Commander Shepard / Jane

There were flashes moving through her head, tinged in red. The sight of machines, constructs razing cities, burning entire civilizations to the ground. Bodies, charred and smoking flashing through my mind, and behind it all a deep rumbling echo. A sound that bore through Jane’s skull and echoed through all of her being. They faded though, as fast as they flitted through her mind, they were impossible to summarize or understand, and eventually normal darkness replaced the scenes of death and destruction, as she began to stir she heard a voice.

“Doctor! She’s waking up.” The voice was familiar, and as she opened her eyes she could see Dr. Chakwas stepping up to check her vitals and help her into a seated position. Behind her, a respectful distance away, was corporal Jenkins. He had a look of concern on his face, but seemed relieved that she was waking up.

“You had us worried there, Shepard. How are you feeling?” The doctor is the one to speak, having finished a brief check of her vitals quickly. In truth Shepard felt like shit, but not in any particularly unique way. She had been stuck with nightmares for the past 6 months, and while whatever it was she saw felt different, felt more real, it was in the end just another bad dream.

“Minor throbbing. Nothing serious. How long was I out?” Once again information was the most important thing to her at the moment.

“About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think.” The doctor seemed as confused as she did, unable to explain in greater detail what actually happened to her.

“It’s my fault, commander. I got too close to the beacon. Must have activated some kind of security field. You pulled me out of the way, got hit instead.” Jenkins spoke as well, his voice softer than normal. He looked guilty, torn up about the mistake he had made.

“You had no way to know what would happen.” She was hoping to comfort him, for it to be a relief that Jane didn’t blame him for what had happened. However it didn’t seem to work if anything his guilt sharpened.

“No commander. I’m an engineer approaching glowing tech without even giving it a preemptive scan was reckless. I may not have known what would happen but I should have known better.” He looked away for a moment, before looking back with a more determined look in his eye. “It won’t happen again, commander. That much I can promise you.”

“Enough you pitiful fool. We don’t even know if approaching the device is what set it off. Unfortunately we’ll never get the chance to even confirm if your guilt is well founded.” Dr. Chakwas ended Jenkins' silence with a smack to the side of the head and some sharp but gentle words. Words that cause Jane to feel confused for a moment, what happened to the beacon.Noticing her confusion it seems, Jenkins speaks once more, rubbing the side of his head.

“Right, the beacon was destroyed after you got drawn in. Must have overloaded or something. We think the blast is what knocked you out. Kaidan and I dragged you to the ship, Ashley was our escort.” Jane doesn’t know how to feel about that information, she was thankful they had managed to get her out of there to safety. But the destruction of the beacon was bad news. Something greater was going on here, and without Saren captured to explain it would have been their only way to know more.

“Thanks for getting me out of there. I appreciate it.” She decides to focus on the better news. There is a time and a place for over worrying, this wasn’t it. Jenkins gave a light smile and nod in response, at least appearing to be more relaxed about the situation.

“Physically, you’re fine. But I detected some unusual brain activity, abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense Dreaming.” Doctor Chakwas starts giving a general run down, and the mention of dreams brings back the glimpses of what she had seen. The dream that wasn’t a dream.

“I saw — I’m not sure what I saw. Death. Destruction. Nothing’s really clear.” She can’t give a better explanation then that, and the look of concern on Chakwas’ face is expected. Not great to have your patient complain about unusually vivid nightmares after exposure to alien tech. Stranger though is the look that flashes on Jenkins face. It doesn’t show concern or confusion like Chakwas. Instead he almost looks, understanding. She almost speaks but Chakwas fills the silence first.

“Hmm, that’s certainly concerning. I better add this to my report. It may — Oh, Captain Anderson.” She stops her explanation as the door into this private space of the med-bay slides open, and captain Anderson walks into the space.

“How’s our XO holding up, Doctor?” He stands at attention just beside Jenkins, looking professional as always.

“All the readings look normal. I’d say the commander’s going to be fine.”

“Glad to hear it. Shepard, I need to speak with you — in private.” The captain gives Jenkins a look as he says so. And it is apparently understood quickly.

“Aye aye captain. I’ll be in the mess if you need me.” He spares one more look back at Jane, before turning and walking out of the space. Dr. Chakwas follows shortly after leaving Jane alone with captain Anderson.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you’re Okay?” He drops his formal stature and tone, showing his more casual support he’s had with Jane for years.

“I’m pissed sir. Nihlus is dead and the beacon is destroyed. For the first mission it was a shit show.”

“Nihlus isn’t your fault Shepard. The mission was FUBAR from the start and you got through with no casualties to your unit. You did good.” He offers reassurance, but it helps only a little. Even if Anderson thinks she did well, there had to be a way things could have gone better. She couldn’t dwell on it though, not now. Instead she asked the question that concerned her most in the moment.

“Did we leave Gunnery Chief Williams back on Eden Prime?”

“I figured we could use a soldier like her. I’ve had her reassigned to Normandy's ground team, under your command.” Anderson gave a light smile at the response. He had a bad habit of picking soldiers he liked and keeping them for himself. Seems Ashley was the latest in a line of adoptees. Not that Jane would complain, she was competent in combat.

“Williams is a good soldier. She deserves it.”

“Corporal Jenkins and Lieutenant Alenko agreed with you. That’s why I added her to our crew.”

“You said you needed to see me in private, Captain?” Better get to the point of this conversation, if it couldn't be had with even Dr.Chakwas around it was unlikely to be any kind of good news.

“I won’t lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad. Nihlus is dead. The beacon was destroyed and geth are invading. The Council’s going to want answers.” Shit, the council. Of course they were going to be looking for answers, and given their only response is one dockworker said Saren was responsible, it didn’t look good. Still it’s not like they were at fault, any look at the evidence would reveal that.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, Captain. Hopefully, the Council can see that.”

“I’ll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You’re a damned hero in my books. That’s not why I’m here. It’s Saren, that other turian. Saren’s a Spectre, one of the best. A living

legend. But if he’s working with the geth, it means he’s gone rogue. A rogue Spectre’s trouble. Saren’s dangerous. And he hates humans.” It seems Jenkins' explanation of Saren was partially correct, although it didn't include anything about him hating humans.

“I knew he was a Spectre, but hating humans? Why?”

“He thinks we’re growing too fast, taking over the galaxy. A lot of aliens think that way. Most of them don’t do anything about it. But Saren has allied himself with the geth. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I only know it had something to do with that beacon. You were there just before the beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?” Captain Anderson seemed unusually involved, personal, in his anger with Saren, but that would have to wait, there was some info she could share.

“Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of vision.” Anderson cocked his head in surprise, leaning in a little as a show of listening.

“A vision? A vision of what?” Could she even answer that question fairly? She wasn’t sure what all she had seen. It was a jumble of messages and mixed signals. It could have been anything really, but she would say what she could. She saw machines destroying a civilization.

“I saw synthetics. Geth, maybe. Slaughtering people. Butchering them.”

“We need to report this to the Council, Shepard.” Shepard almost laughed at loud. Vision or not, Prothean tech or not, there was no chance any council would respond well to a dream being issued as evidence.

“What are we going to tell them? I had a bad dream?” Anderson looked closer his brow furrowing as he began to speak once more, heated and frustrated clearly.

“We don’t know what information was stored in that beacon. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it. But I know Saren. I know his reputation, his politics. He believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war! He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of geth at his command. And he won’t stop until he’s wiped humanity from the face of the Galaxy!” He ends his speech in a crescendo, nearly shouting as he slammed his fist into his open palm for effect. She could understand being pissed at the bastard but this, again, felt almost personal in its frustration. She would need to ask him for more details later in a better moment. For now she agreed with one sentiment. Saren needed to be stopped.

“We’ll find some way to take him down.” Anderson shakes his head and responds gently after a moment to calm himself.

“It’s not that easy. He’s a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything. That’s why we need the Council on our side.” She understood that was a more complex situation, but it didn’t change what they needed to do.

“Then we prove Saren’s gone rogue and the Council will revoke his Spectre status.” The captain nods his head in agreement, standing.

“Thankfully we’ve had a break in our luck when it comes to evidence. You can ask Jenkins about it if you want to know more. In the meantime I’ll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the Council. He’ll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel. We should be getting close. Head up to the bridge and tell Joker to bring us into the dock when you're ready okay.” He gave her a pat on the shoulder, and turned to head back out into the ship.

Jane took a moment to breathe, letting her thoughts and emotions settle. That had gone to hell, far worse than she had hoped. But as far as personal performance goes she could acknowledge that things could have been worse. None of the soldiers under her command had died, and they had stopped the geth from blowing the colony to hell and back. She could only hope that the council would see reason and revoke Saren’s spectre status. If not then a lot more lives, human and otherwise, would be in danger.