Crossing the River

The voices in his head were talking to the voices from the beacon. Jordan really wished they could have this conversation somewhere else. Like, in someone else's body. "One must be saved." He really wanted to respond that what they were saying didn't make any sense, and that if they didn't stop trying to fill his mind with visions, he was going to die. "We must warn." The images flashed, brighter and harder than anything he had ever seen before. The energy flooded his body. The warning was being hammered into his skull. "You must hear us."
Giant machines, machines that breathed. Machines that needed organic life, in quantities unimaginable. A cycle, endless, warped, repeating. "They are coming."
The beacon exploded, and all Jordan could feel relief that it was over at last.
Jordan sat up, shaking off the nightmare. He hadn't had a decent night's sleep since Eden Prime. Suddenly getting command of the Normandy and a crew that he barely knew in a crazy mission to save the universe probably wasn't helping with his stress levels. The aliens were also a weird, jarring feature of his new life.
The Quarian girl was nicest, but that was probably because they were both interested in the same things. Who wouldn't like a girl who could assemble a utility mech from scratch, and then write all the code for it? He had to admit, the mask did creep him out a little. What if she had a horrible alien face under there? Jordan laughed at himself.
Garrus, the Turian, was apparently the younger brother Jordan never had, while Wrex was his undiscovered, very large, perpetually angry uncle, in Krogan form. Jordan shook his head, and again admitted that Siarists were closer to the truth about the Universe than any other religion or philosophy he had ever encountered. He wondered what Matriarch Benezia's daughter would be like.
Alenko was the first biotic Jordan had ever worked with. For some reason, Alenko made him think of Mei. They had the same expressive eyes, large and dark. He moved the same way, sometimes - a slow, learned grace. And the migraines. Jordan hated seeing Alenko flinch at the first symptoms.
Williams was the type of girl he knew far too much about. Colonist, soldier, chip on her shoulder. Fast make-out sessions behind the lockers, and refused to go any further. Didn't trust aliens, didn't like Spacers, believed her colony was the best Humanity had to offer. The fact that she was probably right didn't make it any less annoying.
Jordan decided to go check on the crew, see how everyone was doing, before they reached Artemis Tau. He walked out of the captain's cabin - he still didn't feel like they were his. Third shift crew was having a meal, greeted him. No new gossip.
Jordan walked past the monitoring station. "Hello, Lieutenant. Anything new?"
"No, Commander."
He nodded to Alenko, and started to walk away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alenko press a hand to his eyes, and inhale sharply. "Are you all right, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, sir, I'm fine."
Jordan raised an eyebrow, letting Alenko know he saw through the blatant lie. "If you're not feeling well, Lieutenant, you can lie down in the captain's cabin. It's the only area on the ship with self-controlled lights and temperature, so you can mess with the settings and get comfortable."
Alenko looked at him in surprise, and a little nervously. "I - I don't want to be any trouble, Commander."
Jordan shrugged. "I'm going to be out and about for a few hours, anyway. My shift will go a lot easier if I'm not worrying about the status of my crew." Jordan headed towards the stairs. "If you like, I can order you."
"That won't be necessary, Commander. Thank you," said Alenko gratefully.
The thing Jordan hated most about being in command was all the walking. He walked up to the cockpit, talked a bit with Joker. "Can we rename you Sarcastic? How about Sarkasmo? Everyone loves classical allusions."
"Don't you have any real work to do, Shepard?"
The CIC was also running smoothly. "Pressly, break something so I'll have something to do."
"Commander, why don't you go play with the Mako some more? I'm sure Williams will appreciate that."
"Is that a crack on my driving, Pressly? Because if it is, well, I probably deserve it. But I'd like to see you steer something that goes 160 kilometers per hour. When braking."
"Tell you what, Commander. I'll drive the Mako, and you plot the next course jump. How's your grasp on multivariate hypercalculus?"
Jordan just stared. "That's not even a real word, Pressly."
"It's shorthand for finding needles in haystacks. Really large haystacks that move. With variables that change depending on the hour."
The little blond navigator giggled at the look on Jordan's face.
"I'll just be going now." Jordan beat a fast retreat before the other navigators had hysterics and started yelling random math problems and their answers again.
He went down to the Engineering level, and actually ran into Williams as he stepped out of the elevator.
"Hello, there," he grinned. "What have you been up to?" He wondered if Williams had time for a few minutes of R&R.
"I was just getting a snack," Williams explained. "Why is Alenko in your room?"
"I told him to go lie down. He wasn't feeling well. Why do you even know about that?"
Williams shrugged. "I saw him walking in while I was at the Mess. You know how bad that looks, right?"
"If you're the kind of person who thinks that way, sure. I was standing right in the open when I made the offer," said Jordan, trying not to lose his patience.
"Yeah, Chun mentioned how nice you are. But you do know that Alenko's a bit off, right?"
"No," said Jordan sharply. "I have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't care." Narrow-minded Colonist, he had always hated the stereotype, and here Williams was doing everything she could to live up to it.
"I'm just concerned about your reputation, Commander."
"Thank you for your concern, Williams. I'll continue to see to the needs of my crew as I see fit."
"Of course, Commander," said Williams coldly. "If you'll excuse me, I need to finish maintenance on those assault rifles." Williams turned and walked back to her station.
Jordan smacked himself as soon as she was out of sight. "I probably could have handled that better." He sighed. "And I really need to stop talking to myself."
"Commander," Joker said over the intercom. "We're approaching Artemis Tau."
"Heading back to the CIC."
"How many times do you suppose someone tried to rename it the Combat and Operations Command Kiosk?"
Jordan laughed. "That was really bad, Joker."
The mission on Therum was something Jordan would always remember. He had once tried to explain to Wrex why there were so many boxes of cereal in the Mess. “We like surprises,” he had said. “Humans are strange that way.” The fun of pouring yourself a bowl of cereal and finding a pointless, cheap toy. The fun of fighting through waves of mindless Geth, skill and speed paramount, hacking a mining laser and using it to blast away ancient Prothean technology, and then… having a beautiful Asari literally fall into your arms. “We like surprises.”
He stared at her for a moment, tried to remember how to breathe. “You must be Dr. T’Soni.”