chapter 6

So after destroying the Geth you decided to rip this out of it as a souvenir?" The question made him chuckle as he stood next to the workbench watching Tali deftly examine all of the parts he had spread out before him.

"Time was of the essence," Jason replied while mentally congratulating himself on inviting Tali to come help him run a diagnostic on the Geth components, "had to disarm a couple bombs."

"Oh," she paused in her examination to switch tools, "the readout you have is from one of their weapons as well?"

Definitely some kind of early model Spitfire in its infancy now that he had time to sit down and think it over, mostly the data consisted of recorded power and temperature levers put out by the weapon that gave a detailed binary record of data he found useful, in the event he managed to get his hands on another one to avoid catastrophic weapon failure, again.

"How were you able to wield it?" Tali had been asking questions nonstop since she got the omni-chat message about having an abundance of Geth hardware components to tear apart and essentially dissect, Jason having wisely scooted over after he located another stool for her to sit on as they got to work taking everything apart and siphoning stored data from the various parts.

"It wasn't difficult," Jason replied before he discarded yet another piece of useless circuitry and reached for another that looked promising, "just sort of picked it up and shot it on the go."

"Really?" Tali's helmet dipped slightly to the left as she stopped working, "the data revealed that the weapon kickback was beyond what an organic is typically rated for, even before the overheat phase began, the sheer weight of the weapon alone looks like it is beyond your physical capabilities, no offense."

Ouch, a blow to his very manhood, must come up with a clever comeback without it turning into an argument about his masculinity as he chuckled and lit up with a biotic aura and concentrated really hard.

Tali let out a surprised (and very adorable) squeak as she found herself hovering several feet off the floor of the cargo as she attempted to reach for something secured, flailing her arms comically before Jason willed her back into her seat with a smile on his face.

"Biotics," he supplied with a smug grin on his face as she huffed and turned back to the components, wrapping both of her feet around the leg of the workbench as he got back to work right alongside her.

"I did the math," her tone was level, like she was trying to avoid sounding like a child, but holding her mature tone as she tilted her head towards him again, "the amount of force would have broken the bones of any organic aside from a Krogan after the first shot, even with biotics I have to ask, how?"

Somewhere a mental scoreboard appeared keeping a running tally as Jason schooled his facial expression to reveal nothing as he tinkered with the part in front of him in silence for several seconds before glancing over at Tali to see if she was still looking at him.

Green clashed with silver for several seconds before he let out a sigh and set the parts in front of him down, "Because I'm not a normal human."

"What?" Tali's voice modulator light blinked as she paid rapt attention.

Jason sighed again as he let a suffering look creep across his face, "It's kind of personal and I'm not really comfortable talking about it yet, if you want to know you can ask either Shepard about it."

A three finger hand appeared on his upper arm, so surprising he had to curb the automatic reflex of shrugging it off before launching a Warp at the offender as he found himself looking into Tali's faceplate.

"Its fine, I didn't mean to pry," she took a breath as she moved her hand and picked up another part, "so what are you going to do with all the data you logged from these parts anyway?"

"Seeing how we didn't get much I was going to put it aside for now until we got some more complete pieces to work with, get an understanding of Geth software and such," Jason shrugged as he smiled at Tali softly, "I get the feeling following those two around is going to lead us to some very interesting places packed with Geth."

Tali laughed, a nice sound as Jason mentally filed away the fact he needed to learn some new jokes without sounding like an idiot, "You make it sound like Saren has an army of these things at his beck and call."

His look of amusement quickly morphed into his typical poker face as her chuckles tapered off before her fingers started to wring, a rather amusing sight to watch as she squirmed in her seat.

"He doesn't right?" Jason restrained himself from reaching over and comforting her with a hug, because she sounded terrified of the aspect of facing an army of Geth as he shook his head.

"Call me paranoid, but I think we'll be alright," he smiled as her fingers stopped twitching, "how is your injury doing? No fever or chafing I hope."

"Oh, it is doing remarkably well now that you ask," she flexed her limb in question several times, "feels good as new."

"Uh huh," Jason commented as he ran another scan over her injury sight before giving her a look that made her squirm again, "you shouldn't be running around so much while your immune system is still fighting an infection, in fact you should go get something to eat and some rest."

"But I have work to do," she cast a glance at the workbench in front of her, "the Admirals back in my fleet would pay dearly in any amount of resources to have these Geth parts, I need to do this."

That selfless trait was rearing its head now as Jason laughed, "Well as long as I'm working with you it can't hurt, hand me that piece next to your left hand and we'll get started."

"You know what this is?"

"Nope, never seen anything like it before in my life, but its' fun to learn how things work."

XXX

"I'm telling you Commander that those two are worth more than this ship twice over," Dr. Chakwas continued to explain as she laid out detailed reports in front of John and Jane, who were currently in the medical bay on the second deck, "once Alliance R&D and Medical Division received the reports from both Jackson and Jason, I've had every single lead surgeon, biochemist, neurologist, doctor and medical researcher sending highly encrypted messages asking all kinds of questions, don't be surprised when you receive similar messages and probably a couple questions from a few Admirals."

"Word has already gotten out about these two?" John asked as he briefly skimmed over the reports, most of it going over his head, but he was clearly getting the gist of it.

Dr. Chakwas sighed, "For now it is still within a highly classified priority, but more people are learning about these two, in fact it won't be long before those two are going to be hounded for examinations, case studies, detailed scanning and such."

"With our Spectre authority we can easily overrule that," Jane scoffed as she set a data pad down and crossed her arms, "so what is it you needed to tell us."

"After the initial scans and customary examinations of Jackson and Jason," Dr. Chakwas pointed towards the nearest glowing interface to prove her point, "I noticed that each one had similar characteristics, namely the surgical scarring and biological improvements, but something else that may aid you in tracking down their origins."

"What is that? A return to sender address note? Sick and Demented Incorporated logo?" John asked as his wife sighed and pointed at each characteristic Dr. Chakwas spoke of.

"The tattoos, the long string of numbers appear to be some sort of identification number," she glanced at each one before going on, "this tells us that whoever is behind this goes through a lot of subjects if the number is that long."

"My God," John was stunned as he finally grasped the concept, "there could be hundreds of copies running around already?"

Dr. Chakwas sent a look his way that told him it wasn't the case, "Not likely, the amount of resources and time required just for these two is astronomical, it would be cost prohibitive to even think of creating an army of that magnitude."

"So we happened to luck out when we found them on Eden Prime?" John let out a whistle, "Now that seems like fate having a wild card in store for us later on."

"Anything else doc?" Jane asked as she forwarded some of the more interesting aspects of the medical files to her omni-tool while the doctor in question frowned.

"As a matter of fact yes," she brought up yet another chart, this one of a Quarian, "it has come to my attention that Tali'Zorah was injured earlier and got medical attention from a clinic that I happen to know quite well, but Dr. Michele never prescribed her the medication to further treat her injuries until I asked her when she had taken the antibiotics and medicine supplements."

"She is a Quarian," John shrugged as stated the obvious, "it comes with the territory that she would have medical supplies on hand to treat her injuries."

"Yes, but when I was putting her medical file together earlier she informed me that she didn't have any before Jason gave them to her," Dr. Chakwas pointed out as she brought up another screen, this one appearing to be some kind of list, "it wasn't until I sent a message to the clinic and got a reply from Dr. Michele that Jason had picked up some supplies."

"We were there for that," Jane said as she assumed her thinking pose, placing her chin in the palm of her right hand while crossing her left across her stomach, "he seemed really tense about it."

"Like a teenager buying condoms for the first time," John snorted at the looks he received from the two women present, "oh come on, he was clearly uncomfortable about walking into that clinic alone with a doctor present."

"You could tell?" Jane sounded surprised as John laughed.

"It's a guy thing honey, you wouldn't understand." John smiled at the pout he received in return.

"Be that as it may," Dr. Chakwas brought the topic in hand back on track, "I would have never thought about treating her injuries like that or giving her that specific medication, in fact I've made a note of it for future use, what I'm trying to say is that Jason appears to have a firm grasp of the medical field, levo and dextro."

"Still not seeing the big picture here," John said as he shrugged towards his wife, "he knew a few tricks and likes to carry his own medical supplies, I can respect that."

"No dummy," Jane sighed deeply as she caressed her temples, "what she is trying to say is that Jason might have received medical training in the past, which can be a huge boon to our future operations of we have him on the ground team."

"Big deal, slap on some medi-gel and keep going," John missed the looks of exasperation between both women, "I think he'll be handy in fight with his biotics."

"About that as well," Dr. Chakwas was on a roll with the screens and flowing medical graphs as John attempted to follow on, but got nothing, Jane on the other hand was following along with rapt attention, "a passive biotic scan revealed that he was putting out more dark energy in his relaxed state than most human biotics could ever hope to achieve at peak efficiency."

Jane let out surprised sound, "How is the comparison to his biotic test you had him perform?"

Dr. Chakwas brought up another alongside it, this one lit up like a Christmas Tree in comparison to the first, "I would be willing to bet he could generate enough biotic energy without any kind of amp to easily overpower and kill anyone, maybe even bust his way through a few bulkheads," the looks she got made her pause for a few seconds, "I would actually have to believe Jackson on how powerful Jason really is."

More information passed between John and Jane in that instant than half an hour of conversation could ever hope to pass, the benefits of being married for years with lots of nonverbal training to go with it as it pretty much boiled down to a single thought both of them were currently having.

Permanent team member.

XXX

ACHOO!

"Ah, that was weird," Jason frowned before glancing over at Tali, who was curled up in her seat softly snoring as he finished compiling the Geth parts with all the information and schematics they managed to glean in the last few hours, before Tali had fallen asleep from the exhaustion she was no doubt feeling.

Come to think if it, he was tired as he put everything away for now and looked around the cargo bay, noticing that Wrex as passed out (while slouched against the wall, how he managed that Jason would never know) and neither Jackson or Garrus were near the Mako either before he looked back at Tali's sleeping form.

Well, just can't leave her there, Jason sighed as he reached over and tapped her shoulder gently to see if she woke up.

No response, so he tried shaking her shoulder.

Again no response as scratched the side of his head before shrugging and gently picked her up bridal style, tucking her head against his chest before he slowly moved towards the elevator.

Tali didn't so much as stir in her sleep as he summoned the slowest elevator in existence before climbing in and hit the second deck command, standing still until the elevator arrived as he stepped out and walked towards the sleeping pods on the other side of the mess and discovered where his twin and Garrus had wandered off to.

Jackson was in the middle of an animated discussion with Garrus as Ashley was busy eating something a few seats away, that and Alenko was helping himself to a cup of coffee, the grimace on his face told him exactly what he thought of it as Jason walked by with Tali asleep in his arms.

"Not a word," Jason directed at Jackson as he lit up with a biotic aura as a warning before he reached an empty sleeping pod and gently deposited her inside carefully before heading back to the table.

With a shit eating grin plastered across his face, Jackson stood up and clapped softly before laughing, "Well that was fast, tire her out already?"

Alenko performed an epic spit-take as Ashley looked up in alarm while Garrus had some kind of confused/surprised look in his face.

"Knock it off dufus, she passed out from the meds and exhaustion, no funny business," Jason shot back before he grabbed a tray and loaded it up, "gonna crash down in the cargo bay, no way in Hell am I sleeping in one of those coffins."

Jackson scoffed as he took his seat again, "How do you think I feel? I can't even fit inside one of those things to start with, so I'll be sleeping in the Mako for now."

A committal grunt was all he got for an answer as Jackson waited all of five seconds before diving into his next question, "Did you learn anything from the hacking?"

Jason grunted while shaking his hand side to side before he took a drink and swallowed, "Some random strings of data, nothing solid yet."

Garrus cleared his throat with a cough, "Uh why do you call the sleeper pods coffins if you don't mind me asking?"

"Coffins are boxes humans store dead bodies inside for proper burial," Ashley responded before glancing back and forth between Jason and Jackson before looking back at Garrus, "it's a human thing I guess."

"Ah," Garrus sighed, "have you ever been in a coffin to know it was similar before you made that comparison, because you've never been on a ship before."

Jason paused in the middle of chewing before swallowing and reaching for his glass of water, "Been trapped inside something that might have well been my coffin."

"Claustrophobic?" Alenko asked as Jackson laughed, earning an odd look from everyone present.

"Just don't like being trapped without an exit route, have no problem with tight spaces at all," Jason smirked, "wouldn't be alive if I did have a problem with it."

"Remember that time on Omega we had to crawl through half a mile of sewage pipes?" Jackson laughed again as he launched into a 'story' for everyone to hear, going on about how they were on the run from a couple bounty hunters and desperate for a way out as Jason continued to eat his meal.

"Then the poor bastard got blown off the catwalk for the second time and landed back in the shit he had just crawled out of," Jackson chortled, "he was so pissed as he got up and blasted half a dozen bounty hunters point blank range with some newfangled biotic attack he learned from watching a couple vids."

"How did you guys get away?" Garrus asked as Jason shook his head.

"Nothing so glamorous as riding off into the sunset, we slipped into a crowded area and hopped onto a public transit mag rail train covered in blood, guts, shit and all kinds of garbage like any other passenger and not one person said a word," Jackson laughed again, "come to think of it, none of them even batted an eye."

"Probably see if every single day," Ashley chuckled as she looked up and jumped to attention, "didn't see you Commander, Lieutenant."

Both John and Jane were stepping out of the medical bay towards them as Jason went back to eating his meal, though he really hoped that the food could be improved before the second installment, that or else it was going to be a long trip.

"At ease," Jane responded as she grabbed a chair and sat down while John wandered over to punch the auto-chef for a cup of decent coffee, "how is the rest of the team?"

Can't call it a team without Liara yet, Jason thought to himself as he cleared his throat.

"Wrex is down in the cargo bay asleep, Tali is over in that sleeper pod because the meds and fatigue got to her and the rest of us are watching my idiot brother make a fool of himself," Jason smiled as he glanced over at Jackson, "why don't you tell them that one time you walked in a gay bar eh?"

This had actually happened before in their real life, no cover story at all as Jackson got all defensive and crossed his arms, uncaring of the smirks sent his way, "Yeah, well how about you enlighten everyone else about your little accident back on Omega with that Asari dancer and that Krogan bouncer, I get a kick out of that one every time."

"Touché." Everyone seemed to be watching the verbal sparring match like a ping pong game going back and forth as John sat down next to his wife with a set of steaming mugs before Jason refocused his attention on them in particular.

"So, where are we heading if you don't mind me asking," Jason asked out loud, the question directed more towards the Commanders than anyone else, "I like to be prepared in knowing where I'm going next."

Both Shepard's shared a look before Jane spoke up, "We were going to tell everyone over a briefing tomorrow when everyone was present to hear it."

Jackson laughed as he raised his left hand and began counting off two fingers, "Wrex wouldn't want to sit around and talk about where we're going when he could just jump and shoot something and second, do you want to wake him up?"

Several heads performed the universal gesture of no, vigorously, before he continued on, "That and Jason had to carry our little engineer to a bunk because the poor thing was all tuckered out, so I doubt she'll be on the next mission until the good doctor clears her for groundside missions."

Jason didn't notice the gleam in Jane Shepard's eyes as she snatched up her coffee to take a long drink as she began to ponder what the latest addition of the crew meant to the biggest enigma, oh what fun she would have.

"That is correct," Dr. Chakwas spoke up as she walked over to the auto-chef and waited for her coffee to appear, Jason making note to watch every single move she made and to slide over one empty seat to sit just a little bit farther away when she sat down, "while her recovery is remarkable, it'll be another few days before I even think about letting her conduct groundside operations."

Jackson clapped softly, "Thank you, hold your applause until I reveal the almighty and powerful plan I've made in deducing where our first destination shall be."

Turning to both Shepard's, Jason watched as his twin pulled out a pair of glasses from somewhere and donned them on his face as he stood up and turned to face the table, making a mental note that Ashley turned an interesting color as he managed to pull off the scholarly holier than thou appearance as he began pacing back and forth, scratching at his chin while giving both Commanders a piercing glare.

"Therum," Jackson smiled as he removed his glasses and began pacing around, "our first destination is Therum, where rumor has it that one Liara T'Soni, daughter of the Asari Matriarch who is confirmed ally of Saren is currently located due to the abundance of Prothean ruins, where the most probable chance of gathering vital intelligence can be found."

Everyone was paying rapt attention now, "Suffice to say that any chance of obtaining Miss T'Soni would have to be done immediately, her mother might want her only daughter to be hidden from anyone trying to exploit her or to be at her side now that the galaxy at large knows her identity is tied with Saren, we'll have to move quickly."

Garrus was the first to speak, "When this mission is over, can I borrow him? C-Sec would benefit greatly from his help."

John grunted as he took another sip, "You owe me ten credits honey."

Jackson laughed as he took a bow, "Thank you, I'm here all week."

"Oh crap," Ashley sighed as she shook her head sadly, "we have a comedian on the ground team."

A chorus of groans went up at this as Alenko stood up, "Joker is going to be heartbroken now that we've replaced him with a much more durable double of himself."

XXX

ACHOO!

"Huh, that was weird," Joker said as he wiped his nose.

Navigator Pressley appeared over his shoulder with a box of Kleenex, "Are you getting sick Jeff?"

"No, the strangest thing is that I think someone is talking about me," Joker shrugged as he corrected the miniscule amount of drift the Normandy had suffered from his lack of attention, "the only time this happens is when someone is talking about court martialing me or that some random porn star wants to date me."

Pressley rolled his eyes, "Somehow I seriously doubt that."

"What? A guy can dream can't he?"

XXX

"Okay so I was right? We're going to Therum first?" Jackson asked before he received the acknowledging nods as he turned back to face Jason with a hand outstretched and a smile plastering his face, "Ha, now pay up!"

Glowering at his twin, Jason went through the motions of sending a small amount of credits via omni-tool towards his twin before going back to his food as the others grouped around the table laughed at his expense.