[VIDEO, shifting to ACTION potentially | 001: Arrival]

[standsentinel]

[By the background, Kaidan, outwardly a normal-looking dark haired man in his mid-30s, is still on the ship. Still beside the pod that's disgorged him even, as a blurry nameplate can be made out behind him if you squint. His own communicator has come to him in the form of a datapad, which he's currently holding out in from of him with the slight abstracted furrow to his brow commonly seen amongst iPad users as they try to make sure the camera's focusing. Some things carry down across centuries, apparently.]

Look. I don't know where the hell I am, but this sure as hell isn't the shuttle down to Vancouver. Everything's saying 'ship', but I'm not hearing engine noise and what little I've seen says this thing is way too big to be stealthed.

And there's another thing--

[He turns the datapad to let its camera pickup take in the pods along the corridor.]

That's not normal cryostasis like I'd call it. It looks more like prothean tech. So if anyone's picking up on this frequency, I could use a few answers.

[After a moment more, he stares at the camera and awkwardly rubs at the back of his neck with one hand as he's recalled to manners and lets the irritated command slide out of his voice.]

Uh. Please?

Comments

[Audio]

[femshep]

[Audio because there's no way in hell he's seeing exactly how uncertain she's looking right now.]

Stay where you are.

I'm coming.

[Video]

[standsentinel]

Shepard?

[He should be concerned. He should be distrustful -- after all, he was headed back to earth because she's about to go before a tribunal regarding the deaths of three hundred thousand batarians. What he actually sounds like is relieved, and just a little bit of pleasure pairs with it, lightening his expression across the one-dided video feed.]

You got it, ma'am... although I, uh, guess technically I have to stop calling you 'ma'am' now.

[Indeed, those are major's stripes on the shoulders of his BDUs.]

[femshep]

[Oh, she noticed. That's the least of her questions right now. In fact, she's talking to Liara for a second, but other than that she's done with the conversation until she arrives. Until she confirms this face-to-face.

Maybe 15 minutes after the talk with Liara ends, Shepard's on her way down the pod-lined corridors toward where she remembered his specific pod being. He can probably hear her coming, but she hasn't quite reached his row yet, and there's a tiny and irrational part of her that isn't quite sure she wants to.]

[standsentinel]

[When and if Shepard screws her courage to enough of a sticking point to reach him, it's to find someone who is unquestionably Kaidan Alenko, if a couple years older than when she last left him. There's silver at his temples that wasn't there before, and the guns that he's crouched down to pull from his duffle and field strip to inspect in right-and-proper soldierly fashion are a Phalanx and an Avenger with modern thermal clips in use.

And then there's the jump in his rank bars.

But it's very much Kaidan still. His eyes lift to meet hers, a mix of searching and expectation.]

Shepard.

[femshep]

[There's no 'when she screws her courage' about it. No hesitation. Whether she's sure about this or not, there's no way in hell she'll show it. This is something she has to do. Has to understand. Because this is impossible.

But it seems that much more possible when he meets her eyes. There's a moment of silence after his greeting, a moment of searching and the barest hint of otherwise-concealed uncertainty, and then:] Kaidan.

[Another pause, this one a bit longer, and the next bit's a little more wary.]

But you were dead.

[No use beating around the bush.]

[standsentinel]

What?

[Kaidan sounds honestly startled by that, and takes a quick look down at his hands and the half-assembled pistol in them as if checking to make sure they've not gone ghost-translucent while his attention was elsewhere.

They haven't. Something twists his expression then, worry darkening his eyes as he looks her over closely and answers with a voice gone hushed.]

No-- No, Shepard. If that's-- Did-- Cerberus tell you that after Horizon? I, uh... I tried sending an email.

[His cheeks warm slightly as he replays how lame that last sentence sounds, especially after how he remembers Horizon going down. Rather than rub at his biotic implant site with hands full of gun parts, he visibly stills himself back to the task -- quick and sure -- of re-assembly.]

[femshep]

Horizon? [What he's saying just plain doesn't mesh with what she knows, and it's showing on her face as a jarred sort of confusion.] I-... How do you know about Cerberus? [She'll get this in a second. For now, she's still reeling.

After a pause, she shakes her head a little.] I didn't know you made it off of Virmire. We all thought-... [Her jaw sets. He doesn't need to hear it again.] If we'd have known, there's no way in hell we wouldn't have come back for you. [Though it's said with certainty, she can't help but feel a twinge of guilt. She sealed his fate in an instant those years ago, and somehow now she's got the right to pretend it was something she couldn't have found some way to stop. Something that wasn't entirely her fault.]

[standsentinel]

How do I know about-- Shepard, I was standing right there. Enough time has passed, and enough news has spread that Shepard turned herself and the Normandy in, that the heavy fire of hurt and betrayal that he'd been blazing away with on Horizon has... well, pick your thermal clip related metaphor here. Baffled concern lends an edge and a drive to his words all the same.]

What the hell--? I was right there as we pulled out of Virmire, too -- knocked out cold by Saren, but you pulled me out. You're not making any sense, Shepard...

[He trails off at that, suspicion darkening his eyes as he stares at her.]

Assuming you are Commander Shepard. What's the first thing you shot on Eden Prime?

[He's assuming that even the most heroic of obsessed biographies won't remember that poor, innocent gasbag.]

[femshep]

[She lets out a dry laugh despite the situation, because:] Shit, Kaidan, three years later and you still won't drop it. [Though technically it's not three years later to him. Nor is it to her, with her two years dead. Details, details. Either way, between Eden Prime and Virmire, three or four times she had to justify that it was scientific curiosity, or alternatively, that the gasbag could've been lethal and they really had no way to know.

But then the humor's faded, because she's going back over what he's saying, and it's dawning on her.] You think Ash died, don't you?

[standsentinel]

[Laughter answers laughter, although there's still a brittleness to it, and Kaidan shakes his head before returning to putting the final touches on reassembling his pistol.]

Someone needs to remember the humble beginnings of the great Commander Shepard.

But around the same time as he clicks and slides the trigger guard back into place and holsters the gun anew, his expression's gone back to bemused, and a little bleak this time.]

No 'think' about it -- nothing and nobody survived that nuke going off. That's... that was a hard call, Shepard. I still kick myself a little for asking you after if you made it that way 'cause of us. Stupid timing to ask, right then. Survivor's guilt...

[He huffs a laugh and a sigh mingled.]

Of course, putting my foot in it's sort've the story of my life, isn't it?

[femshep]

[And though she's trying to analyze this logically, figure out calmly and rationally what the hell's going on, the loudest and most prevalent thought in her mind is, 'there's no survivor's guilt, you didn't survive.'

And then there's 'us'. There's only one way to interpret that, not without blatant and willful ignorance, but she just... There's no way to wrap her head around that one. Not while she knows what really happened. Not while she knows why.

Shepard lets out a slow, inaudible breath. Then:]

It was Ashley I ran into on Horizon. [Her words are careful but sure. There's no doubt that it's been Ash all along, after Virmire anyway.] She was on the ship when we left Virmire. [There was no 'us', Kaidan. She managed to make sure of that.]

[standsentinel]

[It's that careful delivery that gets to him. There's no arguing against that much precision and certainty. He closes his mouth on protestations left unsaid and sinks back into a lean against the stasis pods with a shake of his head and his eyes pressed shut as if shedding one sense will somehow simplify the world.

In the end, he opens his eyes, looks her full in the face and opts for simple as well.]

If that's true... then how?

[One hand waves between the two of them, both alive and both present.]

[femshep]

[She shakes her head, mouth open slightly as if to supply an answer but after a second just offers a helpless sort of sigh. Then:] I don't know.

[She glances off down the row of pods, thoughtfully, as if drawing back a bit from this immediate confusion will clear her head a little. It doesn't.] If it helps, you're not the only one who remembers things that I don't. [A pause as she thinks about this, and though this next part's spoken to Kaidan, it's a little too contemplative--she's talking herself through this, too.] So who's to say I'm not wrong?

[standsentinel]

Hey--

[The word is soft, paired with an aborted twitch of his hand that, with the affectionate reflex behind it identified, leaves Kaidan standing a little stiffly and with a rise to the colour of his cheeks.

We are not making this more awkward, Major Alenko.]

Let's not start this by questioning either of our sanity.

[A hint of black humour slips into his tone, bracing and familiar.] And if anyone's going to start hallucinating or getting delusions, only one of us is the L2 biotic here, all right?

[femshep]

[Her brow knits in almost a scowl at his tone, at the incomplete gesture, because when it comes down to it, it's entirely too sensitive for her comfort.

'Let's not start this by questioning either of our sanity.'] I'm not. [Not defensive, but definitely firm. Judging by his stripes, she doesn't outrank him quite as badly as she used to, but that still doesn't mean she's ready to have a campfire pow-wow and talk about her feelings.]

Look, if you were delusional, how would you know about Horizon? About Cerberus?

Something will make sense here. I'm just not sure how yet. [But she will figure it out.]

[standsentinel]

[He takes the hint. The shored-up posture becomes properly military, and his expression and tone school themselves to firmly businesslike.]

Fair enough.

So. Are you a new arrival too, or do we have any sort of sitrep on what's going on here?

[femshep]

[Sorry, Kaidan. You've known her long enough now to know she's got defenses a mile deep, and to get through them you have to tread a little more carefully than that.

To his question:] I was one of the first, two months back, and there's still not much I can tell you.

[She glances over him--he appears to be as armed and equipped as ever, so there's no reason to stick around in here. She nods down the row, a 'walk with me', and heads off toward the exit.]

The planet's called Verdana, looks a hell of a lot like what I've heard of Earth. Pretty high-population city nearby, but it's sealed from all sides by some sort of barrier dome. It's not biotics--too big, too strong, and I'd be able to feel the difference.

There's a city on our side of the dome, too, or what used to be one. The Old City, that's the only name we've got. Ruins, all of it. There are a few civilians, less than a hundred in the whole place, and they keep their distance at the best of times and tend to just plain hide.

The Dome's got a sort of police force, high-tech and heavily armed, and as far as they're concerned, we're better off dead. The last raid took out a third of the people outside of the dome, mostly civilians who tried to beg for immigration. They show no mercy and take no prisoners. And their next raid's due any day now.

[She's failing to mention that she plans to provoke it. That's a conversation for another day, or at least a little later in this one.]

There's food, some in stockpiles and plenty more if you're willing to hunt, which we are. Telepaths every which way, so watch yourself. And a good chunk of the people here were stolen right off of their own ships... But they've never heard of Citadel Space, of turians or salarians or krogan, any of it.

[standsentinel]

[Kaidan's all sharp attention at this, his motions as he checks over the contents of his duffle practically on auto-pilot as he splits off most of his focus to following along.]

No way of telling how long the pods were in use. Any sign of Reaper tech involved with the dome, or no way to tell?

[Getting preserved as part of some failed (successful?) attempt to survive a cycle of reaping is not on Kaidan's to-do list, really.]

These Dome cops -- anyone ever taken them prisoner?

[femshep]

If there is, it's all on the inside. And we've had people a hell of a lot more powerful than us try and fail to get in.

[As for the second part, she shakes her head a little.]

The last time, we were fighting blind. Had to do what we could to stay alive.

Next time, though. Next time, we'll be ready.

[standsentinel]

It probably goes without saying, [Or maybe it doesn't, with Horizon between-them-but-not.)] that I'm up for anything you could use me for, Shepard.

Although...

[For a moment, despite it all, a familiar gleam of techno-lust colours Kaidan's expression.]

I am definitely taking some time to try and figure this thing out.

You got a base camp established cityside, at all?

[femshep]

Not yet. All signs are pointing to the high probability that the Authorities have planted some kind of spy. Until I weed them out, anything we establish is going to be fed straight back to the enemy.

[She has her theories on who it might be, but for now, it's just a faceless name to Kaidan. Ultimately meaningless.]

[standsentinel]

You always find us the best places, you know that?

[The joke is a mild one, paired with a smile more wry than amused before he returns to his questions.]

Is there anyone else from our time outside of Liara? And this datapad I don't remember owning -- bugged signal?

[femshep]

It's just the three of us. ['For now,' she almost adds, but there's really no reason to think any of the others will join them. Shepard found two familiar names: Kaidan Alenko and Liara T'Soni. And both of them are awake now.

And as for the datapad:] Isn't it always? I'm still working on a more efficient way to communicate, but really, it's just about like building a civilization from the ground up.

[standsentinel]

Well, I always did OK at those colony sim games as a kid...

[His expression is easy, and he decidedly doesn't mention Shepard's more real-world experience with colony life -- just because it's mentioned in her service record hasn't made it his business to talk about.]

I can probably take a crack at communication, at least. I came with my omni-tool, so if you two did as well, that's something for us, although any other strays you've picked up'll need a different solution.

[If this is really Shepard, she's totally collected people.]

[femshep]

[Oh yes, she's definitely collected a few.]

Our omni-tools will barely make a dent. Not sure how the hell it happened, but I've got fifteen, maybe twenty people expecting me to drag our asses out of the fire.