Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect. This fictional story is not making me any money (unless BioWare takes note and decides to pay me).
A Hundred Memories for the Journey Home
Day Three
Kaidan Alenko stared into the bottom of his empty coffee mug and debated for the second time whether or not he really needed a fourth cup. He didn't mind early mornings as long as there was enough coffee to go with them...but they had to ration everything around here.
He sighed and took his mug to the mess hall sink, washing it out and leaving it to dry. It was just as well; Kaidan didn't want to appear jumpy in the meeting with the repair project overseer this morning. He checked the time and saw it was just after 0700. The shuttle would need to be prepped, but Vega was working on that. He'd assumed the shuttle schedule and related duties until Cortez's replacement was able to rendezvous with them.
Well, not so much a replacement as just a handy refugee working his or her way home, he thought with a sigh. Whoever it was apparently was former Alliance, which meant there were some favors owed from somewhere higher up, and that translated into Kaidan agreeing and assigning him or her a bunk in the crew quarters.
I don't know how Shepard managed to keep her head on straight when there's N7 and the Council breathing down your neck, Kaidan groused mentally. It's so much easier to just point and shoot, like Garrus or Vega.
That wasn't fair, he realized a moment later. Just because neither of them had biotic abilities, it didn't give him a right to assume that there was nothing more to his squadmates. Garrus displayed a level of finesse with a sniper rifle that Kaidan could only envy. And James...well, the large marine was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, which apparently included poker, dancing, and tattoo design.
It was becoming more and more clear to him as Kaidan read reports, skimmed mission logs, and in general tried to decide how he was going to handle the situation at the Far Rim relay, that Shepard wore many hats as the commander. She also valued everyone for their unique and different talents, right down to Kaidan's love of beer and bacon. And he hadn't even managed to poison her.
The memory brought a smile to his face as he went to the elevator. He had felt disconnected after Shepard's death-he missed the Normandy and the old squad. Kaidan hadn't felt like he'd belonged to a tight-knit group of friends since Jump Zero, and he'd vowed that would never happen again. But Shepard was different-she didn't motivate through threats and anger. Rather, she made you want to prove that you had something special inside you. And after spending any amount of time near Wrex or Liara, Kaidan had felt like he was 'just a human'.
Shepard thought that was nonsense. After all, she didn't have any biotic talent and wasn't a skull-crusher; she was more of a diplomat than anything else. As Garrus had once said to Kaidan before Ilos, "She's got charm coming out of places I've only seen on human xenobiology charts." Of course, that had all changed a couple of years later, making him a shade envious.
Speaking of Garrus... Kaidan glanced around. There was something he wanted to ask the turian; something he hadn't thought about since after the Normandy's first confrontation with Sovereign. In truth, Shepard had no idea it had ever happened because...well, she'd been dead.
He had a few minutes; he could stick his head into the main battery. Kaidan quickly retraced his steps and climbed the stairs to the doors. They parted in time for him to hear:
"Look, I'm in the middle of former geth space right now, and not really in a position to promise anything..." From the way his three-fingered hands were clenched on the terminal in front of him, safely out of the camera's pickup, Kaidan guessed that Garrus was in the middle of a conversation he'd rather not be having at the moment.
Thinking it might be a welcome distraction, Kaidan cleared his throat loudly. Garrus' head turned just enough that he could see who it was, and his browplates rose in a silent expression of relief.
"I promise that your concerns will be addressed," he told the fuzzy image of another turian, who looked like he was ready to keep arguing. "Supplies need to be rationed until more of the relays are back online, and I will personally be on the lookout for ships to divert to the Hercules system. I have other matters to handle now. Vakarian out." Garrus cut the connection and straightened up, rolling his shoulders with a sigh. "I'd forgotten just how much more of a responsibility it is to work for the government than working for Shepard," he said ruefully to Kaidan.
"Yeah," Kaidan agreed with a shake of his head. "Her crusade had the big picture in mind; I still don't exactly know how she did it sometimes, but...I'll learn."
"Something I can help you with?" Garrus asked, his tone curious.
"Yeah...listen, I was thinking of a memory to send...something she'd find funny. And well, you kinda have to admit in retrospect that our agreement to never drink together again stems from that one...incident."
Garrus froze suddenly as the event Kaidan was talking about came to mind. "You want to tell her about the bar fight? The entire fight?" he asked incredulously. "Or just the part where the batarians showed up?"
"Good point," Kaidan said, rubbing his chin while he thought about it. "You know her sense of humor better, what do you think?"
"Anything that makes me look socially awkward is a win with Shepard," Garrus said with an exaggerated sigh. "I suppose the mental image of you diving over a table to tackle me and hitting that asari dancer instead would make her day."
"It's not nearly as funny unless we include the part about how you started singing krogan battle songs while standing on top of the bar's neon sign," Kaidan retorted.
"Oh, yeah," Garrus remembered with a faint grin. "Wrex would have been proud that I remembered all the words, considering how much brandy I'd had. He'd be more proud if he knew how many people I headbutted, too."
"So does that mean you'll go in with me on the message?" Kaidan asked.
The turian shrugged. "Why not? Set up a time with Allers' drone and let me know when to be there."
Kaidan nodded. "On it. And thanks." He checked the time, and made an abrupt about-face just as a message from Tali popped up on his omnitool. He ignored it and walked as quickly as he could while not actually running to the elevator.
Tali and Traynor were already seated in the Kodiak, and the quarian looked up almost quizzically as he swung himself inside and closed the hatch.
"About time, Major," James called back from the pilot's seat. "Sparks wanted me to leave you behind."
"I said no such thing," Tali defended herself. "I only asked what would happen if we were to show up at the meeting without you."
Kaidan wasn't sure how to respond for a moment. "I'm sure somebody somewhere would have been disappointed," he finally answered with a deadpan expression. "But this is-was-a geth-controlled system. Whatever's left is likely all defunct. It's a miracle that there are other organics here at all, given the warnings to all ships before Shepard brokered that treaty."
Tali's helmet drooped for a moment. "Yes," she said after a pause. "I've read the reports the project leader sent to us. They're surprisingly detailed for a civilian organization, but they confirm that there are no geth energy readings from either system-Dholan and Ma'at. It is evident that some machinery might still be functioning, but probably only because it was left running."
The Normandy had arrived in official Far Rim space yesterday, a few hours behind schedule. They had stopped to patch another comm buoy on their way to the Dholan system, and they had come across a couple of derelict geth ships, which had been salvaged for fuel and some spare parts. Javik and Tali had headed up the boarding party; Tali being a whiz at knowing what would be worth the most, and Javik had the most time on his hands. James had offered to go, but Kaidan had needed him to take over Cortez's job first.
In what would have been considered the evening, the Normandy had finally arrived within viewing distance of the Far Rim relay. The once-glowing model of alien technology was now dark in many places, and the ethereal blue-white light at the heart of the relay had been extinguished.
In loose formation around the relay were a couple of mid-sized ships and several smaller ones. The Far Rim had been off-limits to civilians for years; Kaidan was honestly surprised that there would be anyone left to work on relay repairs with the geth deactivated. He suspected these were freelance merchants operating slightly outside galactic commerce laws, but with everybody still licking their figurative wounds and recovering, there was really nothing worth fighting about just yet. As long as they had the common goal of fixing the relay network and hostilities could be kept to a minimum, the Alliance was willing to temporarily overlook certain...career choices. After all, Commander Shepard wouldn't have enlisted the help of Aria T'Loak if she hadn't been willing to take the same chance.
James piloted the Kodiak close to the largest ship of the bunch; some kind of converted freighter that was bristling with a moderate amount of guns. "Northen Star, this is the Normandy shuttle. Permission to dock."
"Granted. Transmitting vector."
Minutes later, the shuttle bumped gently against the deckplates of the Northern Star, and Kaidan led the small group into the bay. The shuttle bay also doubled as a large cargo hold, and it was neatly-kept, albeit mostly empty. What few crates of supplies there were had guards posted by them, likely to enforce rationing. Although, Kaidan noticed that it appeared that some geth tech had begun to find its way aboard, likely through salvage efforts.
Somewhere up above, a door hissed open, and a large, balding man came to the edge of the catwalk that surrounded the upper edge of the cargo bay. "You're the Alliance guys?" he called down.
"Yes, sir. I'm Major Kaidan Alenko, this is Admiral Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, Communications Specialist Samantha Traynor, and Lieutenant James Vega." Kaidan introduced each of his companions in turn. "Are you Overseer Brayden?"
The large man snorted. "Naw. Just his trusty sidekick. You can call me Larry. Come on up," he said, gesturing to a rusted metal staircase off to one side. "Hate to curse you with it, but we are sure glad you got knocked to the aft-end of the galaxy so we'd have some help with these repairs," Larry said, eyeing the party up and down, from their weapons to their datapads. "We're not big on keeping brilliant engineers in our organization, and we're probably doing things all wrong."
"I'm sure we'll be able to work something out...Larry," Tali said diplomatically as they reached the catwalk. "I've never repaired a mass relay before, but..."
"But we have to do it, right?" Larry said with a humorless grin. "Otherwise we're all stuck out here." He made a motion and went back through the doors he'd entered. The Normandy crew followed, taking in the well-worn look of the ship. It was definitely an older model that had been retrofitted for different purposes. Some of the technology looked like it had been patched in at random just to provide a means to get by, and then forgotten about. More than once, Kaidan ducked a bundle of wires hanging from the ceiling, or stepped around cables coiled on the floor.
"Brayden doesn't care if the house looks clean, as long as Rhian keeps the old girl moving," Larry said when Traynor almost tripped. They got into an elevator and he selected the third deck.
"So what sort of commercial business is the Northern Star involved in?" Traynor asked curiously. Kaidan's gaze shifted to Larry, who grinned, showing a missing tooth.
"A little bit of everything, I suppose. Y'could call us pioneers. One of the first to take chances trading with the geth. But why not? They had some crazy ideas, but they're efficient, inventive, and wanted to improve-" He glanced over at Tali suddenly, as if just noticing she was a quarian.
"That's right, they were," Tali agreed softly. "They were helping my people rebuild on Rannoch, providing us with means to live free again..." She paused. "I wish we knew more about what had happened to them; why wasn't the red energy wave more selective?"
Larry shook his head. "Darned if I know. I just move heavy things and shoot when told. I'm no scientist, but we've got logs from when it happened, as well as some deactivated geth. Rhian, our engineer, started looking into it, but with all the relay repairs, she doesn't have time to do it now."
"I'd be grateful if I could see more of her work," Tali said, some of the sadness easing in her voice. "I looked over a few reports the overseer sent over, but I'd like her perspective." Kaidan made a mental note to follow up with her; he'd been reading Shepard's reports from before the war...and something didn't sit well with him. Something from Tali's trial...
The elevator doors parted and Larry preceded them out, waving a couple of guards aside. Ahead was what looked like a control center, complete with holographic projector array,which was currently displaying schematics of some sort.
"Okay, when the B Team gets back from Gotha with the new shipments of palladium and eezo, we'll be able to finish these three sections," a young man was saying to an asari holding a datapad. "Rhiannon's already got the power in place but until we repair the structure, there's no sense in proceeding any further." The asari finished her notes and nodded before moving off to a separate terminal.
"Brayden, Major Alenko," Larry said to the young man. "Seems a good sort."
Overseer Brayden was probably no more than twenty-five years old; he had a shock of unruly blond hair that made Kaidan suspect he was a biotic. He was a slight, almost skinny kid who squinted a bit near-sightedly at the newcomers.
"Aha, Major," Brayden said, holding out his hand. Kaidan shook it quickly, and noticed with some surprise that the kid had a grip on him, despite being wiry. He wondered if Brayden had had any biotic training, and if the rationing had worn him down.
"Overseer Brayden. We're here to help get the relay running and make sure your people will be in good shape while everything gets sorted out."
"It's a mess," Brayden agreed, bouncing a little on his toes. "Please," he said, waving his hand at the holographic display. "I'd love to know more about what I'm looking at. I can get my teams to patch up the relay all day long, but as for getting this alien thing working..." he coughed suddenly and looked sideways at Tali. "Nothing against aliens, of course."
"No need, Overseer," Tali said. "These are alien things to me, too. May I?" At Brayden's nod, she began to fiddle with the projected schematics.
While she did that, Kaidan asked, "How bad was the relay hit, initially?"
"Not sure," Brayden replied, looking up at the ceiling and working his head from side to side while he thought. "We weren't near the relay at the time, but when our entire geth trading team just...deactivated, we investigated. We were supposed to be trading for some useful upgrades for ship defenses. At first, we just thought the lights had gone out, but then pieces of the superstructure started to fall apart. I'd say the relay lost about forty percent of its structural integrity. We've been patching everything up, but we can't cut corners. And there's not very many of us."
The young man started pacing in a large circle around the holographic display, exuding an almost twitchy sort of energy. Apparently Kaidan needn't have worried about the extra cup of coffee earlier. "Right now, we're in danger of not having enough rations to feed all the crews for the duration of the repairs. There's no agriculture or farming out here for even basic things."
"Have you been communicating with any of the other relay projects?" Traynor asked. Brayden shook his head so rapidly his hair sparked. Definitely a biotic. Probably L3, Kaidan mused.
"We've tried, but the QEC's on the fritz. That's one project I wish Rhian would make time for."
"I'll take a look," Traynor volunteered. "The more input we can get from other relays making repairs, the more information we have for the problem, and the better the chance at solving it right the first time." Brayden's eyebrows went up, but he took her to the communications station and the young woman got to work.
"So tell me what you've got set up in terms of duty rotations, crew assignments, and other operations," Kaidan said as Tali continued to play with the holographic display.
"Right." With a little hop, Brayden went over to a table laden with papers, pads, and some quick drawings. "Aysith Enterprises sent a small fleet with me, just in case there were...complications."
"You mean fighters?" James asked.
"A few, but mostly extra supplies and cargo transport because we knew the geth didn't have any extra resources if we were here for an extended period." Brayden riffled through the papers and laid several of them out so Kaidan could see them. "I have rotations of the cargo ships going out to collect ores and other raw materials from the nearest planets. The B Team is on its way here, and the C Team will follow in two days while the A Team starts a run back out."
Kaidan and James took a look at the various diagrams. "Basic but effective," James said. "If you added one more team, though, you wouldn't have a gap in turnaround between Teams C and A."
"I know, but we don't have any ships to spare; the others are all working on refining the elements and fabricating new parts," Brayden said, rubbing his hair vigorously enough that a few sparks leapt between his fingers. "It's crude, but we've managed to repurpose some of the geth stations. I only wish we could get them to maximum efficiency, but there's no way. The geth were their own AI, so we're doing everything manually."
"All right," Tali said, breaking into the conversation. "I think with the help of Adams, Donnelly, and Daniels we can at least recreate the mass effect field safely. We'll start by speaking with anybody who knows how to hold a spanner. We need to get capable engineers into the places they're needed most."
"You've got it. We won't be able to include C Team, but we'll get the rest together," Brayden promised.
"And if we add the Normandy into your team rotation as the D Team, we'll close that gap in the ore runs," James pointed out. "We've got probes and collection equipment."
Kaidan nodded. "We'll also check with your medical people and see what we can do about your ration problem. Tali, when you have an estimate about how long the work will take, let me know."
Brayden turned to the asari, who had somehow been roped into helping Traynor dismantle part of the comm station. "Merya, where's Holloway? Tell her her new ship's here."
"Is that the former Alliance refugee I received orders about?" Kaidan asked. "They didn't give a name."
"Yep. She's been working as a mechanic for Aysith to pay off a debt she owed Maru, one of the other co-owners. I don't know her that well, not being Alliance myself, but she's done her duty to us, so no reason to keep her on unless she wanted to stay."
Merya spoke up. "Meg's saying she can't leave until she fixes whatever damage Narg did to his shuttle this time around."
"Well, we're not going anywhere right away," Kaidan said. "Just have her warn us so we can coordinate a pick-up."
"Thanks, Major," Brayden said with a lopsided smile. "I feel like home just got a lot closer for all of us."
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
Hannah Shepard awoke with a crick in her neck and a dry feeling in her mouth. She'd fallen asleep on the couch in her daughter's room, just after the doctors had returned her after the latest surgery, this one to restore mobility in her right hand. It had gone well, the surgeon assured her. The commander probably wouldn't even notice a difference.
For this particular surgeon, who was a salarian well known in the field, that was high praise indeed. He didn't dispense positive outlooks often, but Hannah was thankful that it seemed like her daughter was going to change his mind this once.
When she looked over at the curtained bed, she saw a nurse checking her daughter's vital signs. The admiral rubbed her neck, kneading it a little bit to try and get the kink out. "Any better?" she asked quietly.
"Sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to disturb you," the nurse said, turning slightly. She was middle-aged, with a round face. "But she's getting stronger. Some of her counts are up slightly, and her heart rate has stabilized consistently in the past twenty-four hours."
Hannah smiled to herself and chanced a sigh of relief. It might not seem like much, but it was a step forward. Although there was no possible way that her daughter was conscious enough to know exactly what the messages her mother played for her said, Hannah was beginning to believe that it still made a difference. Even if that difference was an improvement in her own morale, it counted for something.
The nurse excused herself as Hannah checked her omnitool out of habit. She scrolled through the new reports, refugee counts, supply statuses, looking for anything new from the Normandy. The quarian-Tali-had been a welcome distraction yesterday when Hannah had been informed of the next surgery. And to hear how her daughter's crew had taken to their commander made her proud. They might laugh and tease, but it made them sound all the more like a family, even in the short glimpse she'd had of them through Tali's birthday party.
At the bottom of her message list, she finally spotted a transmission from the Normandy. There were three files; a greeting from Karin Chakwas to Hannah herself, providing a current status report of the Normandy's arrival at the Far Rim relay. There was also a quick hello from an engineer named Adams, who had abruptly been called away in the middle of his message, so he promised to get back to Shepard soon, hinting at something going on between two of his other engineers. Hannah raised an eyebrow at that-she hoped it wasn't too serious.
The last and longest file featured the turian-Garrus Vakarian, as Hannah had come to find out. She'd known him only by reputation until two days ago. Her daughter had never spoken much about her personal life-it had been a long time since Hannah had heard about any kind of attachment, especially after what had happened on Shepard's first assignment to a ship.
So you're the one she's chosen to trust, Hannah thought, studying Garrus' image. Of course, the instant she'd sensed that his 'I love you' in the first message had been intensely serious, she had pulled up every resource she could find on him, short of calling that primarch who was now aboard what remained of the turian fleet.
Garrus was something of an enigma; he didn't follow the rules-not at least in the turian sense. He'd been one of the first supporters in the search to find Saren and bring him to justice, and he didn't care a fig about red tape or bureaucracy. He had fought alongside her daughter, protecting her it seemed on nearly every mission, according to the briefs Hannah had read. Everything from facing the creature Saren had become, to rescuing her from batarian kidnappers.
Sometime after Shepard's supposed death, he had disappeared for awhile. There was no official intel about it; a lot had changed in those two years and he might have been gone for good. But her daughter had found him, convinced him to face hell with her once more, and apparently expressed something that was more than just friendship to him. However their relationship had started, Hannah wasn't disappointed in any sense. She had seen her daughter try and fail often in her childhood to make friendships that lasted, much less a successful romantic relationship.
When her daughter had surrendered herself and her ship for disciplinary action regarding what had happened at the Alpha Relay, she'd lost contact with almost everyone. In that time, Garrus had become an important advisor to the turian military back on Palaven. Hannah was impressed with his ability to succeed in attempting to prepare his homeworld and his people for the Reaper invasion nobody else seemed concerned about. He'd had no official military rank other than advisor, but nonetheless the turian defenses had done a better job of holding off the initial invasion than Earth's, and it was probably in part to his hard work. It occurred to Hannah that he'd have been put to the best use by staying with his people, but the minute Commander Shepard had shown up on Menae, it seemed their paths had crossed again, and then stayed crossed.
As if you needed proof he was loyal, Hannah thought to herself. A man like that could go anywhere, command his own fleet or battalion. But instead he went back to her to cover her back once more. And Hannah found that she already respected him.
But as a dutiful, somewhat nosy mother, there were a few things she had to do.
"Starting with..." Hannah murmured, queuing up his video. She moved to her daughter's bedside and let the recording play.
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
"Hey!" Shepard's hair tumbled down around her ears as she belatedly ducked. Slowly, with exaggerated patience she drummed her fingers on the edge of the workbench in engineering.
"I...have been wanting to do that for weeks," Garrus confessed, his subtones vibrating in amusement. He held the elastic band between his thumb and forefinger as Shepard blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned to face him.
"I thought we agreed that we'd blow off our steam later," she said, sounding annoyed. He was still learning the nuances of human expression through speech, but her narrowed eyes helped communicate her mild displeasure. "You know I put my hair up when I'm serious about working."
"Yes, but you do look nice when you're trying to fine-tune that thing," Garrus said. "You know...calibrating..."
"Right, right, you have a thing for calibrations," Shepard said, holding out her hand demandingly for the elastic. "Not now, Garrus, I...I need to work on this." She gestured to the mess she'd made of her drone.
He'd stopped, confused. Usually she enjoyed a little playful banter when they ran into each other at random times throughout the ship. Today, she just seemed...grumpy.
"Is this the part where I stand in the corner and throw chocolate at you?" he asked after a moment's thought. "I'd be safe, right? Your drone's in pieces, so...you couldn't reach me."
Shepard's eyebrows went up. "What in the...did Mordin send you files, too?"
Garrus rolled his eyes. "Please, Shepard, give me a little credit. I did work in C-Sec in a division that had some female officers. There was always a remarkable dip in the crime rate once every five weeks; I think some of the lowlifes didn't want to attract the women's attention. They tended to adopt a no-mercy policy during 'shark week'." He continued to hold the elastic out of reach.
She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, tucking it behind her ears. "Lucky for you, not all the women on the Normandy have subconsciously decided to sync their hormones. And, we get to shoot at things a lot, which helps." Shepard waved one hand at him dismissively before turning back to her work.
Garrus pounced; he had his fingers in her hair before she knew what had happened. Shepard stiffened and opened her mouth to say something, but then paused. With a little sigh, she rested her chin in her hand. "Looks like I win this round of cross-species discovery," Garrus teased with a quiet chuckle. He stroked her hair, admiring its shine and softness. Humans were the only sentient race to have this particular physical feature, and he'd never thought about how it might feel to touch it. It was silky, like some of the finer fabrics he'd seen, but it was also slippery and moved through his fingers unpredictably. No wonder Shepard had a hard time containing it when she wanted to put it up.
"I hope you know that this is now my new favorite activity," he said in a low voice, pitching his subtones into the 'smooth talker' range.
"Mm," was Shepard's only reply. He glanced down, and saw that her eyes were closed.
"Shepard?" Garrus prompted, mandibles twitching in amused curiosity.
"What?" she asked, not opening her eyes.
"Did I just turn your brain off? Where's your witty comeback or threat?"
"Oh monkey feathers..." Shepard seemed to come to herself all at once and pulled her head forward out of his reach. She quickly put her hair back in order as much as possible before turning to face him. "You..." she started to say, but Garrus' grin said it all.
"What is that called? An Achilles' heel?" The gloat in his voice would have been obvious even without the flanging.
Shepard's face turned pink. "I don't want to talk about it." But a traitorous smile pulled at the edges of her mouth nonetheless.
. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .
"I know I never told you I'd never touched a human's hair before, but that was one of my first desires after I...knew I had a chance. With you," Garrus said hastily. "It also came in pretty handy when you were staying up for days at a time, worrying about uniting the galaxy." He paused; sighed. "I wish I could be there, Shepard, more than anything. Listen to me, don't give up. The Reapers tried to kill you once, and all it did was make you want to live every moment as if it counted. Hold on to that, because there's a moment coming that belongs just to us. And I won't let you let it go." He held the camera drone's gaze, as if he could see through it to Shepard's still form. "I love you."
Hannah Shepard smiled a bit tearily before turning off the video. She looked down into her daughter's face, where the skin weave was still taking to her scarred skin. "I think I like him, baby. I don't know him much yet, but I plan to."
And with that, Hannah Shepard wiped her face, checked her hair, and adjusted her omnitool to record a message of her own.