"Nikki? I wasn't expecting to hear from you this soon."

"Yeah well, nothing was happening, thought I'd grab one last vid call while I still can."

"What do you mean 'nothing's happening'? I thought it was supposed to be all 'hurry, hurry, quick, quick, emergency war footing'!"

"Well yeah it was... now it's hurry up and wait. You know what it's like: you plan a night out on the town then just as the last person turns up and you're all ready to leave, someone realises they've forgotten their lucky condom and-" Shepard was interrupted by an involuntary snort.

"Lucky condom!? What is that? Like every time they wear it- wait... you know what, I really don't want to know." Nikki's look of confusion morphed into horror as realisation hit.

"Eww, that's nasty! I did not think that sentence through before I said it. Ugh, and I really wish I wasn't thinking about it now. That's disgusting. What were we talking about?"

"Everyone's there ready to leave and someone forgot something. So what, did they forget to bring the guns?"

"Oh no, they remembered the guns... It's the ship we're waiting on!"

"You're joking!"

"Nope. Thousands of marines and no ship, look." She twisted her arm so Trish could take in the sea of Alliance blue uniforms loitering around the docks. She noticed something a couple of bays over.

"What about that one over there? Why don't you see if you can sneak onboard that."

"Which... Oh, the Poltava? No thanks. I'll wait." They both knew there was no choice in the matter, the Alliance had designated which ship Nikki was to be stationed on and there could be no swapsies. That didn't mean they couldn't joke around though.

"Oh, so you're being picky now."

"Come on, it's a frigate." The soldier spoke the word disdainfully. "Sure it's one of the best, but they're tiny, you can't fit more than two Grizzlies in the cargo bay, I'll wait. Besides it's not like I'm going to get bored, they provided us with some light reading." She waved a data pad in front of the camera.

"What is it?"

"Hmm, let's see..." Nikki made a show of scrolling through the contents as she answered. "Classified, classified, Rules of engagement. Classified, clas- no wait, another copy of the regs. Good job they don't print them out anymore, we'd have enough to make a life size model frigate. Classified... then the rest is just the usual pre-deployment forms. Will and testament, that sort of bollocks." Trish's easy smile faded.

"Lovely and light. That must do wonders for morale, isn't it a little ominous?"

"Nah, just standard procedure." Shepard dismissed, seemingly unfazed. "Normally you get it a couple of days before you ship rather than on the docks but whatever. At least they give you a copy of your old one to edit now, instead of expecting us to come up with it all again. Most people just read through and hit resubmit without changing anything. Although..." For the first time the marine showed signs of hesitancy, rubbing the back of her neck.

"What is it?"

"Well... I'm not too sure the best way to... fuck it! Do-you-want-to-be-my-emergency-contact?" It came out as a garbled rush, Trish thought she heard it correctly but wasn't entirely certain.

"Umm, what?"

"You don't have to of course. I mean it's not as if I'm going to need it anyway and I've always just kept that whole 'next of kin' section blank before-"

"Nick slow down sweetie, it's alright. What would I have to do?"

"Nothing, they already know all my medical restrictions and preferences. They would just contact you if, well they won't but... you know..." Trish felt as if an invisible hand was squeezing inside her chest, making it hard to breath as she finished the unspoken implication 'if Nikki dies'. She did her best not to let her uneasiness show.

"OK, you can put me down."

"Oh good, cos I already gave you all of my physical crap in the will and that would just be awkward if my hoodies showed up without you knowing why." Shepard's voice was light despite the highly claustrophobic atmosphere and Trish wasn't sure she appreciated the soldier's dark humour right now, but she forced herself to respond in kind.

"Well that was close, I was just about to tell you to be careful but if I get your hoodies, well..." A peal of warm, genuine laughter rung out, it was a truly wondrous sound, Trish had always liked it but she never truly appreciated it before today. She should have kept things light, continued joking around and try to catch that glorious sound again, but her curiosity had been roused and she couldn't help asking: "What did you do about all that stuff before?"

"Hmm? Oh! I've always had my money set to go to charity, the guys who helped out Mom. That's not changed by the way, if you were considering hiring an assassin to get rich quick." There was that brilliant smirk and Trish wondered how Nikki could remain so cavalier about it all. "Never bothered putting anything down about physical possessions before. Not as if I had many and there was no one to dump them on so I never really thought about it. I suppose the Alliance would've just thrown it away or donated it to a charity shop or something, I don't really know."

A loudspeaker crackled into existence but the words were drowned out by the noisy response of the marines all around.

"Sounds like that's my ride..." In the background Trish could see people standing up, collecting their kit and generally getting ready but Nikki didn't seem to be making a move to join them. She wondered if the soldier was secretly just as nervous as she was, just better at hiding it.

"You don't seem to be in much of a hurry."

"Hah, I'm not. This isn't my first ship posting, I know how this works, it'll take ages for everyone to board, might as well make the most of a few more minutes relaxing. Besides all that rushing to be first is pointless. There's no 'first come first served bonus', all the important decisions like the hot-bunking system gets worked out for us. I mean sure if I hurry I might be able to get a locker 30 metres closer to the sleeping pods, but that's about it." The conversation trailed off, Trish unable to think of a response until she noticed the way Nikki was watching her.

"You ok there Nick?"

"Hmm, yeah. Just trying to save you up here." She tapped her forehead with a finger.

"Pretty sure I gave you some photos."

"Yeah but it's not the same."

"No, it's not."

"I think Luna spoiled us, it's going to be hard going back to text only communication."

"No argument here. Still... I'm glad we had it."

"Yeah... I should probably go..."

"OK, take care of yourself."

"I will, you too."

"Love you."

"Love you too..." Trish watched as Nikki stood and picked up her kit.

"Hadn't you better hang up?"

"I thought you were going to hang up." Nikki stated as she started walking towards the boarding queue, making no effort to end the call.

"No, you hang up first."

"Why don't we both hang up? On three, ready?"

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!" They each stared pointedly at the other, raised eyebrows doing the job of accusatory words.

"You know there's another comm in the house, I could totally call my uncle and ask him to order you to hang up."

"Ooh, low blow! You wouldn't? What the hell am I talking about, I wouldn't put it past you. I can just imagine it, it'll come over the loudspeakers: 'Corporal Shepard, hang up the vid call! You have ten seconds to comply or face court martial'. You'll visit me in the brig right?"

Trish laughed but refused to give in.

"Only if you hang up first."

"Fine, you win. I guess this it then. I'll see you when I see you."

"Stay in touch."

"I'll try... Bye." Nikki's face vanished as she finally cut the connection and Trish was left alone with her thoughts.