"Beautiful."

Liara flushed as the word echoed out across the connection between her and Shepard. The glowing warmth of Shepard's mind surrounded her completely, allowing her to bask in the radiant presence of her personality. The human's mind was like a glowing star, a centralized point of passion that burned brightly in the dark. Surrounding it were iron pillars of resolve, giving Liara a glimpse at the remarkable strength of will Shepard must possess.

Embarrassment began to color the human's mind as the silence drew out. The glowing corona in front of Liara started to ripple with a sudden bashfulness, but Liara was still transfixed on Shepard's knee jerk reaction to a glimpse at her mind. The word replayed itself over and over, and she was sure that outside the meld her cheeks must be a vibrant purple.

Beautiful.

Liara woke with a start, gasping for air as she quickly sat upright. An uncomfortable heat suffused her body, and looking down she found that someone had placed a blanket over her. Throwing it off, she saw she was still wearing her clothes from yesterday, still ripped in several places and covered in grime and bloodstains. Standing slowly, Liara winced as the muscles in her legs and back twinged with soreness. Twisting at the waist to try to stretch, she looked around the unfamiliar room she found herself in.

The space around her appeared to be a dimly lit office of some kind, with a bunk set into the wall, several cabinets for holding medical supplies, and a desk with a monitor sitting on top. A pile of folded clothes sat on the desk, and as Liara looked closer she saw there seemed to be an open message displayed on the monitor. Stepping closer, she peered down to read a short paragraph.

Dr. T'Soni, you fell asleep during your check up with Chakwas so she agreed to let you use her office to bunk up for the night. The clothes are for you, I figured that you might need some that didn't have holes in them. Here's hoping you feel better in the morning. -Shepard

Liara unfolded the stack of clothes, revealing the long sleeved shirt and respectable slacks of a science uniform. Memories of years spent in university labs in similar outfits played through her mind, and with a small grin Liara stripped out of her own clothes. The uniform fit her well enough, but as she pulled on the gloves she found herself musing about Shepard going out of her way to provide clothes in her size. A small blush began to spread across her cheeks as her stomach quickly filled with butterflies. Liara blinked, and a sudden image leapt to mind of Shepard gently carrying her unconscious form in those sculpted arms of hers, carefully cradling her as she lay her on the bed to sleep. She bit her lower lip between her teeth as the warmth in her cheeks intensified, the uncomfortable low heat returning in force. Sighing, she cast her gaze around the room again in search of any sort of distraction from oddly captivating humans.

The monitor on the desk caught her attention, and she quickly sat at the desk and dismissed the message to bring up an extranet search bar instead. Her fingers moved on their own, dancing swiftly across the keyboard as she typed out Shepard, Alliance Military. She paused, lifting her hands a few inches off of the keyboard. The idea of snooping around about her new colleagues felt a little intrusive, to put it lightly. Looking over her shoulder towards the door, Liara worried her lip between her teeth as memories of scarred forearms and warm, brown eyes began to dance around her vision. Huffing petulantly, she turned back around and slapped the enter key. If Shepard was going to ruin any chance of productivity, she might as well learn something about her while she's at it.

Immediately, several ads for enlistment agencies popped up, interspersed with sites for the various branches of the human military. Liara dropped her chin into one hand, slowly scrolling through the results while skimming any headlines that passed by before stopping at one news article halfway down the list. Frowning, she clicked on the article and sat back as it expanded out across the monitor.

A headline reading Massacre of Akuze filled the screen in large bolded letters. Liara's eyes widened as she scrolled further down, finding herself looking at pictures of smoking rubble and savaged corpses strewn across grass-covered hills. Below the graphic photos was a short article that Liara sped through in seconds, eyes landing on words such as thresher maws and whole platoon lost. The end of the article came quickly, a short sentence that simply stated, "The sole survivor of this terrible tragedy was one Lieutenant Shepard, who has been hospitalized and is in critical condition." Underneath the text was one final picture showing a medical team carrying out a single stretcher. The picture was fuzzy and at a bad angle, but as Liara squinted and leaned in she was able to make out a single, bloody hand hanging limply off the side.

A sharp hissing sound filled the air as the door opened behind Liara, who jumped in her seat at the sudden noise. Turning in her chair, she looked over her shoulder to find the subject of her research leaning awkwardly against the doorframe. Liara's eyes widened as a soft, "Oh!" fell from her lips.

Shepard shifted, waving one hand in a stilted little wave. "Hey, just thought I would check in and see how you're doing." She dropped Liara's gaze, looking around the room as she nervously scratched the back of her head. "Can I come in?"

"Of course." Liara swallowed thickly, very much aware of the article still open on the screen behind her. "Did you wish to discuss something specific?"

Shepard strolled into the room, waving a hand dismissively as she replied, "Not especially." She sat on the foot of the bunk Liara had spent the night in. "Seems like a full night of sleep did you some good, huh?"

Liara turned in her seat to face her, mouth quirking into a wry grin. "It is a marked improvement over running from vorcha, but I don't think I have ever been so sore in my life."

Shepard grew a smile to match her own, rolling one shoulder as she drawled, "Yeah, nothing says 'good ground mission' like waking up the next day stiff as hell." She briefly looked into Liara's eyes, then quickly looked away as she folded her hands together in front of her. "I could always, uh, give you a quick massage or something to help?"

Liara's mouth dropped open as her face flamed violet. Shepard looked back up towards her after a second before quickly waving her hands in front of herself, stammering, "Or I could just show you some stretches you could do on your own, or, um." She cleared her throat, cheeks darkening a few shades as she looked off to the side. "Shit, that came out weird. I'm sorry, I can just go if you want."

"No, don't!" Shepard blinked, leaning slightly back at the volume of Liara's outburst. Feeling her neck begin to flush with embarrassment, Liara continued in a softer tone, "I appreciate your intent, Shepard, but I think I will be fine."

Shepard relaxed on the bunk, bursting out into strained chuckles as she scratched the back of her head again. Looking back towards Liara, she tilted her head curiously as she leaned to one side to peer past her. "Damn, doing some research already doc?"

Liara froze in place, blood running cold as she opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. It was too late to subtly close the article; Shepard was literally staring right at it. Figuring it would just be better to come clean before she was inevitably found out, Liara sighed and shifted her seat to provide Shepard a better view of the grainy picture of a stretcher.

Shepard immediately froze, awkward smile slipping off her face to be replaced by a slight frown. Suddenly desperate to defend herself from the rebuke that was surely incoming, Liara quickly launched into an explanation. "I was just curious about you and your crew, and I usually spend all of my free time researching whatever I happen to think is interesting anyways, so I just thought I would see what I could find." She motioned at the screen as she continued, "Doctor Chakwas had mentioned that you used to be in the Alliance, so I thought it could be an educational point to start."

Movement caught Liara's eye, and looking down she found herself staring at Shepard's left forearm. The limb was covered in thick scars, spiraling up from her wrist most of the way across her forearm to stop just below the elbow. Between each scar was what appeared to be some sort of discoloration or mark, with patches of bright red scattered across the inner forearm. As she watched, Shepard mindlessly massaged the scars with her right hand, rubbing her way up each pale line of scar tissue before moving on to the next. Liara frowned, and as watched she realized that the red she saw was the remnant of a vibrant tattoo, now only remaining as scraps of crimson ink between scars.

Shepard continued to stare blankly at the picture, completely still except for the subtle flex of her jaw. Feeling the panic begin to build, Liara lowered her gaze to the floor as she grasped her hands together. "I'm sorry, Shepard, I didn't mean to intrude."

At this, Shepard blinked and swiveled her head to look at Liara. The blank expression fell away, her lips curling up into a gentle smile as she leaned back against the wall on the far side of the bunk. "Hey, don't worry about it, no harm done."

Liara slowly looked back up towards her, brow pinched in a nervous frown. Shepard just shrugged, meeting her gaze with a warm expression. "Honestly, it's not a big deal, doc. I don't mind you looking me up or investigating the crew or anything." She paused, looking upwards contemplatively. "I mean I guess unless you start trying to find what my favorite color is or something personal like that." Her eyes fell back down to Liara once again as she began to grin mischievously. "You can always just ask me that sorta stuff in person."

Liara huffed out a laugh, finally allowing herself to relax back into her seat. Looking back over towards the open article, she began to chew her lip before turning back towards Shepard. "Well I suppose that my research has confirmed that you were, in fact, in the military."

Shepard snickered. "Glad to see researchers still verify their sources." Liara's grin grew wide as she continued, "Yep, I was an officer and everything." Shepard sat up straight on the bunk as she snapped out a crisp salute. "Lieutenant Shepard, reporting for duty."

She dropped the salute, leaning back into the wall behind her as she loosely crossed her arms, looking up towards the ceiling with a small nostalgic smile. The room went quiet as Shepard mulled over her thoughts, grin slowly slipping away. After a few seconds, she began with a sigh, "I grew up in this huge city on Earth, but it wasn't really a great place to be for a kid, you know? Not a lot of time for child-friendly activities when you're busy trying not to get mugged all the time." Liara found herself nodding along as Shepard started popping the knuckles on her right hand. "Pretty much as soon as I turned eighteen I joined up at the local Alliance recruitment center, and after that I never really looked back."

Liara found herself leaning forwards, enraptured by the warmth of Shepard's expression as she remembered her military days. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Not at first, no." Shepard barked out a quick laugh, shaking her head as she continued, "I actually almost got kicked out my first week into boot camp. Turns out trying to kick your drill sergeant's ass counts as insubordination." Her eyes flicked to Liara as she winked conspiratorially. "I had a real problem with authority back in the day."

She shifted on the bed, shrugging nonchalantly. "Anyways, once I finally learned how to go more than one day without picking a fight, the rest went pretty well, actually. They figured me for an officer pretty fast, so they set me onto that track after about a year." She finished popping all of the joints on her right hand and casually switched to her left. "That was the best part, honestly. Every day was just waking up, figuring out what my team needed to be at their best, and then giving our all on whatever mission we were out on."

Liara quirked her head curiously, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees. "It sounds like you really grew to love it." Shepard hummed her agreement, moving her hands from methodically popping fingers to stretching out her wrists. Tapping her lip pensively, Liara found herself struck with a sudden question. "Why did you leave?"

The sound of popping joints stopped as Shepard froze, her face going stony. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, sighing loudly before she stiffly motioned towards the monitor behind Liara. "That's why."

Liara's stomach sank as she turned once again to look over the pictures of ruined military equipment and shredded bodies bleeding out into the dirt. To her right, Shepard mechanically rattled off, "Fifty marines KIA, one outpost razed to the ground, civilian settlement team MIA, colonization status FUBAR." Turning back towards Shepard, Liara saw her staring at the article, face blank and voice devoid of all emotion. "One survivor, critical mission failure."

Liara felt tears begin to prick at her eyes as guilt washed over her. Her hand twitched towards Shepard as if to reach out for her, but at the dead look in her eyes Liara thought better of it. Voice thick with emotion, she tentatively whispered, "I'm sorry Shepard, I shouldn't have pried."

Shepard closed her eyes, letting the silence linger for a second as she slowly exhaled. Without opening her eyes, she replied with a rough voice, "It's alright doc, I, ah–" She cleared her throat and opened her eyes, still blankly staring at the article. "I just don't like to talk about it that much."

Finally wrenching her gaze away from the monitor, Shepard glanced over towards Liara sheepishly. "Actually, I did a little research of my own last night after you passed out, so I guess that makes us even, huh?"

Liara arched her brow in confusion, blinking a few times before meekly asking, "You did research on me?"

Shepard broke off eye contact as she awkwardly shrugged. "I mean, I don't know if I'd call it 'research' necessarily." She relaxed back on the bunk, forcing herself to meet Liara's gaze as she continued, "I gotta say though, your picture on the Serrice faculty page really doesn't do you justice."

Liara's cheeks flushed as she began to wring her hands together bashfully, finally sputtering out, "Oh Goddess, I, um. Thank you?"

Her crooked grin returning in full force, Shepard waved a hand towards Liara. "So what is the career path that leads someone from 'prestigious scholar' to 'blowing up caves with mercs'?"

Liara paused, now feeling her own good mood begin to slip away. Feigning nonchalance, she simply shrugged. "You already know that most people do not believe Prothean masterworks even exist." She looked over Shepard's shoulder, staring into the distance at countless memories of skeptical colleagues and disapproving supervisors. "Even with my other areas of study, I have been met with more resistance than cooperation. Apparently, most of the archeological community is more concerned with the approval of their peers rather than the pursuit of knowledge." Looking back into Shepard's eyes, she forced a small smile. "I've just gotten used to working on my own, I suppose."

Shepard tilted her head to one side, staring deeply into Liara's eyes with a small frown. After a moment, she lifted up her hands in surrender. "Hey, I get it, we don't have to talk about this either." She chuckled darkly, gesturing at them both. "We're both full of fun topics of conversation, huh?"

Huffing out a quiet laugh, Liara felt her mouth begin to curve back up into a smile. "Yes, we wouldn't want to talk about anything quaint or casual, would we?"

Shepard broke into full laughter, husky voice filling the room as Liara joined in a few seconds later. Liara felt her earlier tension melting away, instead replaced by a strange, all-encompassing warm glow as she made eye contact with Shepard through their peals of laughter.

A minute or two later when their giggles finally subsided, Shepard breathed deeply, wiping her eyes as she casually stood from the bed. "Well, I should go." She began to walk towards the door, which opened itself with a quiet hiss as she approached. Turning back over her shoulder, she called out, "It's been good talking to you, Doctor."

"Shepard, wait." Shepard froze in the door frame, turning partially to look back towards Liara with a questioning expression. Liara bit her lip, considering Shepard carefully before finally asking, "What is your favorite color?"

The faintest trace of a grin grew in the corner of Shepard's mouth as she regarded Liara quietly. After a moment, she continued through the door, answering, "Ask me again sometime," just as the door slid shut behind her with a soft click.

"Alright people, listen up."

Shepard stood in front of the circular conference table, leaning forwards and spreading her hands out across the surface. Across from her, Garrus and Tali sat on the couch, both of them leaning forward attentively from the sagging cushions. To Shepard's right, Liara sat in one of the fold-out chairs, legs crossed and an anxious look on her face, and across from her sat Chakwas, who was reading casually through a datapad.

Silence filled the deck as three sets of eyes sat on Shepard, with Chakwas occasionally glancing up from her work. Satisfied that her crew was fully paying attention, Shepard stood back from the table and crossed her arms. "We have most of the crew here, so now Doctor T'Soni can fill us in on our new job."

Liara started in her seat, before looking around quizzically. "Are there more people on your crew?"

Shepard shifted in place. "Oh, right, yeah there are, uh." She raised one hand as she started counting on her fingers. "Technically we have two and a half more crewmates."

Garrus leaned back to recline into the couch as he called out, "Three and a half, actually."

Rolling her eyes, Shepard countered, "He doesn't count, he retired."

Tali kicked her feet up onto the table, jostling several empty mugs that were left scattered across it. "No, he definitely still counts."

Shepard pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. Okay, so we have three and a half other people on the crew, so we'll just go through them real quick."

Looking back towards Liara, she began to rattle off the names as they came to mind. "Joker's our pilot, he's busy combing through all the systems in the galaxy map to find where we're heading next. Traynor's our communication specialist, but she only works with us when she's on break and her university semester started up again a couple weeks ago." Shepard leaned one hip against the table as she continued, "Ash is our Alliance liaison, so she only works with us on official Alliance business, and Wrex is our krogan." She paused, a nostalgic grin spreading across her face. "Wrex actually helped me found The Shepherds after I left the Alliance, but he's old as hell and more importantly he's retired, so he doesn't really count."

Without any hesitation, both Tali and Garrus interjected an overlapping, "Yes he does." Shepard turned to glare exasperatedly at the rest of the table as the pair on the couch stared back unflinchingly. Across from them, Chakwas loudly sipped on a cup of tea.

Liara, for her part, seemed to take all of this new information in stride, nodding along through the whole list. As Chakwas set her cup back onto the table, she frowned. "Wait, I thought that you didn't work for the Alliance anymore."

To her right, Tali responded, "Technically, we aren't Alliance."

Garrus sat up to speak over her head. "We do still work for them sometimes though."

Liara's frown deepened, but as she opened her mouth to inquire further Shepard cut in. "We aren't part of the Alliance's military force, but they hire us out to do jobs for them every once in a while. Benefits of me being ex-Alliance, I guess."

"That's the whole reason I'm here, actually." Shepard turned to look at Chakwas, who had set down her datapad. "The Alliance mandated that Shepard needed at least one Alliance officer on her ship, just to make sure nothing untoward happens. I had already worked with her before and I happened to be a high enough rank, so my name ended up being the one they picked." She paused to take another sip of her tea. "Also, I've put rather a lot of time into keeping her alive and I'd hate to see all that effort go to waste, you see."

Shepard smirked. "Gee, doc, you're making me all emotional." Chakwas chuckled into her tea as Shepard turned back to Liara. "Whenever we get hired to do an Alliance job, we also have to report back to a designated officer, which is why we have Ash on the team. You might meet her if you stick around long enough."

Garrus loudly thumped his feet onto the table next to Tali's. "Alright, I love a good personnel list as much as the next guy, but can we get back to the whole mission debrief?"

Shepard nodded, motioning towards Liara as she stepped back from the table. Liara cleared her throat, then began to speak as she started shuffling around through a bag to the side of her chair. "As I told Shepard back on the beach, I am an archaeologist who specializes in Prothean history. Recently, I've been focusing on searching for evidence of Prothean masterworks, specifically."

Tali cocked her head to one side. "Wait, like extra fancy relics or something?"

"Apparently, they're mythical pieces of Prothean tech that could do the impossible," Shepard drawled. "Planets all over the galaxy have legends about them."

Liara nodded. "That's correct, for the most part. No one really knows if masterworks actually could do anything, mainly because none have ever been found. However, the antechamber that you three discovered in the mine contains what I believe is a clue to find one such masterwork."

She pulled out a thick paper notebook from her bag as she continued, "After I examined Shepard's memories of the Prothean writings, I wrote the clue down to make sure I didn't forget." She cleared her throat again, then read out the familiar inscription. "The Ring of Life has been sealed away, never to see another day. If you wish to hunt each part, then this is where your search must start. Through the jungle and inside the tomb, this is where you must face your doom."

Silence filled the deck. Garrus awkwardly shifted in his seat as Chakwas went to take another sip of tea, only to find that her cup was empty. Finally, Tali piped up, "Well the facing your doom part sounds interesting, at least."

Shepard rolled her eyes. "Come on guys, it's just some rhyme from like fifty thousand years ago, you'll be fine." Turning to Liara, she asked, "You know anything about this Ring of Life?"

Liara nodded and began flipping rapidly through her notebook as she answered, "The Ring of Life, also known in some circles as the Eternia Disk, is one of the more well-known stories from Prothean times." She flipped over her notebook to display a hand-drawn diagram of a large circular ring with a hole in the middle. "Tales of the artifact vary wildly, but most seem to agree on two things. First, that the masterwork itself resembles a stone disk a few feet wide." She lowered her notebook before slowly looking up to gaze around the table. "Secondly, every known tale establishes that it has the power to bring the dead back to life."

Tali snorted, and next to her Garrus began coughing to poorly mask his chuckles. Shepard, however, frowned curiously towards Liara. "Wait, why does it have two names?"

Liara shrugged. "Well, some scholars prefer to translate it as the Ring of Life, while others choose Eternia Disk. Really, either way is perfectly acceptable."

"Damn, why would anyone go with the Ring of Life? Eternia Disk sounds way cooler."

Garrus' mandibles twitched skeptically. "Speak for yourself, Shepard, but I think Ring of Life has a much better ring to it."

Tali and Chakwas burst into laughter as Shepard wrinkled her nose in disgust. Turning back to Liara, she hopefully raised one brow in question.

Liara avoided her gaze, cheeks beginning to take on a purple tint as she mumbled, "I personally always preferred the Ring of Life."

Cheers filled the deck as Shepard dropped her head back with a groan. Leaning out from her spot on the couch, Tali clapped Liara on the shoulder as she proudly proclaimed, "Congratulations, you're my new favorite crewmate."

Shepard looked back down towards the table to see Liara's small smile grow wider than she had ever seen on the asari. Immediately, her heart rate suddenly doubled and a cozy warmth spread out from her chest. Suddenly desperate for a change in topic, Shepard cleared her throat. "Right. Anyways, anything else we should know, doc?"

Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Liara responded after a second, "Well the inscription we found seems to imply that the artifact was split into multiple parts, so I doubt we'll find them all in the same place if that's the case."

Garrus hummed to himself thoughtfully. "Doesn't it seem strange to you that somebody apparently went out of their way to hide this thing from the rest of the galaxy?"

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, that's what worries me too. Maybe whoever made it thought it was valuable enough to make it disappear?"

"Assuming it really exists." Shepard turned towards Tali, who shrugged. "What, according to Liara nobody has even found one of these things before."

Liara nodded, reluctantly admitting, "It is true that no masterwork has been recovered before. However, this inscription is the best piece of evidence I have ever seen in my whole career." Bashfully lowering her eyes to her lap, her voice dropped to almost a whisper. "This can't be nothing."

Shepard leaned over and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, real or not, we'll make sure we get you where you need to be. Sound good?"

Liara shyly looked up to meet her gaze. Shepard's breath hitched as they made eye contact, Liara's cobalt eyes shimmering with gratitude. Slowly, she nodded before murmuring, "Thank you, Shepard."

Shepard's blood roared in her ears as she found herself frozen in place. The heat in her cheeks threatened to break out into a full blush, and her palms went suddenly clammy as her heart leapt up into her throat. Liara continued to stare deep into her eyes as the silence lengthened, an adorable little wrinkle of confusion appearing on her brow.

Shepard's eyes widened suddenly at the thought. Shit. Oh god oh shit wait. She opened her mouth, suddenly desperate to end the awkward silence beginning to fill the room. What should she say? She should really say something, everyone is starting to look at her, oh god.

A scratchy voice crackled out of a loudspeaker in a nearby bulkhead. "Hey, Shepard, I got something up here. I think you're gonna wanna take a look at this."

Shepard let out a huge breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Thank god. Quickly walking over to the wall under the speaker, she slapped the communication switch on a small console set into the wall. "Alright, I'm on my way."

Turning back towards the rest of the crew, she set her hands on her hips. "Okay, I gotta go, uh." She awkwardly gestured up towards the deck above them. "Yeah. Okay good talk everybody, you're all dismissed."

She turned on her heel, quickly marching towards the elevator at the far side of the mess hall. As soon as she stepped through the doors, she slammed the button for the CIC deck, waiting until the doors noisily slammed shut before she slumped against the wall. Her hand went to her temple as she attempted to massage away the ache starting to build up behind her eyes. "Damn it."

The floor below her shuddered as the elevator started up towards the next deck. Shepard took several deep breaths in a row, attempting to slow the rushing tempo of her heart. Finally, five excruciatingly slow breaths later, the pounding in her chest began to subside as her cheeks slowly lost the awkward warmth that had been suffusing them. Shaking her head, Shepard clapped herself on both cheeks with a smack. "You don't have a crush, you can't have a crush, it's literally been one day. This is just a normal reaction to gaining a new temporary member of the crew."

Even in the confined space of the elevator, her words sounded unconvincing at best. Shepard thought back to Liara's blinding smile as Tali grabbed her shoulder, and her traitorous heart throbbed once in her chest. Her head sank back against the metal wall of the elevator with a thud. "Shit."

Moments later, the elevator came to a shuddering stop with the usual ding as the doors ground open noisily. Heaving a beleaguered sigh, Shepard dragged herself up off the wall and out into the CIC, making a note to herself to get Tali to lubricate the elevator doors again. Stepping around the various consoles surrounding the map projector, she quickly made her way down the skinny hallway leading towards the helm.

The doors hissed open as she approached, allowing her into the cramped box filled with navigational displays and flight instruments her pilot called home. Carefully stepping over several sets of wiring running between various panels, Shepard placed one hand on the back of the pilot's chair as she peered down towards the main navigational panel. "Okay Joker, what do we got?"

The pilot in question swiveled in his chair to look over his shoulder. "What we've got is a major pain in the ass, Shepard. Seriously, next time you want me to waste my time looking through every damn system on the map, can you give me more than a dumb ass riddle for where to look?"

Shepard breathed in sharply through her nose, then let it out before responding. "Sure, next Prothean treasure hunt I'll try to get a map ahead of time. Did you find anything?"

Joker grinned smugly, adjusting his hat as he leaned back in his chair. "Well, obviously." He gestured towards the miniature galaxy map to the right of his chair. "This fit the bill?"

Leaning past his chair, Shepard frowned down towards the map display. A familiar set of interconnecting lines and curves filled the screen, complete with various planets taking the place of the dots of light from the Prothean mural. Thinking back to her meld with Liara, Shepard let her hand drift over the console, moving from planet to planet before stopping over one specific dot on the map. Tapping her finger on it, the map quickly zoomed in as an informational pop-up appeared next to it. Shepard's eyes widened as the name Jiwai-3 appeared over a short excerpt describing a lush jungle environment covering seventy percent of the surface.

"That's it." Energy began flowing through Shepard's body as the familiar pre-mission adrenaline rush started to kick in. She read the planet description again, starting to smile as each tidbit of info further matched it to the location described in the Prothean inscription. "What would we do without you, Joker."

He scoffed as his hands danced across his various instruments. "Yeah, remember that next time you sign off on my paycheck."

"I'm not making any promises until you get us there." Chuckling to herself, Shepard stood back from the console before slapping the cross-ship comm switch in the wall. "We got our location people, I want the ground team ready to have boots on the ground in five hours."

She flicked off the comm as she stepped out of the helm. She swiftly crossed back through the CIC towards the elevator, figuring she had enough time to hit the rack for a couple hours of sleep before they landed. The elevator doors closed in front of her, and as it began rumbling down towards the crew deck Shepard once again found herself alone with her thoughts. Immediately, wide blue eyes sparkling with emotion began to haunt her thoughts, along with a return of the ache behind her eyes.

Shepard rolled her eyes with a groan. She just didn't have a crush, there was no way. Right?

A/N: hey guys, happy new year! this one took a lot longer than i wanted, but i've also been real busy with the holiday season and trying to move into a new place at the same time. the good news is im unemployed now as i try to switch jobs, so at least for a little bit i'll have way more time for writing stuff like this. anyways, i had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so i hope you all enjoy!