Samantha's Mission

My chosen words are: Princess, Chess, Butt-Snuggles, and Bloody.

Bioware owns Mass Effect.



Shepard:

Commander Hope Shepard walked into the QEC room behind the war-room on the Normandy with a happy spring in her step. The last few fights had taken their toll on the young commander, and even Garrus had seen the weight pressing down on her shoulders since Mordin died several weeks ago. And then there was Cerberus on the Citadel, Thane’s death and a myriad of everything else she was responsible for. She had no idea it was starting to show and was embarrassed when her friend asked about it. She was, after all, the Commander, the one who holds everyone else up.

But now, she had Samantha. Just thinking of those soft, honey eyes and the lilting sound of her voice made Shepard feel better. They spent each night together now. Sharing, loving, snuggling, teasing or just talking. Hope knew she had already fallen for the smart, cheeky, beautiful comms specialist and it gave her something to look forward to after a fight…after a mission….maybe after all this was over. Saving the galaxy for everyone was one thing. Saving it for Samantha made it personal.

‘Huh, love.’ She thought to herself with a wistful smile. ‘Who would’ve thought?’

Her thoughts were still lingering with Samantha when she finally realized who was being projected through the QEC in front of her. Admiral Hackett stood with his hands clasped behind his back and practically oozing dignity as he always did. Shepard admired and looked up to this man who was running a galaxy-wide war to buy her time while she rallied everyone else she could.

The other spot though, projected the image of a geth trooper platform. She paused a moment as her thoughts flew back to Rannoch and the sacrifice Legion made for his race. Again, the grip of loss wrapped itself around her heart. But she shook it off. There was work to do. “Admiral Hackett, what can I do for you?” She asked.

“Commander, this is geth unit 1Alpha7.” He began as he introduced the geth. “It has been assigned to my ship to liaise between our fleet and their own.”

Shepard regarded the geth and inclined her head slightly toward it. “1Alhpa7, I understand the geth are doing well against the reapers and appreciate everything you are doing to help the quarians also.”

“Shepard Commander,” it said in a voice eerily like Legions, “Your intervention at Rannoch made it possible for our races to co-exist peacefully and seek a future that can include cooperative beneficial relations between organic and synthetic life. We will of course honor the promises made by Legion to support the war and follow your example on Rannoch.”

Shepard inclined her head again. “Thank you. He was a good friend.”

“Commander,” Hackett cut in, “1Alpha7 has brought an important issue to my attention. One of their ships crash landed on a planet called Orpheus in the Armstrong Cluster. It is in a binary star system and the planet is swept by intense solar and ion storms at all times from both stars. Its atmosphere has been stripped away eons ago so there is nothing to shield anything planet-side from the storms.”

“So why would the geth go there? It sounds pretty dangerous for synthetic life.” Shepard offered.

1Alpha7 replied. “The geth ship in question was damaged during battle with a reaper destroyer. It leapt to this system in an attempt to throw off reaper pursuit, but was unsuccessful. The destroyer followed and the ship eventually crash landed on this planet. As it crashed it lost all barriers and shields which left the geth run-times aboard vulnerable to the ion storms and intense magnetic field of the planet. Transmission via FTL communications was not possible. All run-times aboard were lost.”

Shepard looked down and away. She remembered Legion's statement to her about what happened when the geth lost run-times. ‘Imagine for every one of your people that die, your intellect dims.’ She shook her head. “I’m very sorry to hear that.” Shepard replied.

She looked to Hackett. “What do you need the Normandy to do, sir?”

Hackett cut back in. “This ship was gathering intel on the reapers before it was caught up in combat. It would aim itself on a trajectory to coast close by a stationary reaper, launch itself and shut down all engines. No engines, no thermal signature. It would take days to pass its target while it collected detailed passive scans of the enemy. The geth are the only ones that can do this right now because they can function for days without life-support from their engines.”

“Sounds like a useful tactic.” Shepard mused as she thought it through.  

“Very.” Hackett nodded.

“Ok, but those ion storms would have wiped any data stored on the ship when the barriers failed, right?” Shepard asked.

1Alpha7s head-flaps flared and settled back in place. “This ship was designed with a shielded central memory core which has its own independent power-source. We believe it is still shielding the data in the memory core.”

Hackett nodded and continued. “One of the things this ship has is detailed technical schematics of at least twenty different reapers. That data can be invaluable to us. We’ll use that data to find week-spots on various reapers so we may have a better chance taking them down. But the real threat is the stored knowledge on that ship. If the wrong people get to it they will have details of our deployments, our strategies, schematics of our ships and worse, the location of the Crucible. We can’t let that fall into the wrong hands, commander.”

“Agreed.” Shepard replied. “I’ll take my team and get that data as soon as possible.”

“It wont be that easy commander.”

“Nothing ever is…”

1Alpha7 continued, “The Normandy itself will not incur any issues from the ion storms due to its enhanced barriers and shields. However, current transportation shuttles aboard the SSV Normandy are insufficiently shielded to resist the ion storms on Orpheus. Also, a uniquely designed Quantum Entanglement Communicator splice and storage device will be necessary to hard-wire and down-load the data from the ships memory core.”

1Alpha7s image disappeared and was replaced by that of something that looked like a back-pack frame with a slim, flat 1x2 foot piece of tech attached to it. Shepard studied it as Hackett continued. “We found the designs for this device in the data retrieved from Arcturus Station. It’s experimental and untested so you’ll have to take someone who knows this device and can think on their feet to trouble-shoot it with you. Luckily, one of the designers that worked on it is serving on the Normandy now. It’s the only thing designed to get the job in that kind of environment. I’m having our people build this for you Commander and I’m having a vehicle that is electronically hardened enough prepared for you to pick up at Phoenix Station.”

Shepard felt her pulse quicken and a feeling of dread settled in her stomach. ‘Someone on Normandy who served on Arcturus Station? Please no.’ She thought. “We’ll set course for Phoenix Station immediately.” She said in a voice calmer than she felt.

Hackett raised a hand. “One more thing Commander, we’re pretty sure a Cerberus vessel witnessed the attack on the geth ship. If so, expect them to be on their way also. Hackett out.”

Shepard stepped back and gathered her thoughts, before opening her com channel. “Joker, set course for Phoenix Station, I want to be there pronto.”

“Course laid in Commander, ETA 9 hours.”

“Thanks.” She breathed. Then she drew up her courage to ask what she really dreaded. “EDI?”

“Yes Commander.”

“Can you function on this planet, umm…” She checked her omni-tool, “Orpheus?”

“No, Commander. My platform was not designed to withstand electromagnetic fields that strong or continual ion storms.”

“Does Tali have the expertise to operate this QEC Splice-Thingy?” Shepard asked, grasping at straws.

“I am certain she could operate it expertly after an intensive two to three week training period. Her expertise is engineering not quantum communications, and this device is quite advanced.” Edi replied.

Shepard tried to think around the problem. “What if you talked her through it over the comm?”

“The ion storms in the area will make ship to surface communications impossible. Only short-range helmet to helmet communications will be possible.” EDI said almost apologetically.

Shepard sighed. “OK. Have you taken a look at the schematics for this QEC Splicey-Thingy?”

“Yes. The QEC Derivative Splice Actuator and Storage Device…or ‘splicey-thingy’ as you put it, was designed by a small team working in the R&D labs on Arcturus Station. Hardened electronics and capacitors allow it to be used in the most extreme electro-magnetic environments. It is quite ingenious and allows for its own intuitive soft-ware to create a channel for free-flow data collection and collation from various sources it can be used on any…”

“EDI.” Shepard interrupted. “Who on the Normandy helped design it?”

“Specialist Samantha Traynor.”

“Damn it.” Shepard whispered.



Samantha:

Samantha woke slowly and blissfully stretched out across the bed she shared every night for the last two weeks with Hope Shepard. Since ‘game night’, Hope made a point to spend every moment available with Samantha and Sam loved that about her. Not that there had been a lot of time. Shepard was still the captain of the Normandy and Samantha still had her duties. Oh yes, and there was still a war on. But what time they did have together was always lovely and meaningful and fun.

‘And who would have thought Shepard would be a snuggler?’ She thought.

Just the other night they had started with the nick-names. ‘Tray-nerd’ and ‘Chilly-Feet’ were self-explanatory, as were ‘The Captains-Wench’, ‘Tech-Tart’ and ‘Smelly-Socks’. But Samantha got the best one and was teasing Shepard insatiably with by just calling her PBS. She wouldn’t say what it stood for, yet, and loved driving her mad with it.

‘PBS.’ She thought with a giggle.

She reached out and found what she already knew she’d find. Hope was already up and gone down to work. So she pulled Shepard’s pillow to her and cuddled up with it. ‘God, even her scent drives me wild.’ she thought as she breathed in the perfume of her lover from the pillow.

She smiled and sighed happily as she thought about the wonderful night they had just shared together. Hope was a real tiger between the sheets…over the sheets…under…across the room...  

‘Her and I together? We set this room on fire…’ She thought with a lick of her lips. The memory of grabbing that blonde pony-tail, pulling her head back and nibbling her way down that slender neck to those wonderful collar-bones made Samantha blush a bit and wish for more. ‘The feel of her, her scent, her taste…’

‘Well, I can be a tiger too…’ she thought wickedly.

Sitting up she checked her omni-tool. Another hour before her shift started. Time enough for a nice relaxing shower and a cup of tea.

Forty five minutes later she practically bounced out of the lift and lurched to a stop when she realized she was almost skipping. She blushed deeply as Corporal Campbell walked by and gave her a knowing look and a wink.

Must resist skipping!



An hour later, Samantha was completely engrossed in her work as she collated data on a possible group of break-away Cerberus scientists when she felt Shepard’s familiar presence step up behind her. She smiled as she turned to face her commander. “Commander, something I can do for you?” she asked in her most professional voice. Then she noticed how troubled Hope looked. She wanted to reach out and caress her soft cheek, or offer a hug, but knew that could never happen in the CIC. “Is…something wrong, Commander?”

As a reply Shepard opened her omni-tool and brought up the schematics of the QEC Derivative Splice Actuator and Storage Device. Samantha recognized it immediately and her eyes lit up with excitement. “Ohh! The QEC-D-SASeD! Quick-Sassy, for short! That was a fun bit of tech to design and program. It can take data from any known species storage base and extract derivative informational parameters thereby creating and displaying the data in known information GUI intuitively like a…”

“Samantha,” Shepard interrupted. “Before you nerd-gasm right here in the CIC, did you design this?”

Samantha snorted a soft laugh. ‘Nerd-gasm! HA!’ She thought. “Well, along with others, yes.” She said with a nod. “I was on the team at Arcturus Station that ‘drew it up’, as it were. I wrote most of the soft-ware and created algorithms for the programs to work together. Why?”

Shepard closed her eyes and sighed. She did not want to do this one little bit. But she had to. Finally, she looked Samantha in the eyes and started. “We are going to use one of these in a very in-hospitable environment.”

Samantha nodded, “Yes, of course it was designed to operate in extremely harsh conditions. It is EMP resistant as well as hardened against the worst solar or ion storms…and…” What Shepard wasn’t saying started to dawn on her. “And…and you need someone to operate it on the fly. Don’t you?” Her voice trailed off to a whisper as the reality sank in.

“Yes.” Hope said with a small nod.

The color drained from her face. “And…and that someone is me. Isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Shepard whispered.

Samantha saw how much this hurt Hope to put her on a real mission. Fear, excitement and love tangled all together as she drew herself up to the position of attention and lifted her chin. “Well, I’m your girl, commander.” ‘Oops, didn’t mean for it to sound like that!’ So she rushed on. “I’m a military officer serving on an Alliance ship in a time of war. Oorah, Commander!”

Shepard smiled a bit and Samantha cold see a little of her stress bleed off but the guilt and worry deepened in those green eyes. “You know if there were…”

“I know. I know.” Samantha interrupted, trying to be comforting. “What do I need to do?”

Hope nodded in acceptance and defeat. “Ok. Report to Vega and Cortez at the armory in one hour. They will start fitting you in armor. Then we’ll go over some basics.”

Samantha saluted crisply and with an air of confidence she really didn’t feel. “Yes, mum.”



Normandy shuttle-bay:

An hour and a half later, Samantha found herself standing behind some crates in the shuttle bay. Her face was flaming red as she hid herself from view.

“C’mon, Orejas!” Vega urged. “Come on out and get this armor on. You don’t have anything we’ve never seen! Hehe.”

Samantha’s cheeks burned brighter. She looked down again at the spandex-like, black, silky, form-fitting armor underlay that was clinging to every curve of her body. “I’m basically standing here in my knickers! I am NOT coming out there!” She protested. 'I wonder how my bum looks in this?’ She asked herself.

“C’mon, Shepard walks around like that all the time!” Vega shouted back then continued in a lower voice, “And fills it out very nicely too! Am I right Estaban?”

Cortez’ voice came to her from near where Vega was. “OK, you’ve had your fun, Mr. Vega. Why don’t you go on up to the mess and grab some sandwiches for us. We’re going to be here for a while.”

“Awe, c’mon Estaban!” Vega protested.

“Now Mr. Vega, this is my shuttle bay. Don’t make me pull rank.” Samantha could tell he was smiling as he said it. She was sometimes envious of how close some of the crew were. Then again, she did have Shepard.

“Mierda, you take the fun out of everything.” Vega groused as he stomped toward the lift.

Samantha sighed in relief. Cortez was always such a gentleman and a good man. She hoped he found someone special again soon. She poked her head around the corner after the lift closed. “Thanks, Steve.” She said with a little grin.

“Anytime Samantha. Here try this armor on. Shepard told me to give you the best protection. Best shield and barriers and regen-cycle. This is collector armor.” He said as he pulled out the ugly bone-gray set from its container. “It gives an additional 20% to shields, shield regen and health.”

She looked at it doubtfully. “So I’m to parade around looking like a mal-formed bug all day? Not very sexy.” She said dead-pan.

Cortez leaned back on the railing and crossed his arms. “It’s not the ‘how you look part’ that’s important, it’s the coming home in one piece part that Shepard is concerned with. And me too.”

She grinned at him, touched by his concern. “Well, thanks for that. I suppose you are the expert here. Ok, let’s strap this crap on.”

“That’s the spirit.” Steve said as he knelt and started slipping the greaves around her shins.

A moment later the lift doors opened and they turned to see Shepard walking toward them with an arm-full of armor. “Not that one, Steve. Put her in this.”

Cortez checked out what Shepard was carrying and looked dubious. “But that’s your Shade Armor, Commander.”

Shepard feigned shock. “Really? No! I never would have guessed!”

“Subtle sarcasm is not your strong suit, Commander.” He replied with a wry grin.

Shepard smiled and batted her eyelashes at him. “You know you love it, Steve.” Then she glanced over at Samantha and gave her a slow and appreciative once over as her lover twisted around in embarrassment. “We need to keep one of those in my cabin.”

Sam blushed furiously, but managed an indignant look. “Whatever you say, PBS.”

Shepard grimaced. “You will tell me what that means very soon, Traynor.”

Sam smiled sweetly, “Maybe.”

“Ok, let’s get this armor on.” Cortez interrupted.

Fifteen minutes later Samantha stood adorned in black, shiny Shade Armor. Sam looked down at herself and couldn’t help but feel kind of badass and impervious. She wondered if this was how Shepard always felt when she armored up for a mission.

Shepard looked her over critically and made a few adjustments to the barrier power output on the suit. “Ok, are you comfortable with the fit?” She asked.

Sam bobbed her helmeted head. “Yes, it is quite a bit lighter than I thought it would be.”

Steve called to her from Vega's work bench, “Walk over here, but take it easy at first. The suit will help you. The powered joints and structural support will make you a bit stronger and faster. You’ll adjust fairly quickly.”

Samantha turned and started wobbling over towards him. It wasn’t too difficult, but she wasn’t going to win any dancing contests in this stuff. She thought of how graceful Hope always walked even in armor. ‘Just have to get used to it, I suppose.’

When she reached Steve, he gave her an approving nod. “You have to practice some, but not bad. You have to develop total confidence in your armor and its abilities. Confidence is the key, Samantha.” He said with a strange, knowing look on his face. “Confidence is key.”

Samantha’s eyebrows knit together as she tried to figure out what he was going on about. ‘Weird!’ “Ok, confidence is…”

“Samantha!” Shepard yelled from the weapons bench.

Startled, Samantha turned quickly and saw Shepard pointing a pistol at her.

Then Shepard shot her.

Samantha squealed in terror and stumbled backwards as purple energy flared around her vision. “What the bloody…!”

Shepard shot her again.

Again the purple energy flared as she kept back-pedaling. “STOP IT!!” She screamed and raised her hands to protect herself.

Shepard shot her a third time.

Samantha’s heel caught on one of Vega’s bar-bells and she fell over on her back stunned and out of breath. She lay there bewildered and staring at the ceiling.

‘My lover just shot me! She shot me!’ She kept saying to herself. Dismay and confusion were crowding away any rational thought just as Shepard’s face came into view above her. She instinctively raised her arms again, but Hope just knelt down beside her and started looking over the armor.

“Are you ok?” Shepard asked.

All the confusion and everything else cleared out of Samantha’s mind except anger. “OK?” She yelled. “OKAY?! YOU SHOT ME! You bloody shot me I can’t believe you did that how dare you you actually shot me why would you I can’t believe what were you thinking YOU SHOT ME!” She started to get up, but Shepard held her down with a firm hand on her chest.

“Samantha…”

“I can’t believe you SHOT me!”

“Samantha…”

“Not once, not twice, but three bloody times! I can’t believe…”

“SAM!” Shepard almost yelled as she gave Samantha’s helmet a light tap on the side.

Samantha stopped talking and focused on Shepard. The anger and panic faded when she saw the tear trace a path down Shepard’s cheek to her chin.

“I’m sorry I shot you.” Shepard whispered. “It had to be done. You have to have complete confidence in your armor and know what it feels like. Normally you would work with it for weeks, but we don’t have that kind of time now. So I had to show you how good your barriers are and let you experience them working for you. You can’t do it for the first time in real combat.”

Samantha’s rational thought was coming back. ‘I’m sorry I shot you.’ Sam said to herself. ‘Not something you hear every day from your lover.’ In her head she knew what Shepard was saying and understood.

‘Confidence is key, Steve said.’ She reached up and took her helmet off and gazed up at her lover. “A little warning next time?”

Hope shook her head. “Sorry, you can’t know it is coming. You react differently and don’t experience it the same way. At least that’s what doctrine says… And there wont be a next time, I promise. Forgive me?”

Samantha wondered how she would get even for this, but she could never stay mad a Hope for anything. So she nodded, “Only if you come down here and kiss me, too.”

Shepard smiled and bent down giving her a soft, lingering kiss. When their lips finally broke apart Samantha smiled. “Ok, PBS. You’re forgiven. Now help me up and get your armor on.”

Shepard gave her a questioning look. “Why do I need my armor?”

Samantha looked at her wickedly. “I’m invoking our tit-for-tat rule. I get to shoot you now, PBS.”

Shepard grimaced. “That rule is for the bed-room!” Shepard protested. “But, I guess that’s fair. We have target practice on the agenda for today anyway.”



The shuttle bay:

“Two minutes to Phoenix Station.” Joker announced over the intercom.

Tali looked around at the others gathered. Liara and Garrus both had no idea why Shepard asked them to come down to the shuttle bay. Both Vega and Cortez kept giving them knowing glances and turning away with half hidden smiles.

“Garrus, Liara, Tali, I’m glad you could all make it.” Shepard said with a knowing smile as she exited the lift into the shuttle bay.

“What’s this all about, Shepard?” Garrus groused. “I was right in the middle of some very delicate cal…”

“Calibrations!!!” Everyone finished for him and then laughed as he stood there with his mandibles twitching in amusement.

“Yeah…huh…hmm…well…guess I need a new hobby.” He mumbled good-naturedly.

Shepard grew serious. “You three have been with me from the very beginning and I appreciate the trust and support each of you have given me since we started chasing Saren.”

“We’ll back you all the way, Shepard.” Tali said earnestly.

“A-HEM!” Came a disgruntled voice over the intercom.

Shepard looked up with a smile. “Yeah, you too Joker.”

“Just nice to be included, Commander. Thirty seconds to Phoenix Station.” Joker replied, as the bay ramp started opening revealing crystal blue skies over a harsh desert back-ground.

“Saying that, I really wanted you all here when we got this piece of equipment. I think we all have fond memories and a special place in our hearts for it.”

The ramp finally touched down and they all turned to see a huge vehicle start backing up the ramp into the cargo-bay.

“Bello…” James said in admiration.

“Keehlah, no…”

“Spirits, is that…?”

“Goddess, not another…”

“Our new Mako!” Shepard exclaimed with a huge smile on her face.



Samantha:

Samantha sat in her jump seat in the Mako absently fingering the unfamiliar Locust SMG strapped to her hip. The vehicle was huge and armored and made her feel safe to be in it.

James sat beside her napping as they waited for the signal from Joker that they were at the proper coordinates. Samantha had heard Hope giving the big man orders to stay with Samantha throughout the mission and make sure she was safe and she knew the solid man would do just that. ‘My own personal watchdog.’ She smiled and resisted the urge to scratch him behind the ear and call him Rover.

Garrus sat in the co-pilot seat grumbling about how Liara and Tali had gotten out of this mission. Samantha didn’t know why, but he thought it was not fair to them and especially him that they weren’t here.

Shepard was in the driver’s seat, of course. She just kept smiling and laughing at Garrus as he complained. She seemed so relaxed.

Samantha envied that. She herself was a ball of nerves. She reached down and picked up the QEC-D-SASeD again. She had checked it out about ten times already, and good thing. Whoever put it together had done an abysmal job of it. The casing was a titanium-lead alloy that protected the delicate processors inside. ‘They got that part right at least.’  She thought.

When it showed up with the Mako Samantha was astonished to see someone had connected a holographic interface to it instead of one of the old manual qwerty keyboards. The holo would obviously fry the moment it was exposed to the ion storms which is why the older keyboard was necessary. ‘Somebody was not thinking things through.’ She thought.

The rest of her diagnostics she ran with EDIs help and they had to re-write or re-install several programs to replace generic ones the builders had used. The builders had taken too many short-cuts that would have left the device inoperable during the mission.

She looked to the top of the black unit and fingered the last addition they made. Barriers. Thanks to Shepard shooting her, ‘I still can’t believe she shot me!’ she got the idea of adding a small, battery operated barrier to the unit making it that much more protected in the harsh environment they were about to enter. The batteries would only last about three hours, but that should be plenty. Samantha had blushed furiously when EDI had complimented the new shields and forwarded the schematics to Alliance Command.

Joker’s voice on the intercom stopped her inspection. “Fifteen Seconds to drop.” The virtual windows showed the ramp starting to lower. Samantha could see stars and violent eddies of charged solar waves flowing through the empty space ahead.

“Yeah, here we go!” Vega said with a grin. He obviously woke up pumped for action.

Shepard gunned the Mako's engine once. “Ready everybody?”

“Spirits no…” Garrus replied and Shepard laughed at him.

Then what Joker had said really dawned on Samantha. “Wait, did Joker say ‘drop…?”

Shepard laughed and threw the Mako into gear, launching them down the ramp and into empty space.

Shepard laughed.

Garrus cursed.

James hooted.

Samantha screamed.

Three minutes of free-fall followed by the thrusters firing to slow their decent and a bone-jarring landing left Samantha wondering what the hell was wrong with the woman she loved that would make Shepard enjoy this insanity.

Through the virtual windows Samantha saw a harsh, red planet of rock and blowing sand. Dagger-like mountains thrust into the dark sky on the horizon and charge particle waves swept the landscape in visible, golden waves.

“Get us a fix, Garrus.” Shepard said as she scanned the area.

Garrus soon unfolded an old-fashioned paper map and pointed to where they should be. He marked a few features on the map and pointed them out to Shepard through the v-windows. “Ok, that mountain is right here, and that one is there, so we should be right here in this flat area. About four miles north-west of where the geth say their ship will be.”

Shepard nodded. “GPS would have been so much easier, but can’t use it here.” Samantha saw the fun-loving-crazy-as-bat-shit-enjoying-free-fall-in-a-30-ton-tank Shepard disappear behind her Commander-face. “Ok, looks good. We’ll go in easy, use the terrain for cover and make sure the area is clear.” With that, Shepard put the Mako in gear again and picked their way south-east.



Thirty minutes later Shepard pulled the Mako over a small rise and the geth ship came into view. Parts of it were strewn along and beside a half-mile long ditch it created as it crashed at a shallow angle and came to rest at the foot of a mountain. “Looks pretty much in-tact.” Garrus observed.

“Yeah, the memory core may still be in one piece.” Shepard replied. “Visual scan, everyone. We don’t want anyone sneaking up on us.”

Samantha jerked in surprise. “Like who? Who would come to this hell-hole?”

“Cerberus.” James chimed in as he scanned the area through an old pair of binoculars. “Where Lola goes, Cerberus usually isn’t far behind…or they are there already.”

“Looks clear, Shepard.” Garrus said. “No movement.”

“Ok, eyes peeled. Here we go.” Shepard said.



Five minutes later they pulled up next to what looked like an access point of the wreckage. Shepard pulled the Mako behind a big piece of wreckage, unstrapped and turned around. “Alright, final equipment check. We’ll go in through here.” She pointed at the gaping hole in the ships superstructure. “That should give us access to the main starboard-side corridor. We’ll go up that towards the bow, cross over the heat-diffusion system using the cat-walks to the port-side corridor and the memory core should be about twenty feet aft of that point. Get in, get the data, get out and then to the link-up point with the Normandy.” Garrus and James were nodding in agreement. Samantha had no idea what Shepard had just said.

“So, go in, go right, left and left again?” Samantha asked.

James snorted a laugh. “Much easier the way you say it, Orejas.”

They shut down the Mako and crawled out into the harsh, unprotected environment. Shepard turned and engaged a large manual lock on the Mako. “What’s that for?” Samantha asked.

Shepard glanced over her shoulder at her as the bulky device snapped into place. “I came out of a mine once and someone had taken the Mako. Don’t want that happening again.” Samantha noted a hazy static the ion storms were creating in their helmet to helmet communicators.

Garrus laughed. “That or having to disarm the nuclear bomb planted in the mine to kill you. Very embarrassing.”

“A…nuclear…bomb? Just to kill you?” Samantha asked.

Even James seemed shocked. “Mierda, I got to hear about this, Scars.”

“Yeah, Shepard really pissed that guy off.” Garrus chuckled. “It didn’t end well for him though.”

“Never does.” James replied.

“Long story.” Shepard said. “I’ll let Garrus tell you two over drinks back on the Normandy. Mean-while, let’s focus.”

Samantha was still thinking about why anyone would plant a nuclear bomb just to kill someone, ‘then again, if you’re going after Shepard, you would have to think big,’ she mused, as she shouldered the QEC-D-SASeD and turned on its barriers.

Shepard led the way into the ship followed by Garrus, Samantha and James brought up the rear, closely shadowing Samantha. It was eerie being in a dead ship, especially a dead geth ship. Their weapons flash-lights lit the way for them as they picked their way past geth bodies and consoles that had been ripped from their mounts and thrown around during the battle with the reaper. Samantha matched their movements with the description Shepard had given in the Mako. Starboard corridor, heat-diffusion system, port-side corridor and then Shepard and Garrus were prying open the hatch that led to the memory core.  

They entered a huge, round room with a cylindrical data storage tower in the middle that rose from the floor to the top of the 12 foot ceiling and was as big around as the Normandy’s drive core. A shimmering, faint blue field emanated from the core indicating the barriers were still intact and hopefully the data within was too.

“Found your access point, Samantha.” Shepard said.

Samantha walked around the round room to the opposite side of the door they came through and found Shepard standing by the only terminal attached to the big, round data core. “Right,” Samantha said with a nod. “I’ll get to it then. I can easily gain manual access through those ports with the new wiring EDI and I installed on the Quick-Sassy.”

“Ok,” Shepard said. “Garrus, watch the door.”

Samantha noted James hovering beside her as she unslung the unit from her back and set it on the floor. Then she unraveled the thick, shielded wiring and quickly inserted the adapters into the proper receptacles according to the schematics provided by the geth. She unstrapped her key-board and initiated the start-up sequence for the QEC-D-SASeD.

The thin data display above her keyboard lit up and started scrolling the data-base library and index for her. Samantha absently read them as the QEC-D-SASeD catalogued the information and prepared itself for the data dump. “Geth schematics, mission logs, reports, star-charts, quarian history, reaper schematics, logistics, run-times…”

‘Wait, run-times?’ She thought. ‘Isn’t that what a geth calls itself? Its brain or something like that? Can it be?’ Her fingers flew across the key-board to designate her search. When the display lit up again her fingers went numb and she stepped back stunned.

“Commander! I have something you need to see.” She nearly yelled.

Shepard walked around the round room and into view. “What’s up?”

“I just found the geth crew that was on this ship.”

“What? What do you mean found?” Shepard asked as she stepped up next to Samantha.

“They are in the memory core, hundreds of thousands of them.”  Samantha confirmed.

Shepard nodded. “They must have put themselves in here when they crashed as a last ditch effort.” She put her hand on Samantha’s shoulder. “Can you down-load them?”

Samantha hesitated. “I will have to reconfigure at least three quarters of the drives in the Quick-Sassy and re-establish protocols for data collation or the geth run-times will be attacked as virus or worms and destroyed by the Quick-Sassy on-board defenses and…uh the fire-walls…then there’s the…”

Shepard gathered Samantha into a hug and held her for a few moments until she calmed down. “You can do this, Samantha. I believe in you. Save them.”

Samantha took a deep breath and turned to her work. ‘Re-writing the QEC-D-SASeD on the fly? Sure, why not? I just hope there’s enough storage space in my little Sassy-girl here…’ She thought.

Shepard, Garrus and James all stood by mutely as she worked away at the problem. It was deathly quiet for about forty minutes except for Samantha's continuous tapping at the old key-board, she was half-way through repurposing last code on the last drive when she heard Garrus break the silence. “Shepard, we have company. Cerberus.”

Samantha paused only a moment as she noticed James tense up and heard Shepard circle around the room out of sight towards the door. Then she went straight back to work. ‘Let Hope take care of her fight, I have my fight right in front of me…’

The sounds of battle rang throughout the dead ship. Samantha noted Hope’s calm voice giving Garrus orders and the rough voices of the Cerberus soldiers as they clashed in the corridor outside the memory core room. “Phantom.” Garrus exclaimed. “We’re taking casualties,” a Cerberus soldier yelled. Biotics flared and bullets ricocheted and people died as Samantha finished the last re-write and started the down-load.

Samantha turned to James. “Go help her. I have to stay and monitor the down-load and make adjustments. I’ll be fine.” She said.

The big man almost dashed away, itching to get in the fight, but stopped himself. “Can’t do it, Orejas. I have my orders from Shepard.”

“More coming.” Garrus said just as an explosion rocked the room.

Samantha lost her footing and James helped her up as Shepard called them. “James, get to the door. Garrus is down and I got an Atlas to take care of.”

James clapped Samantha on the shoulder. “Keep that locust handy.” Then he dashed around the memory core to the other side.

Samantha took a breath and turned back to the QEC-D-SASeD. The sheer amount of data along with the geth run-times was staggering. The little QEC-D-SASeD was quickly filling up. Even with its program manager and intuitive QEC GUI interactive programs and file compressors there was no way it would all fit.

“I need more space!” She paused. ‘Ok, its all about organization and strategy. I can do this!’ The display lit up signaling the QEC-D-SASeD was full. She flipped back and checked the memory core. Just over five-hundred geth run-times remained. ‘Omni-tool? Can’t use it here…external hard-drive? Right, like I’m on the presidium and can just pop over a buy one…I need three percent more! Wait, three percent…’ She checked the QEC-D-SASeD program files and found it. The Mariachi Tech algorithm, usually used to clean up long-range sensor data-perhaps she could re-purpose it to clean up these data files and schematics a bit more.

She dove back into her work as Shepard, Garrus and James continued their fight. The algorithm worked and five-hundred more geth down-loaded onto the QEC-D-SASeD. But more were still stranded in the memory core.

No other options, Samantha unhooked the cable from the QEC-D-SASeD and plugged her armor directly into the main-frame hoping and praying the remainder of the geth would down-load into her on-board armor computer...and not kill her.

Suddenly, a series of explosions rocked the room and Samantha heard something bounce around the round room and land beside her. She looked down at the little cylinder sitting two feet away from the QEC-D-SASeD.

“Grenade!” she yelled for no particular reason. Then she acted without hesitation. If it damaged the QEC-D-SASeD, all those geth would die…so she threw herself on the grenade. She felt pain and everything flashed purple and blue and orange, and then Samantha blacked out.



Normandy Med-bay:

Samantha woke slowly, feeling the dull ache of pain coming from every part of her body. Her thoughts cleared slowly and jumbled. ‘Shepard, geth, wiring, processors, data feed, QEC, Cerberus, grenade…grenade…grenade!’ she thought. Her eyes flew open and she tried to sit up, but a very concerned looking Hope Shepard was there holding her down and calming her.

“It’s ok, Sam. You’re ok, we’re back on the Normandy. Doctor Chakwas says you are going to be fine.” Hope said in a soothing voice.

Samantha looked up into those lovely green eyes and could see the fresh tears threatening to fall. “Is everyone else ok?”

Shepard smiled. “Yes, you saved all the geth, including the ones you downloaded into your armor.” Hope shook her head in admiration. “How you came up with that I’ll never know. And actually, they took over your armor systems and kept you alive until we got you back to the Normandy. The geth are very grateful to you for saving all those people.”

Samantha blushed, “Yes, well, I was just following your very compelling example.”

Hope touched her face tenderly. “I can’t believe you jumped on a grenade…I seem to remember you saying something about not volunteering for bomb-drop duty. Working your way up to it?”

Samantha smiled at her touch. “Well, I did say something about armor then didn’t I and then you go and give me some. Seems like you were setting me up from the get go, PBS.”

Shepard grimaced at the PBS and sat on the edge of the bed. She leaned down and gave Samantha a light kiss and brushed her hair away from those lovely honey eyes. “Well, no more missions and no more armor for you. Well, maybe the armor under-lay…” She said with a leer.

“Agreed.” Samantha said. She reached up and touched Hope’s cheek. “I love you.”

Shepard gave her a long, intense kiss that took her breath away. “I love you too.”

Samantha smiled at that and felt her heart swell with love.

“So if I’m going to be here for a while, I’ll need some entertainment.” She said with a gleam in her eye.

“Chess?” Hope asked.

“Maybe later, PBS.” Samantha teased.

“Tell me what it means!” Shepard demanded. “I can order you to, you know.”

Samantha smiled and let her off the hook. “Ok, then entertain me with the story about the nuclear bomb assassination plot, Princess Butt-Snuggles.”

end