Chapter 1.
I can hear the sound of my breath, it is the only thing I can hear now besides the hissing sound of escaping oxygen. My mind tells me struggle, to fight for survival, but my body will no longer respond to it, I can see my life flashing before my eyes. The images come and go so fast, as if they hold no real meaning to me, it's like a tape being fast-forwarded skipping all the mundane things. Suddenly, I get the feeling as if time has stopped and so did my life, it seems like my memory got to the part of my life that was important to me, it showed me someone I really cared for, someone I fell in love with, it showed me Liara…
"Commander? Commander! Come on Commander don't go all turian Councilor on me!" Joker quipped loudly, irritated that he was being ignored.
"Sorry Joker, I am still thinking about the meeting with the council we had on the Citadel" John looked down at the pilot seat of the Alliance frigate Normandy. Staring back at him was the ship's pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau.
"Commander, what's there to think about? You're the first human Spectre, tasked with bringing a dangerous rogue Spectre down and saving the galaxy in the process. Really not a big deal if you ask me. We should be done by noon and then go out for drinks." Joker smirked, his semi-witty jokes had always raised Shepard's mood.
"Thanks Joker, that's really helpful." Shepard replied sarcastically, and made a faint smile.
"Any time Commander." Joker made a short laugh and turned back to the ship's controls.
Shepard turned around and started walking down the corridor leading to the operations center and away from the bridge. He was observing the crew who were hard at work at their stations, some turning around and saluting as he passed. Shepard was still trying to take in the fact that this ship is now under his command, he has led units of troops, but never commanded a ship before. He had a bit of an uneasy feeling, considering the circumstances under which Captain Anderson, his long time superior officer and friend, was forced to give up the ship. However, John decided to put those feelings aside, he wasn't going to let humanity lose this opportunity of making its chance at a Council seat fade away.
Passing the holographic display for Galaxy in the middle of the Operations Center, he noticed Navigator Pressly in a heated discussion with some of the other crew members. As Shepard approached them, the conversation stopped, as all three men straightened out and saluted him.
"At ease, political debates I presume." asked Shepard seeing that all three men standing in front of him were a bit nervous, he smiled trying to let some of the tension drop.
"I-It's nothing Commander, just having a little chat about… the new crew members." answered Pressly
"Is there something I should know? Are any of them causing trouble?" John replied, genuinely concerned.
"No it's not like that Commander! Some of our crew is just concerned with the amount of aliens on an Alliance ship." The other two crew members stood silent averting their gazes from Shepard.
"Have any of them given you reason to be worried?"
"No Commander, they have not!"
"This is a joint operation, so I hope we can all work together on this in order to achieve our goals."
"Yes Sir!" said all three men and with another salute, quickly retreated to their workstations.
Shepard didn't think there would be a lot of tension between the Normandy's crew and the new recruits he picked up on this mission, but it seems that he was too quick to judge. War with the turians was still a fresh scar on humanity's history, changing minds will take some time. He walked out of the Operations Center and strolled down to the crew deck. As he entered the sizable Mess Hall he saw Lieutenant Alenko standing at a terminal, doing some sort of work, most likely handling one of the Eden Prime reports. He turned towards Shepard, straightened out and saluted him.
"Sir." he greeted the Commander, awaiting a response.
"No need to be official Kaidan, at ease." Shepard replied, even after several missions Kaidan was still quite stiff when it came to chain of command.
"Yes Commander. Is there something you wanted to ask me?"
"I just wanted to ask your opinion of how we are doing so far. And don't worry, this one is off the record."
"Alright, to be honest commander, I am concerned about all the non-humans we are picking up."
"Not you too Alenko." Shepard answered with a sigh.
"Sorry Commander, but just hear me out. Humanity already had a run in with the turians several years back. I came down to an all out war, only after the council found out and learned that the turians fired first that we got the privileges that humanity has now. I can still sense the tension on the citadel between humans and turians in public places. Then you have krogans, those behemoths managed to wipe out the rachni and when they became a threat, the council had to resort to bio-weapons to pacify them, that's no laughing matter. And last, we have a quarrian, they unleashed the geth on the galaxy, the geth that we are fighting right now Commander." stated Kaidan.
"I understand your concern Kaidan, however I have a different opinion on all three non human races we currently have on board. This vessel is a joint human-turian design to improve the human-turian relations. It is only fair to have a turian on board to further this cause. Besides, Garrus doesn't look like he is prejudiced against humans." Shepard replied calmly.
"With all due respect Commander, he used to work in C-Sec and they are a multi-race organization, he was taught to treat everyone equally."
"Then it's even more of a reason to not give him doubt about his training don't you think?"
"Yes sir I see your point."
"As far as krogan go, Wrex is no different, he is a mercenary and will work for the highest bidder. He does however have respect for strength, like any other krogan, and he can see the strength in this ship and in this crew. Also Kaidan, there are no fertile krogan females on this ship, so I wouldn't worry about them overrunning it." Shepard smirked.
Kaidan let out a chuckle. "Commander, your jokes are as bad as Joker's, no offense." he replied cheerfully.
"That was uncalled for Kaidan, my jokes are never as bad as Joker's" John laughed, then let out a cough to suppress the fit of laughter and getting back to the point. "That leaves the quarrians, I know about their involvement with the geth, however as they unleashed the geth on the rest of the galaxy, they also possess the most knowledge on them, without that recording from the geth data core we wouldn't even be on this mission right now, don't you agree?"
"You're right Commander, I apologize."
"No need for apologies Kaidan, I understand your concerns, but I think we should give our guests a chance. I should go, we'll talk later."
"Commander." Kaidan saluted and turned back to the terminal.
John went back to the elevator, after a quick descent he was in the cargo hold. John took a quick look around, and spotted two turian legs sticking from under the all-terrain rover M35 Mako. He walked up to the vehicle and squatted down to take a look underneath. The turian was working on one of the thrusters of the Mako, most likely calibrating the output of the jets. Garrus Vakarian was of great help on the citadel, being a C-Sec officer he knew his way around the station, however his lack of patience with C-Sec protocols were more than enough to jump at the opportunity to join Shepard's crew.
"How are you doing Garrus?" John asked, forcing down a laugh as he heard a distinct *thud* and an expletive. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." he said as the turian pulled himself out from under the Mako.
"That's alright Commander." Garrus answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "What can I do for you?"
"I was just checking in to see how you settled down in here, was there any trouble with C-Sec transfers?"
"There was no trouble, although Executor Pallin wasn't very happy about me transferring to a human ship and under the command of a human Spectre." Garrus let out a small chuckle "Seeing his face was priceless."
"Glad to hear it, if you need anything let me know."
"Sure thing Commander." And as Shepard started to walk away, he added "Oh and Commander, thanks again for taking me with you on this mission, all the C-Sec red tape garbage was really getting to me. I'm glad that we are finally able to actually do something, without the need to fill out 10 forms and have them all approved."
"No problem Garrus, we are here to get things done, however knowing when to stop is what matters, otherwise we are no different from Saren."
"I understand Commander."
"Just call me Shepard."
"Very well, Shepard" The turian nodded and climbed back under the Mako.
Shepard walked across the cargo bay to another new recruit. The Gunnery Chief from the human colony of Eden Prime was transferred to Normandy after the colony's assault by Saren and his geth.
"Making friends with the turian skipper?" Ashley turned and faced Shepard, her hands crossed on her chest.
"Is that a proper way to address a superior officer Chief Willians?" Shepard asked with a straight face.
"I… but… Sorry Sir, won't happen again, Sir!" She straightened up and saluted the Commander.
"Relax Ashley, I was just kidding." He said with a smile.
Ashley's face was now bright red from mixed emotions of embarrassment and anger. But it only took her a moment to collect herself.
"Well played Commander Shepard." She said, faking a smile "So what's the plan skipper?"
"We are on route to Therum, according to the council, Matriarch Benezia's daughter is there on a Prothean dig-site, she might contain some information on her mother and perhaps the Conduit."
"So this is a rescue mission for an asari archaeologist?"
"Yes, but if I was Saren, I would probably try to either acquire or remove such an asset. We have every reason to think that Dr. T'Soni is in danger."
"Asset?"
"Prothean expert with possible knowledge of her mother's location and intentions, sounds like an asset to me Ashley."
"Fair enough, I better get back to work though skipper, we will be arriving to Therum soon and I still have a few guns that need maintenance."
"We'll talk later"
I turned and walked a few steps to the krogan mercenary, who helped us take down Fist, the head of a small crime syndicate, and ultimately helping us uncover Saren's betrayal.
"Shepard." Wrex nodded in approval. "That female is a feisty one, reminds me of the krogan females, when they are calm."
"It's true, I wouldn't exactly call her an average human female." Shepard smiled, "How are you doing?"
"Doing pretty good, for a member of a dying race, the funds for Fist's contract were just recently transferred."
"I hope you won't make a habit of shooting people we are questioning Wrex." John asked, rather annoyed by the trick he pulled when they were in Chora's Den.
"Not unless I get paid for it." Wrex let out a loud laugh.
Shepard shook his head "I'll talk to you later Wrex."
"Shepard." Wrex nodded.
John had a bit more time before they land on Therum to talk to the last addition to the team, and to the person to whom he owes his Spectre status. He walked through the door on the left of the elevator and entered the drive core. Among the human engineers stood a quarian, configuring something on her omnitool.
"Hey Tali, how are you doing?"
"Shepard!" She said loudly, sounding rather ecstatic "Your ship is amazing!"
"I'm glad you like it Tali." Shepard answered with a smile.
"Thanks for bringing me along Shepard, I never even dreamed that I would get to experience the flight on board such a ship." If John could see her expression under that helmet, he could bet she was smiling right now.
"No problem Tali, you helped me prove that Saren is guilty, this is the least I could do."
"Still, Shepard, no one has ever treated me this nicely before. People usually see the suit and the helmet and immediately have an opinion of me, even if I haven't done anything. It is a stigma of my people."
"Don't worry Tali, I promise that as long as you are on this ship, you will be treated equally as any other member of my crew."
"Thank you Shepard, I better get back to adjusting my omnitool, it's been giving me a bit of trouble."
"See you later Tali."
"Fifteen minutes ETA Commander!" Joker's voice resonated in the com system.
Shepard opened a communications channel. "Williams, Vakarian, I will meet you at the Mako in five minutes." John shut off the transmission and walked towards the elevator.