Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs,
and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
- Herman Melville

"Wake up, Commander."

Shepard's eyes flickered open, and for a brief moment the sounds of gunfire and explosions flashed through her mind. She rubbed the memory away with a hand and rolled over to look at the clock beside her bed.

0500. Great.

"Shepard, are you awake?" Miranda's voice crackled through the intercom overhead.

"I am now." Shepard yawned, sitting up. "We really need to work on your bedside manner, Miranda."

"This isn't the time, Shepard." Miranda replied, her sharp tone managing to cut it's way through even the intercom's static. "We have a situation in the engine room."

Of course we do. "What is it?" Shepard asked, getting up and heading towards her dresser. Her bruised muscles prickled at the sudden movement, but she ignored them.

"I'm not sure. Donnelly says it has something to do with FBA couplings you acquired for them."

Shepard pulled on a clean uniform. "The ones we got on Omega?"

"Yes. You should hurry, Commander. Donnelly said it wasn't good."

"On my way now." she said, stepping into the elevator and punching the Engineer Deck button. She stretched as it carried her down, closing her eyes and rolling her head around her shoulders. How much sleep did I get? she wondered. Four hours? The elevator slowed to a stop, earlier than she expected, and she sighed and opened her eyes.

"Garrus." she said, mildly surprised to find the turian staring back at her.

"Shepard." he answered, mandibles twitching slightly. Even after all this time she still had some trouble reading his expressions, but she took that one to mean he was as surprised as she was by their sudden meeting. "What are you doing up this early?"

"Situation in the engine room." she explained as she stepped over to make room, noticing for the first time she'd stopped on the Crew Deck. "You?"

"I'm always up early." he said, his voice enviably awake and clear as he joined her. He lifted his hands as he gestured to the small mound of clothes he held there. "Thought I'd catch a shower before all the humans woke up and stole the hot water."

"We do love our hot water." Shepard acknowledged. "But why are you waiting for the elevator?"

Garrus gestured to his clothes again. A closer examination revealed that the fabric was on its last leg, it's worn threads frayed to almost sheer in some places. Shepard thought she saw a hole in one of the sleeves. "Apparently vigilante life doesn't suit clothes as well as you'd imagine. Figured it was time to give these a proper send off out the trash compactor."

"No kidding." she said with a small grin. Once again the elevator slowed and the doors opened as they reached their floor. "Now to find out what's gone wrong this time. Coming Garrus?" she added as she stepped out.

"Wouldn't miss it." he replied, voice dry as he followed her. "I'll just drop these off and meet you there."

She nodded as she turned away and headed through the nearby doors. She kept her steps light as she walked across the metal grated floor, mindful that Jack might still be asleep below, and entered into the main engine room.

"I told you there was something off with the readings yesterday." Daniels said, hunched over the diagnostics panel in front of her.

"Ah, would you let it go, woman?" Donnelly called back to her from further down the room. "Tali, have you gotten to the arrays yet?"

"Almost. Keelah, it's hot down here. I hate these damn vents." Tali's voice answered from somewhere below their feet.

"Give me the update, Daniels." Shepard said, coming up beside the engineer and examining the screen. The jumbled mess of numbers and readings made as much sense to her as a hanar bio-luminescent joke, but habit made her look it over anyway.

"Commander!" Daniels said, jumping slightly in surprise. "Sorry, ma'am, I didn't hear you come in."

"It's fine. Miranda told me there was something off with the FDA couplings?" Shepard asked as she walked further into the room and came up next to Donnelly, who was crouched over a hole in the floor where a grate had been removed to provide access to the inner engine.

"FBA couplings, ma'am." Daniels corrected, following her. "We first noticed a spike in the engine's thermal readings yesterday, and I wanted to run some diagnostics to check in to it, but numb nuts over here said it was nothing."

"Damnit Gabby, watch what you say in front of the Commander." Donnelly said, looking up at them. "Are you tryin' to get me fired?"

"We'll all going to get fired if the engine ends up overheating, idiot." she retorted as she kicked at his leg.

"Wait, what's this about the engine overheating?" Shepard asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I thought these things just calibrated."

"Essentially, but there's more to it than that." Donnelly answered, rubbing his leg. "The couplings work with the attenuators in the primary power system that channels the field bleed-"

"Kenneth, you're speaking tech." Daniels cut in, turning to Shepard. "Basically what he's saying is that the couplings you got us must have been defected. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, but these seem to really have gone off the deep end. Somehow their managing to mess with the functionality of the louvers, which is increasing pressure loss across the panel and causing reduced air flow. Without that air flow, the engine can't cool down properly."

Shepard rubbed the back of her neck as she tried to understand. "Alright," she said slowly, turning her head slightly as Garrus came up beside them. "So how do we fix it? Can't we just send Garrus down there? He's our resident expert on calibrating things after all."

"Funny, Shepard." he replied, mandibles twitching in what she assumed was a grin. "But calibrating a spaceship's engine and calibrating a gun are hardly the same thing."

"Sorry, commander, but that's a no go anyway." Donnelly answered, standing up. "We've already got Tali down there running damage control by uninstalling the damn things, but the increased strain on the louvers has caused some damage. We're gonna have to get some new ones and soon or we'll be facing even more problems."

"Right." Shepard said, rubbing her itching eyes. "Nothing's ever that simple. Well, we're close enough to Omega to take the shuttle there and back. Can I find whatever parts we need there?"

"Definitely, Shepard." Tali answered, popping her head up out of the vent. "Need me to come along?"

"No, you stay here and help Daniels and Donnelly control the situation. Garrus and I can handle this one." Shepard said, glancing at the turian. He gave her a nod and she looked up at the intercom above their heads. "EDI, send the schematics to my omni-tool and get the shuttle prepped. We'll leave in the next ten minutes."

"Understood, Commander." EDI's voice chimed in response.

"Garrus, go get your gear and meet me in the shuttle bay. The rest of you, keep up the work. We'll be back soon."

"You can count on us, ma'am." Daniels said, giving her a salute.

"Thanks a million, Commander." Donnelly added, scratching the back of his neck. "And sorry about all this."

"It's fine." Shepard said, patting his shoulder before turning to leave. "It's not like you're asking me to go on a suicide mission or anything."

A/N: Since most of my Shakarian stuff's usually short and serious , I thought I'd try something different and go with a longer, more mission-like piece for a change. The Shepard in here's a little more specific than I usually do - she's an Earthborn Sole-Survivor Paragon - but other than that I tried to keep her as vague as possible. Also, if any of you are engine savvy, I completely apologize for the inaccuracies I'm sure I made. Anyway, that's it, so hope you all enjoy.~