After the Fall part 17

Part 17
Scream

“Alright people, talk to me!  Throw me some ideas!”  Shepard paced, her well muscled arms crossed over her chest.  She could feel her own heart thudding against her forearm and it was all she could do to keep herself under control.  Faces kept flashing in her vision.  Casualties of the Reaper war.  Casualties of her mistakes.  Her skin vibrated with angry energy like bees walked over her.  One wrong move and they'd all sting, killing her outright.

The rest of her crew was there in the briefing room as well.  Only Joker sat.  Everyone else ignored the chairs, pacing, sometimes bumping into one another.  Their faces were tense.  Some still wore their pajamas.  Liara was not there in person, but her tired face was visible on a small screen in the middle of the oval table.  She was monitoring the transmission from the Illusive Man's base.

“So the Reapers are alive and well in the rest of the galaxy?” Vega asked for the third time.  No one seemed able to wrap their heads around it.  The home worlds they had thought they were protecting, now conquered by the Reapers.

Tali was crying quietly.  Grunt had a hand on the guairan's delicate shoulder as she hugged herself, shaking.  “They wouldn't have been able to hold Rannoch.  Not with most of the geth here,” Tali sniffed.  “My home world is lost again.”

Garrus stalked like a wild thing, mandibles flared.  “Palaven was holding.  Dammit.  Dammit.  Dammit.”

“Are the geth alive out there?” Joker asked his voice quiet, almost lost amidst all the frenzied, directionless motion.

“I don't know,” Shepard admitted.  She reached out and Garrus crossed the room, taking her hand firmly in his own.  “Liara, anything?”

“Not yet,” the asari answered.  Liara's voice was the firmest.  The least hysterical.  Shepard was grateful for her friend.  Who would have guessed that the frightened asari scientists that Shepard had rescued from a cave years ago would be one of the strongest people she knew?

“I just...I just need to talk this out,” Joker said, taking off his hat and running a hand through his hair.  “The Reapers here died when you activated the Crucible.  Maybe the Crucible weapons range just didn't reach outside the system.  It would make sense.  We're a long way away from anywhere else.”

“Maybe,” Kirrahe said, pacing around to stand near Joker.  “This doesn't feel right.  The Reapers must have known it was dangerous, otherwise why would they all come here to stop us from using it?  Why not just let us fire it off and disarm a few nearby Reapers and our own geth troops?”

Shepard squeezed Garrus' hand and let go to begin pacing again.  “Right.  So the Reapers wanted to stop us from activating the Crucible.  They sent the Citadel to earth.  We followed with the victory fleet...”

“Why earth, do you think?” Kaidan raised his head, having previously been studying his shoes.

Shepard blinked.  “Why earth?  That's a good question.  Why bring the Citadel to earth for the last battle?  Why gather in the Sol system?”

“It's secluded,” Liara suggested.

“Other systems are just as secluded.”

“It has humans.”

“Right,” Shepard tapped her lips with her finger.  “It has the greatest concentration of humans.”

“Didn't Mordin say something about humans and Reapers?” Garrus titled his head, trying to remember.  “We were on a mission together.  Tuchanka, I think...”

“Yes,” Shepard snapped her fingers as she recalled, “he said the Reapers were targeting humans.  Because of our genetic diversity.  We'd make the best replacement Reapers.  Well, our DNA would.”

“Turns out we're also the most likely to have that thing in our brains,” Joker sat forward.  “That thing that blocks indoctrination.”

“So maybe they came here in hopes of knocking out a threat, and using the remaining humans to make more Reapers?” Kaidan sounded unsure.

“But why bring the Crucible here if they knew it would kill them?” Liara asked from the screen.

“Maybe it didn't kill them,” Tali straightened up, her voice less tearful.  “Remember, Shepard, how I showed you that we were monitoring the Crucibles power output when you fired it?”

“Yes!  You said it didn't seem like it fired!  Not really!”

“Oh shit,” Joker exhaled.

Silence reigned for a long moment.  Everyone had stopped moving.  They stared at one another, eyes wide with realization.  The only sound was the hum of the Normandy's engines.

Garrus broke the silence.  “They aren't dead.”  It wasn't a question.  His voice was barely above a whisper but everyone heard.  No one breathed.

“Oh shit.  Oh SHIT!” Joker exclaimed, tossing his hat on the floor.  “We got played, didn't we?!”

Shepard's heart did a complicated dance in her chest.  She'd been conned.  Taken for a fool.  Doomed thousands of people for even less reason than before.  She'd screwed them all by being such an idiot.  Her knees wanted to buckle, but she wouldn't let them.  Her hands balled into fists.  If there was one thing she hated, it was being tricked.  Bile burned up through her veins.  “Alert the Flotilla and the Fleet!  I'll contact the Alliance myself.  Someone get Stone on the comm with his people.  Grunt, inform the krogan!  This was ain't over!” she roared.

Everyone moved at once and there was a bit of a traffic jam at the door.  Shepard felt someone grab her hips and pull her gently back.  Her first instinct was to fight, but she forced it down, turning to see her mate holding her.  His small eyes were shining in the dim light of the briefing room.  Gently he reached down and cupped her jaw in one hand.  They didn't need words.  A hundred thoughts passed between them without either opening their mouth.

I'm so sorry about Palaven.

Don't blame yourself for this!

I'm sure your father and sister are alright.

We will solve this.  You will.  We believe in you!

What would I do without you?
What would I do without you?

Their lips met.  His arms around her waist, pulling her on tiptoe.  Her hands reached up for his face, fingertips caressing every scar, every line.  Memorizing the contours of his features.  The kiss was desperate.  As though without it they each might die.  As though they could only breath if their mouths were touching.  And then it ended and she slipped her hand back into his, walking together out into the ship.

~~~

Shepard pulled on her helmet, hearing the familiar hiss as it sealed, locking in her air.  “Hudd, activate,” she barked, and a small screen blinked to life in front of her right eye.  She glanced around the armory.  Garrus, Tali, Grunt, and Kirrahe were all suiting up.  She had ordered that everyone get some rest before this mission, but she suspected they had been able to sleep about as well as she had.

“Chakwas, have you got the data back yet?” Shepard addressed her voice towards the room in general, knowing a comm link was open with the Medbay.

“In progress, Commander.  Stone, Cadel and I are working overtime.  Looking for a tiny brain defect in thousands of scans is no easy task.”

“Didn't we make a program to help with that?” Tali asked as she snapped her shotgun into place above her tailbone.

“We're a bit pressed for time at the moment.  We didn't know there would be such a rush.  The prgram can't handle the load.” Cadel's was the one who answered.  He sounded a little breathless.

“I am working on upgrading it as I help,” Stone's strange voice came over the Comm next.

“You can do both things at once?” Shepard asked, eyebrow raised.

“Humans cannot?”

“No.  Not so much,” Shepard tried to stifle a laugh.  And people had thought she was stupid for recruiting the rachni.  “Well, keep the reports going out.  The more people we have who can safely enter the Reaper ships, the better.”

“Indeed, Commander.  Medbay out.”

“Are you ready?” she asked her team.

“Not sure what I'm supposed to do,” Grunt growled, “there won't be anything to hit.  You've got Tali and the salarian-”

“Kirrahe,” Kirrahe corrected with a tinge of annoyance in his voice.  He had been correcting Grunt all morning.

“Whatever.  You have them for the tech.  You've got Garrus working on weapons.  What am I supposed to do?”

“You're security,” Shepard said, clicking her arm flashlight on and off to ensure it was working.  “We don't know what we'll run into on that thing.”

“I barely fit in the shuttle,” the young krogan griped, though not loudly.  “And what am I supposed to do if the Reaper suddenly come to life, punch it from the inside?”

“We have to hope that doesn't happen,” Shepard said, her jaw tight, “The one we boarded before did not react at all.  I think they're waiting for something.  We have to get over there and figure this out before something does happen.  We have to find a way to take them out completely.”

~~~~

Soon they were on their way, Joker at the shuttle's helm, Shepard hovering behind him.  Behind her the rest of her team tried to fir comfortably around Grunt, Garrus having the most issue.  “Make sure we maintain radio contact with the Alliance, the Fleet and the Flotilla,” she reminded Joker.

“Yes ma'am, all lines open,” the pilot said.  He seemed to be feeling more confident about this trip to their nearest Reaper.  Perhaps it was the knowledge that other Reapers were being approached by the turians, quarians, and the human Alliance fleet.  Chakwas had been able to organize brain scans quickly enough to dispatch several small ships, crewed only by those who were resistant to indoctrination.

Shepard leaned over Joker's shoulder and tapped a button on his control panel.  “All ships, this is Commander Shepard, report in.”

“You know,” Joker had to slouch to stay clear of her arm, “Most captains would have just asked the pilot to hit that button.  Seeing as I am, in fact, within easy reach.”

“I'm a hands-on type of commander,” Shepard said, tapping the brim of his hat with a swat of her hand.  The hat went down over Joker's eyes, but his complaints were drowned out by the replies from Shepard's little fleet.

“This is Commander Bastion of the turian light cruiser Justice, reporting in.”

“This is Captain Ryaan'tal vas Uvek of the quarian shuttle craft Tyr, reporting in.  All is well, Commander.”

“This is Captain Pike of the human frigate Tiberius, reporting in and good to go.”

“Alright, keep your teams tight and make sure you always have an excite strategy.  Remember the plan.  We are attempting to locate a bridge or command center and to learn as much as we can.  It is imperative that we find a way to destroy this monsters.  You've all been given your packets with our top secret information inside.  It is for your eyes alone.  Once we have determined how to fly these fuckers, we'll reconvene and formulate a plan to fly them into earth's sun.  Are we clear?”

Three “yes ma'am's” chorused back.

“Whichever of us finds something first will relay this information to the other units.  Ryaan'tal, you have the smallest team, but your people are the most specialized.  I have high hopes for your team.”

“No pressure,” the quarian laughed.

“Alright, Reaper Killers, let's make our approach.”

Inside the seemingly dead creature everything was as Shepard remembered it.  Kirrahe brought up the map he had created on his Omni-tool.  “Alright, everyone stay sharp.  We're finding that control center if it takes all day.”

Shepard wasn't sure how many hours had passed.  She stopped playing attention.  The walked down hallway after hallway, each exactly the same as the last.  It was only Kirrahe's constant mapping that kept them on track.  “We should be nearing the heart of the Reaper,” the salarian informed them.  “Not the literal heart, of course,” he clarified hastily, “by the core of the ship.  I suspect it may house an engine room, or bridge.”

“Right,” Shepard said.  Her tone was weary.  Though she and her team were in no danger from indoctrination, there was still something about the empty, identical corridors that made Shepard feel uneasy.  For a while she had been on edge, forcing her team to you proper military procedure to go around every corner they came to.  Now she merely stuck her head around, and when she saw nothing, waved them onward.  “I wouldn't be surprised if we found a whole lot of nothing though.”

“Commander Shepard,” a voice rang over the comm.

After so much silence Shepard jumped, then raised a finger to the side of her helmet, “Go ahead.”

“This is Ryaan'Tal.  We've found what we believe in the Reaper's brain, Commander.”

“You what?” Shepard gestured for her crew to join the conversation on their own comm systems.

“Found its brain.  What's more, it appears to be half tech, half organic.  We think we may be able to hack the tech.”

“Alright, but be careful,” Shepard said.  Her skin prickled again, but this time not with excitement, but concern.  Something, perhaps an instinct, was telling her something was wrong.  She couldn't put her finger on what.  Neither she, nor her crew, moved as they awaited news from the quarian team.

“Commander, I think we've got something,” Ryaan'Tal's voice came again.

Shepard opened her mouth to ask what he had discovered when the Reaper they were in gave a shudder, similar to the one Tali had induced the first time.  Everything was still again, and Shepard felt her breath get quicker, her fight or flight already triggering.  Shepard had always leaned heavily towards the 'fight' response, but what could she or her team do to a monster they were already inside?

“What-” Tali began.

Suddenly Shepard's mind exploded with pain.  A sound, at once a roar and a piercing scream, filled her ears.  Was it her ears?  Her hand fumbled with a dial on the side of her helmet, closing off external sound, but still the noise persisted, boring into her brain like a drill into a tooth.  It was all she could do not to add her own scream to the mix.  She distantly heard the gasping yelp of Ryaan'Tal over the comm.  She managed to raise her head.  Her eyes watered and she had to force them to remain open.

Tali was on the ground.  Garrus and Kirrahe were doubled over, clutching their heads.  Grunt seemed completely dazed, his eyes wide and staring.  It took Shepard a moment to realize that her helmet was still soundproof, and she switched it back, hearing her team's yells of surprise and agony.  The Reaper shuddered again.

“Get out!” she shouted, trying to focus.  “We need to get out!”  She was shouting over the noise in her head, with no idea what her vocal volume needed to be.  Her team didn't move.  She focused her mind as best she could.  Staggering, she reached Kirrahe and grabbed his thin upper arm.  “Major, the map!  Guide us out of here!”

It took Kirrahe a moment to respond, but soon his Omni-tool glowed on his arm.  The orange light seeming too bright in Shepard's streaming eyes.  She moved on to Garrus, grasping her lover's hand, “We have to move!  Follow Kirrahe,” she shouted.  Then she turned and grabbed Grunt's armor, giving him a shake, “Grunt, you need to carry Tali!”

Grunt seemed to snap out of his trance more quickly than the other two, striding over to the fallen quarian and scooping her into his arms.  Shepard called into her comm then.  “Can anyone out there hear me?”

“Commander?!” it took her a long moment to recognize the voice.  It was the human commander, Pike.  “What the hell?” he gasped.

“It's happening to you too?” Shepard asked as she and her team began to struggle back the way they had come.

“The noise!  It won't stop!” Yelled the turian commander in Shepard's ear.

“Get out!” she instructed them, though she guessed they were likely doing just that already.  Kirrahe stumbled against her and she instinctively pulled the salarian's arm over her shoulder before he could fall.  She almost tripped over her own feet at the wailing roar in her mind went on and on.  It never stopped for breath.  Never wavered in pitch or intensity, just drove itself deeper and deeper into her brain.  She chewed fiercely on her lip, fighting the agony and nausea.

“Joker?” she questioned next.

“Here!” came the pilot's weak reply.

“Joker, you hang on!  We're coming!” she shouted.

It seemed to take them forever to reach the shuttle.  By that time Kirrahe was barely able to walk and Grunt had almost dropped Tali.  He was now leaning against Garrus and the two were supporting one another along.  Kirrahe managed to keep his arm held out, map visible on the back of his hand.  Shepard guided them as best she could.  She could feel her mind giving up.  It wanted to her to pass out.  What a relief that would be, her weary brain coaxed her.  Her lip was bleeding from where she was biting it.  Finally she saw the shuttle where it was docked.  She and her team struggled aboard.  As she had feared, the noise was just as bad there as it had been on the Reaper itself.

Joker glanced weakly over his shoulder to ensure everyone was aboard, then gunned the shuttle into action without waiting for orders.  He didn't even retract the docking clamps.  Shepard faintly heard the sheering of metal as the clamps tore free of the little vessel, remaining attached to the Reaper.  Shepard fought the urge to collapse, instead managing to reach Joker and grabbing his shoulder.  Her grip may have been too strong because she saw the pilot wince, but he did not ask to her move her hand.

Shepard hadn't been aware that the little shuttle could go so fast.  It swung drunkenly through space as Joker struggled with the screaming in his own head, but it did so at a rapid pace.  Slowly the sound lessened to a dull screech, then stopped all together.  Joker tapped a few controls and the shuttle slowed to a more manageable cruising speed.  Shepard watched in astonishment as Joker turned on the auto-pilot, something she had never seen him do in all their time together.  He slouched back in his chair with an exhaled breath, then reached up and pried Shepard's fingers from his shoulder.  “That's going to leave a mark,” he smiled wanly at her.

“Sorry,” Shepard flexed her hand, realizing how tight her muscles had been.  She turned back to her team.  “Status,” she barked, falling back on her military nature.

“Tali's still out.  I don't know how bad she is,” Garrus replied, running his Omni-tool over the quarian's limp form.  She was still cradled like a rag doll in Grunt's arms.  There was not room to set her down.

“Damn, what was that?” the krogan asked, his tone was angry.  Shepard knew that, like her, he hated an enemy he could not see, or face head on.

“I don't know.  Joker, patch me in with our little fleet,” she ordered. “All ships, report in!”

“This is Pike.  I got my people off and away.  Not sure about our other two teams.  We're near the Justice, do you want us to fly over and see if the turian are alright?”

“Negative,” Shepard said, her voice husky and dry.  “Get clear.  Rendezvous with the Normandy as soon as you can.  I want to know what the fuck just happened.”