Tour de Normandy

The next day - though technically speaking there wasn't really a difference between day and night aboard a spaceship - the first thing Rhyder Shepard took care of, was giving Dani a proper tour. He made proper introductions and gauged the reactions of her and his crew, filing away in his mind any interaction that stood out.

Jeff "Joker" Moreau would not be a problem. There was a small moment of tension when Joker stated Dani had a creaky mind, though he was quick to assure her he was fine with it.

"After all, I have creaky legs. But, in flight school students and flight instructors all got their asses kicked by the sickly kid with the creaky little legs. So I'm expecting some major ass kicking coming from you in the near future."

With those words and a good humored wink he excused himself to further concentrate on handling the Normandy.

Dr. Chakwas would also not be a problem. She just had to stop seeing Dani as a fragile schizophrenic autistic person or something along those lines.

Ashley, now there was a source of possible trouble ahead. When Shepard formally introduced the two women, Ashley refused to shake hands with Dani, folding her arms instead. One look at Ashley told him she had in instant dislike for the other woman. Dani's reaction to Ashley was a lot harder to read, hot damn if she wouldn't rule in poker! Her face, her body language gave nothing away, but it was probably safe to assume Dani liked Ashley about as much as Ashley liked her.

Kaidan was polite enough, but the thin veneer of politeness failed at masking the underlying note of cynicism.

Basically all crew that had been witness to the mess hall scene were a bit wary of having Dani around. Those who hadn't, were soon brought up to speed by the others and showed similar wariness. Again, Dani betrayed nothing of her own feelings.

Wrex, who hadn't been in the mess hall and couldn't care less when Ashley was regaling the story to him, had a very simple reaction to Dani's presence on the Normandy.

"If she's good enough for you, she's good enough for me. Just don't expect me to bond. I don't do bonding." It was the best you could expect from a krogan.

When he introduced Dani to Liara, Rhyder knew everything would be alright. He could just hug her. She seemed to be determined to shield Dani from any bad mouthing if her protective attitude towards her was anything to go by. She went out of her way to make Dani feel welcome and moved in for an unexpected hug.

Liara quickly let Dani go however when the latter showed no inclination of returning the gesture. All Dani could muster was stammer a thank you before stepping back to gain a bit more personal space.

Tali was just as excepting as Liara had been, though a bit more refined in her actions and words. She just calmly expressed the hope to get to know Dani better in the future and since they both had an affinity with technology, they'd never run out of topics to talk about. When they shook hands, Dani stared briefly at Tali's three fingered hand. If Tali noticed, she didn't let it show. It was also the first time he saw a cautious smile on Dani's face.

Her first meeting with Garrus was, interesting, to say the least. Tall, even for turian standards, Garrus loomed over Dani like a behemoth with his 6.8 feet over her dainty 5.5. Even though he tried to be disarming and charming, one look at his mandibles and razor sharp teeth and Dani looked like she was ready to bolt ship and space herself. It should be recorded in the ships logs that for the first time since his acquaintance with the turian, Garrus Vakarian seemed at a loss how to carry himself.

Days, time, passed by and Dani managed to settle in as much as she was able. She ghosted through the ship largely unnoticed and pretty much kept to herself. Rhyder realized this hadn't been Anderson's wish for the young woman, but she didn't seem unhappy and he had other things to pay attention to.

Though no one really knew how Dani spent her time, over the course of her presence on the Normandy, things – small things – seemed to suddenly run smoother. How she came by her resources, if she even used them, no one knew. No extra supplies were ordered and delivered when they were docked in a docking bay. Random things just seemed to improve by themselves but somehow Dani was never seen manipulating them.

To give her a job title so she was officially part of the crew, Rhyder had designated her as Advising Technician and kept her job description and duties as vague as possible.

She was rarely seen interacting with anyone, though sometimes he overheard Tali or Liara mention having had a short conversation with her, for which he was thankful. Dani was never rude with anyone, just always made sure any exchanges were kept to a bare minimum and as brief as possible at that. A bit of a moot point since no one actively sought her out for small talk or anything.

Though Garrus always tried to be on his best behavior around her, she avoided him like the plague, much to his chagrin and the amusement of the rest of the crew. He even became the butt of some jokes about it. Most likely instigated by Joker. One of them being: How can you tell if Garrus is in the vicinity? Just look at Dani. The harder she runs, the closer he is.

It was through Tali and Liara that Dani lost a bit of her flight over fight reaction around Garrus. The change was subtle and slow but at some point she stopped exiting the room when he entered. She stopped looking for other exits if he was in the way of the only entrance. Even though she never exchanged a word with him, Shepard knew that Garrus saw it as a personal victory when she quickly nodded back in response to his when he passed her by in a hall way. As she seemed to relax more around him, the jokes lost their effectiveness and in the end ceased altogether. Probably much to the proud turian's relief.