Chapter 10
When Anderson came looking for Shepard, the ship's mess hall was crowded with his crew, those who had just got up and were getting breakfast before they all had to start their shifts and duties. He even saw Shepard's crew gathered around, except for the human male, Kaidan and the asari. They were both oddly missing.
But the mess hall was erupting with laughter. So Anderson decided to see what was going on. In the center of it all was Shepard, her hands waving around as she was apparently in the middle of a tale, looking rather engaged in her story telling.
"So there we were, Garrus, Wrex and I," she was saying, pointing to the krogan and turian. "We had full use of this vehicle, it's kind of like your mako down in the cargo hold, ya?" She continues, both crews watching her with anticipation. "And it's an all terrain vehicle, so it should be able to climb up and down steep hills and maybe even a cliff side or two." She says as she motions with one hand, as though it were the vehicle driving uphill.
Anderson stood there, folding his arms, honestly feeling curious about the story being told. "Anyway, I'm stubborn as all hell and I think, hey look! A short cut, lets go over this hill, cut our travel time in half." She goes on. She then snickers a bit as she continues on, "But this hill is a bit steeper than I had first gave it credit for, so the vehicle is slipping and sliding, threatening to fall over. Wrex is laughing his damn hump off as Garrus is freaking out in the back seat, yelling at me, thinking we were all going to die." she says as she looks at the turian, smirking away.
The crew around the mess hall start laughing some more. Garrus' mandibles flare, but he's got a turian like grin on his face. "Ya, ya, laugh it up. Have you ever seen Shepard driving? Let me explain to you how it goes." He says as he stands up straight from his leaning position on some spare lockers.
He clears his throat, his tone higher than normal. "Oh, look at me! My name's Shepard and I think I can do whatever the hell I want. Oh look, a death trap, let's go!" he says, making the same motion with his hand as Shepard, mimicking a vehicle driving up a steep hill, only he acts as though the vehicle falls to it's doom instead, making an explosion like noise at the end of it.
Shepard gave a good hearty laugh, as the rest of everyone else does. "It's true, though." Tali pipes in, elbowing Shepard in the arm, teasing the human. Shepard snickers again, but looking rather proud of herself. "Keelah, her driving is awful." She quipped as Shepard made a display of rolling her eyes, but all smiles.
Wrex also decided to throw in his two cents, but shrugs his massive shoulders. "I think her driving is fun." he said, grinning himself, looking towards Shepard. She returns the grin and shrugs back.
Anderson took this time to gain his crew's attention, despite thinking perhaps these mercs weren't as bad as he thought they may have been. "Alright, alright, settle down. I'm sure you all have duties and assignments to attend to." He then said, though not sounding harsh. Everyone took that as breakfast time being over as the Alliance crew stoop from their seats, stacking dirty dishes on the counter for some poor guy to clean.
Shepard looked to Garrus and motioned him over to the sink. "Garrus, would you help him out?" Shepard asked casually.
Garrus nodded. "Sure." He said without argument and went to help the young man with his KP duties. Anderson watched as the turian began to help his serviceman putting all the dishes away as the they were cleaned.
Anderson walked over to the table where Shepard sat, nursing a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. "Shepard, I figured it would be a good chance to talk before we hit Feros." Anderson said as he sat on the bench across from Shepard. Shepard nodded her head some, trying to chew on the cereal that was now in her mouth.
She quickly swallowed her food, "Yeah, I wanted to speak with you as well." Nicole said. Anderson regarded her moment.
He nodded his head then, gesturing for Shepard to go first. Shepard swirled her spoon about in her cereal bowl. "Last night, Liara had more dreams about those visisons from the beacon. I don't know if it means anything." Shepard started, looking off towards the medical bay, her face giving her concern away. She sighed as she let the spoon rest in her now mostly soggy cereal, deciding she wasn't going to finish it now. "She didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, neither did I if I had to be honest. She's asleep now though, hopefully." Shepard stated as she went back to sipping on her coffee.
Anderson nodded his head in understanding. He made a sound like he was thinking about what Shepard had told him. "We can have Dr. Chakwas take a look at her again, make sure she's alright." He suggested. Shepard smiled a little, giving her thanks. He smiled back a bit. Perhaps he was too quick to judge Shepard. She seemed like a decent person, despite their clash the day before.
He then leaned forward, folding his arms on the table, hands clasped together, looking a bit more down to business. "I have given some thought in what you suggested. About putting you and your crew to work." He said. Shepard perked a brow as she sat her mug back down, giving him her undivided attention.
She then grinned some as she leaned on the table with one arm of her own. "A test run." She suddenly said. If she had thrown Anderson off or not she couldn't tell. He kept a fairly straight face. "I thought a bit more about it myself." She went on. "Take me on one of your ground missions. You need a door kicked in, I'm your woman." She tried to joke, but she was also being serious.
That caused Anderson to grin a bit himself. "I had thought along similar lines. I don't want you to think I'm trying to use you or your crew as a way to keep mine from getting hurt on the field though." He went on. She nodded, regarding him with understanding.
She shrugged though. "We're mercs, being used is the name of the game." She joked. Anderson chuckled some. "But I understand, I appreciate that you're not wanting to put anyone in danger, but in our line of work it's bound to happen." Shepard said both casually yet matter of factly.
Anderson watched the woman as she finished off her coffee. "You're not as bad as I thought you were." Anderson admitted. With that Shepard actually laughed, finding his revaluation hilarious. He shook his head some, but looking amused by her reaction.
"Nah, I know I can be thick headed... And well I guess we both have our trust issues." Shepard said as she settled down. Anderson could agree with that. But he didn't say anything, instead Shepard went on, "No offense, I just didn't want you running off with Liara... I didn't know what to think of it, and I'm... perhaps a little more protective of her than even I knew." Shepard admitted with a shrug.
Anderson almost wanted to press her for why she was so protective, but he also figured he could make a good guess. "I was thinking of taking you along on Feros." Anderson then said. Shepard looked to him and nodded her agreement to it. "We can see how well this works out there, and I could use someone with your attitude on my squad." He went on. Shepard chuckled at that.
She stood, bringing her dishes to the serviceman and Garrus, who were nearly wrapped up with what they were doing. Garrus regarded her, having heard the whole conversation. He nodded at her as she gave him a small smile and nodded back. Perhaps a silent acknowledgment that perhaps this arrangement could work out.
"Just let me know when to gear up, Captain." She said before waving at him once, heading for the med bay. "I need to check up on Kaidan and Liara." She said. But Anderson didn't let her get very far.
"Kaidan?" The older man questioned. Shepard stopped, remembering she never mentioned Kaidan was a biotic. She clicked her tongue as she turned to face Anderson, looking a little sheepish.
She cleared her throat as she shrugged at him, almost an apologetic look on her face. "Ya, sorry... I forgot to mention Kaidan's a biotic. Has the old L2 implant... Gives him some gnarly migraines. He was having a flare up this morning from it." Shepard tried to explain. "I told him to see Dr. Chakwas, thought maybe she could give him something to help with it." Shepard finished, looking a little nervous maybe. Their relationship with the Alliance was still on thin ice, and honestly, Shepard felt like they made a little progress this morning. She'd hate to screw it all up in the moment things looked like they would be alright.
Anderson nodded however, looking a little sympathetic even. "Hope your crew member gets better." Anderson said before he excused himself, standing from the table and making his way towards a set of stairs that lead to the top deck. Shepard breathed a sigh of relief as she continued to the med bay.
Once she entered she could see the doctor and Kaidan. Kaidan sat on the edge of one of the few beds there, Chakwas apparently giving him an examination as he sat there, but looking miserable. "How's he doing?" Shepard asked as she stepped further into the room, doors hissing shut.
Chakwas paused her checkup, looking behind herself giving away that warm smile she had. It kind of made Shepard think of her as a motherly sort of person when she smiled like that. "As well as can be expected." Chakwas informed before she wandered to her medicine cabinet.
Shepard stepped up to Kaidan's bed regarding him with sympathy. "The doc thinks she can give me a regiment of meds to help with the headaches." He informed her, his voice low, before he reached up, gripping at his head tenderly.
Shepard gently patted the man on the arm. "When you're in the clear go get some rest. I'm sure Anderson won't mind if you spend the day trying to recover." She said lightly as Kaidan nodded some. She had always been kind to him when his L2 implant flared up. It was almost always debilitating and he would end up spending the day in bed trying to get over the migraines.
Shepard then stepped away from Kaidan, looking towards the door to Liara's makeshift room. "Any sign from Liara?" She asked as Chakwas went back to tending to Kaidan, handing him some medication.
Kaidan silently swallowed his pills as Chakwas took note of her treatment plan on her data pad. "I'm afraid I haven't seen her come out of her room." Chakwas said as she gave Kaidan the ok to go rest. He hopped off the bed as he slowly made his way out of the med bay.
Shepard looked back to Chakwas as she sighed lightly. "I guess I'm accompanying the Captain on Feros... But Liara had more nightmares from that beacon, and if she was willing, I was hoping you'd check her out? Make sure she's still ok?" Shepard asked. Chakwas smiled and nodded her head at the young merc.
Chakwas went back to her terminal, transferring whatever was on her data pad to her computer. "Of course. A check up never hurts." Chakwas said warmly as Shepard smiled some. She looked back to the door half tempted to go check on the asari... But she knew Liara did not sleep much the night before and if she was sleeping now she refused to wake her up.
It was a mess almost right from the get go, Feros. Once the Normandy docked, Anderson took Shepard and Ashley with him and they were greeted by geth almost instantly. As a unit, Anderson had to admit Shepard and Ashley worked well with him. With the three of them the geth were dealt with swiftly.
But the geth weren't their only problems. When they had reached Zhu's Hope colony it was obvious they were all in rough shape. The leader of the colony had explained to Anderson what had been happening, and further told him of their troubles. Shepard could see it in the man's eyes, he was desperate to get some help. Water lines were down, food supplies were low, geth were in the tunnels.
Anderson motioned for the others to follow him as the three gathered a bit away from the colonists. "Things are rougher than expected." he started. "We can have the Normandy drop off the mako on the sky bridge, but I don't know what more we can do aside from getting to the bottom of the geth issue at Exo-Geni. We may not have time for anything else. We need to find out what Saren wants with this place." he continued.
Shepard frowned though as she looked around them. The colonists all looked like they were exhausted, some of them looking like they were just downright losing hope. "Captain... I'm sorry, this is your mission, and I'll do what needs to be done but we should see if we can help a little." She said looking back to Anderson. He could see it in her eyes, she really wanted to help these people. "It's Alliance duty, right? I can't leave them here like this without trying at least." She went on.
He sighed as Ashley also looked to him. "I agree, look at them." Ashley said gesturing around. "Maybe we can at least clear the geth in the tunnels?" She asked. Shepard nodded her agreement with Ashley.
Anderson gave Shepard a measured look. "You do this sort of thing often? Helping the helpless?" He asked, honestly curious. He never pictured a merc to really go out of their way if they didn't have to. But the look on Shepard's face said maybe he wasn't right to lump her in with every other merc.
She shrugged her shoulders. "If the geth are still here I'm thinking they haven't gotten whatever they're after." she stated. "We have to try, it's the right thing to do." she then said with a nod, saying that yes, she really did make this a habit. She had a bigger heart than the Captain would have originally thought.
He gave the two women a smile and a nod. "Alright, we'll see if we can do something. Hopefully the geth won't find whatever it is they're looking for in the mean time." He said. He then readied his gun. "Come on, lets try to be quick about this." He then said as he trotted off towards the tunnels, Shepard and Ashley hot on his heel, their own guns ready.
Back on the Normandy, Liara shot straight up in bed once more, clutching at the air, for what she was not sure, but she called out for Shepard, and loudly. It didn't take long for Chakwas to enter her room, the older woman looking concerned and confused. When she saw that the asari must have had yet another nightmare, like the ones Shepard had told her about she suddenly seemed sad for Liara. "Are you alright, dear?" She asked as she stepped further into the room, activating her omni-tool, doing a quick scan as she squatted near the bed.
Liara tried to gain control of herself again, and like last night, the vision from the beacon lingered in her mind, only not as prevalent as when she was sleeping. They seemed more like the wisps of what she had experienced in her sleep. She clutched at her forehead a little, feeling pressure in her head again, perhaps from feeling so un-rested. "I do not feel well." she admitted as Chakwas nodded, standing, grasping the asari's arm carefully, helping the woman out of her bed.
Chakwas slowly led Liara out of her room. "Come. Lets run some scans, see if there's an underlying problem we missed before." Chakwas insisted.
Liara looked around, not seeing Shepard. "Where is Nicole?" Liara asked, really wishing the mercenary was there in this moment. Having her there had helped calm her nerves last night, she had wanted that comfort again. Chakwas frowned some, figuring this Nicole she spoke of had to be Shepard.
"I'm afraid Shepard is planet side with Captain Anderson and Chief Ashley Williams." Chakwas informed sympathetically as she helped Liara sit on a bed before gathering some equipment. Liara only nodded as she hugged herself, just not feeling well at all in the moment.
