The Normandy was never truly quiet. Sometimes it just seemed like it should make more noise than it did.

Sitting in the cockpit, looking out at the blue shifted stars wrapped in the swirling lightning of free hydrogen impacting the mass effect field, there was a deep sense of power, of motion. Such forces shouldn't be enfolded in silence. If anything, the ship should be wrapped in an eruption of sound, a symphony to the stars.

Joker belched.

Then again, perhaps there was something to be said for the elegance of silence.

Williams liked the pilot, and therefore found herself willing to endure his cursory adherence to military procedures. Also, despite the shortcomings she perceived that he had as a soldier, she'd learned that the man was more interesting company than Wrex. Ashley now spent much of her time up in the cockpit when she wasn't actually working on weapons and gear. There was an irony in their friendship. He was a soldier who couldn't soldier, she a soldier who was convinced that she couldn't soldier enough.

The companionship available to the chief in the cargo bay wasn't all that bad. She had grown to like Wrex over the last several weeks. He was a relentless fighter, and the krogan had some good stories to tell, collected from hundreds of years of mercenary work. Unfortunately he wouldn't stop telling his favorite handful of stories again and again. On the other hand, despite not having been given a specific cause, she still didn't find herself trusting Vakarian all that much. He was pleasant enough, and they got along fine onboard ship; training, joking, and playing cards. Ashley's concern was that if the turian couldn't handle following regs in C-Sec, then an Alliance warship was the last place he should be. So far he'd been an overall asset on missions, but Ashley was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, when the man would disobey an order and put the commander at risk.

Anyway, the view was a lot better up here, and certainly had more comfortable seating.

They were still an hour from the relay, and neither Ashley nor Joker had had much to say since the mission briefing.

Joker finally broke the silence with something that wasn't gas related. "That was intense. Shore leave didn't loosen the commander up at all."

"She was. It was a solid briefing" Ashley had been glad to see the Commander Shepard that she'd first met on Eden Prime re-emerge. The mission briefing had been succinct and to the point. Shepard had laid out a straightforward set of objectives; they were to eliminate any resistance, make contact with the STG team on the ground and provide assistance if necessary, engage Saren. Short and sweet, a typical Shepard briefing. Broad objectives with the specifics left until the op was underway. What could go wrong? Well, of course a great deal could go wrong, Ashley knew that. It was the nature of combat. Shepard obviously thought the probability was high that Saren was still on Virmire.

Ashley hoped that she would be selected for the ground team, but she knew that it was unlikely. Shepard typically brought Liara with her on ops these days, and then alternated between Wrex, Tali, or Garrus depending on if she wanted firepower, engineering talent, or a sharpshooter. Shepard almost never took one of the human squad members with her into the field anymore. Ashley couldn't understand it. For someone who'd lost her family to an alien assault, Shepard seemed to have no issue cozying up to the aliens on the Normandy. Ashley had talked with Lt. Alenko about it more than once. She assumed that he had to be equally unhappy as his primary field role as the biotic on the ground team had been taken by the commander's sweetheart. Amazingly he didn't seem to be bothered at all. Unlike Ashley, Alenko was fine with the extra downtime. Apparently the lieutenant didn't feel that he had anything to prove. She wished she knew what that felt like.

"Do you think this is it? That we'll get Saren this time?" Joker interrupted her train of thought.

Ashley looked over from her position in the copilot's chair. "I have no idea. We're not even certain he's on Virmire. He'd already come and gone when we'd gotten to Feros and Noveria. All I know is that mission or not, I'm not going to stop until I make him pay for what he did on Eden Prime."

Joker was quiet again, probably unwilling to bring up the loss of "her" squad in that battle.

A renewed silence settled over the two. They continued to watch as the relay, one point of light among many, finally started to show enough motion against the sidereal backdrop to be identified as their destination.

Joker was the first to speak again. "So what if we do get him this time? Or the next? You know we'll get him eventually. What will you do then?"

Ashley took a while to respond. "I'm not sure." She paused again, "I'm grateful to be on the Normandy, and I can't imagine I'll ever get a more high profile assignment no matter how this mission turns out. Still, the only reason there was room for me on the billet was because Corporal Jenkins was killed."

"That's not really an answer."

Ashley considered her words carefully. "The Normandy is amazing, but I'm not sure I really fit in here. I just know I'll never get another shipboard posting if I leave."

"The commander did ask for you. That has to count for something, even if she does rub you the wrong way."

"Shepard doesn't rub me the wrong way. It's a privilege to serve under her! The commander has already had a distinguished career, and she's not even thirty! Look at all she's accomplished, even if you don't include the fact that she's the first human spectre. This ship, this crew, they're going to become equally distinguished, if not famous."

"But you don't agree with her choices when to comes to the squad. You'd rather she stuck with you and Lt. Alenko."

Ashley sighed. "I'm not a xenophobe Jeff. I just don't think we can trust the Council races blindly."

"So it's just Liara that you don't like."

"Don't go there. There isn't anyone on the ship who doesn't seem to adore the blueberry. She's fine, I guess. I just don't like the effect she has on the commander."

"She's saved the commander more than once. Her biotics are amazing. I'd only heard of singularity, I've never actually seen anyone able to toss them around like she does."

"Don't forget she's saved my life too. I know Liara's capable, and that she's been useful as a Prothean expert. Those reasons aren't why she's still here, and you can see that as well as I can. Shepard would have dropped her off on the Citadel to make her own way home long before now if she were any other civilian." She paused before adding, "There's a reason there are regs against fraternization with subordinates."

"Technically Liara isn't under Shepard's command. If anything, she bosses the commander around. I have vids."

"Wrex, Tali, and Garrus aren't under her command either, but they're effectively noncoms as far as the shipboard TO is concerned. They have shipboard responsibilities, and work daily with the Alliance crew. That's unconventional sure, but it works, and the crew know how to interact with them based on that. Liara spends all her time in the lab. The crew really only see her at meals and when she's training with the squad - training which is mostly one on one with Shepard these days. So, what do you do when the commander's girlfriend gives you an order?"

Joker grinned. "There are lots of orders I wouldn't mind taking from her."

Ashley closed her eyes as she reminded herself this was why she usually refrained from trying to have a serious conversation with a man nicknamed "Joker". "You know what I mean."

Joker turned his flight couch to face Ashley, something he hadn't done up to this point. "I do know what you mean. Am I comfortable with it? Not really. But Liara's never been anything but kind to me, which is more than I can say about most of my "colleagues" in the Alliance Navy. I wouldn't be in this chair now if I hadn't been willing to break regs, and the only reason I'm not cooling my heels in a brig somewhere is because a turian general went to bat for the pilot who couldn't even stand without crutches. So again, am I thrilled? No. Am I going to call Shepard out about it? Not on your life. Liara's a strong member of the team. So what if she and the commander make googly eyes at each other?"

"You know "so what". Someday the commander is going to have to choose between completing the mission and a member of the squad. How do you think she'll choose if that means sacrificing Liara?"

"She'd do it." Joker didn't hesitate.

"You can't know that."

"She'd sacrifice herself instead if she could, but if she can't, she'll still put the mission first. She'll never forgive herself, but she'll do it. Don't think it wouldn't go the other way either. Liara would walk through the gates of hell for Shepard, probably scanning it for Prothean artifacts the whole way."

Ashley smiled for a moment at the imagery before the thought struck her that Joker may very well be right. In fact, she'd never had a CO that was more informally familiar with the people under her command than Shepard. The commander was always walking the ship, asking questions, making comments. She didn't ever seem to reveal anything about herself, but she had a way of pulling some fairly personal information out of her crew. As close as she was to her crew, it must tear her apart when she lost someone. That didn't make any sense either. Ashley would have imagined that an officer with Shepard's background would be closed off from her subordinates. Ashley had of course never had access to Shepard's service record, but as a vanguard she had probably operated solo for a significant portion of her career. She likely never had more than one or two people under her command at a time until she became XO of the Normandy. That would explain her inclination towards small team field tactics, but not how she'd developed her rather unique leadership style. Maybe she'd learned it from Captain Anderson.

Or maybe she simply considered her crew to be her family.

"You know Joker, I believe you." Ashley finally commented after a time. She was amazed that she spoke the truth.

"Everybody should. I am a fountain of knowledge."

"You're a fountain of something all right."

"Oh that's great, pick on the cripple."

"Funny how you only say that when you're trying for sympathy."

"Did it work?"

"Has it ever worked with me?"

"Today might be my day."

"We could test your theory. Wanna arm wrestle?"

Joker turned back towards his console with a pout. "Not really."

Ashley climbed up out of the copilot's chair and took one more look outside before turning towards the CIC. "I think I'm going to turn in. I can still get six hours rack time before the mission."

"You're not going to stay for transition? It's quite the show."

She put her hand on Joker's shoulder as she passed. "I've seen it before, and I'm sure I'll see it again. I hope to be asleep in my pod well before we make it to the relay." She walked out of the cockpit.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shepard put down her mug, having to slide a plate out of the way to do so. She briefly considered having a third cup of coffee, but put the idea out of her mind.

She looked around the table. Wrex caught her attention, as he was still eating, the only word that came to her mind was "vigorously". Kaidan, like her, was behind a small pile of dirty plates, and was talking with Garrus, going over the preliminary scans of Virmire. Tali was sitting between Garrus and Liara, but primarily paying attention to Garrus. She hadn't come to eat of course, but she was so social that she never missed an opportunity to join one of the squad's meals. She leaned around the turian from time to time to provide her input on the data Kaidan was showing him.

The commander's gaze continued sweeping the table. Liara was... Liara. Sapphire eyes looked back at her over a cup of tea, judgingly? That was new. She hadn't said anything to Sarah this morning, but Shepard couldn't shake the feeling that Liara was upset with her. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but the next opportunity probably wouldn't be until after the mission - unless they discussed it during the drop. Shepard grinned inwardly at what Ashley would say about that if she were the unlucky third person in the mako during that conversation.

That thought caused the commander's eyes to fall on the last member of the squad, Chief Williams. The chief was also nursing a cup of coffee, but her eyes were on Liara. For a change, such a stare didn't accompany a sour look. If anything, Ashley was looking at the maiden appraisingly, as if she wasn't certain what she could do. Shepard cocked her head for a moment, as she tried to ascertain the cause of the chief's potential change of heart. Williams got along well enough with Wrex, Tali, and Garrus, but she'd never warmed up to Liara, even after being on missions together. Sarah hoped this might signal a turning point in Ashley's relationship with the asari. She acknowledged that she had an ulterior motive for the team to get along with Liara, a motive that likely was the cause of the issue Williams had with the asari in the first place.

Enough of this. Time to get moving. She straightened herself slightly in her chair as she tapped the table with her finger. "Listen up."

Conversation quickly died around the table.

"We're about 90 minutes to drop, and we have some fresh intel. STG is still on the ground, but not answering comm. There is an extensive air defense system in place, which the ground team will have to take out before the Normandy can land. No new info about Saren, but we are facing his forces, so I expect to primarily see Geth, with occasional mercenaries. Any questions?"

Tali spoke first. "If the defenses are a threat to the Normandy, how will Joker get close enough to make the drop?"

"We can drop the Mako from as high as low orbit if we have to." She waited for the collective groans of the team to die down. Drops were the only thing they complained about more than her driving. "We just prefer not to. The Mako is defenseless in the air, so the lower the drop, the better. Joker believes he can get us in below the enemy radar, which means a very low drop, but it will still have to be well beyond their security perimeter. That gives us a lot of ground to cover, and most of it through Saren controlled territory."

Garrus was next. "Why bring the ship down at all?"

"We haven't scanned any salarian ships, so either STG was dropped and left, or their ship was destroyed. Either way, they'll need pickup. There's only so much hop available to the Mako even with the mass effect fields on full. So since we're picking them up anyway, we might as well land as opposed to a series of near ground rendezvous maneuvers collecting the STG team two at a time.

Kaidan finally asked what was really the only question everyone cared about. "Who's going to be on the ground team?"

"The initial assault will be outdoors, with limited cover, but long approaches. We expect Geth and Blood Pack, which means mechs and krogan. I'll want another biotic for krogan control. The long approaches will mean the the Geth won't be very susceptible to engineering threats, nor to pure firepower. That means sniper."

Wrex and Kaidan sat back in their seats. The commander was diplomatic about it, but they both knew which biotic she would choose. Tali also relaxed when the need for an engineer was dismissed. The squad accepted that this would be another Liara / Garrus mission, like more than half of the away missions so far.

Shepard turned to Williams. "How's your aim, Chief? Not rusty I hope."

The chief's head snapped around. "Ma'am? No Ma'am."

Shepard's voice stepped down slightly. "Ashley, we haven't had a lot of luck so far, but I think Saren's down there. So long as there's a chance he's on Virmire, I can't think of anyone else who deserves an opportunity to take the shot more than you. What do you say Chief?"

"YES MA'AM!" There probably wasn't anyone on the Normandy who didn't hear Ashley's response.

Shepard smiled at the enthusiasm. She looked up into the air over the mess table. "Joker?"

"Yes Commander?" came the reply from the cockpit. Joker didn't even maintain the illusion that he didn't listen in on what was going on in the ship anymore.

"Lay in your approach vector and start your run. Activate stealth systems at your discretion."

"Aye aye, Commander."

Shepard's eyes swept the table one last time. "Let's go." She rose and started toward the elevator to the cargo bay. Ashley and Liara followed a pace behind.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The ride was unusually turbulent as the Normandy cruised through the lower atmosphere of Virmire. As Joker often took glee in pointing out, the ship wasn't invisible to the naked eye with stealth systems engaged, just undetectable by sensors. Despite that limitation, there was no reason to announce their presence to the enemy with a series of sonic booms. Accordingly, the Normandy was traveling at a leisurely 305 m/s, or about mach .8 in Virmire's 0.9 atmospheres.

Despite the rattling, and the jarring drop yet to come, Ashley was as relaxed as she could remember being in a long time. She held her Volkov almost tenderly, as one might hold a pet. Today was going to be a good day.

She looked across the cabin at Liara, and received a nod in return. Ashley had wryly noticed at breakfast that at no time in their rather informal mission commencement had Shepard even named Liara to the op, she'd just followed Ashley and Shepard to the cargo bay. Also, the pair had completed their ritual of helping each other into their armor with their typically effortless efficiency, but atypically had done so without a word. Even now, the chatter between the two that Ashley was used to hearing over comm on the Normandy was absent. Shepard looked relaxed but ready at the controls, and Liara was looking straight ahead, no doubt practicing one of her asari meditation exercises. Was there finally strife between the lovebirds? Ashley was surprised to not find herself hoping so, but she nonetheless admitted that she wouldn't mind if the Shepard - T'Soni relationship was finally starting to show some wear around the edges.

Joker's voice came over comm. "Thirty seconds to drop."

Shepard didn't look up when she replied. "Acknowledged. Ready to drop."

Ashley locked her rifle to her armor, and pressed herself against her seat while tightening her restraints. Drops were the only time she was jealous of her biotic teammates. Even retracted, her rifle pressed against her body from hip to shoulder, and she didn't relish the bruise she'd have when they returned to the Normandy. Sometimes she thought it would be nice to have your most powerful weapon under your skin instead of digging into it.

Joker counted down the last few seconds to release "...3 ...2 ...1 ...DROP!"

Ashley's stomach tightened as the Mako was released from the Normandy. Even with the mass effect fields engaged, the drops still felt like free fall. They only decreased the energy of the impact, not the rate of descent. The hundred meter drop should take a little less than five seconds, accounting for lateral movement. Even as Ashley counted them off in her head, each one felt like minutes.

The impact of the Mako into the wet sand of the coastline was more muted than usual, but still jolted Ashley's rifle into her back. With a practiced motion she slapped her restraint release, and moved to the mako's hatch. The hatch was open before the vehicle was finished with the first bounce, and she had her boots in the water the moment the mako rolled to a stop.

Immediately her sensor net informed her of the targeting laser painting her shoulder. She rolled to her left, around behind the mako, unslinging her rifle as she moved. She swung it to her shoulder as she emerged on the opposite side of the vehicle, the direction provided by the Geth sniper's aborted shot allowing her to target the mech and drop it before it realized it was even under attack. The Geth unit fell face first into the muck with a modest splash.

Small arms fire started peppering her shields with enough force for her to be aware of them, but not enough power to be a real threat at this range. She had just started to move to a more advantageous position when Liara strode up alongside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. With a wave of her arm the maiden produced a potent singularity just above and behind the boulders that a trio of Geth troopers were using for cover. The troopers were drawn up and backwards to flail helplessly in the grip of Liara's focused gravitational field. Ashley took her time lining up her shots, dispatching each of the Geth with a single shot before the singularity evaporated. She grinned at Liara and received an acknowledging nod in return.

Shepard's voice rang out from inside the mako. "That's it Chief. No other Geth on scanners. Back in here you two and we'll get moving. The Normandy's scan reported pockets of Geth all along this series of canyons."

Liara started back to the hatch while Ashley followed. She glanced back over her shoulder looking at their handiwork appraisingly.

Yes, today was definitely going to be a good day.

A/N: Assumptions here include:
FemShep/Liara (Not yet LI)
Later ME1 - after Feros, Noveria, and "Obligations" (Sorry, it probably makes more sense to read Obligations first)
Before/During/After Virmire

Shepard is:
Colonist / Vanguard / War Hero

Apparently, I am no longer capable of writing a single chapter story. No worries, the second (and final) chapter is partially complete, and then we can move on to "Connections", which might come in shorter than originally planned, as some of that story will now be in chapter 2 of "Discovery"...

As always, feedback is welcome and desired.