Events of this chapter: the Normandy crew heads back to Earth; James gets recruited; Liara, Tali, & Garrus visit Shepard on the SSV Osaka
Author's note: This chapter was updated on 05/06/2023. Minor changes in prose and dialogue. Story remains the same.
PART I
Chapter 6: Terra Firma
3 weeks after the Reaper War
It was three weeks after their crash that the Normandy and her crew returned to Earth. Thanks to faulty navigation, they had been marooned farther away then Joker estimated, and the destruction of Arcturus Station meant a complete lack of QEC comms. There was no way to make contact until they found a working comm buoy. The crew had spent the better part of six days searching for one when they picked up on a weak transmission.
"This is a Systems Alliance wide communication. To all citizens of the Milky Way: the Reapers have been defeated. All hostilities have ceased. Hostilities have ceased."
"MAJOR ALENKO! GET OVER HERE!" shrieked Traynor.
"Gahhh, I'm right here!" Kaidan jiggled the small flap of his ear with a finger.
Traynor turned around to see the major standing near the elevator doors. "Oh no, I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were there. Major, you need to hear this!"
Traynor replayed the transmission. Another, separate transmission came through the comms directly after. "This is an Alliance military communication. All Alliance military vessels are required to report to the Local Cluster effective immediately..."
Kaidan beamed. "Wow...it happened. We did it. We're going home..."
"I can't believe it!" Traynor paused. "Time for Javik to pay up..."
"What was that?" asked Kaidan.
"Ohhh nothing," she replied mysteriously. "It's just…I might have made a friendly wager with our enlightened Prothean friend. After praising us for our efforts, he made some rather snide remarks about 'primitive humans' not knowing how to do this or that. Said we wouldn't make it home for at least a year. Serves him right."
"Hey, never underestimate humans," replied Kaidan. "Let's share the good news."
The moment the sole of his boot hit ground, James felt the earth rise up to support him. It was steadfast and unfaltering, like the mundane miracle of a sunrise on a clear day, or the orbit of the moon. He erupted into cheerful whooping. "We made it!"
James and Steve exchanged a light fist bump as the shuttle took off behind them. Their heartened mood quickly turned to dismay as they surveyed what remained of Vancouver headquarters. Tangles of metal, glass, and concrete, nearly untraversable except by foot; a daunting thicket of debris. Like most buildings along the harbourfront, large sections of its walls had shorn away, some of them into the bay, revealing the contents of every floor like a macabre dollhouse. Skirting the west side of the building, a trio of pacific dogwoods stood in relief to the hollowed spaces. The trees were dotted with white, showy flowers, resembling the first snow of winter.
"It's so much worse than I imagined. Worse than London."
"Where do you even start?" Steve wondered.
"I don't know, man," replied James. He gazed toward the north end of the city. The mountains had always loomed large, even over the tallest of structures of Vancouver, but now they dwarfed what remained, sheltering the city instead of hemming it in. "Look at those mountains though. Beautiful."
The men walked up a path that had been cleared, toward an enclosed, tented structure that was serving as a temporary command centre. Two servicemen stood guard at the entrance and saluted. At the end of the vestibule, a corporal sat at a folding table taking names.
"Sir, I'll need your rank, full name, and ID number" the corporal requested.
"Lieutenant James Vega, 04-5713," replied James.
The corporal saluted James. "Lieutenant Vega sir, please present for scanning."
James stood at ease as the corporal completed a bioscan with his omnitool.
"Thank you, sir. There is a note on your record that you are to report to Admiral Bhatt right away. Corporal Owens will escort you," said the corporal.
Steve completed his check-in as James followed Corporal Owens to another tent, this one much smaller and hidden behind a cache of ration crates at the far end of the path. Inside, Admiral Bhatt was cramped up against her desk, her face obscured by a wall of datapads canted at all angles.
"Lieutenant James Vega reporting, sir!" James offered his sharpest salute.
Admiral Bhatt peeked up from her work. "Lieutenant Vega, welcome back to Earth," she greeted.
"It's good to be back, sir."
"You're probably wondering why you're here, hmm?" asked the admiral matter-of-factly.
"Yes, sir."
Admiral Bhatt rose from her desk and stood directly in front of James. James towered over her by a good nine inches, but she commanded the room with her perfect posture and rich, alto voice.
"As you may have heard, our N training facility in Rio was destroyed—we lost quite a few recruits at Arcturus too. Some of our higher level trainees have managed to survive, but there are precious few N7s at this time. You received an N7 commendation just before the start of the war, but you've yet to accept." Admiral Bhatt scrutinized James' face. "I'll be upfront with you, Lieutenant—your planet needs you to fulfill your duty and accept the N7 designation. The Alliance will need high ability individuals such as yourself to run special ops in the wake of this war. It's going to be chaos out there."
"I absolutely accept, sir. I will serve, whatever it takes," James said eagerly.
"I'm glad to hear it," said Admiral Bhatt.
"When do I start?"
"Right now."
SSV Osaka
Tali and Garrus whispered in the corridor as they waited their turn to enter the Commander's quarters. She had been moved from the ICU to a private room where Miranda could enter and leave without disturbing the other patients.
Garrus grabbed at his collar and stretched his neck, rolling his head back and forth several times.
"If you keep stretching your neck like that pretty soon your head will roll away..." Tali scolded.
It had been the eighth time he had done it in the last ten minutes.
"I can't help it. My neck cramps up when I'm nervous," said Garrus.
"Since when does Archangel get nervous?"
"Since his girlfriend nearly died—again," he replied. Garrus could line up a perfect shot from a thousand meters away—explosives going off in all directions around him, squadmates barking over comms—and still keep his cool. But standing around in an empty hallway while Shepard lay unconscious in the room next door was just too much.
Tali and Garrus heard the soft ding of the door as it slid open. Liara and Miranda were talking as they walked out together.
"Thank you for letting us visit Miranda. I'm happy to see she's in capable hands," said Liara.
"Dr. Paulsen and Dr. Marques have done their best considering the circumstances. Shepard is out of the woods for now, but it will be a long time before she's back to normal," Miranda warned.
Tali overheard their conversation and interrupted eagerly. "When will they be able to wake her?"
"We've just gotten her organs stabilized, now we'll get on with the work of repairing her leg and her cybernetics. Like I said in my message, her biotics will be the biggest challenge. Frankly, it could be months yet if the work proves as difficult as I fear," said Miranda.
It wasn't the answer anyone wanted to hear, but at least the Commander was alive. Garrus shifted several times, eager to see with his own eyes.
Miranda tugged on her gloves and smoothed her hair. "I'm sorry everyone, if you'll excuse me. I need to speak to Dr. Paulsen for a moment. Tali and Garrus—you're free to go in if you like."
"Thank you, Miranda, really," said Garrus, titlting his down as a show of respect.
"Talk to her. She'd be happy to hear your voice. You too, Tali." Miranda caught sight of Dr. Paulsen at the other end of the corridor and raised her hand, then sashayed away.
"I'll be waiting here when you're done," said Liara. "Don't worry too much. You know Shepard, she wouldn't want us to make a fuss over her."
Garrus shot her a look. "Don't worry too much, huh Liara? Don't make a fuss over Shepard?"
"Oh, you! Stop..." Liara blushed, embarrassed.
Garrus did his best version of a turian smile—cheeky with his sharp teeth and a wide mouth. With his mandibles flared it looked even cheekier. Ribbing Liara would never get old.
Tali and Garrus entered in silence, the click-hiss of the ventilator the only sound in the room. Garrus padded softly to Shepard's bedside and knelt down beside her. He tenderly stroked each of her fingers, then pressed the top of her hand to his cheek.
Tali, who was standing at the end of the bed, gripped the footboard as she surveyed Shepard's various injuries. She was thankful that her soft whimpering was muffled by her helmet. It wasn't unusual for her to see Shepard beat up and bruised after a fight, but she had never seen her in a hospital bed, so vulnerable and still.
"Hi Commander, it's Tali," she said. "I'm here with Garrus. We just got back to Earth—the Normandy survived the war. I mean, obviously…how else could I be talking to you right now? I mean, I'm not a ghost." She cleared her throat. "Anyway…we crashed on a beautiful jungle planet. You would have liked it there. Everything was so green. We were lost for almost three weeks, though." Sniffling, she paused. "Javik wouldn't shut up about humans getting us lost in space. Liara threatened to throw him out of the airlock and I think I might have thrown a plate at him in the mess hall. I don't really remember if I actually did that or if I just wanted to..."
Garrus brushed Shepard's bangs off her forehead and stroked her cheek.
"I…I've been feeding your fish for you while you've been gone, and Garrus has been taking care of Mr. Hammie. Mr. Hammie even let Garrus hold him! Can you believe that?" Tali said, trying to hide the anguish in her voice with a daub of cheerfulness. "I never thought I'd see a turian sniper fall in love with a fuzzy little poop machine."
"He sure can poop…" Garrus said to Shepard quietly. Still gazing at her face, he pulled up a chair from behind and sat down.
Tali slid her palms back and forth along the top of the footboard as she tried to keep herself from crying. "You know, I was so young when I met you, wasn't I Shepard? I was bold, sure, but still so naïve. I nearly got myself killed. Now I'm an admiral in the Fleet... I still think that sounds crazy. But you were the one who encouraged me. You taught me to see my own strength..." Tali took her hands off the footboard. "I hope I can give some of that to you now, my friend."
Garrus glanced up at Tali with an affectionate tilt to his head.
"Anyway, I should go, Shepard. I'll be back. I think Garrus probably wants to speak to you alone." She paused. "...I'm so happy you're still here."
Tali nodded at Garrus and joined Liara in the hallway.
Squeezing Shepard's hand, Garrus ran his other fingers through her hair.
"Hey, beautiful, it's me," he began. "I can only imagine what you'd say if you could see yourself right now...you'd probably tell me to go to hell for calling you beautiful. But you know what? I see you, and you're beautiful. That's all you need to know."
He watched Shepard's chest rise and fall rhythmically, never changing.
"Remember when I walked into the meeting room on the SR-2, after I got blasted in the face by that rocket? Do you remember what you said to me? You said: 'Hell Garrus, you were always ugly'." He chuckled to himself. "But then you fell in love with these scars, so who's laughing now?"
A long silence followed as he desperately gathered his scattered feelings and held onto them tightly.
"Shepard...I..I didn't think I'd see you again. When we said goodbye in London, I held onto hope that it would work out. But I knew the chance was small. Ruthless calculus, right? And when you sent me away on the Normandy..." Drawing his mandibles as close to his face as they could go, Garrus could barely spit out the words. "...I thought that was it. But then we discovered there was someone in the Citadel ring... I knew it was you. I knew you were alive."
He squeezed her hand again. "You did it, Shepard. You kicked Reaper ass. And everyone in the galaxy will know that it was Commander Shepard that got the job done. You don't need to do anymore."
He stood over the bed and pressed his forehead lightly to hers. "Just come back to us. And I promise I'll be there when you do. I love you."
Song: "Independence Day" - Ani DiFranco
You can't leave me here / I got your back now / You'd better have mine / 'Cause you say the coast is clear / But you say that all the time