Free For All

Disclaimer – Mass Effect belongs to Bioware. I've just borrowed their world for a bit, no harm, no foul.

A/N – Elizabeth Carter and I have shared some story ideas, so while you may see some similarities, it's all about where the story takes you and how you get there. Read them all and let us know what you think.

Chapter 1

The Normandy was a flurry of activity this morning as crewmembers rushed throughout the ship. Commander Terran Shepard watched the controlled chaos with a barely suppressed smile. Even her normally unflappable pilot seemed a bit flustered as he dropped the call he had just taken.

"Any luck?" Shepard asked coming to her familiar place on his left.

"No way, Commander, everything's booked. I'm going to be stuck her for days," Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, aka Joker, looked more dejected than she could ever remember.

"Are you sure you don't want my help, it's not a problem, Joker," the spectre offered once again.

"Well, maybe, I guess," he spoke hesitantly. "I really hate to ask."

"It's OK, I won't tell anyone, " she smiled, adding "Well, maybe not too many people."

The pilot slumped noticeably in his seat, but didn't call her back as she walked away. She had plenty of favors to call in, the spectre was sure she could get her pilot a small ship for his two week romp. After that, he was returning to Earth to see a new medical specialist. While they had been traveling through the galaxy, there had been some breakthroughs in the treatment of Vrolik Syndrome. One of Shepard's contacts had passed this information on when plans for the Normandy's work had been finalized.

The state of the art ship when it had launched had fallen victim to the same fate as every other ship. The technical advances continued in science labs everywhere while the Normandy had been out saving the galaxy. New advances in FTL technology as well as in stealth detection had rendered the ship more of a standard status instead of extraordinary.

The Alliance was faced with either moving their only spectre's command to a newer ship or retrofitting the Normandy. They opted for the latter, deciding to give the crew a break as well. Given the special nature of the Normandy's assignments, Alliance command had decided to survey the crew, with the objective of reassigning anyone not eager for their unconventional missions. To their surprise, all but one had selected returning to the Normandy as their first choice. The vast majority took pride in assisting the spectre and enjoyed the notoriety that came with being on this crew. The lone dissenter was the navigator who wished to be assigned to an all-human command. His opinion of other races had changed somewhat, but his tolerance had not. Most of the returning crew was scheduled for extended shore leave followed by training on the new systems. Alliance Command had left the handling of the non-human crewmembers to the commander.

Shepard walked through the ship, speaking to various crewmembers as she made her way back to her quarters. She had gone through each of the crew's files individually, citing the work they had done under her command. The spectre was proud of the what they had accomplished and was glad they wanted to come back. All but Pressly, she thought, shaking her head. Shepard respected his knowledge, but was not overly concerned to see him go. He was not the only one who started off with a mistrust for aliens. But he was the only one who still held to that belief at the end.

Liara T'Soni looked around furtively, then slipped into the comm room, securing the door as she passed the control. This simple rule infraction had her jumping at shadows, regardless of what Lt. Joker had said. The pilot had helped her to arrange this call, happy to be involved in anything affecting the commander. The asari just hoped he would keep his word and not listen in on the conversation. It was going to be difficult enough already, she did not want to have to worry about his opinion as well.

"Dr. T'soni, " Joker's voice was most professional, "incoming transmission from XO Shepard of the SSV Kilimanjaro."

"Thank you, Joker, please send her through," the asari's voice was not as strong as she had hoped. "And please remember your promise."

"Patching her through, Doc, and don't worry, you can trust me," the rouge pilot smiled, actually meaning it this time.

"Dr. T'soni, Hanna Shepard here," the voice was warm and pleasant, not at all what the asari had imagined it to be.

"Commander Shepard, I am in our debt, thank you for taking the time to speak with me," the scientist's voice was shaky, nervous now that she was actually talking to her beloved's mother.

"Please dear, not so formal, call me Hanna. I have heard so much about you, I'm looking forward to meeting you in person," the elder Shepard replied. "Your note intrigued me, is there something I can help you with?"

"Well, I, um, wished to ask your opinion on a personal matter," the asari began, but was quickly interrupted.

"Open air is no place for that, but I have an idea," Shepard smiled to herself, picturing the young asari her daughter had described. "What are your plans prior to coming to visit?"

"I was just going to stay in the Citadel for a few days, then on to Earth," Liara responded, not sure of where the human was leading.

"My leave begins day after tomorrow, I'll be touching down on the Citadel tomorrow evening," the XO explained. "Why don't you come with me and we'll have a surprise waiting for Terran when she comes home. We can also have that conversation face to face and I'll be happy to help you where ever I can."

Liara was taken aback by the offer. Humans were one surprise after another. Expecting resistance at best, this woman she had never met was offering to take her into her home without a second thought. The scientist thought of the time alone in her apartment that she and the spectre had planned for those days, but her curiosity about this human made her decision easy.

"I think your daughter was planning some time alone with you prior to my arrival," T'Soni offered, not wanting to interfere with their plans.

"Nonsense, I'll have plenty of time with her. I would like to get to know you a bit too," Hanna explained.

"That is most kind of you, I would be happy to get to know you as well," the asari replied, her mind whirling at this change of plans and wondering how she would explain it to her lover.

The two spent the next few minutes arranging their meeting. Keeping the secret would be interesting and both hoped they could pull it off. The elder Shepard ended their transmission and left the asari in a happy silence. She was definitely going to have to be creative in coming up with a good story. Maybe she should take the pilot into her confidence, that is assuming that he did not already know. He would probably have no problem in creating a perfect cover story. After a minute, she thought better of that. It was nice to be planning this surprise, her Shepard would never be expecting something like this of her. She was smiling as she stepped out the door and walked up to the bridge.

Noticing her light step and faraway smile, the pilot had to hold his first comment, remembering which Shepard she had been speaking to.

"Went well, I guess?" he asked as she came to stand at his right.

"Yes, very well as a matter of fact," she responded, sharing no details to his dismay. "I wish to thank you for arranging that, Lt. Joker."

The pilot just shook his head at that name. It was her running joke, he guessed. She was smart enough to get it but smarter to know how much it bothered him. Not giving her the satisfaction of a response to it, he continued without a pause.

"My pleasure! Helping you break the rules is my specialty," he chuckled, not realizing that another presence had joined them at the bridge.

"Helping her break what rules, Joker?"

Both the pilot and asari turned around guiltily at the spectre's voice. The pilot started to stammer an excuse, but was smoothly interrupted by the resourceful asari.

"Shush, you are not supposed to know about it," the scientist looked across at her mate.

"Know about what?" the commander replied, noting the smiles that had crept across both their faces.

"The party tonight at the Flux," the asari continued.

"Doc, you weren't supposed to spill that," the pilot groaned, playing along with the idea. "Ashley's going to kill you for letting her know. It was supposed to be a surprise."

"Well she probably would have gotten it out of me eventually," Liara said defensively, glancing at the spectre. "At least this way we know she will come."

"Yeah, like she wouldn't have followed you anyway, Doc?" Joker smirked until he saw the look the commander directed his way.

"By the way, Lieutenant," the commander stressed his rank. "There's a small transport registered to you in the C-Sec pool. Just get it back in one piece."

"Wow, thanks Commander!" the surprised pilot exclaimed, ecstatic at this fortunate turn of luck. "Oh, and ETA to the Citadel is about 45 minutes."

"Good, the sooner we get this started, the sooner we'll be back on board," the spectre replied, turning to leave. "C'mon, Li, we're not done packing up."

"Good bye, Joker," the asari said quietly. "Thank you."

Joker just shook his head and watched her quickly follow the spectre, a spring in both their steps. So she did know how to use his nickname, he thought with a smile. He had given up trying to figure out females a long time ago. It didn't make a difference what race they were.

He opened a channel to the gunnery chief and told her of the surprise party they were planning. The marine readily agreed, it didn't take much to convince her to celebrate anything. Just as he expected, she quickly rambled off the people they needed to tell and volunteered to spread the word. Party taken care of just like that. He sometimes even impressed himself! Grinning, he reviewed the console in front of him and prepared the ship to enter the mass relay.