Chapter 87
"It's funny because we're constantly developing new ships, but sometimes we'll just find something that works and stick with it. Take our gunships for example." Jane Shepard said to Tana D'vero, the captain of the ship she'd been testing the Normandy against. She gestured at a holographic projection of a small vessel with a much more angular design than current alliance standard ships. It featured several small energy weapon projectiles and hard points for different types of ordinance, in this case four low-yield antimatter torpedoes.
"When these gunships were first deployed, those cannons in the front fired combustion-propelled lead projectiles!" Shepard said, geeking out about one of her favorite models of ship. D'vero looked over the specifications that were streaming on the right hand side of the projection, her jaw dropping as it went on
"According to the spec, this ship would outclass even our newest Comet gunships!" D'vero said.
"Neat huh? The pilots of those are nuts too, it's great. Some of them are almost as old as the ships themselves." Shepard said.
"Really?" D'vero said. Shepard nodded, while grinning.
"We're not big on wasting resources and that includes personnel. The average human lifespan thanks to medical advances and genetic modification is about a hundred and twenty years, I know one gunboat pilot who just celebrated his hundredth birthday. If you can pass the fitness exams we go through each year, you're welcome to continue serving." Shepard said, punching in a few commands into her omnitool and the displayed a new vessel, this one an older frigate.
"Before the Normandy, this was my baby. Meet the MSV Stalingrad. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles the Normandy's got but She was definitely a joy. When I was in the command of her, it just felt intuitive, does that make sense?" Shepard said. D'vero nodded, and gestured for her to continue.
"The inertial dampeners weren't quite what they are on the Normandy, so you could almost navigate blind. You could tell how close the heat sinks were to saturation by placing a hand on the bulkheads, the crew compartments were more spartan but it reminded us all of bunking together at basic." Shepard said.
"She is a beautiful ship, was she decommissioned?" D'vero asked. Shepard's expression fell slightly.
"No, we came out of FTL and collided with an asteroid, there was so much damage, Christ I have no idea how we survived. The whole crew made it off, though I did have to knock Admiral Anderson out." Shepard said grinning at that last,.
"Oh, the famous wrench incident! I actually used it as an example when I brought my commander on. Sharp kid, but a bit meek, I needed her to remind her she was there to keep me sharp." D'vero said, grinning.
"Oh my god. I need to rub this in VanNuys' face!" Shepard said smiling.
"Who is that?" D'vero asked.
"The admiral at my court martial. He wanted to throw the book at me, damn near got me jailed for life. He works under Admrial Hackett now." Shepard said.
"I can't believe the man is still serving after that." D'vero said.
"Honestly, he was just doing his job. You can't have subordinates assaulting their COs willy-nilly. He and I write regularly, his daughter serves with my friend Kasumi." Shepard said.
"Remarkable. You humans never cease to fascinate me." D'vero said.
"Yeah we're awesome." Shepard said, chuckling.
Hours later, Liara sat on the floor, mesmerized by the Prothean VI as it spouted every historical fact it had been programmed with. Attendants had brought her a chair, but she hadn't noticed, she was too busy punching notes into her omni-tool. A kiosk nearby chimed, signifying that it was close to sunset. Traditionally, worshippers of athame would pray to the goddess as the sun set over the horizon, so that she might bless them they woke in the morning. The temple while a historical site and archaeologist's wet dream, was still an active worship site, so the few adherents that were there moved towards the entrance to begin their prayer.
She carefully deactivated the VI, and informed the priestess she was done with the relic for that day. It had been several days since she was introduced to the Prothean VI and it presented her with more questions than answers. Unfortunately the VI had its limits. As she had learned, a hard limit to the processing power used with Vis had be come one of their most strictly enforced laws after their first machine war, and this one had been programmed sloppily, and in a hurry. A cultural database had been added as a second thought at the last minute, however it had largely corrupted over the millennia, and Liara suspected she was close to depleting the Vi's well of knowledge.
She stood slowly, cursing the cramp in her lower back. After gathering her things she made her way to the entrance and smiled when she saw her parents and Tali laughing, seemingly at the expense of a theatrically pouting Fleet Commander Shepard. They were talking near one of the giant pillars responsible for holding up the Temple's structure, presumably waiting for her. She caught the end of Tali's anecdote and couldn't help but laugh when she recognized the story.
"So I'm sitting there shaking her, trying to wake her up and she yells 'FUCK YOU, DRACULA' and then wakes up surrounded mostly by complete strangers laughing hysterically." Said Tali. Aethyta and Benezia were trying so hard not to laugh tears were streaming down their eyes.
"See if I save you from vampires again." Shepard grumbled, if anything her pout intensified. This broke the dam and the two matriarchs burst out laughing at the woman's expense.
"Liara, I was just telling your parents about our calm, collected, unflappable Fleet Commander over here." Tali said, gesturing at Shepard.
"You know, waste reclamation plants need engineers too, Ensign Zorah." Shepard threatened. Tali smiled innocently, looking up at Shepard, who rolled her eyes, picked up the smaller Quarian and kissed her.
"You know that reminds me of a story about a certain someone having a bad reaction to her first Blasto vid." Benezia said, looking intently at her daughter.
"Mother you promised!" Liara said Benezia was about to elaborate when Shepard came to her rescue.
"Dr. T'soni, The Ambassador and her partner invited us to dinner, we were hoping you'd like to join us. One of Armali's more prestigious restaurants, T'luuna, recently started serving Human and Quarian food, I'm, curious to see what their interpretation of our cuisine tastes like. Would you join us?" Shepard asked.
"Of course, It's just a few hundred meters that way, shall we walk?" Liara asked, thankful for the chance to exercise after being seated so awkwardly.
"Sounds good." Shepard said, gesturing for them to follow her. Tali looked at a bench on the boardwalk and grinned when she saw Joker sitting with two clearly infatuated maidens wildly gesticulating while telling them a story about flying the Normandy.
"You know I've always wondered, Jeff is seemingly so successful with women, how is he still on the market?" Tali asked.
"HE and I talked about this, Jeff hooks up with girls during shore leave all the time, but he's not enough of a dick to string them along. He makes it clear up front that he's not looking for long term, given his career." Shepard explained.
"Why not find a girlfriend in on the ship?" Liara inquired.
"Yeah, uh I can tell you from experience. That's never gonna end well. I tried that and ended up in love with a woman who revels in humiliating me publicly at every given opportunity!" Shepard said. Tali laughed, and squeezed Shepard's hand. They arrived at the restaurant and queued in behind a dozen people, half of whom were Asari and the other half were their partners from other races. They were discussing Aethyta's memories of her time on Rannoch when they all heard a woman clear her throat from in front of where they were standing.
Shepard saw a beautiful Asari matriarch dressed in the most ornately decorated dress she'd ever seen, standing before her.
"Can I help you?" Shepard asked
"Forgive me... are you the shepard?" The woman asked.
"Please call me Jane. Honestly I don't know why people call me 'The Shepard' Jane is a perfectly good name." Shepard said with a smile. That statement abruptly halted the conversations happening around them as dozens of people began staring at her in awe. The well dressed woman's eyes were misted however her expression remained unchanged.
"I'm sorry... Jane. It's just... You gave me back my family. My partner was forced to crew that awful Turian Admiral's dreadnought when they attacked your space, you alkso saved my daughter when you escorted that slaver ship to you outpost world." the matriarch said.
"My mother was on the Tarkas!" Another Asari said, with tears in her eyes. Several other people approached her to thank her for hers and Humanity's efforts in saving their people. Jane accepted it graciously, but put a stop to it with a firm, but polite request for privacy while they were seated. The crowd acquiesced immediately, but she still caught some of them staring from time to time.
"I'm going to try the cheeseburger." Shepard said.
"A word of advice?" Aethyta said. Shepard nodded.
"Order it medium. Asari dishes are usually just barely cooked, if you order it rare you'll end up with a pile of ground beef on a bun." Aethyta said. Shepard pondered.
"Don't say that in front of Gardner, I don't think his poor heart could take it." Shepard said grinning.