Shepard made it to the mess deck when Joker's call came through, warning everyone to hold onto their undies because he was making a run for the relay. It wasn't a small thing, that, considering what I knew about the reapers. They were faster and more maneuverable than anything else in known space, and if the collectors could see the Normandy while stealthed, I was pretty sure Nazara could, too. Fortunately, Joker had managed to avoid the reaper, I didn't know how. I asked him later, and he said something about planetary rotations, gravitational wells, and the sheer awesomeness of his skills.
He was probably throwing horseshit at me, but hey, he got us out of there. He was entitled to whatever he wanted.
The two wounded turned out to be Alenko and Tali. And they weren't looking good. Alenko left a trail of blood even as Nihlus dragged him in, and Wrex carried Tali into the medbay with an ease that surprised everyone. I'd have expected him to just throw her onto his hump and drag her around, but he was actually bringing her up with amazing care.
All in all, it looked bad. Chakwas was on her own in there with four people wounded.
"Liara?" Shepard called. "Chakwas..."
Her voice trailed off when she saw the asari's face. She looked at me, which I just realized was the first time I had seen her since coming aboard, and I just shrugged. What the hell did she expect me to do?
"Liara," Shepard called again, her voice softer. That coaxed the asari to look up. "Hey. Why don't we go get you cleaned up, huh?"
Yeah, it was probably a good idea. She had blue all over her armor, and nobody needed three guesses to figure out where it had come from. Shepard took Liara's hands, and the latter let herself be guided away, much to my relief. Sounds selfish, but damn, I had no idea what to say. And on top of that, got rid of Shepard too.
...
I need to work on my social skills.
"Gee, thanks for the help," I said to my omni-tool. "You made it okay?"
"Transfer completed with six hundred and seventy-one programs," Gee said.
"Wait, what? I thought you had six hundred and eighty.. something?"
"Remaining programs stayed in heretic consensus to facilitate Normandy's escape."
"Shit. Sorry..."
Gee didn't answer. Well, that part made sense at least, he had left like a dozen runtimes behind. Would it feel like leaving part of yourself, or more like leaving twelve of your friends behind in enemy territory? Damn. Could we mount a rescue?
Yeah, that'd be a hit with Shepard. With a sigh, I settled down on my seat, and closed my eyes to rest. Just five minutes...
When I woke up I was missing the top half of my suit, and had my arm in a sling. Huh, how the hell did that happen? I was still sitting on the same chair, and hurting all over. Damn. It wasn't just because I had slept on a chair for several hours, but because of all the extra exercise I had gotten. And the cruises. Don't forget the bruises.
"Good morning."
I looked up and saw Shepard siting at one of the tables, a cup of coffee in her hands and smiling wearily.
"Ugh, what the hell..." I muttered. I brought my omni-tool up and looked at the time. 1:32 am. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"
"So should you, and not on a chair like that," she retorted.
I undid the restraints, and rubbed my face. Ugh, I was tired as hell. I winced when my arm gave me a jolt of pain, stood up, and headed for the kitchen, looking for some water. There was a faint smell of burned food in the air, which I couldn't quite place.
"What's that smell?" I said, struggling to fill the bottle with one hand.
"Thresher maw," Shepard replied, and chuckled when I looked at her. She had gotten off her seat, and came to give me a hand with the water.
"Thresher maw?"
"Yeah," she said, and handed me the full bottle. "Wrex cooked it for us."
"Huh." I took a long drink, enjoying the cooling sensation. "How was it?"
"Horrible. Bitter, burned, and impossible to chew. You should have seen Grieco," she laughed. "He had to eat the heart as a treat for having killed it."
"Kill... Killed it?"
Shepard nodded. "There's some in the fridge if you want. You'd have to cook it yourself though."
I was about to say no, but that last remark caught my attention. Cooking. I had never cooked Thresher maw. Tough and bitter, huh? It'd probably need... I looked down at myself. It'd need me not having an arm in a sling.
"I'm going to need a hand."
"Really?" Shepard said, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"Yeah. What spices you got around here?"
There wasn't a lot, but enough to get me going. If the meat was as bitter as Shepard claimed, I was going to need a marinade. Basics of neutralizing bitterness: saltiness, or fat. The latter is the reason why a bit of milk will neutralize the bitterness of coffee, and why non-dairy creamer, which is essentially vegetable oil, will do the same. A little known fact is that a tiny pinch of salt can do the same, if you can have your coffee as a savoury drink. I found some soy sauce, pepper, powdered nutmeg, dried garlic, and tabasco. Good start.
"Are you serious?" Shepard said, looking at the spread.
"Commander, I've had nothing but those freaking bars since-" My eyes went wavy, and I realized the damn AI was still there. For all the good she'd done.
"Roy? You okay?" Shepard said.
"Yeah, yeah, just... I'm fine. Can you cut that stuff?" I pointed at the slab of maw meat.
"Sure. How do you want it?"
It was a chunk of muscle attached to what appeared to be part of the carapace. Hm.
"Just lengthwise, let's make it like ribs."
Shepard chuckled. "Thresher Maw ribs. I hope you know what you're doing."
"I do," I said dryly. Damn, I had forgotten how much she could-
"Okay, okay, you're the boss."
As she prepared the meat, I found a pan and started heating a generous amount of oil. I put the four "ribs" she had cut for me in, browned the meat, then started the marinade, with the garlic granules, then the pepper, the nutmeg, and when it started to become hard to breathe, added, the soy sauce and tabasco to finish it off. As we coughed, Shepard laughing like it was going out of fashion, I tossed the meat around, added three tablespoons of sugar, and ten minutes later I had it in the over at 180C. I had also had to add a splash of vinegar, trying to correct the bitterness that kept seeping out of the meat.
Now, we had to wait.
"So," I said, trying to fill time. "I should probably thank you for the rescue."
"You're welcome," she said with a lopsided smile.
"How the hell did you find me at the butt-end of the galaxy?"
"Pure luck," Shepard replied, taking her cup and leaning against the counter. She took a swig from it, grimaced, and took another. "We were following up on Saren. We found the geth fleet out there, then got your distress call just a system over."
"My... distress call?"
"Yeah. I'm impressed, too. Where did you learn to do that jury-rig thing with the transponder?"
"I didn't-" My omni-tool pinged, and caught both our attentions. Oh crap, Gee did it. "Must have been one of the others," I added.
"I see."
"Did no one else make it?"
I knew the answer already, although I hadn't asked the question. I hadn't seen anyone on the medbay, or roaming out in the ship.
"Sorry," Shepard said.
"Shit."
For a while, neither of us said anything. We just stood there, Shepard with her coffee, me with my bottle of water, looking at nothing in particular. The hum of the oven fan was slightly louder than the minute shake of the ship as we moved along in FTL. After a long while, Shepard finished her coffee, then put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"Want to talk about it?" I looked at Shepard, and she let go and shrugged. "I know it's not easy," she said. "Being the last one standing."
I know, I was there the day you...
The day the stupid AI had sent me to Akuze, only she sent me to the Cerberus base where everything was being monitored, 50km away from the marines. I never had a chance to help, or do anything. Only watch. Listen.
"It wasn't as bad as that," I said. I didn't need to specify what that was, although she might want to ask later how I knew how bad hers was. "Geth came down on us like a giant hammer, and a few minutes later it was over. I never even got a chance to see the others."
"You sure gave them hell," Shepard said.
"Just blew up the eezo tanks," I shrugged. "Why do you care anyway?"
It had come out really dry, and I saw Shepard blink in surprise before wincing.
The oven pinged to announce it was done, and I opened to find the meat nicely cooked. I pressed a knife into one of the ribs, and although it was firm, the juices were still running, and looked to be done. Awesome. I pulled the pan out of the oven, and onto the stove, high heat to finish reducing the sauce and thickening the caramelized sover for the meat. When I was done, I started putting the ribs on a plate. The sauce had thickened to caramelized perfection, which was exactly what I had wanted. I scrapped the thick remains on top of the ribs, and left the pan on the stove to cool down. I took a fork and a knife, and when I turned around, I saw Shepard was not in the kitchen anymore. She was sitting at one of the tables, reading a datapad. I hadn't even noticed.
After taking a moment to breathe deeply, I dropped the plate on the same table and sat opposite of her.
"Look, Shepard. I get it, I'm not very good at this, but fuck it, it's like ridiculing me is a national sport, and I'm sick of it. I've had to hear that shit all my life."
I dug my fork in one of the ribs and cut a piece of meat. It took me a few seconds to convince myself to go ahead and eat it - the last two times I had tried to eat something that wasn't a hard ration bar, things had gone off the rails spectacularly - but I finally put it in my mouth. It was still firm, but it was chewable, and the flavours were very strong. The first impression was still some bitterness, but the soy sauce did its work. And after all that, it was a very different kind of flavour. All in all, I could see a couple of ways to improve it. Aniseed, or good cinnamon sticks maybe. Some root veggies could soak up some of the bitterness, and it wouldn't need such a thick sauce.
I heard Shepard chuckle, and I looked up to see her giving me a small smile. "Damn," she said.
"What, you thought it was funny?" I grated.
"No. Not funny ha ha, funny that you finally gave me a piece of your mind." She picked up one of the ribs, and sighed. "And I'm sorry." She looked at the rib, twirling it with her fingers. "I could give you an excuse, but all I really wanted was to know what you weren't telling me. And the only time I ever got anything from you was when I pushed you. You didn't deserve that."
With that, and before I could respond she took a bite out of the rib. Her face turned to a mask of disgust when she put her teeth to it. But when she started chewing, it turned to surprise.
"Good?" I said.
"You're a fucking genius," she said, speaking over a mouthful. "Double satisfying to be eating one of the bastards."
"How did this happen anyway?" I pointed at the ribs.
Shepard took another bite, and chewed slowly, a smile creeping up to her face. "You're going to like this."
The next two days passed in relative peace. The Normandy was headed for Arcturus, or rather, one of the maintenance shipyards in the system. There was quite a bit of damage, and there was only so much the engineering crew could do without parts. Specially with the hull, the battle had definitely gotten through some of the panels. Chakwas still kept me on a short leash, but the medbay was full enough that she let me off the hook. Curiously, one of the things I spent quite a bit of time doing was cooking. The thresher maw meat. They had gotten a lot of it - I found out there was even more in one of the freezers down in engineering - and the entire crew was just in awe that it could be cooked to edibility. I could have killed the maw myself and they wouldn't have given me the same wide-eyed stares.
Really, couldn't blame them. It wasn't like one had a chance to try thresher maw every day. Wrex's reaction to the dish I was slowly perfecting was quite amusing. He was annoyed that a human was cooking one of the krogan staples, but on the other hand, he always had a huge plate of it when I was cooking.
The other amusing part was Draven (Rosie Draven, not Talitha) and Grieco. The two of them had been exchanging over-the-top banter ever since they had been confined to medbay together, and the sexual tension was high enough that I always tiptoed when I walked in, for fear of setting off a life-threatening lightning bolt. Alenko, the poor guy, had to suffer through all that, while Tali was stuck in the isolation bubble.
Liara had barely been seen outside her room. I wasn't too sure how having Benezia out there and having missed Noveria would fuck with canon, but then again, canon didn't have the Normandy finding the location of the geth fleet. And I didn't know for sure whether they had missed Noveria or not; I wasn't about to ask. I mean, duh.
To be honest, I was more worried about how I was going to get back to the Citadel than anything else.
"What's your plan?" I heard Shepard said.
I fit the piece of my hazard suit in the case and turned around. "Heading for the Citadel," I said.
She looked at me for a few seconds, then nodded. "You sure about that? The last time you were there we ended up turning the whole damn station upside down thanks to you," she said, smiling mischievously.
"I... we? What 'we'?" I looked at Shepard, but she didn't answer, only giving me her smile. "What the hell were you doing there?"
"We were coming back to the Citadel to get some milk," Shepard replied. "How on Earth did you get away from Saren's goons, a whole lot of human mercs, and C-Sec? Hell, and us. We spent two hours down in the sewers looking for you."
"I had some inside knowledge."
"I know that! We met your friend Mika."
I have to admit, it was a relief to hear her say that. I hadn't heard from her or, well, anyone really, since I left the Citadel. I was pretty sure she would be okay, because she wasn't the target, didn't have me anywhere near her, was the one who knew the tunnels to begin with, and more importantly, had the best personal shield in known space.
"Man, I'm so glad she's okay..." I muttered.
"Yeah. I asked C-Sec to keep an eye on her. Are you sure that going back to the Citadel is a good idea?"
"You know me," I replied with a shrug, going back to packing my locker. "I don't do good ideas."
I stopped packing to take a closer look at the chest piece of my environmental suit. It was thicker than I remembered. When I tapped the harder pieces at the front, they sounded with a solid clunk I had learned to recognize.
"Oh yeah, we replaced the shitty plates you had on that suit with proper ceramic ones. Added a ballistic undermesh too."
"Why?"
"There was a hole," she replied, and gave me a shrug in response to my surprised, wide-eyed look.
Geth. Geth everywhere.
The Normandy shook when the magnetic clamps landed on the hull, and the humming nose of the drive core quickly dimmed down. We had arrived.
"Well, here we are," Shepard said.
"Yep," I added. I finished packing the armor, and squeezed the pulse rifle and shotgun into the case as best I could.
"Come on, I'll walk you out," Shepard said.
I only stopped to say goodbye to Wrex, which he returned without even calling me a pyjak this time, and followed into the lift. The ride up was not particularly awkward this time, just slow. Shepard hummed happily to herself, while I just tried to keep my mind calm. Not thinking about the fact that I was leaving the Normandy again.
It wasn't the back door like last time. Quite frankly, I was still shocked at the conversation Shepard and I had had over a plate of Thresher maw ribs. The fact that I had actually given Shepard a piece of my anger, and the fact that she had apologized for it. Yeah, I had no idea how that had happened. But after that, we really hadn't broached the subject again. I didn't feel part of the crew, and Shepard hadn't tried to get me back either. But it felt as if we were okay. Kinda. Normal-ish.
This, of course, presented the problem of what exactly I was going to do next. The immediate plan was the Citadel. I was going to be there to make sure Mika made it out OK when the attack came, and then we'd see. It wasn't like I could warn anyone that the attack on the Citadel was coming. I mean, they knew. The whole bloody point was that the Council left the fleet at the Citadel expecting Saren's attack. Which came. And they got their asses handed to them.
In good part because of the Conduit, getting Saren and troops dropped right in the middle of the Presidium.
...
Maybe I could booby-trap the relay monument. Not blow it up. Definitely not blow it up. If a relay can vaporize a solar system, a miniature relay could probably get rid of an entire arm of the Citadel.
I could always steal it. Yeah, that-
"Holy shit!" I said.
"What?" Shepard replied. And yes, we were still in the lift.
"No, no, nothing, just... Thinking."
Shepard chuckled at that. "I'd offer you two credits for your thoughts, but something tells me I'd walk away with my money."
I just shook my head and said nothing.
"I'll talk with Nihlus, he might be able to get you to the Citadel without noise."
"Really?"
"Yeah, that little something tells me you're up to... something else," she said. The lift door opened, so she just winked at me and walked off.
I made to follow her as my vision went all wavy. Really? Now the AI wants to talk? Well, no. "Not now," I muttered, and it slowly dissipated, my eyes returning to normal. So now she wants to know what I'm planning? Quite frankly, I wasn't planning on sharing much of anything ever with her.
"Coming?" Shepard said.
"Yeah, sure," I said. I stepped out of the lift, and when I looked around, I stopped with my eyes on the medbay.
"Want to go talk to Chakwas?" Shepard said.
"No, no, already said goodbye to everyone. I was just thinking of Liara."
"Oh," Shepard said, the reminder putting a noticeable dent on her cheerful demeanour.
"How is she doing? I haven't talked much with her..."
"Neither have I. I wish I knew how to make her come out of her shell, it was bad enough before. Now..."
"Wait, but- You-" I babbled as I looked at her, and she just raised her eyebrows inquisitively. "I thought you two... You know..."
"Were sneaking off to make sweet, sweet love when no one was looking?" Shepard offered.
"Uh, something like that?"
"And how often have you had these thoughts? I hope you washed your hands afterwards."
"What? But- Commander! I'm serious!"
"So am I, I've actually shook your hands!" She only managed to hold her serious expression for half of that before laughing, but she soon sobered and looked at the medbay again. "She's very sweet, and I can't say I haven't been tempted, but... I don't know, she's not for me."
"Huh. Then who... Garrus?"
"Hey, since when are you interested in my love life?"
"It's him, isn't it? No wait..." I looked at her, and honest to goodness, she blinked. "Shit, it's Nihlus isn't it?"
The death glare she was giving me backfired spectacularly when I started laughing. Damn! Now I felt better about my chances of changing the galaxy's fate. If Shepard had the hots for Nihlus, of all people, I was glad I had managed to save him. Maybe this way she'd be better prepared for... For...
There goes my good mood.
"You're one to talk, how are you going to manage with Mika?" she said.
"Manage what?" I replied.
"Oh come on, don't pretend to be dense," she retorted. "It's not as fun."
"Shepard, have you heard the phrase about the face only a mother would love? Not even mine did."
"Physical attraction isn't everything, you know."
"I do know."
We had spent so much time with stupid banter in front of the lift that it had been enough for it to make another trip down, then up again. When the door opened, I heard the distinctive buzz of a quarian translator underneath the next voice.
"You're leaving us again?" Tali said.
"Eh," I shrugged. "You'll be fine."
Especially after I get the Shadow Broker to warn you about Virmire.
She looked at me, then at Shepard, and the Commander just mirrored my gesture, shrugging at her. Tali just shuffled in place awkwardly, and then just turned to me and eyed me intently.
"Okay, but you better take care of yourself. We won't be there to rescue you next time."
Shepard started laughing at that, and I ended up smirking in return. Ah, Tali. She's a gift to the galaxy.
"I'll try," I replied.
We made our way up the stairs to the CIC, and I gave nods to the crew as we passed. That felt good, they were eyeing me like one of them. Anderson was at the cockpit with Joker, and I saw some people with Arcturus badges on their uniforms walking in and talking with him. Repair crew, I guessed. The whole CIC was on the move, obviously packing up to make room for the repairs. The captain saw us going for the airlock, and came to stop us.
"Morgan," he said, and offered me his hand.
He was still favouring his right leg, and wasn't fooling anyone about his other injuries. I shook it, and I noticed he took a moment to exchange a quick look with Shepard.
"Captain, it was quite a rare opportunity to run a mission with you," I said, and meant every word.
"You did a hell of a job," he said, letting go of my hand, and almost smiled. "I take it you're leaving here."
"Yeah, Shepard's going to get me a super-secret ride to the Citadel."
"I'm sure our paths will cross again," he added, and I heard Shepard laugh at that.
I had expected an awkward moment when we got out there, but instead what I got was a surprise. After the endless decontamination cycle, the airlock opened up to the docking bay, and a whole lot of alliance techs. Damn, I had never been inside a shipyard before, the place was absolutely crazy. There was very little artificial gravity, and only on the gangplanks. The rest of the massive space was gravity-free, and it was packed. Nothing was exactly just floating around, since everything was tethered and attached, but it was like being inside of one of those snow globes, a giant one at that, with ship parts and people instead of fake snowflakes.
And yes, that is a really weird comparison because I'm weird that way.
We managed to squeeze in one of the regular shuttles to Arcturus, mixed with a pile of workers and assorted Alliance crew. Shepard seemed right at home in the mess, but I wasn't particularly enjoying the close quarters in the middle of space with only a flimsy barrier between me and death, and no enviro suit to help. Seriously, that shuttle looked like a beat-up old pinto back in my day.
So I was very relieved when we finally landed in Arcturus.
"You all right? You're looking a bit pale there," Shepard said. Oh, she was enjoying it.
"Shepard..." I muttered, pointing back at the shuttle.
It really was all I needed to say, she started laughing at my face. Give me armies of geth anytime. Not even the freaking quarian flotilla would use that piece of-
"Commander Shepard?"
We both turned to see a man in a business suit waiting for her. He looked very out of place there, with the file and rank of the Alliance grunts and dock workers.
"Yes?" Shepard said.
"Mike Neville," the man said, offering his hand. "Wertwood Engineering. I was informed you found one of our ships and brought a survivor back."
That rang a bell. The mining operation was something we ran on our own, but the ship was owned by a company. I have to admit, I hadn't read the contract too thoroughly. I was a little distracted at the time trying to get out of the Citadel before Cerberus' or Saren's goons caught up to me.
"Maybe," Shepard replied, shaking the offered hand frostily. I caught it easily enough and kept my mouth shut. "What do you want?"
"I was hoping you could point me in the right direction, there's some legal matters I need to discuss with him."
"What legal matters?" Shepard said, shifting her weight back and crossing her arms.
"I am not at liber-"
"He's part of my crew," Shepard said bluntly. "And we're working under Spectre authority. So this better be good."
Her crew?
I was so confused at this point that I almost missed what he was saying.
"-not legal citadel space, so we can't be held liable for it," Neville was explaining. "Now, we want to avoid any legal tangles, as he might be liable for damages to our ship. I'm sure you can understand."
He just kept going on and on, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. More than twenty people dead. Twenty. Mowed down mercilessly by the geth. And all these asshole was worried about was to get me to sign some form saying that we had acted on our own. The fucking contract came form them, and now they were trying to wash their hands on it.
When he pulled the datapad with the "release forms" I just snapped. I grabbed the datapad, kicked him to the ground, and made him eat it. He-
"Roy," Shepard said, grabbing me by the shoulder.
Huh. I hadn't taken the datapad, or done anything else. It had been a very vivid vision though. The guy was looking at me with some confusion and, I noticed, had taken a step back.
"Why don't you go on ahead, I'll take care of this," she said, and gave me a light slap on the back.
I looked at her, at Neville, and just stood there. I felt like there was a giant knot in my head, and if I tried to undo it, I was either going to go insane, or try to kill him. Probably both. I think the last time I had felt like that I had ended up at the bottom of a prothean ruin covered i geth goo. I think. I still didn't remember that day very clearly.
"Just go," Shepard said.
With a nod, and a glare at Neville, I stomped away, clenching my fists as I walked. Damn, what the hell was happening to me? I didn't even say a word, I was just about to jump straight at beating the shit out of someone. Scumbag, maybe. I hadn't even heard half of what he had been saying. My hands were trembling, and my heart was beating fast. No, not a panic attack this time. An angry one. Or maybe they were one and the same. I had to try really hard to keep my steps steady and wait it out, pacing aimlessly along the station as I tried to calm down.
My wandering ended up with me sitting on a bench somewhere. It was an open area, of which there weren't many in the station, and which had been turned into a kind of garden. Too small to be a park, really. I just sat down, head held with my hands, and just trying to clear my thoughts. I had managed to keep my cool so far, but now the memory of the geth attack was just there. It was all I could think of. The fact that it had all gone down so fast was what I had trouble digesting. I didn't know whether the fact that the geth had hit us like a ton of bricks was better or worse than if I had been able to fight them for longer. I never had a chance to help anyone, hell, I would have died myself. If I had had the chance and still messed up...
None of my thoughts were making any sense, but I couldn't stop it. How the hell was I going to keep Mika safe when the Citadel came under attack? Hell, what kind of stupid plan was that? What I should be doing is finding a way to give all this to Shepard.
Why the hell does it matter? It's all going to hell anyway.
I felt absolutely useless.
"Here!" a perky voice called right in front of me.
When I looked up, I saw a young girl giving me a toothy grin, and offering me an apple. Ginger hair, lots of freckles. Her smile was all the more adorable because there was a gap in the toothy line-up. I looked behind her, and saw an older woman carrying a basket with apples in them. Had to be the mother, given the likeness. She gave me a smile and a nod, so I took the offered piece of fruit.
"Thank you," I said.
The girl giggled, grabbed another apple from the basket, and rushed off to give it to the next person, with the older woman just responded to my thanks with a smile. Odd. Very odd.
I took a bite off the apple. It was delicious.
"You sure you want to just let him go?" Nihlus said.
They had just taken Roy to his shuttle, for which Nihlus had arranged with C-Sec to go into one of the private docks and be kept off the books. Not the strangest request they had ever received, and one he had actually loved to make. Because it got under Pallin's craw, which was always amusing.
"He'll be fine. He's planning something," Shepard replied.
"He didn't look fine to me."
"I know," Shepard replied, turning to give the turian a look. "Not much I can do about that, I'm the last person he'll want to talk to. Besides, I've got him a little something to raise his spirits."
She finished her drink, and put the glass back on the bar. Without a prompt of any kind, Nihlus gestured at the bartender for a refill. There was quite a selection of dextro drinks, too, which had surprised him. Shepard got another double whiskey, and Nihlus stuck to his palavea. He snorted when he saw the bottle, with the Hierarchy flag wrapping the neck of the square vessel. Sometimes he envied humans They didn't have a need to constantly prove their patriotism or commitment to the Alliance.
"Nihlus Kryik, mister Spectre, are you trying to get me drunk?" Shepard purred.
"Is it working?" Nihlus replied, chuckling.
Shepard picked up her newly filled whiskey and smiled. "You want it to work, big guy?"
She heard the clicking of Nihlus's mandibles, somewhere between confused and amused, she thought. She was starting to get the knack for turian expressions, though it was hard Those damn plates made them so rigid.
"Don't tempt me," Nihlus said, his rumbling laugh stopping only to have a pull of his drink.
"And why not? It's not like we're going anywhere..." Shepard said.
She would curse herself for a long time for saying those words. Because those were the words one used to tempt fate, and tempting fate was not something anyone should do. Her omni-tool pinged with an incoming message. Admiral Hackett. For crying out loud, she didn't even have a ship, what could he possibly want?
Author's Notes: Okay, pretty tame chapter here, just moping up loose ends and whatnot. Oh, and getting my ass back to the Citadel and out of the Normandy again. Not exactly cathartic, but I did want the departure to be a little bit more... tame, so to speak, than the last time Roy left the Normandy. And I dropped a couple of Chekov's Guns in there as well, hehehe. :-)
So, thanks all for all the great feedback on the previous chapter! Yeah, having Anderson kick ass and take names was good fun. Seriously, he ran a planet-wide resistance against the reapers, he can handle a few geth and a couple of asari commandos.
Zeru'Xil: Hehe, I hope you'll like what I have planned for Gee in the near future! :D
Toothless is best: Yes, yes it is!
BJ Hanssen: It's certainly going to turn things upside down, just wait! Assuming it makes sense when I fire it all :)
InsightfullyDepressed: Well, this chapter should've put one of the pairings already up. Well, maybe two if we count the honorary krogans, hehe. Lirara/Roy, well there's a thought. Can you imagine the levels of awkwardness?
Mizuki00: The good geth/bad geth routine will have to wait for a bit I'm afraid. BUT! I'm hoping it'll deliver when it comes!
Uemei: Just imagine what D Roy will be doing when all this starts going down in his timeline :) Turns out Roy won't stick to the Normandy for Virmire, at least not yet. But the Nihlus/Saren bit is a very astute observation :)
Blaze1992: Well, Peak 15 was nuked, according to what Nihlus heard. No rachni I'm afraid.
Bolondka: I think Liara has all the answers to the confusion. I'll ask her if she can explain it in a little more detail.
wars apprentice: Anderson/Benezia AU. With Anderson becoming the first Spectre, managing to outsmart Nihlus during their ill-fated test mission. You should totally write that fic!
Tactus501st, general-joseph-dickson, Endrius, bluemarlin, Skepsis Forever, Thank you so much for taking the time to write a review too! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter :)
Next time? Well, next time we're going to get more Gee time, and a hell of a lot more. Oh, and a massive wrench thrown into the works. You'll see! Until then, stay calm, and keep reading Fanfic. Ta-ta!