Encounter at Rashomon Valley (A Star to Sail Her B

Kelly walked back up the stairs from Jack's quarters and looked through the window to the hangar bay. Mordin and Tali were standing near the shuttle, looking at something inside. Both had their omnitools out.

Probably the shard.

Timidly, she approached the port cargo bay. If she was nervous around Jack, she was doubly so around Grunt. His size alone intimidated her, and his attitudes towards non-krogan disturbed her.

"Chambers," Grunt snorted.

"Hello, Grunt." She stepped inside.

"Here to pick my brain?"

Kelly forced a laugh. "Here to hear your part of the story." For lack of a chair, she perched on a rail near the window.

"OK, then. Listen."

--

Shepard got a message from Samara, telling her that there was a piece of Reaper on Nagori 49-7 in an abandoned human colony. Some farming facility. We wanted it. We went there to take it.

We landed a ways from the main settlement, Rashomon Valley. Long walk, but nothing we couldn't handle. Better than being seen and shot before we got anywhere. The whole place was surrounded by these fields of plants. Tall, tangled, covered in blue flowers and piles of this heavy pollen. Got into everything. I was making my way through it fine, but the drell handed me a knife. Made it easier. Got to remember to return that.

We got to the edge of the settlement. Thane and Garrus moved ahead and found a way in without anyone to kill for it. Boring, but sensible. Shepard wanted it as easy and quiet as possible, like she always does.

We follow this alley in to the hospital, Garrus gets set on rear guard, and the rest of us go into the hospital. Thane and Shepard get point, take out a bunch of guards and scientists, while I'm stuck in the back with the quarian and the salarian. Jack was getting annoyed, too. Shepard shut her up fast, though. I decided not to test her patience just then.

The shift changed, and a big bunch of guards were heading our way. Jack and I were ready to take them out, but Shepard made us hide in a lab. Hiding, like scared pyjaks. Hrmph.

This lab had a big cage with a bunch of humans in it. The batarians planted explosives inside them, with remote detonators. Excellent strategy... would get past a lot of security measures that way, and most species would be squeamish about ripping them open to disarm them. Shepard wanted to help them. So did the quarian and salarian. We left those two to deal with it, and the rest of us stayed on our objective.

A couple more skirmishes, then there we were, facing the basement. Big group of guards. Finally, some action. The drell climbed into the air ducts, Jack took one side, and Shepard and I took the other. 1, 2, 3, go. Jack hits them with a biotic bomb, sends one flying at Shepard. I caught it and slammed it to the ground before it could reach her. It didn't move after that. Heh. Crushed a couple more into the walls. Bullets and biotics took out the rest. Fun, but loud.

We knew there would be more coming, so we hit the basement. There it was, this huge hunk of black metal and circuits. Looked like a burnt-out VI server system. It was gonna be heavy and a pain in the ass to get out of there.

The reinforcement showed up. We took turns shooting at them until they thinned out. Then, one of them said they were calling back for more. Jack took that moment to shove forward and blast them clean out of the stairway. Unfortunately, she also blasted the wall and a support beam. Sloppy. I charged up, took care of the rest. One of them was holding an explosive, obviously planning to chuck it into the basement with us. With the reinforced walls, we'd be blown to chunks. I grabbed him and threw him into the open wall. Caught his buddy's arm in the process, threw them both. One of them tagged the damaged beam. The other one blew up a few moments later.

I heard stuff caving in. We started to make a break for it. Shard was lighter than it looked... Thane and Shepard hauled it out behind us. We ran into Tali and Mordin in the hall with their group of foundlings. We got to the back door, and one of the damned things went tearing off down the hall. Shepard chased after it, got caught in an explosion for her trouble. Made it out, though.

We all piled into the... what the HELL is going on down there?

--

Kelly blinked, then turned around, sliding down from the rail. Jack had joined Tali and Mordin in the hangar bay... and was hanging in mid-air, surrounded by a biotic bubble of some kind. Her eyes glowed.

Grunt charged out of the cargo bay and headed for the hangar. Kelly stood dumbstruck for a moment, then ran after him.

Jack hovered above the deck, arms stretched wide, head thrown back. A keening wail, half-human, half-other, was streaming from her throat. The lights flickered. Mordin was scanning her with his omnitool, eyes wide. Tali was flattened against the shuttle.

"Should I take her down?" Grunt yelled to Mordin.

"Not sure."

EDI's holopresence flickered open. "Jack is attempting access to root files. Initiating countermeasures."

"What? How?" Tali shook her head. "That's impossible..."

Kelly shook herself. "The shard! It was trying to talk to her before!"

All heads turned to look at her. Including Jack's. A tentacle of biotic energy lashed out, knocking her to the ground. Grunt snorted, then charged. He found himself launched across the hangar bay.

"MORDIN, TALI, MOVE! NOW!" Shepard's voice rang across the hangar bay. Everyone turned to look. She was dripping wet, gasping for air, and clutching her M-622 Avalanche. Garrus came flying in behind her, skidding to a halt.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Kelly saw Mordin and Tali leap to the side. A tentacle of energy began to swing towards Shepard, but not before she got off her shot. The slug impacted the shard inside the shuttle. Jack screamed. Garrus tackled Shepard, knocking her away from the tentacle's reach. Something shattered. Jack hit the deck, unconscious.

"What just happened?" Tali and Kelly asked, almost in unison.

Shepard rolled over on her side and vomited. Blue liquid poured out of her mouth. "Urgh. That sucked." She tried to sit up. Garrus slipped an arm under her and helped her. "Give me a minute and I'll tell you. But first..."

Mordin was already at Jack's side, checking her vitals. "She's alive. Unconscious, but alive. No neural damage detected beyond normal parameters."

"Beyond normal parameters?" Shepard arched a brow. Mordin gave her a meaningful look. "Oh. Yeah." She tried to push herself up, but broke down into helpless coughing. Garrus slipped his arms under her and started to lift her. "Don't...even...think it," she choked.

"Too late. Suck it up, Commander." He lifted her, then looked over at Grunt. "You ok over there?"

Grunt stood up and brushed himself off. "Fine."

"Good. Grab Jack. We'll bring her to the med bay. Where the commander will be returning."

"Buh..." Another coughing jag interrupted her mid-word. "Bite me." He grinned. She gave him a feeble punch to the shoulder. "Fine. I'll kick your ass later."

"Counting on it."