Chapter Five: In Which A Great Amount of Time Passes

An Excerpt from Alliance Investigations of the Central Command Structure of the Citadel Station:

There is some part of the cultural aspect of the Citadel Station that no human seems to be able to understand which is the frankly bizarre correlation between the military standings of individuals and their standing among society in general on-board the station. As opposed to the Alliance's Arcturus Station there is no regulations on issues such as fraternisation or even the civilian knowledge of military ongoing actions.

Many members of the Alliance Senate think that this is due to the Shadow Broker. From my investigations on the station itself I must disagree. The Shadow Broker is too obvious a candidate although I feel I must put forward one of my own – known only as 'The Lady Commandant'. On-board the station for five years as a civilian I heard this person referenced only once outside of Citadel Security where it appears she is a frequent visitor and that was in a bar where several turians and salarians mentioned that she was preparing to 'scrap' an entire fleet. As far as any of my information is aware the Citadel Fleet has no plans to be scrapped or even renovated in the next ten years. Originally I had assumed that this 'Commandant' – which is not a rank in any of the known military structures in use within Citadel Space – was asari but I don't believe that salarians or turians would be so reverent towards even the most powerful of the asari matriarchs.

From: Admiral Hackett

To: Arcturus Station Military

Subject: Intelligence

Found following inscription:

.IV-Commdat=?

Translation ASAP

As far as warnings went the one Captain Anderson issued to the crew of the Normandy was simple enough: be polite, be nice and stay the hell out of the way unless asked otherwise or empty the latrines for the next month. That was after he allowed the Turian Spectre to beat the living daylights out of you and, yes, that included Joker.

Anna Kai was a representative of the Citadel Council, not the Alliance and was in fact not affiliated with the Alliance, did not have the same oaths as the Alliance and, most important, did not have the same rules as the Alliance. Anderson wanted there to be as little trouble as possible and that meant he wanted to be at Eden Prime and out again within three days as opposed to the initial time scale of a week. Joker could do whatever he wanted as long as he managed to stick to the schedule.

Joker had already been wondering what the safest way to Eden Prime in under a week would be but now he and Navigator Pressly were trying to figure out any route there in under three days and unless they overrode every queue to every mass relay there and back it wasn't possible.

Hopefully their turian spectre guest would be able to help them.

As well as how the hell they were meant to get to Eden Prime without single handedly pissing off every vessel between the Citadel and the colony there was the fact that the Normandy was – well – strange.

The Normandy was certainly unlike any vessel any of the now rather eccentric crew had ever served on but much to the bemusement of the Human Systems Alliance crew it was in fact the turian spectre and the rather sweetly strange human companion that had little difficulty in getting to grips with the unusual layout of the ship. This was of course because the Normandy – pride of the Human Systems Alliance as she was – had been almost entirely lifted from basic layouts for Turian Hierarchy frigate-sized vessel. Other than that there was also the fact that by this stage scuttlebutt already meant that the entire crew already knew that Joker had already met and in fact been on a date to the late addition to the rooster.

The really rather pretty, polite and in the words of Francesca Chakwas 'simply adorable' addition to the rooster. Not to mention really rather young considering she'd been on the Citadel. It usually took several years of experience in any career – the only exception perhaps being a member of the consort's business and even then it was known that meeting Sha'ira's expectations was incredibly difficult mainly because it was never clearly defined what the consort actually wanted in her handmaidens.

Between Nihlus and the rather uncharacteristically short captain however things managed to go rather calmly. Miss Kai – Anderson had introduced her as such and the crew were not prepared to disagree that she was no more a civilian than any of them were - and Nihlus tended to pair off together during the day and the crew went on as business as usual while Joker was teased a little more than normal as well as giving Pressly a fit at the prospect of a route that could theoretically make it to Eden Prime and back in three days. If Joker was catcalled more than usual he didn't let on and if Miss Kai was being glanced at more than would usually be expected she never let it phase her.

The plan was simple – go to Eden Prime, allow Shepard and Nihlus do their thing, get the beacon on-board and then get back to the Citadel. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite according to plan and no one could honestly say hand on heart(s) when it started to crumble around them.

The people of Eden Prime said it was when the turian spectre went planet side.

Anderson said it was when the great big utterly massive space ship with the Geth ground forces attacked the space port attempting to retrieve the beacon.

Shepard reckoned it must have began after the head of Eden Prime threw what could only be described as a temper tantrum at the presence of a turian on his human colony.

Joker decided it the second he got out of the pilot's chair which meant that he'd had to direct another pilot on defensive moves to avoid the aforementioned utterly massive space ship.

Nihlus had sent a report back to the Citadel simply saying: Attack on Eden Prime. Fatalities. Third Re-con Arrival saved colony. Issues to be solved. He also decided that he was going to try and get to Omega and Afterlife as soon as he's finished his current term and drink himself into oblivion for a day or three.

Kaidan decided that the attack by the utterly massive space ship with the Geth ground units was terrible although he was incredibly proud of his squadron of marines for dispatching more than a few of the Geth. It was when the Fleet of odd shaped, utterly insanely proportioned ships had arrived to aid in the removal of the utterly massive ship that all hell really did break lose especially politically. Unfortunately it was when the swishy thingy came out into the fray that he was suddenly concerned that he simply had to be dreaming.

Anna simply wasn't comfortable with how comfortable she had been wielding a light sabre or with the fact that someone somewhere in the Human Systems Alliance was having contact with someone somewhere with contact with either the Jedi Order or Revan and Malak's Sith. Damn.

Death. Destruction. Reaping. As her mind was haunted by long forgotten deaths Anna felt the mental screams of Commander Shepard as her mind too was being touched by the beacon. Death. Destruction. Reaping. Reapers.

Sith?

The space port was badly damaged but it was not unfixable. Almost immediately there were plans to get the port back to its fully functioning abilities. The Normandy remained docked in the space port while Captain Anderson, Anna Kai, members of the Eden Prime Parliament along with the leader of the fleet that had answered the bizarre call that Miss Kai had thrown at Joker to initiate after the Geth's first attack. Not that anyone dared to admit it but there were plenty people had heard Nihlus's not so quiet roar across the battlefield that the colony was not adequately defended and that they required reinforcements. Even fewer would have offered their opinion that the spectre had been right.

Both Francesca Chakwas as well as Kaidan Alenko had been working with the wounded for many hours. The majority of the injured were people who had been at the outskirts of the space port, many of them were engineers who were working on the extension of the monorail, farmers and those who worked on the space port cargo areas. The Normandy was under orders to remain at Eden Prime – in fact the exact words by Admiral Hackett – 'that damn turian and his thing could get their asses back to the Citadel themselves'.

Miss Kai's father and colleagues were not impressed.

Had Anna been conscious while the negotiations were still at the 'stand and shout yourself hoarse' stage she would not not exactly been pleased herself with her new knowledge of the Systems Alliance. Rather unbelievable there in fact was a rule book for those who were active members of Citadel Space and an even larger ones for races with embassies. Had the books governing the actions of Citadel Council races been actually physical books they could probably have snapped an arm off the Citadel Station. There were asari rules, turian rules, salarians rules as well as quarian, human, volus and elcor and batarian rules. There were military rules and C=Sec rules and civilian rules. Someone in the Alliance had broken one of the rules in the blackest, boldest ink under the heading 'Treason'. She was going to find out who.

Fortunately Admiral Caryth of the Reconnaissance Fleet which had remained in orbit over Eden Prime was more than happy to ensure safe passage for the Spectre Nihlus and Miss Kai to the Citadel Station and was also more than happy to keep his fleet over Eden Prime until both were allowed to leave the planet by both the Alliance and the Alliance's medical teams who had been working on the pair. Until both Citadel representatives were well and able to leave Eden Prime his fleet would be more than happy to remain until they were able to do so. When accused by Admiral Hackett of threatening the Alliance he had twitched his head to one side and made a part shrug part shake movement.

"I can either wait here and insult you which will result in our politicians having an argument or I can return without both Nihlus and Miss Kai and have the Spectre Corps and most of C-Sec after my throat. I would indefinitely prefer to piss you off Admiral."

Hackett gritted his teeth but the batarian – battle scarred, harsh and unassuming in his actions - seemed utterly nonplussed by the man's fury. He had not forsaken his rights as a batarian citizen to join the Reconnaissance fleet decades earlier to be upset by a grandstanding human opponent. He had been a part of the apolitical fleet before his people had left their embassy and gone into total isolation from the rest of Citadel Space. Like the rest of the batarians in the citadel forces he was offered to leave with his political representatives or to remain but be exiled from batarian space. Caryth didn't care for humanity. It was a loud, rude, uncouth species but if it could better the military might of the Citadel and keep a decent tongue in its mouth he wasn't going to get upset. Standing on-board his own bridge of the flagship Malachor and being insulted by this rampaging alpha male was not the ideal position that the admiral wanted to be in but he could not leave the Commandant here unprotected so here he would stay.

The piecemeal bridge staff of the ship intensely studied their own screens and were perfectly polite and perfectly cold as was their way when dealing with people from outside the fleet. Anderson was unnerved. There were two asari, a salarian and a quarian manning the communications fray and all four were kept by constant incoming updates from across the galaxy and even from beyond the edges of space claimed by the Citadel races. There were krogan standing as security, an matriarch had gone down to the makeshift hospital on Eden Prime and offered her services identifying herself as one of the fleet's medical specialists. The ships were massive but also equipped for huge ranges even from the not technically minded captain could understand in a glimpse. He had come aboard with Hackett and too been horrified to find a batarian in command.

Batarians were the enemy. Batarians were evil and cruel and slavers and not good.

The simple task of opening her eyes was sore. Or rather it was absolutely agonising. A pair of large brown eyes looked down on her as she squinted . She was tired, drained of the whisperings of the Force she had commanded during the ground battle. Healing primarily – the civilians who couldn't wait for medical aid and the inadequately prepared and equipped ground units which had taken a hammering at the arrival of the geth mainly. Then there was Nihlus. Nihlus who had been shot badly. Blue turian blood seeping into the lush green grass of Eden Prime. Saren had done that. Saren was a traitor. Saren was getting away. She had chased him eventually being ambushed by several large white geth and lost her pistol and she never carried any other type of gun except a sniper rifle but she had been advised not to bring it in case it upset the local authorities and she was Force drained so she had tried to pull the pistol back to her and instead it was a light sabre that found itself in her hand. A red light sabre which had made little work of the large geth as they were cut to shreds, little work of the blue corpses which mindlessly attacked everything that approached. She had been too late to prevent Saren boarding the ship which promptly blasted its way through the Third taking heavy damage.

She was hurt and limped badly as she made her way to where Nihlus was meant to have met Shepard's team to find that the private had been killed in action and a marine, human female, had joined to team. Shepard had been shouting but by that stage Anna had been going into shock and as Shepard pushed her back the man had pointed out the smears of blue and red and black blood were in fact not smears at all but where Anna was bleeding through her clothes but Shepard had pushed both herself and Anna into the beacon's field and within a matter of seconds bother were unconscious and . .

"Nihlus?"

She gasped and clamoured for breath as she reached towards to face and grabbed the humans shoulder. It was Kaidan Alenko, Joker's friend from the Normandy.

Kaidan looked down at the pale face of Anna Kai and pushed some of the hair away from her face. She was the last critically ill patient from the attack, nearly everyone else had gotten better but some had died. She had been on the ground purely by chance when the attack had struck. Nihlus had been an unwelcome arrival and only her willingness to go with him to the dig site had meant that Nihlus going ground side hadn't resulted in a political mess. She was so small and sweet and unassuming yet she had ripped through the battlefield with power, accuracy and deadliness that not even an entire squad of marines could match. It had taken him days to get her from the doors of death and only with the help of Matriarch Deanna who had been with the Re-con Fleet.

Whatever she was Anna Kai was not human.