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"Got an ID on that ship yet?" Shepard glanced at Joker as he turned the corner and headed for the CIC. Valeria followed him through the airlock and stepped aside to let the rest of the team and the captured quarians pass by. She brought up the rear, stopped at the holo-projector that took up most of the CIC's central area, and watched the others escort the prisoners into the lift.

"Scans indicate the approaching ship is a Kilimanjaro-class dreadnaught," EDI reported, and everyone in the CIC exchanged a series of quick glances. From their expressions, Valeria guessed they weren't sure whether to be relieved or not.

Ah. The crew used to work for Cerberus. Despite helping Shepard stop the Collectors from abducting more human colonies in the Terminus Systems, and all the other good they'd done in the past few months, many still considered them terrorists because of their former affiliation. The Systems Alliance probably still had arrest warrants on them. Admiral Hackett and Councillor Anderson had been keeping the Alliance off their backs, so far, but that didn't guarantee some maverick captain looking for a medal wouldn't make a run at them anyway and hope the result justified it.

A silhouette of the dreadnaught appeared above the holo-projector. Shepard paused near Valeria, cocked his head, and then jogged around to his station behind the galaxy map.

"Huh." He leaned on the rail and stared at the image. "Is it the Orizaba?"

Lia glanced up at him and then walked over to Valeria.

"It is," EDI said. "They're requesting communication."

"That's good to hear." Valeria sighed.

Lia glanced at her. "It's friendly?"

Valeria leaned over to her. "Shepard's mother is on that ship. She was the XO of the Kilimanjaro around the time Sovereign attacked the Citadel, and now she's the captain of the Orizaba."

"Ah, that's a relief. The way things have been going, I assumed we were in for another fight."

"Communications link established," EDI said.

"SSV Orizaba," Shepard said, "this is the SSV Normandy. What're you doing in this neck of the woods?"

"Well, son, you're not an easy guy to catch up with." Hannah Shepard let out a quick chuckle. "Admiral Hackett slipped me a few details about your current mission, so I decided to lend you a hand. I figured I could use it as an excuse to get you to fill me in on the two years you were missing. Well, assuming it's not classified."

"It's not." Shepard grinned and his face took on a slight red tinge. "We've got things under control, but I'm glad to have the company. If you'd like to come aboard, I'll get you up to speed on what's been going on." His blush turned a bit darker and he cleared his throat. "Especially since I should've talked to you about it a long time ago. Things have been a little hectic since I, uh, resurfaced."

"Sounds like I'm in for a hell of a story. Come up along our starboard side and we'll extend our docking umbilical."

Shepard nodded and glanced across to the cockpit. "Joker?"

"On it. We'll be in position in a moment."

"Stand by, Mom." Shepard and Tali walked around the left wall of the CIC and into the forward corridor, heading for the airlock behind and to the left of the cockpit. Valeria followed them. She wasn't going to assume it couldn't be a trap, and wanted to be within striking distance if it was. And even if it wasn't ...

There's not much else to do at the moment, anyway. The injured quarians were already in the med-bay and the rest of the boarding party was more than enough to handle the ones who'd surrendered. Valeria glanced over her shoulder and spotted Garrus pausing to speak to Kelly Chambers before catching up with the rest of them. Kelly blushed, grinned, and tugged on her collar before staring intently at her console. Val laughed softly and faced forward.

"Linked up," Joker said. "Pressurizing airlock."

The doors parted and Everyone stepped into the airlock. It cycled and the outer doors opened, revealing a woman in a Systems Alliance uniform. She grinned at Shepard and rushed forward to put her arms around him.

"It's good to finally see you." She sighed, stepped back, and looked him over. "A lot less formal, these days, eh?"

"Well, since I haven't rejoined the Alliance, wearing the uniform wouldn't be appropriate." He shrugged and motioned at the inner doors. Everyone stepped aside so she could pass. "It'd been a long time since I wore anything other than a uniform or off-duty Alliance-issue clothing, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm liking it, so far."

"Letting your hair grow out, too, I see." She walked into the corridor.

"Heh. That's another thing I decided to try. It's growing on me. Uh, no pun intended." He grinned and glanced at Tali. "She loves it, so that's definitely a plus."

"I'm Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. I'm happy to finally meet you." She shook Hannah's hand, then reached over to run her fingers through Shepard's hair. "And yes, I'm quite taken with this. Head-hair has always been kind of fascinating to me, since humans are the only species who have it, as far as I know."

"You and Mr. Vakarian helped stop the Reaper invasion two years ago." Hannah smiled at her before turning to Garrus and shaking his hand. "It's an honor to meet you both."

"Seems our reputations have preceded us." Garrus chuckled.

"I read the report my son filed after the battle with Sovereign. Word got around – about that and about your more recent trip to the center of the galaxy to stop the Collectors. You guys are practically legendary." Hannah turned back to Shepard. "Despite what the Council and Alliance brass say, there's a lot of us who believe what you said about the Reapers. Admiral Hackett's been doing what he can to coordinate personnel and resources so we can be as ready as possible when the rest of the Reapers come knocking on our door."

"That's good to hear." Shepard let out a relieved sigh. "After the Alliance and the Council sent us off to mop up the Heretic geth instead of putting together a strategy for dealing with the Reapers, then being gone for two years and coming back to find out they just sat on their asses that whole time … well, we were starting to feel like we were all alone. I'm glad to know there's someone who hasn't been pissing away the last two years."

"We evaluated the evidence you presented, and accepted it. The people who didn't … well, they're politicians. They all had their own agendas."

"That's something we've become all too aware of, lately," Tali said, letting out a long sigh.

"There's still hope. We'd be in a far better position if so many people at the top hadn't wasted all that time, but Hackett's been pretty good at picking up the slack. By the time the Reapers hit us, I think we'll be able to give 'em a run for their money."

"That's an enormous relief." Shepard smiled and waved a hand at the cockpit. "Well, I'll give you a quick tour of the Normandy and then we can talk in the briefing room. I've got a lot to catch you up on."

"Lead the way. Oh, and I was just ribbing you about the civvies and your hair. I actually kind of like it."

"Well, thanks."

"You look pretty damned good, for a 'dead' guy." Hannah winked at him and glanced around at the others. When no one else smiled back, her grin faded. "That was just a rumor, right? Or a story that had to be put out there for a deep-cover mission?"

"Nope. I really was dead."

"You're kidding." Hannah glanced around again. "You have to be yanking my chain."

"Nuh-uh," Joker muttered from the cockpit. "Shepard was as dead as my sex life."

Hannah stared at him, turned back to Shepard and stared for a full ten seconds. Then she held her hands up and shook her head rapidly.

"Yeah, okay, uh … let's skip the tour, eh? I'm gonna need you to fill in the blanks for me right away."

---

"Everyone can relax," EDI said over the intercom. "The approaching ship is the SSV Orizaba. Commander Shepard's mother is its captain. She's coming aboard to speak with him."

Chula let out a long sigh and sank into a chair at the table nearest the kitchen area and the XO's office. "Thanks for letting us know. I'm sure we've all had our fill of fighting for a while."

"I'm always up for more." Dakka shrugged, grinned, sat beside her, and put her tray down. Quint took the seat beside her and placed his own tray in front of him.

Chula stared at her parents and motioned at the vacant chairs across from her. "Sit down. We have a lot to talk about."

"I'll remain standing, just in case." Her father crossed his arms over his chest again and nodded toward Weyland and Yutani, the former visible through the window into the medical bay, conversing with Dr. Chakwas beside Magnum's bed, and the latter speaking with Mess Sergeant Gardner and gesturing at the food cooking in the pots and pans. The injured quarians occupied the rest of the beds and sat on the floor, all of them staring at Weyland, their glowing eyes wide in nearly suit-wetting fear.

Chula glared at him until he started to fidget. She stood and pointed into the med-bay, directly at Magnum.

"See that woman? That's one of my crewmates, and one of my friends. She's clinging to life now because Admiral Xen gave the order to fire on our ship. A ship which was unarmed, by the way, and is now a cloud of debris being collected by a salvage team. If my friend doesn't survive, the geth will be the least of Daro'Xen's concerns." Chula pointed at the chair. "And you, you morons, have been endangering our entire species, so sit the fuck down or I'll throw your ass into that chair."

"You can't speak to your parents like--"

"The parents I remember would never have done something like this. They were too smart not to see the danger. I looked up to them. You, though? You're not them." She shook her head and took a slow breath to rein herself in.

"Seeva, please," her mother whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder and lowering herself slowly onto one of the chairs. "Being stubborn won't get us anywhere."

He stared at her for several seconds, let out a sharp sigh, and flung himself into the chair. "Fine, Eriya. We'll hear her out."

"Oh, thank you." Chula shook her head, turned to her mother, and softened her tone. "Thank you."

"I'm sensing a bit of tension," Gardner called out, adding a nervous chuckle. "Let me know if anyone's hungry. A good meal is among the best medicine there is."

"I'm good for now, Mr. Gardner, but thanks."

"The food's probably poisoned by that thing over there," Seeva grumbled, motioning at Yutani.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Chula clenched her fist, took a few more deep breaths, and finally relaxed. "Yutani seems to have developed an interest in cooking over the past few months. She prepared most of the meals for us on the Sulaco."

"No wonder you're on their side. They probably put something in your food to brainwash you."

"When I first joined them, I scanned every meal they prepared for me, and it was clean. Not only that, but they had a ship bringing food and medical supplies from Rannoch, just for me. They'd meet us way out in interstellar space, far from any planet or station, so they wouldn't risk causing a panic. I believe you're familiar with that ship, actually, since it's the one you attacked."

"It was …" Eriya glanced at Seeva. "It was bringing food for you?"

"Yes, and also for Lia'Vael, after she joined the crew. And medical supplies, as I already mentioned." Chula shook her head. "Fuck me, you didn't even bother to find out what that ship was doing before you disabled it, boarded it, and slaughtered its crew? I should slap you upside the head just to hear your tiny brains rattling around in your skulls!"

"Now, just a --"

"Why did you get involved in this, anyway? What made you want to be on the stealth ship's crew?"

Seeva glared at her. Eriya sighed and stared at the table.

"Captain Vuto'Galon contacted us. He needed someone with our skills on his crew, and he knew how we felt about the geth and taking our homeworld back."

"When you told us about nearly being killed by pirates early in your Pilgrimage," Seeva said, leaning forward abruptly, "that's what made us want to take Rannoch back. We wanted you to have a homeworld to come back to, so you wouldn't have to continue your Pilgrimage and put your life at risk every day. We wanted the Pilgrimage to become unnecessary, and getting our homeworld back would make that happen."

"We already have a chance to reclaim Rannoch without losing any lives. You did watch the recording of our session with the Admiralty Board, right?"

"I did," Eriya said softly. She raised her eyes to meet Chula's gaze. "You really believe what the geth said about letting us have Rannoch back?"

"Yes. They don't want to fight us. They've been rebuilding all the structures that were damaged in the Morning War. They don't need food or an atmosphere, so they don't live there; they maintain a presence only for the repairs, and to hold on to Rannoch until we return." Chula turned back to her father and narrowed her eyes. "Not only have you jeopardized that by attacking their ships and trying to provoke a retaliation, you've endangered all of us."

"I understand that, now." Eriya stared at the table again and wrung her hands. "As several of you in that recording said, the geth outnumber us and they can build new mobile platforms in a matter of hours. If they decided to fight back, they could overwhelm us." She turned to Seeva. "There are children in the Migrant Fleet. Children too young to pick up a gun."

"You're starting to believe this?"

"Wow." Chula slapped her palm to her visor. "Did you really become a fanatic after I started my Pilgrimage, or are you just having trouble admitting you were wrong?"

He tried to make eye contact, but couldn't. He crossed his arms over his chest, hunched forward, and stared off toward the med-bay. "I … we wanted …"

"I know what you wanted, Dad. We've got a shot at it actually happening without throwing away any lives, if you give it a chance. Continuing to attack them will only make things worse." She leaned forward and glowered at him. "Look at me. Look me in the eye."

He finally lifted his head and met her scowl.

"If I haven't been able to get this through your skull, I want you to understand one thing. If you try to attack the geth again, you'll have to go through me first."

He reared back and his eyes opened wider. "Your mother and I would never hurt you!"

"You won't have a choice. You know how it'll end if you start a war with the geth. I won't let that happen." Chula motioned at the quarians in the med-bay. "I want you to tell your crewmates, and make sure they spread the word to everyone they know, that if they keep trying to wake the dragon, I'll be coming for them, and hell will be right behind me."

He stared at her and shook his head slowly. Eriya sighed and stared at her hands for a few seconds before looking slowly up at him.

"She's right, Seeva. About how it would end, I mean." She reached out to grasp his hand. "Maybe we should give this a chance."

"Listen to her, Dad. Please. If you start a war and both of you end up fighting in it, sooner or later, you'll be killed." Chula took a few ragged breaths to regain control of herself. "I can't lose you. If you want to do something for me, then stand down."

He stared across the room for a moment, then he slumped forward and leaned on the table. "Fine. We'll wait and see how this turns out."

Guess that'll have to be good enough, for now at least. Chula turned to the med-bay and noticed Weyland appeared to be conversing with several of the injured quarians. Their body language indicated slightly less fear now, but some of the others still seemed wary.

"Well," Eriya mumbled, "what will happen to us now?"

"I don't know. We're taking your ship and its crew to the Citadel. The injured ones will get the best medical care in the galaxy in Huerta Memorial Hospital. The ship will likely be confiscated. The geth should have the rights to its schematics, but as you saw in the recording, they think copies should be sent to all the major governments. I'm not sure if any of you will face charges since the quarians and geth aren't under the Council's jurisdiction, but I have a feeling they'll want to hold on to Daro'Xen now that her plans for taking control of the geth have been exposed. I doubt the geth could be hacked indefinitely, but just the fact that she wants to turn them into her own private army is cause for concern."

The sound of the elevator doors opening grabbed her attention and she glanced over her shoulder. Shepard, Tali, Lia, Valeria, and a woman in a Systems Alliance uniform appeared from around the corner.

That must be Hannah Shepard. Chula leaned back and let out a long sigh. I don't think I've ever been as grateful for an interruption as I am now.

---

"Interesting 'briefing room' you have here," Hannah said as she took a seat at the adjacent mess hall table. She took a quick look around at the handful of Normandy and Sulaco personnel walking around or having a meal.

Shepard wasn't kidding about the cook. This is the best lunch I've had in quite a while. Dakka finished her jug of water, put the lid back on, and placed it beside her tray with a long, contented sigh. She leaned back, crossed her ankles, and slipped her arm around Quint's shoulders.

"I thought this might go over better in a more relaxed atmosphere." Shepard sat across from his mother and nodded over his shoulder at the kitchen area. "Want some coffee?"

"I have a feeling I'll need something stronger, but sure."

"Coming right up, Cap'n." Gardner hurried over with a pot and two mugs on a tray and poured a cup for her and Shepard. They thanked him and he returned to the kitchen.

"Okay, kiddo," Hannah said after taking a few sips of her coffee, "let 'er rip."

"Well, not long after making a huge deal about preparing for the Reaper invasion, the original Normandy was sent to hunt down the geth Heretics who escaped after Sovereign's destruction. There was so much more we should've been doing, but I had to follow orders and hope for an opportunity to get back to work on the real problem. Anyway, we'd received reports of ships disappearing near the Amada system. We weren't sure if it was the geth or just pirates or slavers, but we went in to investigate. Turns out it was none of those."

"The Collectors." Hannah gripped her coffee mug in both hands and stared at him.

He nodded. "Their first shot cut right through our kinetic barriers and crippled the Normandy. We could barely maneuver, couldn't return fire, couldn't escape." He paused to take a slow sip of his coffee. Tali scooted closer and put her arm around him. When he continued, his voice was barely above a whisper. "I gave the order to abandon ship. Twenty of the crew didn't make it."

"That's something every captain may have to face," Hannah said softly, "but it's always rough. You know it could happen on any mission, but it hurts anyway. I've always felt that losing even one is too many. Understanding that it couldn't be avoided never helps much, either."

Shepard nodded slowly.

EDI's voice came from the overhead speakers. "Jeff Moreau remained in the cockpit after the rest of the crew launched in the escape pods. Shepard got him into another pod, but the Collector cruiser fired on the Normandy again. The beam sliced through the hull between Shepard and Jeff, cutting Shepard off from the pod. Shepard launched the pod just before an explosion threw him clear of the ship."

Hannah gripped the mug tighter and squeezed her eyes shut.

"That's EDI, the new Normandy's AI," Shepard said. "Sorry I didn't introduce you to anyone, Mom. Guess we both got a bit distracted."

"Yeah, you could say that." Hannah managed a brief chuckle and glanced up at the speakers. "AI, eh? Interesting."

"Commander Shepard saved Jeff's life," EDI continued. "I am grateful. My existence would be severely diminished without Jeff's presence."

Hannah raised an eyebrow and then a smile slowly appeared. "He always did make me proud."

Shepard's face took on a hint of red and he shrugged.

"So." Hannah braced herself and stared into her coffee. "What happened next?"

Shepard's smile vanished. "I watched the Normandy explode. Just floating there in space, completely helpless, watching the ship break apart. The Alliance and the turians developed it together, and it was the most advanced ship they'd ever built – and it was taken out with a few shots from the Collector cruiser. What was left of the Normandy got pulled in by Alchera's gravity … and so did I."

Oh, shit. Dakka winced and exchanged a glance with Quint. Humans don't have a backup nervous system, circulatory system, or any other redundancies krogan have. And even one of us wouldn't have survived that.

Hannah raised her right hand and pressed it over her mouth.

"As if that wasn't bad enough, then my suit ruptured in several places. I couldn't do anything except watch my air leak out until I couldn't breathe anymore."

Hannah shuddered and reached out with her other hand to grasp his.

"Next thing I remember is waking up in a Cerberus lab. They called it the Lazarus Project. They brought me back, somehow, but I guess I wasn't done at that point. I could barely breathe, and my heart was racing out of control, pounding so hard it actually rattled my bones. Then I faded out again." He paused for another long sip of his coffee. "Next time I woke up, the station was under attack. I remember hearing distant gunfire and explosions, then Miranda Lawson's voice on the comm system, guiding me to the hangar. I had to fight my way through the station, ran into Jacob Taylor on the way, and then we met up with Miranda in the hangar, grabbed a shuttle, and got the hell out of there."

"Jesus," Hannah whispered. "How are you here, then? I mean, if you really died and …?"

"I don't know how Cerberus brought me back. Miranda ran the project, so she could give you the details." Shepard shrugged. "My armor must've prevented me from completely incinerating in Alchera's atmosphere, but I don't know how the impact with its surface didn't liquefy what was left of me. Which wasn't much, according to Jacob. He said I was 'nothing but meat and tubes.'" He shook his head slowly. "They probably used stem cells to grow new arms and legs and whatnot, and somehow they regenerated my internal organs and got my blood flowing again. Implanted some cybernetic components, too. For a while I wondered if I was just a clone, but the Illusive Man insisted that he wanted me brought back exactly as I was before -- not as a copy. So … well, here I am."

"Never in a million years would I have expected to be grateful to a terrorist organization like Cerberus, but if they hadn't done what they did, you'd be dead." Hannah held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, until she'd regained control of herself. "Can't help wondering why they did it, though."

"They seemed to think I was the best bet for stopping the Collectors."

"Well, they were right," Tali said.

"I couldn't have done it without my team." Shepard took another sip of his coffee. "The Illusive Man is a hard nut to crack. He seemed to honestly want to stop the Collectors from abducting more human colonies in the Terminus Systems, and it's a good thing he took action when he did, because they were getting ready to target Earth. On the other hand, he wanted the Collector base for himself, and boy, was he pissed when we blew it up instead." Shepard grinned. "He got over it later on, and has continued supplying us and giving us information, but we've made it clear to him that we're not working for him anymore, he's working for us. He seems to still want to stop the Reapers, so he's not bucking too hard. Well, more like, he probably wants to use their technology for his own purposes. But for now, he's still useful."

"Just keep an eye on him," Hannah said. "I did my homework on him when I heard the rumors about you working for Cerberus, and I wouldn't trust him with a spent thermal clip."

"He'll have to be dealt with sooner or later. He sank most of Cerberus's money into bringing me back, so it's only a matter of time before the rest dries up and he won't have much else to offer. For the moment, no one can track him down, but as soon as we find him, he'll have to be arrested. I'd trust Miranda to take over and turn Cerberus back into the kind of organization it should've been -- protecting and advancing humanity, but not at everyone else's expense."

"Well, from what I've seen of your crew, it seems that some Cerberus personnel are decent people, but there are plenty of others who assassinated people and performed horrific experiments." She glanced at Tali. "And openly attacked a quarian ship. Once you put the cuffs on the Illusive Man, you'll have some housecleaning to do."

He nodded. "We'll get started as soon as we find him."

"Glad to hear that." Hannah took a longer drink of her coffee and glanced toward the med-bay. "Well, there's so much more we need to talk about, but we're probably getting pretty close to the mass relay by now, and you've got patients to take care of."

"We'll transfer them to Huerta Memorial once we arrive, and then we'll see what the Council wants to do with the stealth ship and its crew. Thanks for having the Orizaba escort us to the relay, by the way."

"Not a problem. Can't just hang there in space when you've got wounded people to take care of. I hope we can talk more after you've got things sorted out."

Her Omni-Tool beeped and she tapped its interface. A man's voice came from her comm.

"Captain, we're detected another ship. It's at the edge of sensor range, so all we've got so far is a silhouette." The man's voice quivered very slightly.

"We've just picked up the same thing," EDI reported.

Shepard arched an eyebrow. "Geth or quarians?"

"Neither." From EDI's tone, she seemed unsettled all of a sudden. "Its silhouette is squid-shaped."

What? Dakka leaned forward and glanced around at everyone as they jumped to their feet.

"Jesus Christ," Joker whispered. "Reapers!"