For Peace

Beatrice Shepard

I will take a look around, the A.I said as soon as she was settled into a comfortable chair.

"How are you feeling?" Miranda asked giving her a once over.

"Stiff," Shepard replied leaning back on the chair and propping her legs up on the table.

"We should look into getting you into yoga," Miranda replied going back to her omni-tool. "It's great for relaxation and for stiff muscles."

"I'll take that into consideration," Shepard replied getting more comfortable. "Do you have any idea how long we have to wait until they grace us with their presence?"

"I'm sure they are scanning us and our omni-tool as we speak," Miranda replied taking a look around the room. "The Alliance wants to make sure we aren't bugged or anything."

Don't worry they won't find me, the voice said again. I know how to cover my tracks.

"Just hoping this doesn't take too long," Shepard said. "I have plans to go back into cryosleep as soon as possible."

"You're not the only one with plans," Miranda mumbled going back to her omni-tool.

I think you should see this, the A.I said as a notification on her omni-tool pinged. This is more than just investigating a wreckage.

As casually as she could, Shepard looked at her omni-tool and went through the information that the A.I had given her. Sure enough, the mission was more than just investigating a wreckage, it was about obtaining new alien technology and gaining new information on biotics. As Shepard continued to read through the information she saw a recent exploration report that piqued her interest. The exploration didn't go as planned but the group found an unknown pod in the alien wreckage. The pod showed an advanced technology that they had never encountered before. The Alliance had been going to great lengths to bring the pod back to earth but all previous missions to retrieve the pod had failed.

If she understood everything she was shifting through, then the Alliance only saw her as an expendable item. They wanted her to retrieve the pod and gather everything the exploration team had found. If she didn't succeed and ended up dead; the Alliance didn't care and her death would benefit them greatly. Shepard wasn't one to trust the Alliance just because they were the Alliance. In her previous awakening, the Alliance and herself had crossed paths several times and none of them ended peacefully. Monarch had to step in and diffuse the situation several times.

Shepard got the feeling that she might have to come up with a plan to deal with the Alliance before they could get to her.

Captain Anderson is approaching.

Shepard watched the door open and sure enough Captain Anderson walked in with a couple of datapads in his arms.

"How were the scans?" Miranda asked standing up. "Are we clean?"

"We had to make sure you weren't being bugged," Anderson replied. "This matter is of national security."

"Could've fooled me," Miranda said taking a datapad from him.

"This is all the information we have on the alien wreckage," Anderson said ignoring her comment. "We need you to go in and extract any information you can get from its memory banks, set up a communication hub, and bring back any technology or equipment we can study."

Is that all you want? Shepard thought to herself.

"How big is the ship you're lending us?" Shepard asked.

"Big enough to scavenge a few items before having to come back to this station," Anderson replied. "We don't want to attract any more attention from the aliens until we know what we are dealing with."