[Book Three] Chapter 30: Incidents on the Normandy

[Book Three] Chapter 30: Incidents on the NormandyChapter 30: Incidents on the Normandy





“You always go beyond my expectations, Commander.”

“Thank you, sir?” she answered the compliment, blinking in surprise, the jovial tone her superior had used.

“To think that you could broker peace between Quarians and Geths.”

“That was all them, sir. The key part was getting rid of Han’Gerrel but that was Rick.”

“And once again he came out of the situation smelling like roses. Outstanding, the both of you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Miss Allers forwarded me the footage of your mission. A chase with a Reaper and defeating it on foot. Once again the boost of morale among the rank has been significant. I do admit though, seeing Wald put you on his shoulders shocked me and everyone who saw it. For a moment, I thought he went from insane genius to just insane.” Hackett said, his eyes looking shocked, empty and a bit haunted, remembering vividly the situation.

“That’s what went through my mind at the time. But we’ve been fighting together for so long that I trusted him.”

“The way he used his biotics has never been seen before. A new development from his part?”

“Yes, on the spot.”

“Goodness... On the spot? It felt like he had practiced for years.”

“That’s because his control over his biotics is insane. Though it still needs to be perfected; using his biotics that way, put a severe strain on his legs; several tears in his muscles.”

“I see.” the Admiral nodded in understanding. “Any new projects he’s working on?”

“You seemed eager to know about them, sir.” Jane replied, suppressing a teasing smile.

“Considering that his last project saved millions of lives, I am. Plus it stimulates our engineers to no end. Well... when they’re not depressed.”

“So far, I know of only two projects he’s working on for sure. The first one is a chameleon armor, more advantageous than a simple Tactical cloak though way too expensive to make. Its function is to basically hide a person in plain sight and is highly effective in messy environments, like ruins, forest, those kinds of topology. When we get back to the Citadel he’ll get the component for actually building it.”

“Interesting. You said expensive? How much are we talking about here?”

“He said it was not as pricey as an eezo crystal but in the same range. So a hundred of thousand credits at least. It’s mainly for infiltration, so elite soldiers and black ops.”

“That could be useful for certain scouting missions, can he send the blueprints and schematics?”

“I’ll ask him but I don’t see any problem with it. As for the second project it’s a protective suit. Catsuit to be precise. It’s supposed to absorb any kind of shock, mostly bullet impact. He has already constructed the material in a simulation and the numbers seem to work. Now he’s trying to stock the kinetic energy absorbed from the impacts the suit takes and to use it back. Lastly; his final objective is to make it self-repairing.”



Hackett wanted to whistle at that, impressed with the capabilities of the suit and knew how well it could help.



“Expensive, I suppose?”

“Surprisingly, no.”

“No?!”

“Manufacturing the material is not that expensive if we compare it to the chameleon armor. The other upgrades on the other hand...”

“Send me everything as soon as you can.”

“I will, sir.”

“Good. On an unrelated note, Commander. I’m officially putting the Normandy and its crew on shore leave for a week.”

“Sir?” Jane asked, confused.

“You’ve been fighting non-stop since Omega, Shepard. You and your team need to rest.”

“Sir, my crew had a month of leave when I went to Omega. It was less than...”

“But you did not, nor did Wald. This is an order, Commander.” Hackett said cutting off any bullshit Jane would have said.

“... Yes, sir.”

“Good. Hackett ou...”

“Sir?” Jane asked before Hackett disconnected the transmission.

“Yes?”

“I... have a personal question if I may.”

“... I’m listening.”

“Why me?”

“Pardon?”

“Why put me in charge? Why not my mother or someone with more experience and a higher rank?”



That question had been haunting her for a while now. Why of all people was she the one chosen to lead the diplomatic talk with other species, to lead the fight against the reapers. She had tried to not think about it but the way the quarians talked to her as if she was some kind of savior when they were partying on Rannoch, brought the question to the forefront of her mind.



“That’s simple, you’re the only soldier in the whole damn navy who knows how to kill a reaper.”

“My brother...”

“Is not part of the navy. He’s unknown to everyone and doesn’t have a tenth of the charisma that you have.”

“There are other people, I’m sure. Killing a reaper is not that difficult. Being smart and having a bit of luck is enough. It worked for me so far, it will work for others.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Commander.”

“Sir?”

“Let me tell you something that I learned the hard way. You can pay a soldier to fire a gun. You can pay him to charge the enemy and take a hill. But there is one and one thing alone that you can’t pay a soldier for. Do you know what that is?”

“I... No, sir, I don’t.”

“Believe. You can’t pay a soldier to believe, Commander.”

“I... don’t understand, sir.”

“When you went up against Sovereign, there was no reason to believe you’d win. Yet your crew did. They followed you anyway, regardless of the odds of success. Your excursion through the Omega-4 relay? Here they were, by your side, ready to follow you to a place no one has ever come back from, to fight with you and for your cause because they believed in you. You led them where no one would have and they went along because they knew that with you, they would make it back. They will not hesitate for a moment if you lead them through the gates of hell because they believe in you. You are their leader, Commander. And that’s what I need the most now. Time and time again you have proven by your actions that if anyone could lead us to the other side it is you. Not your mother, not another officer of a higher rank. You. People, be it civilians or from the military, human or not, look up to you. To inspire them, to lead them. That’s why I picked you, Shepard.”



Jane didn’t know what to say to that and simply thanked Hackett for answering. This time the Admiral disconnected for good, leaving her alone with her thoughts.





____________________________________________________________





“I have to say... this is nice.” Kaidan said as he looked at his cards and took a sip of his drink.

“It would be nicer, if Rick didn’t trash us all.” replied Garrus, sending his cards on the table farther from him, clearly folding.

“Hey! I told you playing a game of probabilities was not a good idea with me. Especially when you all have bad poker faces.” The man in question defended and pushed all his chips forward. A mountain of chips. “All in.”



Everyone at the table groaned in frustration and those still in the game just folded.

“Go fish would have been better.” he added.

“Regardless of winning or losing, LC Alenko is right, this is nice. I mean, we’re hanging around, drinks in hand, spending a good time with just us guys. I’m glad we went for these guys’ nights.” Steve said, gathering the cards.

“I’m surprised that none of you started a joke contest or worse.” Rick said, drinking from his own glass. “And yeah, this is nice, never thought that guys' night could be calm like that. Maybe I should have tried sooner.”

“You sound like you've never experienced guys night before.” James said, coming back to the table with a new bottle.

“I didn’t.”

“What?! Even I have experienced it before! Plenty of times!” stated Joker in shock.

“You really didn’t?” Kaidan asked and got a negative shaking of the head in answer. “Wow.”

“I experienced plenty of girls’ nights on Omega, with the dancers and all when I was a teen but an evening with guys? Never had the opportunity before.”

“THAT cannot stand!” Joker declared.

“What?”

“Guys, I think that just this time we should go with the full experience.” proposed Garrus.

“Good idea!”

“Yeah!”

“You’re not getting out of this without passing out on the floor, Rick.”



‘I should have kept my mouth shut.’





____________________________________________________________



Jane was floating above her bed. She had just finished reading and writing some reports and went to sleep when whatever was happening happened. She would have been in total darkness were it not for the light of her aquarium. She tried to move around but couldn’t reach any surface to do so. Much like Joker she was stuck and couldn’t do anything but watch her fish swim, the lid of the aquarium being closed.





____________________________________________________________





“EDI!” Rick shouted as he was also floating above his bed with AI on top of him still inside of her. He lifted her head up and saw that the woman had one eye closed while the other had rolled in her head. “EDI, wake up!” he shouted again, shaking her up. It didn’t work at first, but her eye returned to its normal position and her second eye opening signaled that she was back to normal. When recognition hit her they fell harshly to the bed, gravity being back on and so were the lights.

“I’m sorry... I...” she stopped talking and her eyes were lost far away for a moment. “All systems operational, no malfunction. Everything is in order.”

“Are you alright?” he asked in worry.

“I am.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“God, you scared the hell out of me.”

“I’m sorry, the stimulus of the orgasm was too intense despite my dampeners working at full capacity.”

“...What?”





____________________________________________________________





“You had an orgasm.” Jane stated. She was clearly not amused by what EDI had just explained to her as she put something on and in no time was riding the elevator down to Rick’s quarters, knowing that somewhat, somehow he was the one at fault.

“Yes.”

“With your organic body.”

“Yes.”

“And the... flow of... data?” she asked tentatively.

“Yes.”

“And the flow of data was too big and intense to process.”

“That is correct.”

“... I don’t know what to say. Should I be amazed? Frightened? Angry?”

“There is no reason to be frightened, even non-operational, the ship had all vital systems active thanks to the emergency power source. I made sure of it.”

“Not all of them. I don’t know if you have noticed or not but gravity was gone.” Jane replied in irritation.

“Gravity is not a vital system.” the AI defended.

“It should.”

“I’ll add it to the list.”

“Good. Now... What the fuck EDI?” the redhead shouted just before the door to the elevator opened to the CIC

“I do not understand what you mean, Commander.”



Jane growled and entered Rick’s quarter, stomping her feets. After a few steps she violently opened the door to the bedroom. And yelled at her brother who was still laying on his back, balls deep into organic EDI who was straddling him and with her back straight.



“I KNEW IT! YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!”

“I’m not!”

“You are.” EDI disagreed immediately. “You’re the one that...”

“Alright, Alright!” he said, putting his hand on EDI’s mouth to stop her from talking. “I’m HALF responsible. It takes two to tango after all. No need to give a detailed explanation of what occurred.”

“Do you have any idea the situation the two of you have put me in?!” Jane shouted, making Rick and EDI exchange a glance before looking back right at her.

““No.””



Their nonchalant answer nearly caused her an aneurysm. They were completely serious and played the clueless innocents. Her right eye ticked rapidly and a big vein appeared on the side of her forehead.



“What do I say to the crew about this incident?! What do I put in my report to Hackett?!”

“... That I’m so good at sex that I made EDI pass out, inducing a malfunction on her part?”

“I can't do that!”

“Why not?” EDI asked. “It’s what happened.”

“That’s beyond embarrassing!”

“That’s because you care, you shouldn’t. Now if you don’t mind.” Rick said as he used one of his hands to shoo her away.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no! NO! No more sex!” she yelled, making Rick gasped. “EDI, until you find a way for this incident to not happen again I strictly forbid you from any kind of sexual activity.”

“Yes, Commander. The problem is already resolved.”

“...Really?”

“Yes. I’ll just disconnect myself from the body.”

“You can do that?” Rick asked in surprise.

“In theory, yes. I uploaded part of myself into it. It should be able to function without being connected to me.”

“In Theory?” Jane asked worriedly.



EDI didn't answer, instead her eyes became empty for a couple of seconds before life came back to them.



“As expected, it works. It is a weird experience.”

“Wait, you just...” inquired Jane.

“Yes.”

“How is it weird?”

“I feel... lighter? I’m only experiencing the world through my body as I don’t have access to the ship’s sensors or my... Oh... I forgot to reactivate it.” The AI said as she saw her synthetic body limp on the ground. Immediately it booted up.

“That’s amazing, you’re amazing.” Rick said with stars in his eyes.

“Time to test this new development with round two.”

“Like hell you will! No more sex until the Normandy is docked on the Citadel!”

“It is perfectly safe, Jane.”

“She’s jealous, she’s not getting any.” Rick supposed aloud.

“I’m not...”

“Oh, you can join or watch if you want.”

“Jeal-... What?!”

“Yeah... EDI, I love you but you’re still inexperienced regarding sex with another woman and Jane is about to lose it. So, another time?”

“Very well.” The AI said and simply lay down on her lover, his cock still hard inside of her. “Good night, Jane.” were her last words before closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep.



The redhead in question wasn’t about to lose it anymore. She just did.