Commander Jane Shepard and her crew were just as surprised as anyone. Shepard herself was more than a little embarrassed, but also more than a little ...relieved. Life, it seemed, would go on. In time, some of her crew moved on, while others elected to stay on as part of the Spectre's retinue. Though unintentional, eventually her crew was entirely female, with Joker being the last to depart, returning to active service with the Alliance military. An upgraded EDI now piloted the ship in a synthetic. But he was not dressed like an average guy, from his expensive silk jacket to his Italian leather shoes this guy flashed money. The two were very different. Bill was younger, early forties, tall at six-foot-three—had a better build at two hundred and thirty pounds of hard-muscled flesh. He had worked at his father's construction business since his fifteenth birthday, at least part time and full time after his associate's degree from the local community college.The other man could have been. Not knowing what else to do,Mikey slid back on the couch so that he was the oneagainst the back of the couch. Before he knew it hisMom was laying in front of him, her back to his chest.She snuggled up against him playfully. Innocently. ButMikey did not feel innocent at all. He pulled his hipsback against the back of the couch as hard as he could.His chest was pressed firmly against her back. Her hairwas flowing teasingly right in front of his face. Hecouldn't help but smell it on every breath,. The team filed out front to let the TV people get good shots of us in our uniforms. We had passed out figurines to the hostages as they had filed out the door, and, as expected, Komodo's figurine was by far the most popular. Fortunately, one of the TV crew had seen us on CNN, so they quickly knew who we were. We gave no interviews, as usual, but the hostages were eager to talk about their ordeal and rescue. By the evening news, our pictures were splashed all over European TV. Well, we had.