ME3: From the Ashes a Fire - part I

"Joker! Joker! Can you open the door?" The turian banged the steel door with both fists. What on Palaven had posessed the Alliance to put a door between the CIC and the cockpit? SR-1 had never had one.
Finally the mechanism made a weird fizzing sound, the green light of the lock flickered, and the doors slid aside. He stepped carefully inside, dreading what he would find.
"Garrus. You alright?" The pilot's voice was flat. He was kneeling on the floor, next to EDI's lifeless body.
"Joker. Is she..." The turian ran out of words. Damaged? Offline? Injured? Dead?
"She's gone," he replied softly, folding the AI's synthetic arms on her chest. "It was the beam. As soon as it reached us, she just collapsed." Joker made a move to stand up, and Garrus rushed to give him a hand. "It was probably the Reaper tech. We suspected this might happen."
Garrus was taken aback. "She knew the Crucible might kill her? Did Shepard know?"
Joker shook his head. "We decided not to tell her. She..." He stopped, voice faltering, then drew a breath and seemed to pull himself together. "EDI said she didn't need to know. She had too much on her mind as it was."
Garrus looked down. "Not really fair, but I suppose I understand."
"What about the others?"
"Traynor and the others at CIC are okay. Don't know about other decks."
"Two dead in the shuttle bay," said a voice from the door. "Dr. Chakwas is working with a couple of critically injured.
"Tali," Joker said with a faint smile. "Good to see you're okay."
"Same to you, Joker." The quarian glanced behind Garrus, and drew a sharp breath. "EDI! Is she..."
Joker nodded, his face grim. She turned away, trying to conceal a sob.
"Joker," Garrus said carefully after a beat. "Can you get anything about this planet? Can we go out?"
The pilot turned and limped back to the screens. "Not sure. Let me see..." He had to try a few before one finally flickered to life. "Carbon-based," he said after a while. "Nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, atmospheric pressure 1.67 atm. Gravity 0.8 g. Levo-amino acid-based..." The screen went dark. Joker gave it a couple of experimental taps that had absolutely no effect, then turned back to Garrus and Tali. "Seems to be okay, assuming that the sensors were working. We should be fine as long as nobody puts anything in their mouth. Especially you two."
"Roger that."
Joker gave a last glance at EDI's lifeless body, turned and walked out of the cockpit. Tali and Garrus exchanged a look and trailed after him.

James Vega was waiting by the airlock with a couple of other Alliance soldiers.
"Should we go out?" Garrus realized to his minor shock that the human was addressing him with the subordinate tone normally reserved for Shepard.
"Uh, yeah. It should be safe." He glanced through the window. "And looks rather lush. Avoid touching anything you can't recognize."
Joker opened a small hatch next to the door and cut two wires. The door opened with a groan. The pilot gave Garrus a glance, and stepped outside. Garrus exchanged a look with Tali, shrugged and followed.
For a moment the two men of different species stood side by side, staring at the landscape.
"It's gorgeous," Garrus managed eventually."
"A colonist's dream," Joker agreed. "I wonder where the hell this place is."
"Any ideas?"
"Not really. The beam caught us in the middle of a relay leap. Could be anywhere between Charon and Aralakh."
"Damn."
"Yeah. Gotta do some mapping once the stars are up."
Tali stepped out, followed by James and Traynor. "Wow," said the latter, staring at the mountains. "I could think of worse places to be marooned on."
Garrus glanced around. "Ever heard of a place called 2175 Aeia?"
"Can't say I have," Traynor replied, looking slightly puzzled. "Why?"
"It was also a beautiful planet. Unfortunately the local plant life ate away your brain functions."
Traynor's eyes widened. "Was someone marooned there?"
"Yeah. I've heard they recovered afterwards, though. Anyway, as long as we can't be sure there will be 'afterwards' for us, I'd like to be sure the same thing doesn't happen here. We'll need all the plants tested."
"I can take care of that, sir. Normandy's med bay should have everything we need for testing."
After Traynor had walked away, Garrus turned to Joker with a helpless look on his face. "Why have I suddenly become the commander here?
Joker shrugged, smiling faintly. "Weren't you always Shepard's unofficial second-in-command? You know how sensitive soldiers are to these things."
Garrus turned to stare at the mountains, and the faint shapes of two very different-sized moons on the sky. "I'm not Shepard."
Joker placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know. But being Garrus Vakarian is pretty good too. And that's what we need right now."

***

"Dr. T'Soni! You shouldn't be up!"
Liara turned away from the window and came face to face with a harassed-looking salarian doctor. Seeing the look in the man's eyes, she held back a snap. "I'm fine, Doctor. Don't worry." She adjusted her arm sling absent-mindedly.
"At least stop playing with that, please. For me, Doctor." The salarian drew a deep breath in an obvious attempt to regain his composure. "I thought you would like to know that Lieutenant Commander Williams is here at the hospital. She suffers only from minor injuries."
Liara sighed. "Yes, I am glad to hear that. Ash has suffered enough recently. Any news about the Normandy crew?"
"Unfortunately none of the ships that made it through the Charon relay have been accounted for. Locating them with both the relay itself and the comm buoy destroyed is very difficult."
"Yes, of course. And how is the hospital holding?"
The salarian closed his eyes. "Doctor, we are treating the wounded and the dying of all the armies with nearly depleted supplies. We're transporting the non-critical patients all across the planet, and using every available ship's med bay, and we still don't have enough space, equipment or supplies. We're going to lose more than we can save, just because we don't have enough to work with."
Liara felt a lump building in her throat. She wanted to console the salarian, but there was nothing to say. "I'm sorry."
"Well, at least some of us are still alive to worry," the salarian sighed. "I must carry on, now. I assume the Lieutenant Commander will visit you soon. Please consider staying in bed."
"I will." Liara whispered, sitting on the bed as the doctor hurried out of the door.

Ashley came an hour later. "How are you feeling, Liara?"

"I'm okay. Shattered bones in both upper arm and forearm, a couple of broken ribs. As far as people who have been shot by a Reaper go, I'm extremely lucky. You?"
Ashley sat on the bed next to the asari. "Cuts and bruises. Torn ligaments in my left wrist. If you're lucky, I don't know what I am."
"I guess you've had your share of critical injuries for this year."
Ashley smiled faintly. "I suppose. I'm not complaining."
"So, tell me, is it a common Alliance strategy to send ships flying in all directions after a battle?" Liara asked, with a slightly sharp tone
Ashley shook her head. "I'm not sure what Hackett was thinking. I suppose he thought the Crucible would backfire on us after all."
"Save the species?"
"Something like that. Only a couple of ships made it, though. Not many can match the Normandy. Especially with Joker at the helm."
"And now it has destroyed them."
"We don't know that!" Ashley replied sharply. "Could be that they made it to wherever it is they were trying to get. And Hackett was right in a way. It did destroy the relay, and from what we know, the exploding relay should have wiped out the whole system!"
Liara nodded and sighed. She felt extremely tired and extremely depressed. "I suppose we know now that the relays were Reaper tech. Everything that was is gone. The Reapers themselves, the Citadel, the relays and the geth."
"Yeah, the geth, huh. I guess nobody saw that coming. And they didn't even have Reaper tech, only Reaper code. If only Legion had known."
"Hmm. You think he would have changed his mind? Is it better to die as an individual, or continue living as a part of the network?"
"I don't know." Ashley sounded doubtful. "The geth always seemed to be very determined to survive."
"But that was before they tasted individuality."
Ashley leaned her back on the wall. "Well, they won't get to choose again. At least they died quickly. That's a lot more than can be said of many."
Liara was silent for a while. "That's true," she said softly "I can't help but wonder..."
"...if she died quickly as well." Ashley's voice had turned into a whisper. "I know. Me neither. But it was an explosion. There can't have been much time."
"You think she had time to realize she was going to die?"
"I think she knew going in. She actually went inside the weapon."
"She died for the galaxy." Tears finally started running down Liara's cheeks. "She was always prepared for that. That's how she wanted to die."  
Ashley gently rested her head on the asari's shoulder. "She died so the galaxy could live. Now we must find a way to survive."
Liara stared into the distance. "Yes. We must find a way for the Earth to recover, and for the armies to survive. We can only hope that Thessia, Palaven, Rannoch and others survive without their fleets."
"And that the Normandy made it, and survives."
"Yes. All we have is hope. All Shepard ever had, was hope."
"And she won."
"Not yet," Liara said softly. "That's up to us."