Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

Dead Shepard

"Only after disaster can we be resurrected."
Chuck Palahniuk

February 7th, 2185

Josslyn E. Shepard

Shepard could hear that insufferable woman's voice again, from far away. It was grating on her last nerve, such a bitchy voice. If it kept blathering on, it'd ruin Joss for the Australian accent forever, and that was a damn shame because it was one of her favorite accents; right up there with French. Joss had always loved the French accent best, because it reminded her of trips home to Earth and staying with her grandparents when she was a child. Foggy mornings in Brest, eating grandmother's Tarte de Pommes a la Normande.

She'd considered it a sign of good luck when she received orders to report to an Alliance frigate named Normandy where she was to serve as Captain Anderson's XO. It was an even better omen that an old friend, Kaidan Alenko, was assigned to the same ship.

She'd met Kaidan during her two year stint at Annapolis. He was training to be a combat medic, she was getting a jump on her credentials before she mustered into the Alliance. It was Kaidan who helped her adjust to her first biotic implants, who went along with her ill-advised scheme on Omega, and who was rewarded for his loyalty with disciplinary action by the Alliance.

It was the reason Shepard had passed him by in rank, but he was never bitter about it. Kaidan loved her, would have done anything for her, but she could never love him back. She gave him only her friendship, and he lived with it for far too long without complaint. It may have been selfish of her, but Kaidan was the only thing Josslyn had that approximated family.

They argued constantly, like brother and sister. They were competitive as hell, even over nonsensical things such as whose mother or grandmother made the best pastries. Alenko always insisted that his mother made the best apple pie and apple tarts in the world. That one really rankled Shepard. A wage was made, the invitation to Kaidan's parent's house on Vancouver Island was extended, but Shepard always put it off.

Their joint assignment to the Normandy started well enough. They knew that Anderson had done them a solid by putting them together, so they played down their previous relationship, kept each other at a distance, but then came Eden Prime and it all went to hell. From the moment Josslyn Shepard first set eyes on Ashley Williams, she was done for. Ashley was everything she ever wanted, except for the fact that she didn't feel the same way about Shepard.

A smart officer would have kept her mouth shut about it, but not Shepard. She felt obliged to vent her heartbreak to Kaidan—no consideration for how it must have made him feel, but it was a difficult time, and she needed a sounding board. There were alien images in her head from the beacon on Eden Prime, new responsibilities as a Council Spectre, and a command that she felt guilty about.

They'd taken the Normandy right out from under Anderson and handed it to her. The Captain was being pushed aside in favor of the officer he'd devoted so much of his time and energy on. On Omega, in 2171, Anderson had stopped a raging teenage girl and her fool of an accomplice, one Kaidan Alenko, from an act of vengeance that might have started a war with the Batarian Hegemony. It must have seemed a strange twist of fate to him that the ship of his dreams was ripped away and awarded to that same kid.

If Josslyn Shepard had one glaring fault, it was that she always found it difficult to control her feelings. She defied superior officers far too often, put herself in risky situations, and broke every fraternization regulation in the books. Worse, she never seemed to learn. Her performance always outstripped her deficiencies. The little mistakes were always glossed over by the medals and the accolades she brought to the table.