Another excellent chapter, long in the coming perhaps but still a good denouement from the excitement of the previous adventure. I'm keen to see what's next for the queen's gambit ;)

And the texting is an interesting innovation. I think it fits pretty well!

I love this story. I'm happy with the texting, it is easy for me to read and i am liking the ability to have more personal conversations when they can't be monitored

The noise I made when I saw this update! I'm so thankful it's not abandoned.

Yessss an update! I really liked it, and the idea of having them communicate via WhatsApp, err, I mean texting, is good! I'm so happy my favourite ME fic got updated, SKREEE!

Well, somehow, I missed this! I didn't know you'd updated until I got notification of a side-story you posted!

So glad that you've not forgotten this. I enjoyed the minimal conversation style of the text format, but it might get a bit boring if it's an every chapter thing. I like the insight into the emotions of the speakers, so I always want more. It is appropriate both generationally and situationally, so I think it fits well.

Hoping there isn't another year until the next chapter.

-Alex

Thanks for coming back to this fic. It is great to see you writing on this again! Thanks for the great chapter!

Good to see another update. The character interactions are really well done. First person I often found too samey, but Traynor's head space is really interesting. And the teasing is on point.

EDI was pretending to be a VI, not an AI. Just something I need to point out, sry. But all in all a nice chapter with a subtle hint of fluff here and there, because Traynor.

An update? Am I dreaming? Is it my birthday? I almost took my glasses off to clean them and look at my e-mail inbox again. :)

So excited to have an update and I really enjoyed this chapter. I had no problem keeping up with the messaging dialogue (though I had to double check on the nicknames once or twice to keep the ladies straight in my head). You did a great job of keeping their personalities present despite not actually seeing facial expressions or reactions, etc.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Mass Effect brought me to FanFiction and Queen's Gambit was one of my first and most remembered stories.
I am really happy that you picked it up again and enjoyed every bit of it.
Your portrait of Traynor itself is already great, but the interaction with the other characters and her inner monolouges are even better.
I dearly hope that you continue the story and wish you much Inspiration and all the best.

Ahh, this is nice, it's been a while since I've been able to enjoy the writing of an author that is actually able to write characters interacting with each other instead of just jumping from one plot point to another. :D

This is a continuation of my previous review because my thumb slipped at the worst possible time and I ended up sending you an incomplete review anyway...)
...further evidenced by the fact that they miss initially when they fire their laser, and then continue to fire the weapon,in a grid-like pattern from left to right, like a really deadly search-light. Once they clipped the Normandy, they were able to fire additional salvos using the damaged sections of the ship to find and target the rest of the Normandy. Kinda like a game of Battleships, only in space. Cerberus probably figured out what happened in this fight and specifically redesigned the Stealth drive to be able to handle the heat from the FTL drive while still hiding the ship's position, without vaporizing the crew.
Anyway, so that's my theory on why the SR-2 can successfully hide from Reapers even though the SR-1 was blown to bits by the Collectors. It's mostly based on the prologue for ME2 and that first conversation with Adam's in ME3 where there was a small blink-and-you'll-miss-it dialog where Adams talks about the differences between the SR-1 and the SR-2, and mentions how the drive core was completely overhauled.
Anyway, please feed my need for more Shaynor soon. I love this story. It's fantastic. In the meantime I'll just get back to rereading this fic for the third time while I play more ME3. Maybe this time I'll romance someone other than our beloved Samantha (not likely, she's too damn cute).

Hello fahRENheit2006, I'm just going to start this off by saying I absolutely enjoy this story. There's just not enough good shaynor on fanfiction, and I absolutely love this pairing. I've already read and reread this story three times, because Sam is just the perfect adorably awesome ball of innocence and Shepard absolutely needs her in ME3.
I just wanted to address one of the plot holes you pointed out and explain how exactly the Collectors were able to ambush the Normandy SR-1 even though the Reapers can't find the SR-2. The SR-1 was using a prototype stealth drive. This was very new technology, so of course there were a lot of flaws in the SR-1's drive that were fixed in the SR-2's. The one we care about is that the SR-1 could not, for real length of time, activate it's Stealth drive while the ship's FTL drive is also active.
This was a serious problem with dangerous repercussions. Basically, if the Stealth drive and the FTL drive for less than a minute, the Stealth drive would overheat and vaporize the crew. Basically the Stealth drive couldn't handle the increase in heat and electrical emissions the engines would give off while running at Faster-Than-Light speeds.
This means whenever the SR-1 jumped to a new system using the FTL drive, Joker would have to first completely disengage the FTL drive, before he could then bring the Stealth drive online. You actually hear him go through this process in the opening cinematic. The ship drops out of FTL and Joker talks about disengaging the Drive core and bringing the Emission sink online. This means that, for the first few minutes, whenever the SR-1 would jump to a new system it would trigger every sensor in range before the Stealth drive would activate and the ship would drop off the map, so to speak.
All the Collectors had to do was take out several Alliance ships in the same area, and then just wait for the SR-1 to investigate. Once the SR-1 drops out of FTL, the collectors would be able to grab the ships bearing, heading, and trajectory and they would be able to use that data to extrapolate a rough idea of where the Normandy would be in ten to fifteen minutes.
This is exactly what happens, the collectors can't actually see the Normandy they just know a general idea of where the SR-1 should. This is further evidenced by the fact that they miss initially when they fire their laser. (I know it's not a laser. I'm just calling it a laser, because it looks like a laser and getting into the specifics of the Reaper's very deadly water gun is not important.)

Ohmygod it's an actual sam/shep story! I am so happy, I love that plucky Brit. I actually completely started the game over, just to romance everyone's favorite comms specialist. Please tell me you have included a small citadel DLC scene. I NEED Traynor saving the Normandy with a FUCKING toothbrush!

Hope to see something again?! I love this story so much. I hope life is going well with marriage!