Mass Effect: The Wings We Lack

[camalyng]

Title: The Wings We Lack
What: Mass Effect fanfiction - short story
Words: ~1550
Rating: PG13 (sexual references)
Summary: Great, an unexpected live delivery and your AI's keeping secrets. (...) As you make your way out of Purgatory, you try again to get more details out of EDI, but the only thing she gives you is that it's marked for Liara.
Notes: Written with femshep in mind, but could be dudeshep I guess. Lair of the Shadow Broker completed. In between Palaven and Sur'Kesh.
Related works: "The Morale Thing"

"Shepard, there is an unscheduled delivery to the Normandy. Lieutenant Cortez is currently deciding whether to accept it onboard."

You blink, and hold a hand up to Aria to pause for a moment, before switching your mic on. "What kind of unscheduled delivery?"

There's a pause before EDI replies, "A live one."

Great, an unexpected live delivery and your AI's keeping secrets. You sigh. "I'll be right there."

Aria's watching you with faint curiosity as you switch off your comm, and you raise an eyebrow at her. "You didn't send me a present, did you?"

"My presents shoot first," she says, blasé. She waves a hand. "Let me guess: You should go."

You nod, standing. "I appreciate the mercs."

"I know," Aria says. "Do tell me what the delivery is; I'm interested now."

Rolling your eyes, you take your leave. As you make your way out of Purgatory, you try again to get more details out of EDI, but the only thing she gives you is that it's marked for Liara, who's also on her way back.

Liara likes fish, but she always lets EDI or Cortez know when she's expecting something. You call her. "Where do your connections drop off presents these days, now that you don't have a base?"

"My base is on the Normandy," she corrects you, making you smile even as you brush past a particularly pompous volus. "But I have a number of drop points in different systems where deliveries are screened before I ask Steve to bring them aboard." She pauses. "I have no idea what this could be."

"The best information broker in the galaxy doesn't know something?" you tease.

"It's not funny," Liara grumbles. "This could be an attempted security breach."

You're only worried for about a second before EDI interrupts, "Traynor has already swept it for bugs, and I'm not picking up any transmissions."

"What is it?" you demand.

You're turning the corner to the Normandy's docking bay - empty - before EDI answers. "Organic. In the cargo hold."

Liara's at the airlock when you reach it, and she turns off your comm once she sees you. "I could have Glyph access the cameras," she says quietly.

For a moment, you consider it, but eventually you shake your head. "EDI'd probably lock it out anyway."

"I'm still having it meet us there," she says, typing the command into her omnitool.

As you wait for decontamination, the two of you toss around bad, joking ideas on what her delivery could be (your favorite is Liara's suggestion of "another cloned krogan"), but Liara's tapping foot and your own pacing betray your worry.

"What exactly did you sweep for bugs?" you ask Traynor, as you wait for the lift.

"I think you'll like it," she says to Liara with a smile.

Liara only shoots her a baffled look before you board the lift. When you finally reach deck five, everyone on deck is smiling, to varying degrees of amusement and secrecy.

"What's the deal, Cortez?" you ask.

"I think it's a present," he says, joining you to lead the way through the hold. "Can we keep it?"

"Or if we don't, can I take it for a ride first?" asks James.

You look askance at Liara. "Sex toy?"

James bursts out laughing instead of correcting you.

"A live, organic sex toy," Liara says, faintly disapproving.

"Makes about as much sense as another cloned krogan," you point out.

At last, a whinny from the back of the hold solves the mystery. You stop walking. "I thought your dad said you were too old to buy a pony."

Liara's gaze turns stern. "Shepard, you shouldn't eavesdrop."

You hold your hands up in surrender. "Sorry we don't all have a network of agents keeping us updated on which supermodel the Illusive Man's sleeping with today and what squadmates are downloading to their omnitools. Some of us have to find things out the old fashioned way."

"Lena Mua'au," she says.

"Excuse me?"

"The Illusive Man's sexual liasion of the day," Liara explains (to a whistle from Cortez), before heading around the crates to the horse, Glyph at her heels.

With Cortez now awkwardly trailing you, you follow her to find a small golden brown horse with its mane slicked back. Liara cuts a small card from a ribbon around the horse's neck and holds it out to Glyph. "Decode, please."

"Were you going to tell me about this?" you ask Cortez.

"Sorry, Commander, I thought it'd be a nice surprise," Cortez says, holding his hands up in surrender. "That's why I asked EDI not to tell you."

"I apologize for the omission," says EDI. "Lieutenant Cortez told me a pleasant surprise and a crew pet would improve morale."

You sigh, watching the drone's lights flash as it decodes the card. "It's alright, EDI." Clearly learning about human behavior is going to have some hiccups along the way.

"Decoding finished," says Glyph. "Would you like me to read it, or forward the message to your terminal?"

"Read it," says Liara.

"'Liara' -"

"The only part any of us could read," says Cortez. "I figured we should wait for you."

He falls silent at glances from both you and Liara.

"The rest is in a cipher used by the asari matriarchs," Liara says, more to the air or perhaps EDI than to Cortez.

"'The way I see it, I have one hundred and nine birthdays to catch up on,'" Glyph continues.

Liara groans. "Dad."

"'So why not buy you a pony?'" Glyph says, confirming it. "'The commandos are for the war effort, but this guy's all yours.'"

"What am I supposed to do with a horse?" Liara murmurs.

"How are we supposed to look after a horse?" you add. This is actually the first horse you've ever seen in person, but you have one clear idea about horse care: "There's no grass in space. EDI, work out the cost per week for horse feed."

"One moment."

"'He's already trained for riding and space and everything, and I've set up a bank account in your name with a regular allowance for his care,'" Glyph says. "'The matriarchs have been paying me off to keep an eye on you, so I thought it should go to you.'"

EDI names her price, and Liara hurriedly checks the new bank account on her omnitool before looking up wide-eyed. "She left three months' worth of money for him."

"'Drop me an e-mail if you ever need more. Love, Matriarch Aethyta,'" the drone finishes. It pauses before adding, "Compose e-mail reply to Matriarch Aethyta?"

"No, thank you," says Liara. She tentatively raises a hand to the horse, who neighs again, and then she runs her fingers through his mane. You can't help but smile as you watch her face soften, and after a moment, the horse licks her shoulder, getting a giggle out of her.

"Can we keep him, Shepard?" she asks. "Please?"

"We can clear out the old Cerberus armory to use as a stable," Cortez says hurriedly. He's clearly been thinking about this. "Probably too noisy to stay in the hold, but Liara can ride him down here if you give us some warning."

"Fine," you relent, mostly because of the look Liara's giving you. She lights up, leaning over to kiss your cheek. "You two can sort out supplies. EDI, patch in Joker. We'll probably need his expertise."

"This isn't a spaceship," Cortez objects.

"My family's from Tiptree," Joker says over the comm, before his voice takes on a tone normally reserved for the Normandy. "Aw, what a nice horsey. We need to get you planetside some time." EDI must have given him a camera feed, too.

"When I was little, I desperately wanted a pony for my twentieth birthday," Liara murmurs. "They were in a lot of the old vids of adventurers, archaeologists... Mother always said no. We were always traveling; we didn't spend a lot of time planetside. I gave up that dream long ago. She couldn't have known."

"It's only eighty years late," you say, slipping an arm around her shoulder. "What are you going to name him?"

Liara gazes at the horse for a moment. "If I remember correctly, human mythology has tales of winged horses," she says. "Pegasus."

A horse for Little Wing. You nod appreciatively. "Welcome to the team, Pegasus," you say with mock seriousness.

Liara takes your hand off her arm and raises it to pat Pegasus, and you awkwardly pat his neck. The last time you petted an animal was probably a varren on Tuchanka, but you must have learned something, because he doesn't shy away or anything.

"The Normandy's war asset score has been upgraded by two points," EDI says. Despite yourself, you wonder for a moment if the 'everything' Matriarch Aethyta had the horse trained for included fighting Reapers somehow, before EDI clarifies, "That was a joke."

"I'm not cleaning up after him," you say. "And if we can't get him planetside often enough, we're sending him to a colony."

"I've got an uncle who might take him," Joker says cheerfully. "Seriously though, this can't go any worse than the time we had a live geth on board."

Cortez glances at you, startled. "I thought you made that up."

"People are gonna think we're making up having a pony."