chapter 19

It took him sixty-three hours to discover that the number of possibilities for potential upgrades, modifications and radical off the wall ideas that could happen with mass effect tech with the available time and materials on hand was limitless. For the first couple of days he could be found sitting at his workbench working on several different blueprints and rough sketches of some design, though people refrained from asking what he was working on after they watched Jackson giggle madly and skip around the cargo bay for the better part on an hour after he asked what Jason had been working on.

Now that he had a proverbial crap ton of workable ideas, he now had to go through and figure out which ones held the highest priority for their current situation or require intensive amount of man hours just to get a functional prototype off the ground over builds that were far more practical and easier to produce.

Once Jackson was calmed down, he added a few pointers and made some notable points in Jason's categorizing theory, granted he wanted to know when the Victory Projects would be finished so he could get his hands on them. The Victory Projects were the end game stuff he was pushing to finish in time for the mission on Virmire, just the thought of it alone was enough to make him pick a few more vital changes to his list before he was satisfied and started getting to work. Having a week and then some change was enough time to start on a series of smaller projects that began just after the Normandy left the Citadel, destination unknown for now, but it would eventually become clear in time because John had simply ordered the Normandy to get out of the Citadel as fast as Joker could go.

Who was still waiting for an answer if Spectre privileges could be used to revoke illegal maneuvering and speeding in commercial traffic zones because he had broken sixteen traffic laws, eighty-seven moving violations and three grand felonies all by simply taking off and flying in an manner that was neither safe nor appropriate in order to reach the relay.

Jason figured that he would start on the most practical project and go from there, because there were plenty of places to go and things to do before they either arrived at Noveria, no information had been passed down at the team briefing when the Normandy was well underway, the status declaring Jason unfit for ground side duty was noted. Not that it really mattered, it would take a week before they got anywhere, so Jason had lots of free time.

So much in fact, that he got to test fire a few of his mad schemes.

XXX

"It's a pistol whelp, what's so special about it?"

Ignoring the barb sent his way by Wrex, Jason waited for the target to appear before he fired the gun clutched in his hands until it overheated, granted his accuracy was spot on.

Wrex sighed as he watched Jason fiddle with it for a second after the cooldown, "Why do you mess around with pistols when you can build bigger shotguns?"

"Not everyone is a fan of shotguns," Jason replied as he fired again until the weapon overheated, noting that instead of seventeen rounds it squeezed off twenty-two, "unless you can make them see your way?"

A rumbling chuckle proved what Wrex thought of that idea, "I see, so why are you messing around with that pistol? I watched you tinker with it for hours, like how the Turain calibrates everything in the armory."

For an answer, Jason simply gave Wrex a deadpanned look for a moment before he hit a newly installed toggle switch built into the side of the gun and fired it at a target. Instead of the regular semi-automatic fire that would normally come from a pistol, Jason smirked as three rounds were fired off before he pulled the trigger again, resulting in another three round burst before he did it again.

He got seven bursts off before the pistol overheated and began to cooldown, raising a hand towards Wrex to stop him from speaking, Jason watched the digital stopwatch readout on his omni tool before the pistol finished cycling the excess heat and signified that it was ready to fire again, which he did in order to get a base reading.

"To answer your question," Jason smirked as he adjusted the toggle switch one last time and took aim at the target, "I've been playing around with a new idea."

"Go on," Wrex seemed to be watching closely as the pistol began to whine softly after Jason held down on the trigger, "is it supposed to do that?"

"Watch and learn."

Four seconds later, the pistol emitted a high pitched pew sound that was a lot louder than he expected before a bolt of condensed mass accelerator energy the size of golf ball shot out the end of the barrel and slammed into the simulated target, leaving a shallow divot in the surface of the backstop that couldn't be scratched with a sniper rifle as Jason patiently waited for the pistol to cooldown before he placed the weapon in its safe compact state and turned around with a flourish.

"Any questions?" Jason smiled as he watched Wrex pick his jaw up off the floor and glance between the smoldering crater and the gun several times.

"Yeah," Jackson pitched from across the cargo bay, tugging his welding goggles up onto his forehead as he crawled out from underneath the Mako, "When do I get one of those?"

"Back off whelp, this one is mine." Wrex growled as he turned to face Jason and crossed his arms.

"I modified the pistol to fire a controlled burst of three rounds and a that last little demonstration was something I cooked up, took the idea of a shotgun Carnage feature and mounted it on a sidearm," Jason felt an evil smile creep across his face as he opened a nearby weapon case while every single person in the cargo bay watched, "of course if it worked for a puny pistol, then why not for something bigger?"

Jackson and Ashley were already walking over to get a closer look as Jason pulled out a generic Lancer Mk II and turned around to face the firing range as Wrex motioned for him to go on ahead with the demonstration.

"Going loud." That was the only warning anyone got before Jason depressed the toggle switch and opened fire with a nice three round burst from the assault rifle, recoil was a larger factor in the accuracy segment, but it held a nice one inch group at fifteen yards while Jason mowed down another eleven targets before the rifle overheated.

"Oh, I like the grouping," Jackson pointed out, scorched into the backstop of one target was the jagged outline of a smiley face as Ashley shook her head, "that all you got?"

Jason scoffed as he hit the toggle switch again and took aim, holding down on the trigger as the rifle began to whine as the lights on it began flashing, before-

KA-PEW!(What? So it was really loud, blow me)

Where the pistol had left a shallow divot barely visible to the naked eye from where they were standing, the assault rifle had left a rather obvious pockmark in the backstop that was still glowing cherry red after the pool cue sized orb of energy was launched from the end of the muzzle and tore through the target, leaving Jason holding a smoking gun and several jaws leaving dents in the floor behind him as he waited for the cooldown cycle to complete before he reached for the case again.

Jackson let out a long whistle of admiration as he walked over to the crater and probed it with a screwdriver while Ashley took the rifle out of his hands and began inspecting it carefully, no doubt looking for any potential accelerated wear and tear or possible failure point on the weapon as Wrex once again picked his jaw up off the floor and tried to look unimpressed, though he was failing miserably as he walked over to inspect the damage with Jackson as Jason pulled out the last weapon stashed away in the case.

"A sniper rifle? Seriously?" Jackson screeched as he raced away from the target area with Wrex hot on his heels, moving a lot faster than such a large individual would have been given credit as Jason snapped the sniper rifle up at a target and held the trigger.

"I heard a noise down here," Jane could be heard in the background as the elevator opened, "sounded like a bomb going off…"

KA-POW!

Cut off in mid-sentence by the report made by the sniper rifle, which was loud enough to make everyone on the whole deck wince at the decibel level before the smoldering hole half the size of his fist could be seen behind the target as Jason calmly lowered the rifle and turned around.

Turned out it was actually Jane, Garrus and John stepping out of the elevator in time to watch what had happened as Jason suddenly found himself getting tackled by yet another dextro amino acid based species after Garrus shook off his stupor and blindsided him at a speed that would have set speed records for any Turain alive as Jason made the mental note to wear some kind of protective vest if getting tackled was going to become a regular occurrence in his life.

Another thing he noticed was that getting tackled by a Turain was akin to having someone in medieval plate armor land on top of you as he watched the rifle get yanked out of his grasp as he heard something he never thought he would hear from the stoic C-Sec officer.

"I SHALL BEAR YOUR CHILDREN IF YOU SHOW ME HOW YOU BUILT THIS!" It took a few seconds for the translator and his extensive memory of the Turain language to catch up with what Garrus was screeching on the top of his lungs, which sounded very similar to a feminine squeal, but there was no way a bona fide badass such as Garrus would ever say such a thing.

"THIS THING IS THE ANSWER TO MY DREAMS!"

About then, Jason suddenly discovered what an one arm chokehold/Turain hug felt like as he went from the floor to the vertical in less time than it took for him to even blink as Garrus was kind enough to lift him to his feet by his neck as he continued to rant about the rifle as everyone watching kind of sweat dropped at the sight.

"Should we help?" Ashley asked as she glanced up from the assault rifle she was holding as Jackson simply shook his head.

"Crowbar…." Jason wheezed, "Can't…..breathe…..help…."

"Uh Garrus," Jane hesitantly approached, "you should probably let him go."

"Huh?" Garrus looked down and froze, "Oh."

Jason was glowing with biotic energy, enough that light was being casted onto the floor and ceiling as he simply mustered the most terrifying death glare in existence and leveled it at the Turain because he clearly didn't like this at all.

Then Jason bared his teeth and growled threateningly.

XXX

"You can come out now," Jackson said as he peered underneath the Mako while he was on his hands and knees, "no one is going to hurt you."

John sighed deeply before glancing at his omni tool, "It's been more than an hour already, I don't think he is going to come out anytime soon."

"Are you kidding, I've never seen him act like this," Jackson said as he looked up, "in fact I have to say that this is a first Bossman."

"Did you see that look on his face before he bolted for the nearest place to hide," Jane said as she dropped to one knee and peered under the Mako as well, "he was absolutely terrified for his life."

Wrex grunted, "Never thought I'd see that in all my years, should've had video."

Jane scowled at Wrex before she laid down on the floor and rolled under the Mako while Jackson sighed and sat up.

"Did you know such a thing would happen?" John asked.

"Nope," Jackson glanced back at Jane, who was now halfway underneath the Mako, "guess we'll have to see if she can talk him into coming out from under there."

"It's okay," Jane crooned, "No one is going to hurt you, all is forgiven, you can come out now."

"No," came a weak reply, "must stay here, safe here, can't go out there."

"It's alright, nothing out there is going to hurt you," Jane assured, "it's safe now."

"No, no, no," the pathetic whimpering could be heard clear as day, "there is a monster out there, it looked into my soul and threatened to consume me, no here is safe."

"Shit," Jackson whistled as he glanced over at Jason, "the fuck did you do to him?"

Jason shrugged sheepishly before scratching the back of his head, "I don't know, I didn't attack him."

"If I tried to tell anyone how a Turain was terrified of a human growling at them, I'd be placed into a mental asylum," Ashley shook her head as she gave Jason a blank look, "I'm thinking that Garrus had some unresolved childhood trauma and you set him off by accident."

"What are you? A shrink?" Jackson asked.

"That was still funny," Wrex rumbled, "I will never let the Turain live this down."

"All I did was look at him," Jason said as he looked around the cargo bay, "I didn't even say anything to him."

"Should we get Dr. Chakwas down here with a dextro sedative?" Alenko asked out loud as he tried to be helpful, "Because I don't think we covered this in basic training."

"Have to write this off as the strangest thing I've seen," John said as he gave Jason a sideways look, "how are you holding up after that?"

"I told you already, I didn't feel threatened due to the fact that his grip was wrong and I could have easily gotten out of that hold without killing him," Jason answered before he thought of something, "am I that scary?"

"Yes." Almost as if the entire ship had rehearsed it, everyone in earshot said the exact same thing as Jason scowled and walked back to his workbench to get something.

"Well to be honest I think our sniper is broken," Jane said as she crawled out from under the Mako and stood up, "he is still curled up in the fetal position rocking himself back and forth muttering nonsense under his breath."

"Sounds like the first panic attack Jason had when we escaped," Jackson laughed as Jason reappeared next to the Mako with a scowl on his face as he shot his twin a murderous glare, "oh good times."

"The drugs were wearing off and I was going into shock," Jason angrily shot back as he dropped to a knee and looked under the Mako, "that happens when I do all the work in the escape attempt and you simply follow."

"Yeah, through the devastation you caused," Jackson replied, "I had to pick you up and cradle you like a baby before you finally calmed down enough to know what reality was."

A smirk could be seen on John's face as he wisely turned away before Jason dropped the sniper rifle on the ground and shot Jackson another look.

"I didn't maim him for life, so it isn't like he is going too freak out if he sees me again," Jason sighed as he crawled under the Mako, "Hey Garrus, I'm not mad…"

"AAAAAGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHH! BE GONE DEMON!"

Silence reigned for all of a minute before Jason pulled himself out from underneath the Mako and pointed a finger at Jackson, "Not a fucking word."

XXX

"The reason behind the extra layers of materials packed between the heating coils and the shaving rail is to avoid melting the internal components together after you fire the damn thing," Jas shot back as he pointed to said item in question, "that or else you get one shot off before the whole thing seizes up."

Garrus frowned, "But that makes it so much heavier, that and it slows down the rate of fire when the rifle is in regular mode."

"Garrus," Jason sighed as he hefted the receiver housing and shook it at him, "this is a sniper rifle, it was meant to have a slow firing and cycling mechanism in order to avoid rapid fire or subtle movement of the weapon in the first place."

"True, however it would negate eight percent return rate and I'd estimate four percent cyclic rate if we removed at least three of the ten plates you've crammed into here."

"No," Jason replied firmly, "Ten was the required minimum number of plates to prevent damage to the interior systems, anything less and you got a slowly degrading time bomb in your hands with each shot."

"What about shortening the length of the shaving system and moving the ammo block housing forward a few centimeters?"

"Then you'd would have a drastically weaker weapon system if you remove the conductor circuits and attempt to realign the power system, which has several heat sinks built around for the sole fact of protecting it from the excess heat buildup and no, they are staying exactly where they belong." Jason ignore the sound of munching popcorn off to his left and kept working on keeping Garrus from turning his creation into something else.

XXX

"You never did tell us how you managed to coax Garrus out from under the Mako." Jackson asked suddenly as Jason was sitting down at the mess with a tray of sludge and a serious migraine.

"Threatened to message his father with a video of the whole event before sending it to every single person he worked with back at C-Sec," Jason watched as Jackson went pale as a ghost as everyone else within earshot face faulted, "he has put it behind him after I offered to show him how I built the rifle to that specification, though dealing with his running commentary sure got old after about fifteen minutes."

"Where is Garrus?" Alenko asked after he looked around, "He isn't avoiding you is he?"

Jason waved him off, "Naw, he is still down at his workbench trying to find some way to improve my design and make some vital calibrations on it."

"The idea and concept of variable control settings on a weapon is brilliant," Jane said, "mad, but absolutely brilliant, I love the Overcharge feature on my pistol, makes me think I got howitzer instead of a pistol."

"We're going to need some more plating for the firing range," Wrex grumbled as he dumped the contents of his tray into his mouth before speaking around his food, "we nearly shot through it this afternoon playing around with the upgrades the whelp was kind enough to install on our weapons."

"Hey." Everyone seemed to ignore the demeaning insult as John plopped down into a vacant chair with a massive grin on his face.

"I think we should probably chain you to a work bench from now on," John laughed as he snagged a biscuit from somewhere and started munching on it, "that way you avoid getting hurt and you build some interesting stuff, a win for everyone."

"Give it another two days Bossman, then he'll run out of spare parts to mess around with and can't build anything," Jackson advised as he turned to face said commander, "so where are we heading anyway?"

"There were a few planets of interest in this cluster that we need to check out before we head out," that was code talk for shut-the-Hell-up-and-be-happy-with-the-fact-you-are-not-in-jail, "then we'll be running a trip to an out of the way Alliance station to drop off the spare Geth parts we got laying around."

"We've completed scanning and analysis of all the available Geth components Commander." Tali chirped from her spot across from Jason as Jane adopted a pleased look on her face as Jason felt that something was about to go horribly wrong.

"What do you mean we?" Jane asked as she faced Tali, who had stopped attaching her tube of nutrient paste to her helmet while Jason suppressed a groan, "Aren't you running diagnostics on the Geth hardware?"

"Jason has been kind enough to offer his workbench and equipment for that task," Tali continued to explain, "He even stops working on his projects to help me."

"Really?" The faux surprised look on Jane's face was almost comical, but Jason didn't feel like laughing.

"Yes, we've managed to do so much together and he has proven to be a much bigger help than expected," Tali faltered as she looked towards Jason, "No offense."

"None taken."

Wrex groaned as he got back to his feet, "I'll be in the cargo bay."

Jane didn't miss a beat as she decided to drop the next bomb, "So when are you two going on a date?"

It was official, the first time a Quarian was ever seen doing a spit take and somehow managing to pull off a haunted look wearing a full body environmental suit had been done when no one had a camera or video recording, Jackson vows that he would construct a time machine in order to see such an event again as Jason utilized his extensive downloaded memories to escape back down to the cargo bay and barricade himself under his workbench after every single person in the mess turned to look at him for an answer when Tali bolted for the elevator.

(Elsewhere, a sentient drone discovered the anomaly of a sneeze and set about running a complete systems check to insure that everything was operating at acceptable levels.)