Mass Effect: Reaper Dreams

Strong Reaction

"The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction."

Plato

March 27th, 2188

Ashley Williams

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"I've got it," said Specialist Patel.

Ashley stared at the scanner's virtual display which floated just above the galaxy map. With a touch of her finger, she rotated the asteroid to the area that Patel had highlighted, then zoomed in. The debris was unmistakable. It was the remains of a Kodiak shuttle. With any luck, it would turn out to be Miranda Lawson's shuttle. Using her Omni-tool, she opened a link to her ship's navigational VI.

Ashley directed the VI. "Correlate, one: average cruising speed of a Kodiak shuttle. Two: time of last mission report by Miranda Lawson. Three: all population centers, civilian facilities, and Alliance bases in this sector. Four: all of Lawson's known contacts and associations. Five: all former Cerberus personnel."

The VI answered seconds later. "There are thirty-seven matches, Captain Williams. I have taken the liberty of sending you a list sorted by probability factors."

Ashley turned her link off, refusing, as was her custom, to say 'thank you' to a damn computer. Her crew did it all the time, and she found it annoying as hell. It only served to remind her what was missing.

The Salamis had no AI, a fact that she found increasingly frustrating. VI's took longer to do just about anything. EDI would have located this shuttle in a day or less. Instead of thirty-seven matches, she would have cut this list down to three or four, and probably suggested the one that would turn out to be the correct suspect.

She shook her head in disbelief. Ashley had always hated machines. Hell, she'd fought two wars against them. Now she found herself wishing her ship had one. Every time she accessed the computer, she half-expected to hear EDI's voice come over the com, and when it didn't, she always felt a sense of disappointment, of loss. How was it possible that she was missing an AI like it was an old friend? The universe didn't make a damn bit of sense anymore.

Patel tried to get her attention. "Ma'am?"

Ashley growled. "What do you want, Specialist?"

"Orders, Ma'am. Do you want us to retrieve the shuttle?" he asked.

"Of course I do," she snapped.

Realizing she hadn't assigned it to anyone, she jumped on the com and started barking orders.

"Prangley, put together an extraction team. I want that shuttle in the cargo hold by 1800, and I mean every splinter of it. Have Ueda categorize and log every piece. Tell her that she's working her way off the captain's shit-list, so she'll be thorough."

Ashley stepped down from the command overlook and headed for the stairs to the half deck. Everything had been more difficult since her XO's death. Sherman had known the ship from ass to nose. He was good man, a hell of an Engineer, and the entire crew felt his loss, but that wasn't why she was on edge.

As she started down the stairs, she focused on the job ahead. If she could track down Miranda's last contact, she might open up a new lead which was what they needed. Vega's operation on Benning had netted several dozen Cerberus agents, and every damn one of them had an ocular flashbang. Their head operative, Commander Nicholas, had seemingly vanished into thin air after fleeing the scene of the crime. Benning was still under Martial Law, but the civilian government was staging a full protest. Sooner or later the Alliance would have to back down, and then Cerberus agents could come and go as they please.