Chapter 13
? - ?
He sighed to himself as he stared down at the band on stage. They were a local group known as the Lord of the Strings. As their name implied, they dealt mostly with stringed instruments of every make and model from violins to banjos and even one person who commonly used a guzheng. If he were honest, their solo of Spring River Flower Moon Night was his favorite. It always put him at ease as if each reverberation of the strings vibrated away the stress from his body.
But each time he came back here he found it sounding more and more off, as if the musician were off key. He wasn't sure what was happening because it seemed he was the only one who caught the sound drifting. Each time it ended, they would still receive a standing ovation as was customary for the beautiful piece. He stood and clapped as well in the concert hall as the roar of applause sounded. But he found himself wondering if there was actually a change in the tune of the instruments, or if there was something wrong with him. He hoped that wasn't the case, but he had no way to be sure at the moment as nobody would speak.
He reached up and pinched his nose, trying to relieve the stress on his mind as he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. Turning, he saw her face again and smiled as she wore a hood over her head for the performance. He smiled, the stress melting away as he saw her again. If nothing else in the world was right, she was. And that would never change.
Main Hallway – Purgatory Prison Ship
"I don't see why you're mad at me. You said to make sure nobody goes in," said Grunt as he trundled heavily behind the squad that were now sprinting down the destroyed hallway. There were bodies of guards and prisoners littering the ground everywhere.
"Just… don't worry about it, Grunt," said Shepard with a sigh as she jumped yet another mangled corpse that had been crushed by the wily young woman's biotics. "She can't go on forever, she has to eventually hit a wall."
Garrus spoke up as he jogged alongside them all. "Unless she hits the docks and tries to take the Normandy," he said as he kept pace with them, not using the blinding running speed that turians were known for.
"Shit," groaned Shepard as another explosion rocked the entire ship.
"Hull breach in blocks 23 and 25. Safety doors dropped. Zero survivors. Hull integrity at 68%," came the announcers voice once again.
"Shepard! Tell your goddamn krogan to stop blowing the damn ship up or you ain't gonna make it out of there alive!" snapped Zaeed over the comms, no doubt having also felt the rocking of the ship as the blocks depressurized violently.
Garrus responded before Shepard had a chance to. "Grunt isn't the one tearing the ship to pieces. It's a human teenager," said the turian without thinking about what he was saying.
There was a moment of silence on the comm before he finally responded. "Are you fuckin' with me Vakarian?"
Shepard cut in to clear the confusion. "She's not a teenager. Young woman, shaved head, lots of tattoos, responds to Jack. She's a powerful biotic that we came here to get, and she broke loose and is currently tearing the ship to pieces. If she comes your way, do not engage her! I repeat, do not attack her!" ordered the spectre as she ran through another gaping hole in the next guard checkpoint.
She held up her hand for them all to stop as she saw the situation ahead, however. The room ahead of them looked like some kind of cargo hold with crates stacked all around the area. In the center of the floor was a massive crowd of bloodthirsty inmates who had been freed due to both her and Jack's antics, all of them surrounding Warden Kuril and several of his guards who were now trapped on the upper catwalk of the room.
The warden aimed his weapon down at the group, but if they were even the slightest bit scared, not a one showed it as they continued shouting for him to come down to them. Shepard scanned the room as she looked down at the entrance to the room, noticing the door had been shot off its hinges instead of blown off like all of Jack's previous openings. Looking up, her eyes scanned the crowd. "She slipped inside unnoticed. She's somewhere in the crowd," said the spectre as she headed inside to get a better view.
As she did, the warden immediately noticed her and began firing on her position. She was much too far for the inaccurate battle rifle to hit, but she glared at him nonetheless as he accidentally took out some of the inmates below.
"Shepard, if we call her name out here she'll likely make a run for it. We need to get her attention somehow and draw her out of the crowd," said Miranda as she too looked around the room for any signs of the young woman. Unfortunately, the most common haircut for humans in the prison was shaved, making it near impossible to spot her among the taller inmates.
"I've got an idea," said the spectre as she took her battle rifle and tossed it to the operative. "Grunt, you follow me. Garrus, take your long-range rifle and make sure none of those guards interfere."
"You got it, Shepard," said the turian as he reached back and pulled his sniper off his back.
Nodding to them, she jumped down a few feet until she was level with the crowd. "Out of the way!" she snapped as she began to shove aside the inmates in her way. They turned to retaliate but almost immediately shrank as Grunt's bulk dissuaded them. Soon, every inmate in the place knew she was coming and they split the way for her, allowing her to walk cleanly towards the warden's position. When she spoke, it was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, the only indication of the destruction behind her being the flashing lights on the wall above. "I warned you, Kuril. I made it very clear and gave you every opportunity not to fuck with me, and you did it anyway."
"Burn in hell, Shepard!" snapped the desperate turian from above. "I could have sold you and lived like a king for the rest of my life! I could have gotten out of this hell!"
She simply shrugged as she finally reached the edge of the large crowd. "Why would you want to leave, you fit right in here," she said, getting a loud chuckle from many of the crowd members. "Now, I'm going to come up there, and none of you are going to move or you're going to get your skull vacated," she ordered before turning to the inmates. "And none of you are going to interrupt this fight unless you want to tangle with him," she said as she aimed her thumb at Grunt.
As a show of force, the krogan slammed his helmeted head into a large container that was being used as a seat by several of the convicts. They toppled over and fell into the crowd as the entire thing buckled in on itself. "Try me," he growled as he rolled his shoulders.
"Good job, Grunt," she said with a smile. Once again, she couldn't see his expression. But she could markedly tell by his body language that he was bashful about the praise. "Now, up."
"Up?" he asked her as he pointed up with his finger.
"Up," she ordered as she lifted one foot. He laced his fingers together, allowing her to plant her foot into it before he launched her up and cleanly onto the platform. Immediately the guards and warden all aimed their weapons at her. "What did I say?" One of the guards gasped as a shot rang loudly across the room. Within seconds, the turian reached up to grasp at his throat with blueish blood pouring out from between his fingers. He stumbled and immediately fell over the railing. "I warned you."
"What the hell are you doing up here, Shepard?" snarled the terrified warden as he dropped his weapon to the ground. "You going to make me beg for my life?"
She shook her head solemnly. "I'm going to do what I promised and bury you," she said as she held out her hands in a combat stance.
"Haven't seen you use that since Saren," came Garrus's voice over the comm.
"Feel free to fight back for all the good it'll do you," she said with a smirk. Immediately the turian guards backed off as the warden took his own stance with his hands up and his legs gently bouncing.
"I don't think you know who you're dealing with, Spectre," said the man as he tried to get off an early knockout by swinging full force with a strong kick to her head. But she ducked easily and caught him off guard as he spun around again. Leaping up, she grabbed his fringe and speared her knee upwards, impacting his nose and sending him skidding backwards as she landed deftly on her feet.
"Is that Muay Thai, Spectre?" came Kasumi's voice curiously over the comm.
"I think that's what she called it," said Garrus as he watched through the scope. "Put me on my behind back in the Normandy plenty of times."
Shepard let out a heavy sigh as Kuril gasped and reached up to grasp his face, his nose now gushing blood from the impact. "Not now," she ordered as she focused on her opponent. He recovered quickly enough and released his face, showing that she had cracked his plated nose. She could immediately see that the man was shaken by the attack. He had expected the small fragile human to go down to the powerful turian kick. But now she had drawn first blood, he was dazed, and the crowd was cheering his demise.
Lunging for her, the warden moved to grab her around the neck. She didn't know if he was just going to try and strangle her or was attempting to use his talons to puncture her armor. But she wasn't having any of it as she spun her own hands around his, locking his arms into her armpits before drawing her head back and smashing directly into his nose again with her helmet.
"Oof. That would be Lethwei. Very similar but also very deadly," came Kasumi's voice once more.
"I'm sorry, who is speaking?" asked Garrus curiously from his perch.
"Hey. Name's Kasumi. Nice to meetcha," she said in a friendly tone as the warden went down to loud cheers from the prisoners.
After the introduction, Garrus stayed silent for a moment before finally speaking. "Shepard, I think I spotted our girl. You said she has a halo tattoo around her cranium?" asked Garrus as he turned his scope for a moment. "Oh… uh, hi Kasumi… I'm Garrus."
"That's right. What's she doing?" asked the spectre who had dropped her stance to egg the warden on. Despite her taunting, she was still prepared for any sneak attacks he may throw.
"She's watching you fight. I'm not great with human expressions, but I think she's smiling," responded the sniper.
"Then let's give her a show," said the spectre as she spoke aloud this time. "Let's go warden. You wanted an opportunity, here it is!" she snapped as she held her arms out impatiently.
The turian man gasped as more blood poured from his nose. This time he coughed, and a broken tooth hit the floor as well. Standing up fully, his legs were now shaking. Whether from fear or pain was irrelevant to her at the moment. It was time to finish this charade.
Having battled with Garrus and the fire team so many times, she almost immediately recognized his moves once again. He was going to fake her out. As predicted, he sent a pitifully weak kick to her side that she blocked with her raised shin. Then he used the deflection to spin in the opposite direction and aimed for her opposite side this time. He apparently knew it was too easy to duck his high kicks and was attempting to make it harder for her to dodge. But instead, he gave her the perfect opportunity.
Once she deflected his kick with her shin, she too spun in the opposite direction. But instead of attempting to go after his body like she normally would, she thrust herself forward and raised her shin high. The turian's knee immediately impacted her protected shin and there was an audible gasp of horror from both the guards and the audience as the warden's leg folded far beyond what anatomy allowed. The turian let out a shriek of pain as he went down, clutching his awkwardly bent and destroyed knee.
"Spirits, Shepard. Thank you for never doing that to me," said Garrus sounding as if he were about to vomit over the comm.
The power from the kick still bumped Shepard back against the wall, but she shook the stinging out of her shin before finally standing over the man. He gasped in pain as he looked up to her. "Shepard… please…"
She knelt down in front of him, her cold stare locking onto his pained one. "These people don't need to be hidden from society, Warden. Society needs to see them. It needs to see what it has created by failing these people. You hid these failures from their homeworlds and profited from them. And now you're at their mercy, not mine." Finishing her lecture, she stood up and with a single boot she shoved the man off the small catwalk and into the crowd.
He shouted in pain very briefly from the impact before he was swarmed, beaten, and no doubt killed in the audience that he had treated as animals. Shepard ignored the guards who were looking around worriedly from the platform and jumped down next to Grunt. As soon as she landed, she saw the face of her target eyeing her from the crowd. Reaching up, she removed the visor of her helmet, allowing the young woman to see her face. "Jack?"
Immediately, the woman's expression was suspicious. "Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm Spectre Jane Shepard with the Citadel Council," said the woman as she raised her hands defensively to show she wasn't armed.
Jack's gaze narrowed at her. "I heard Cerberus was looking for me before that pile of roadkill got ahold of me," said the young woman nodding towards the moshpit where Kuril's body vanished. "You got anything to do with that?"
"Sort of…" said Shepard, wondering how she should explain their association. "Look, I'm going to be straight with you."
"Fucking better be," said Jack as she held up a fist with a biotic aura around it.
"I hate Cerberus. Not as much as you no doubt, but I was responsible for crushing an entire branch of them out in the Hades Gamma sector years ago," said the spectre firmly.
"Oh yeah… I think I heard about that," said Jack with a grin.
"I'm using their resources to fight collectors and reapers. The Illusive Man tried to exert authority over me and I put my foot in his ass for it. Now he's pouting in his fancy armchair while I'm out here on the front lines," said the spectre with a shrug.
Jack snorted in amusement. "Trying to hide all the human decay by pretending to be the good guy for a change?"
"As far as I can tell, yes," said Shepard as her face grew grim. "But he hasn't changed. He's using me to stop the collectors, and I'm using his resources to stop the harvesting of humans. That's as far as our relationship goes. And eventually, my usefulness is going to expire and he's going to send someone after me."
"Sounds about right. There's no betrayal quite like Cerberus loyalty," said the convict as she crossed her arms. "So, what's the deal? I come with you and then I get to eventually kill Cerberus?"
"I'm a spectre and a former deep intel agent for the Alliance. Come with me and you get access to whatever information I can give you, a secure home for a while, and you'll be close by when Cerberus eventually turns," said the spectre with a smirk.
Jack returned the gesture and nodded. "You've got a hell of a way with words, Shepard," said the young woman. "Let's go then. I wanna see what kind of info they've got on me."
Letting out a sigh of relief, Shepard put her hands down as Grunt finally approached and waved to Jack awkwardly. "Hey, big fan of your work here."
"Thanks?" said Jack as she eyed the towering krogan suspiciously.
Reaching up, Shepard activated her comm. "Alright, everyone rally at the docks. We've got Jack and she's coming-"
"SHEPARD! GET BACK TO THE NORMANDY NOW!" came Joker's frantic shout from her comm.
She flinched slightly at the terror in his voice. "Joker! What's the-" she started, but she froze as her vision was drawn upwards to the translucent ceiling of the cargo area. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw the vision of a ship outside of the prison that had just dropped out of FTL. It wasn't shaped like any other ship in the galaxy, and instead looked like a massive insect hive dug out of an asteroid with a propulsion engine built into the rear.
Immediately, she felt the world around her slowing down as her adrenaline kicked in. Her mind began cycling static images in front of her, some becoming clearer and clearer. She was on the old Normandy headed to Alchera. They had arrived, but Pressly detected a strange presence in the system. Then images of the same ship appeared in combat range. A massive beam of light. Fire, explosions, hurling herself through the vacuum of space to get to the cockpit, and then…
Miranda saw the ship as well and her eyes immediately widened. "The collectors are here!" she shouted over the comm as Garrus sprinted up to her.
"We have to get Shepard out of here! They're here to take her!" he snapped as he ran towards the spectre. But a biotic aura erupted from the woman that blew the turian back for a moment. Miranda looked at Shepard and saw her eyes wide in horror with tears streaming down her face as her biotics emanated from her in waves.
"What the fuck is she doing!?" shouted Jack as she prepared her own biotics.
"Collectors are sending drop pods now! They will hit in 10 seconds!" came EDI's call with urgency as Miranda's mind began scrambling.
She didn't know what the hell was going on in Shepard's head, but she knew that the spectre didn't have all her memories intact, and hadn't actually seen a collector ship since her death. Something was wrong and she wasn't responsive despite Garrus's attempts. She knew she had to take charge for the moment. Turning to the young convict, the operator began barking orders. "Jack! Grunt! Make sure none of them get to Shepard!"
"Who the fuck are you to give me orders?" asked the young woman with a glare.
"This prison isn't going to survive this attack and the only way off is in the Normandy! If you want to survive, then listen to me!" she snapped, getting a nod from the massive krogan. Jack furrowed her brows for a long moment before finally running over towards the spectre and preparing her biotics. "EDI, where are they breaching?"
"Their pods are landing on the docks as we speak!" said EDI as the loud thumping sound of drop pads smashing into the docks outside could be heard.
"Fuck!" shouted Miranda as she prepared her own weapons and biotics. "Jacob! Massani! Kasumi! The collectors are dropping between the Normandy and us to cut off our exit! We need to clear a path to get Shepard the hell off this ship!"
"We'll do our best from this side," said the mercenary, his statement quickly followed by an explosion outside.
"EDI, rally the rest of the crew and get them weapons from the armory to make sure nothing gets on the Normandy. And if you can, use the Normandy's defenses to keep the collectors at bay while we try and get out of here," she ordered as she and Garrus finally rallied in front of Shepard as well. The woman still had that expression of horror on her face and was unresponsive. "New plan. Vakarian, grab Shepard and carry her to the Normandy. Me and Jack will use biotics to keep the collectors at bay from the sides. Grunt, clear a path forward until we can meet up with the other crew members."
Everyone simply nodded. Garrus sprinted to Shepard's position and grabbed her before throwing her bodily over one shoulder, his other hand holding his battle rifle. Jack took up position on the other side of the massive krogan and as soon as the door to the docks broke open, all hell broke loose.
Collector lasers carved the door to pieces, sending the prefab material exploding inside. Without a second of hesitation, Grunt roared and smashed head first through the door, their lasers scoring his armor but not penetrating without concentrated fire. Miranda and Jack ran after him as he scattered confused collectors across the docking platform, his shotgun already roaring and obliterating the insect-like creatures.
"Damn!" shouted Garrus as, instead of attacking from the ground like most species would, the invaders began flying with wings hidden on their back. He aimed up and began firing to try and take out one of the attackers from above. But he stopped as three of them were caught and slammed into the ground hard enough to break them in half by Miranda's biotics.
On the other side, Jack had made quick work of anyone attacking from her side by creating a wall of biotics. Using her hands as guides, she encased an entire group of ten collectors inside of it before forcing the biotic wall to crunch smaller and smaller, crushing the entire force into mush. Despite their progress in clearing the platform, the attackers seemed endless. Every one that was killed was quickly replaced by two more. The going was slow and already Miranda felt her mind becoming numb from the overuse of her biotics.
Jack, despite her power, seemed to be slowing as well. Grunt, as strong as he was, was one krogan and couldn't handle so many enemies coming at him at once. Even with the other crew members helping from the opposite end of the docks, the flanking wasn't slowing them down as drop pods rained from the collector hive above.
Garrus had to put Shepard down on her feet and actually aim his weapon to help Grunt with attackers taking him from behind. With blood dripping from her nose, Miranda gasped in pain as one of the collector lasers finally got through her armor and singed her arm. The limb was already burning from the overuse of her biotics, but now she could barely lift it. "Shit…" she growled as she realized this may be it for her.
Suddenly, a wave of the collectors slammed into Grunt and toppled them over. Two of the invaders flew past him and flew by Garrus too quickly for him to respond and reached out to grab Shepard. Miranda reached out as well, attempting to use the last dregs of her biotics to save the woman, but she had vanished from right in front of the attacker. Staring in surprise, Miranda looked around same as the collector before a glowing blade erupted from its chest cavity.
Letting out a shriek of death, the collector's glowing eyes burned out and it slumped to the floor with Shepard standing over it and the other that she had just killed. Then, she vanished again and appeared next to Grunt, her pistol blasting each of their heads as if she were on auto pilot, her cold, tear-stained eyes moving like a machine as she continued to kill collectors like they were actual insects. Grunt finally got back to his feet, his strength overpowering the remaining ones on top of him before grabbing them and full body slamming them into the dock so hard that they practically exploded.
"Damn bugs…" growled the krogan as he shook his head.
"Jack, Miranda, and Jacob if you're close enough. Aim up," she ordered as she put her pistol away and shot her arms up into the air. Immediately, a wall of biotic energy shielded them from everything above while Garrus put down anything that was still moving below the barrier. Pods continued dropping from the ship above and smashed the barrier, causing the spectre to flinch in pain, but she continued to push upwards, collecting a mass of writing insectoid creatures that couldn't get through her hold.
Miranda looked to Jack and they both nodded. Using the last of their energy, they shot their strongest warps inside of Shepard's own biotic net. She noticed that Jacob had been able to run forward and join as well with Shepard capturing all of the invaders above. As soon as their biotics impacted Shepard, an explosion strong enough to even flatten Grunt to the ground ripped everything inside apart and scattered collector parts everywhere.
"Everyone up and on the Normandy!" snapped Miranda as she got to her feet and began sprinting, leaving her gun behind her. The crew made a mad dash to the gateway of the ship as Massani and Garrus blasted through anything that came down afterwards. Shepard continued to vanish and reappear in an explosion of biotics before slashing through the morbid flesh of the creatures with glowing blades from her omni-tool or blasting them away with her pistol.
Grueling minutes had gone by before they were all finally packed into the airlock of the Normandy. Miranda activated the comm immediately. "Joker! We're all aboard! Get us the hell out of here!" she snapped as the inside door of the airlock finally slid open and dumped them all inside.
Scrambling to her feet, she ran to the cockpit to see them break away from the prison. From the looks of the vid screens, the collector ship had also noticed and was coming after them. Miranda looked to her side to see Shepard glaring at the screens. Whatever had happened to her back in the prison now seemed to be gone. Looking down to the pilot, she even saw his hands shaking as he quickly and masterfully guided them underneath the prison to put something between them and the collector ship.
"We've got cover for the moment. EDI, activate FTL drive immediately," ordered the pilot.
"Lieutenant Moreau, there is debris in our path large enough to cause the destruction of the Normandy if we enter faster than light travel now," said the AI as it popped up next to him.
"There's a 10 second charge up for the FTL engine before we make the jump. I'll be able to get us out of the path before we jump, now do it!" he snapped as he continued steering the ship. Just as he shouted the order, a massive beam of light from the collector ship carved through the prison like it was made of cardboard, trying to find the Normandy behind it. "Shit shit shit!" growled the pilot as he dodged around the laser.
Miranda's eyes widened in horror as the massive asteroid-like ship broke the entire prison station in half by smashing through it with the bow.
"FTL drive online!" said EDI urgently.
"We're clear! Engage!" shouted the pilot as he jammed the lever on the console forward. Within seconds the stars around them were beams of light streaking by as the faster than light drive finally kicked in. The prison, the debris, the floating bodies in space, and the collector ship all vanished into the darkness as the Normandy fled from the Osun System, leaving behind annihilation in its wake.
Captain's Quarters – SSV Normandy SR-2
She sat down in the chair at her desk for a long moment just staring at the terminal. Doctor Chakwas had spent the better part of two hours fussing over her in the medbay, not realizing that she was physically fine, even after the strain she had put on her biotics. It wasn't her body that had suffered on the prison. Finally, she convinced the woman to look after the other members of the crew and to just let her go in peace.
She stared down at her desk as tears welled up in her eyes again, the memories returning to her in a flash. She still couldn't access the memories before the Normandy's destruction, but the sight of the collector ship above her had certainly filled in the blanks on the aftermath. She recalled standing in the CIC and watching as the odd signal got closer and fired on the Normandy without provocation. She recalled ordering Liara to get to the escape pods immediately as an entire wing was shorn from the ship. She remembered the blazing fire in the lower decks, she remembered seeing Pressly's body floating in the vacuum of space as she made her way to joker.
And finally, she remembered forcing Joker into an escape pod and ordering its launch with the last of her reach before the collector main canon sent her spiraling towards the planet. The suffering she felt as her atmosphere escaped, the feeling of her blood and other bodily fluids boiling within her body, she was gone from the world within seconds before she even entered the atmosphere of Alchera.
The visions of her death had nearly crippled her back on the prison ship. If it weren't for her crew, she would have been killed or captured right then and there by the collectors. Reaching up, she rubbed her eyes to take the stinging away.
"Spectre, Operative Lawson is at your door," said EDI from her terminal.
Slapping the grief off her face, she spun in her chair. "Let her in," she ordered as she leaned back.
Within seconds, Miranda strolled inside, her arm bandaged heavily from the contact with the collector beam. She immediately leaned up against the partition nearby and stared at the spectre. "So, what was that down there?"
Shepard groaned lightly as she reached up and rubbed her head. "Are you trying to make me relive it again?"
"Shepard, I need to know what's going on. What we just fought out there is who we're going after. If you're incapable of fighting them due to post traumatic-" started the XO, but Shepard cut her off with a wave of her hand.
"My memory has been jacked sideways since my death," she said, and Miranda nodded gently. "I didn't remember dying. I didn't remember going to Alchera. I didn't and still don't remember the events leading up to that day. But…" she said as she glared at the woman. "Trust, right?"
Nodding firmly, Miranda smiled. "You can trust me, Shepard."
"When you say I can trust you, I need you to promise me none of this gets to the Illusive Man unless I give the go ahead," said the spectre firmly.
"It's your business, Shepard. Not his," she said solemnly as she waved her hand. "Continue."
"Down there, I saw the collector ship and apparently the day we went to Alchera unlocked itself in my head. My own death played before my eyes, the suffering, the feeling of never seeing my friends again, the agony of dying, I experienced it a hundred times over as my mind began relaying them to me, each one correcting the last on minor details," she said shuddering.
Miranda's brow rose at the claim. "That sounds like your experiences with…"
"Prothean relics, yes." Shepard snorted as she looked away, her scowl never leaving her face. "When I say I experienced it, I didn't just remember it. I felt every second of it as if I was reading prothean data. I felt myself suffocate over and over again."
The XO flinched at the claim before lowering her gaze. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I didn't realize you would have that kind of reaction."
"It's not your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault, really. Though I'm inclined to blame the Illusive Man for allowing that kind of shady ass deal to happen under his watch," said the spectre bitterly. "Either way, neither you nor I could have predicted they would have shown up. I thought when the warden said he'd called the collectors, he was going to send me to them. And even then, nobody had any way of knowing ahead of time I would react like that." Reaching up, she ran a hand through her blazing red hair. "I need therapy."
"How did you manage the nightmares from the beacon?" asked the woman curiously as she crossed her arms. Shepard looked at her wide-eyed for a moment. "I mean, you were an effective leader back then as well. So, you must have found some method of coping with them. Unless you kidnapped a therapist and stashed them on the Normandy."
"I…" started Shepard hesitantly. But she let out a sigh as she finally faced the woman again and looked her dead in the eyes. "Liara helped. She used her biotics and projected her own emotions into me. The brain automatically took the sensory emotions from her over the beacon's latent memories, allowing me to experience something besides the beacon visions."
"That works?" asked the XO as she stood straight.
"It did for me," said Shepard with a shrug. "Either way, thank you," said the redhead as she stood to her full height again.
"For what?" asked Miranda in bewilderment.
"If it weren't for you, my crew and myself probably wouldn't have made it out of there alive," said Shepard as she placed a hand on Miranda's shoulder and squeezed gently. "You're a good leader, Miranda. A lot better than I gave you credit for."
Far from her stony expression, the woman just looked stunned for a long moment before nodding. "I… I do what I can, Spectre." Shepard smiled at her before walking past her and turning on the holographic fish tank for bed. She thought the woman would have taken the hint, but instead, Shepard stopped as she called out to her. "Shepard…"
Turning, the spectre eyed her curiously. "What is it?"
"If…" started the XO nervously. Shepard was surprised to see the woman acting this timid all of the sudden. "If you need my help with visions of your death, I'm more than willing to try."
Her eyes widened slightly at the boldness of the offer. But Shepard simply nodded. "I don't think the death vision is going to be recurring like the beacon was, but if I need your help, I'll let you know."
Miranda gave her a genuine smile before turning and leaving. "Get some rest, Shepard."
Cockpit – SSV Normandy SR-2
Lia'Vael stood quietly, watching the screens in the cockpit from a distance. She had always been fascinated at how space flew by them while travelling faster than light. It boggled her mind how something as absurd as breaking the laws of physics was so commonplace. She made it a habit to visit the observation deck on numerous occasions to watch the stars go by. But now the observation deck was occupied by someone who she had yet to meet or even see.
With little option for seeing the stars, she instead decided to go to the brain of the ship where all the flying took place and watch from there. She tried to be as non-intrusive as possible, but even as quiet as she was, she had forgotten about one thing.
"Engineer Lia'Vael, is there something we can help you with?" came the voice from the ship's intercom terminals.
"Ah! EDI! I'm sorry, I'm fine. Please don't mind-" she started, but then she noticed the pilot had turned around in his rotating seat and was eyeing her as well. She looked at the ground sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you."
"You're not disturbing me, though you are kinda creeping me out standing back there all menacingly. If you wanna look at the screens feel free to come up and have a seat," said the human man as he spun the seat back around.
Her eyes widened in awe at the offer. "You would allow me in the co-pilot seat?" she asked almost excitedly.
"Yeah. Don't really have a copilot. So, you wouldn't really be taking up any space," he said with a shrug as he motioned to the chair. "Go on, have a seat."
Feeling her heart pounding madly, she skipped forward and plopped herself down next to the man. Her eyes widened at all of the displays in front of her, and now that she was up close she could see the screens with clarity she never could have from the observation view. "This is amazing…" she said in awe before she turned to him curiously. "Wait, isn't EDI your copilot? VIs are more than capable of flying a ship."
"Oh… yeah…" he said before accessing his omni-tool. She stared at him curiously before whatever he was doing was concluded. "About that, EDI isn't… a VI."
Lia eyed him curiously from her seat. "If she isn't a VI, then what is she?"
"Uh… EDI, you wanna handle this one?" asked the pilot as he continued his work.
"Engineer Lia'Vael, I am not a preprogrammed virtual intelligence like Avina. I am an artificial general intelligence," said EDI as the quarian looked at her holographic eye.
Lia stared at her for a long moment. "Really?"
"I can tell you a joke if you like," responded EDI cheerfully, but Joker cut in.
"God no. You don't wanna hear any of that," he said as he eyed the young quarian. "That wasn't exactly the response I was expecting given… well…"
"Because I'm a quarian?" she asked, getting a slight nod from him. But she slumped in her seat and let out a loud sigh. "The Migrant Fleet tells us day in and day out the dangers of the geth. But I had been on the Citadel for over two years. I've had plenty of time to hear the debate outside of the bubble on the fleet. And I can't really disagree with those who criticize my people."
"Wait, so you aren't scared of AI?" asked Joker curiously as his hands froze in place.
"I'm afraid of geth, of course. They've killed more of my people than probably all other species in the galaxy combined. Plus, you know firsthand that they aren't just hostile to quarians," said the young engineer. "But I guess you could say I've been deprogrammed given how long my pilgrimage has taken. I don't assume every AI is a threat, nor do I treat them all like they are going to kill every organic they see. Of course, I'm too much of a coward to tell any other quarians that."
"Wow…" said the pilot with a small grin on his face. "You're starting to make me look bad."
"I'm sorry!" she said, slightly embarrassed at her claim.
"No no no, not like that! It's a good thing," responded the pilot as he tried to calm her down. "Let's change the subject before you have a panic attack."
She did calm down after his assurance. But it was then that she saw that his hands that were hovering over the controls were shaking gently. "Are… are you alright?"
He looked to her, then down at his hands where she was staring. He growled and began shaking them furiously. "Dammit, I thought that damn sedative Doctor Chakwas gave me got rid of that."
"Should you be flying on a sedative?" asked the quarian in surprise.
"It's not strong enough to affect my mind. It's just an anxiety thing," he said sourly as he glared at the consoles in front of him.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened?" She felt herself begin to flush immediately as he sighed in frustration. "I'm sorry, if I'm intruding-"
"You're not intruding…" he growled as he sat back in the rotating seat. "Look, Shepard and I were both on board the old Normandy before it was destroyed by a collector ship. Apparently, she had some kind of episode while she was in the prison, and apparently, I still have some hang ups about them too. That ship ripped the old Normandy, which was a frigate-sized vessel built by the Alliance and Hierarchy, into pieces without hesitation. The thought if it happening again… just…"
"You were afraid?" she asked genuinely, getting a glowering look from the pilot.
"Don't go telling too many people, but yeah. It scared the shit out of me. This Normandy is bigger and better than the last one, but I still don't think it can stand up to the collectors," he said with a heavy sigh.
"I apologize if I'm stepping over the line. I rarely got the chance to talk with many non-quarians on the Citadel, so I sometimes forget my manners," she said before sitting back in the seat and staring up at all of the controls. She watched his hand movements with deft interest as well.
The pilot eyed her once again. "Have you ever piloted a ship before?"
"N-No," she said shyly. "Most quarians never get the chance to pilot anything more than a shuttle."
"Want me to teach you?" he asked, causing her to stare at him wide-eyed.
"You would? You would do that?" she asked in surprise.
"Look, after what happened back there, I think even I might need some backup from time to time," he said as he grabbed one of the holographic screens and tossed it over in front of her. "Keep me updated on the engine vitals for the time being. I'll show you the ropes on controls later," he said, smiling lightly as she buried her nose in the data in excitement.