[Book Two] Chapter 28: Separation

Chapter 28: Separation

On the Citadel, in the Human councilor office, five people were having a secret meeting.

“You let members of Cerberus go?” Hannah Shepard asked her daughter.
“They’re not bad people. They just made a bad choice. Many are for the advancement and preservation of humanity but very few are xenophobic. The Illusive Man’s spiel and their discontentment with the Alliance pushed them to join. Some joined because I was there like Joker, Dr. Chakwas, engineer Daniels and Donelly to name a few.” her daughter answered.
“What about the Collectors? You were pretty short about them in your report.” Hackett asked.
“Their ship and base of operation was destroyed. Against the wishes of TIM.”
“TIM?” Helena, inquired.
“The Illusive Man. Rick’s nickname for him. It stuck as it’s shorter.”
“So he wanted the base for himself.” Anderson said to get back on topic.
“Yes but the horrors that happened there… It wasn’t right and it was also reaper tech, I wasn’t about to let that sociopathic megalomaniac get anything from it.”
“Good call.” Hackett said before going on. “Now, I don’t doubt you commander, I never have, but what you wrote about Wald…”
“It’s true, Steven. I got confirmation from Chakwas herself.” replied Anderson.
“Using his biotics to stick to the ship at flying speed… That should not be possible.” said Hackett.
“EDI, said the same thing. She kept calculating and arrived at that same conclusion yet he did it.”
“Who knows what he discovered on biotics to be able to do that? He didn’t give you a reply for Grissom Academy?” inquired Anderson
“He said that he’ll think about it, but I think he won’t do it, not in the foreseeable future at least. I did find another instructor, though.”
“Oh? Who?”
“Jack.”
“The ex-convict?!” Hannah exclaimed and scoffed.
“She’s the other person that taught me. She’s… really good. Not as knowledgeable as Rick but she’s knowledgeable enough and to my surprise very supportive. I admit she wasn’t like that at first; she changed along the way for the better. She displayed great care towards the well being of children, perhaps because of what Cerberus did to her.”
“I trust you commander, I’ll pass the word to a friend of mine at Grissom. I make no promises however.”
“That’s alright. If it doesn’t work out is it possible to pardon her for her crime or give her a new identity? She did help save the Galaxy.”
“That won’t be a problem, but are you sure?” Hackett asked.
“Yes. She’s been running ever since she escaped Cerberus and did what she had to do to survive. I don’t blame her for that. I think… she just wants someplace to start a life.”
“Anything else to mention not in your report?”
“I think Rick is going to make a company. Hearing things here and there I know he recruited Miranda Lawson, who defected from Cerberus and tried to recruit Mordin Solus.”

The notion that the helmeted man was building a company made Hackett pale. It implied that the former was intending to extend his business and that was no good for him.


____________________________________________________________


Shepard, mother and daughter, left the office to have lunch together, leaving behind the three others.

“Helena, something’s wrong?” Steven asked.
“I’m just pissed. The reports on him were impressive, but seeing him in action was something else and now that new stunt?! God I want to punch her in the face so bad! He should have been mine!”
“This new stunt left him in a coma with multiple broken bones. He should have died.” Anderson replied.
“And he didn’t! Do you know what N7 could do with him in its rank? Hell even as an instructor!”
“I know. I’m N7 too, remember?”
“At least his relationship with the commander is getting better.”
“Yes, I’m glad to hear that. I wouldn’t have believed it of him a few years back, heck a few months back!” Anderson agreed.
“Let’s just hope it keeps going that way. Any news on his implant replacement?”
“The L5n seemed to be a good fit and everything seems to be fine but we won’t know for sure until he wakes up.” stated Anderson.
“Was Aria T’Loak forwarded the information?”
“Yes, we are still waiting to hear from her though.”
“Perhaps they’re not as close as Shepard believed.”
“Or perhaps she’s distancing herself to blur their real relationship, uncle.”
“From what we know about her it’s possible.” admitted Hackett.
“How is the operation going?” the human councilor inquired.
“We finished raiding the bases Urdnot Wrex gave us, we took everything they had, slaves included. They were freed of course. What about the big project?” Helena asked in turn.
“All the bunkers are completed. There is still some more work to do, notably on the safekeeping of the species' culture. As for the people, Tevos and Valern are done with their list and so am I. We just need Rick’s green light and the locations of those bunkers and we can send people in at any time.”
“Let’s hope it’s not too soon.” Helena said.


____________________________________________________________

Time came and passed by. Most of her ground team went their separate way. Garrus went back to his homeworld Palaven, to speak with his father. It was time for them to bury the hatchet and work on preparing against the coming of the reapers. Kasumi, Jacob, Zaheed and Legion disappeared without so much as a goodbye. Samara stayed for a while to keep Rick company but she was a justicar and needed to go back to her duty. Tali was free to stay longer. She didn’t particularly want to go back to the fleet immediately, not after her trial. Instead she stayed on the Normandy for a while, working on it with EDI’s help, then left once the ship was fully repaired.
Miranda stayed a few days and disappeared too, not without leaving a note to Rick, saying that she accepted his proposition and would join the company once it was ready. Grunt met with other krogans on the citadel and got himself a free ticket for Tunchanka.
Thane got himself situated on the station to see his son more often and do regular check ups at the hospital and Mordin after Rick’s surgery left for parts unknown.

The only one left beside her was Jack who didn't really have any place to go and was questioned thoroughly about her time as a Cerberus’ test subject and her life afterwards. She often visited Rick; she didn’t talk to him or anything, she was just there spending time, sometimes joined  by Jane. finally after two weeks, development happened.

“Ugh…” Jane heard.

She immediately put down the datapad she was reading and looked at Rick who was waking up. Immediately, she used the call button to warn Dr. Michel.

“Did someone got… the number of that truck?” Rick said in a weak voice turning his helmeted head to have a better look at Jane.
“Normandy SR-2.”
“Joker is so dead.”
“I’ll tell him.” she replied with a smile.
“Do you feel alright? Do you need anything?”
“I feel sore, mostly.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Hmm… I put you up and fell. I landed on a big one flying. Then…” he began his tale and tried hard to remember.” I don’t know… I was on the Normandy…Oh.” he said the memory flashing through his mind. “Damn that was insane even by my standards.”
“Do you remember what you did? EDI don’t understand how you stayed hooked there. All her calculations said you should have fallen off.”
“Eh! I went beyond my limits.”
“Meaning?”
“Remember my project about using my biotics through all nodules?”
“No way! You succeeded?”
“Yeah. From every single one of them I used a mass effect field to greatly increase my weight and used a barrier to not be subjected to the speed. It was out of desperation though, I’m pretty sure if I’d try it now I’d fail.”
“I don’t think you could anyway. Not with your new implant.”
“My new implant?”
“What you did almost fried your L3 so they had to remove it. They replaced it with a L5n.”
“Oh, nice. Needing to adapt to it is less nice though.”
“Come one, you’re like the best in the galaxy control-wise. You’d be back in shape in no time.”
“True.”

At that moment, Dr. Michel came back from her errand and examined Rick putting an end to the conversation. Jane wanted to talk more, notably about their relationship since she was now free of any obligations for a while. At least that's what she believed until she got a message from Hackett ordering her to come to Anderson's office urgently.

Had she known this would be the last time she saw him in nearly a year she would have taken a minute to say what she had wanted to say.