hesitated, waiting for the talsit app to respond to the recall trauma. It had already directed isolated parts of his neurotronics to manufacture a few thousand molecules of the synthetic neuropeptide in specific locations. The reaction was almost instantaneous; he interrupted himself with a sigh.

It was easier for the gathered crew to attribute this to regret, so he did not acknowledge it further.

"…understandably reluctant to talk about it anyway. But one result of the mission was the destruction of a batarian heavy cruiser and her entire complement. I had not heard that name until Major Kyle said it. Not a lot of people know about that mission, and he may simply take it more personally than I do." He raised an eyebrow in mock annoyance, "Though it's hard for me to imagine how that could be the case."

He looked around at the ground team and department heads. "Oh…I almost forgot. Even though Ash has said you can simply secure your weapons, for anyone who has time, I suggest taking the opportunity to field strip a 'known good.' For anyone who's never done this, check with her; Gunny'll fix you right up.

"Any other questions?"

Joker didn't bother to raise his hand, "What's our destination after the rendezvous?"

Shepard looked toward Pressly, who looked to the display, and then at Joker. "All our destinations are outside the cluster. So no matter what, we have to get to the relay first, which will take about a days' cruise. As I understand it, the Citadel is our highest priority. We've got reverse chirality gear to pick up, a civvie to drop off, and while we're there, I have a few tasks I'd like to accomplish. It may not be Arcturus, but it may have resources that I can tap as a Spectre that the Alliance can't get on its own."

Joker was nodding impatiently, "Okay; Chandrasekhar for a rendezvous, then Citadel. Got it."

Shepard unfolded his arms. "So we'll have Kyle aboard for about a day and a half. Thank you, everyone; sorry for the disruption; if there are no more questions, you're dismissed."

# # #

Shepard waited until the rest of the crew had cleared the room in case there were any issues to be addressed privately. He summoned his ToDo list and moved a few things to the Scheduler (like finally drilling with Kaidan's omnitool mod that had saved the man's life on Eden Prime.)

When he stood and headed for the door, it occurred to him that it might be helpful to offer the weapon to Ash, and possibly ask her to be a sparring partner. He descended the port ladder, noticed the Chief sitting at one of the benches in the mess as he approached, watching something on a HUD headband while eating what looked like a sort of casserole under mashed potatoes.

"Hey, Chief."

"Skipper."

Shepard hesitated; he hadn't yet fully accepted that he was now the skipper, and even though it felt like an usurpation, he would have to step fully "into the shoes" vacated by David Anderson.

"Don't stop eating." He gestured for his omnitool blade, and with a metallic skronk of protest, the omnitool produced the knifelike melee weapon. "Check this out."

She looked both surprised and pleased. "Hey, neat. Where'd you get that?"

"Kaidan used in on Eden Prime. It's a design from the Exchange, but he modified it for personal defence. I saw him save his own life with it."

"I'll take it," Ash lit her omnitool and extended her left forearm toward him.

"Watch out, it can break your printer if it can't get its supports deployed before taking an impact, as Kaidan has already discovered. And it's kind of wasteful in pursuit of deployment speed. Takes 30 to 50 units of omnigel to get a full-size blade."

"Uh…I only carry 25." She pulled her arm back slightly. "I'd have to get a new omnitool, or…um…add one of those outboard gel tanks?"

Shepard had already summoned the transfer icon, and "dropped" it on her forearm. "Well, at least take the software, you can modify it yourself, or wait for an upgrade."

"I'm not a modder," Ash shrugged, "But the Lieutenant sure seems like one."

"Nothing to it; the mod engine comes from AlMatSup; it's one of the ways they can keep us up-to-the-minute between System updates.. Shepard glanced toward the tech bench; Kaidan was not there. "Until then, I'm pretty sure there's a setting in the app for how much omnigel you're willing to spend on it.

"Anyway, I was going to ask if you had time to spar with me; twenty or thirty minutes. I know from your file that you're a BJJ brown belt, so I fully expect to have my butt handed to me…but hey, how else can I get better?"

"You will cry like a little baby," Ash affected the voice of a cartoon bully to deliver the distinctive line, and then laughed mockingly at herself.

"Yeah, and today's probably not the day for it. We'll have to get that omniblade a little more workable for you. Sill, at least wanted to get on your schedule."

"Sure thing. But let's mix it up without weapons first, to at least give me a sense of how proficient you are."

"Probably the smart thing to do," Shepard nodded. "Right, then; I'll get with you again later."

"Mm-hmm." Ash nodded, having already delivered another forkful of food to her mouth.

* * * Glossary * * *

AlMatSup: Alliance Materiel & Supply

APC: Armoured Personnel Carrier (e.g. M-35, M-29, etc.)

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

CEVA: Combat EVA

CFS: Chief Flight Surgeon; ship's medical chief

CHENG: Chief of Engineering

civvie: colloquialism for "civilian"

CO: Commanding Officer

Coordinated Zulu: Council-established time on the Citadel; the term arose as an evolution of "Zulu Time" (see Zulu Time)

DCE: Distributed Compute Environment

ECM: Electronic Countermeasures; e.g., throwing chaff, signal falsification, active visual cloaking

EIO: Electronics Intelligence Officer, occasionally incorrectly referred to as a co-pilot, the EIO operates navigation, detection, ECM, weapons, systems status, in-flight repairs, and other cockpit functions not directly associated with flight; some vehicles allow EIO and pilot to switch functions at will

ERFID: Encrypted RFID

EVA: External Vehicular Activity

FTL: Faster Than Light; in reference to travel, relativistic speeds obtainable by use of MEFG-based drive systems make it seem like "faster than light" travel, but technically, only travel through the relay network is actually faster than light (being nearly instantaneous across interstellar distances)

gunny: colloquial term for the Chief Gunnery Officer

HUD: Heads-Up Display

LZ: Landing Zone

MEFG: Mass Effect Field Generator

RFID: Radio Frequency Identification

SOP: Standard Operational (or Operating) Procedure

tabi: Although in form the Alliance shipboard footwear are more closely related to mukluks, the term tabi refers a kind of split-toed sock that is not meant to be worn alone outdoors, much like regular socks; the original Alliance "tabi" were part of a quick-vert uniform designed to be converted at a moment's notice into a light biosuit, the split-toed footwear fitted with a magnetic sole, giving the user a better grip; over time, the split toe became a user choice

UT-38 Condor: a small, long-range, high-efficiency transport with a crew of 2-3, and variable-configuration payload capable of transporting up to twenty passengers over short "continuous" distances, or a full crew plus three specialists plus mission-related equipment for up to two weeks (non-canon)

VR: Virtual Reality

waldoes: remote manipulators; Normandy's hangar has a set of automated waldoes to capture the Mako during retrieval because they are much faster and accurate than a manual operator, though they can be operated by crew if needed; the term "waldoes" arose from a story by Robert Heinlein wherein the protagonist (named Waldo,) develops the tech out of necessity

XO: Executive Officer

Zulu Time (successor to Greenwich Mean Time [GMT]) is the Earth-centric time at the prime meridian (also UTC [Coordinated Universal Time], Z-time, et. al.)