| “ | I wanted to travel the stars, tending the wounds of tough soldiers with piercing eyes and sensitive souls. Turns out military life isn't quite as romantic as I'd imagined. | „ |
| ~ Dr. Chakwas on joining the Alliance |
Dr. Karin Chakwas is one of the major characters in the Mass Effect trilogy, including the remaster Legendary Edition.
She is the chief medical officer of the Normandy. She returns in Mass Effect 2, as she works for Cerberus to help Shepard. She can be found on the Citadel in Mass Effect 3, where she can be recruited.
Biography[]
Background[]
Dr. Chakwas graduated from medical school and enlisted in the Systems Alliance, seeking "exotic adventure", though she quickly realized that military life was not as romantic as she had imagined it to be. However, she stayed with the Alliance in order to do her duty and serve humanity. Though she sometimes considers starting her own private practice, or going to work at a medical center on one of the colonies, she feels that "there is something special about working on soldiers", and believes she would be abandoning them if she did not stay. Like most Alliance doctors, she has taken courses in alien biology, enabling her to treat the non-human races such as turians and quarians.
Dr. Chakwas took part in the liberation of Shanxi during the First Contact War and the Skyllian Blitz during the invasion of Elysium by batarian pirate armies. Chakwas presumably took part in treating injured soldiers during these conflicts.
Mass Effect[]
Commander Shepard encounters Dr. Chakwas when she and Corporal Jenkins are chatting outside the communications room. The doctor finds Jenkins amusing - she teases that the 'action' he craves usually ends with her patching soldiers up in the infirmary. After the mission on Eden Prime, when the Prothean beacon knocks Shepard unconscious, Kaidan and Ashley Williams carry the Commander back to the Normandy to be treated by Dr. Chakwas, because she has more experience than the civilian clinics on Eden Prime. She has a very calm bedside manner, assuring Shepard that everything looks normal, though she is perturbed by the Commander's vision and decides to add it to her report.
Shepard can talk to Doctor Chakwas later. She has worked with Captain Anderson on several missions, and respects his judgment: "he knows when to let things slide and when to crack the whip." The Commander can also ask how well she knows Lieutenant Alenko, but Chakwas responds that she hasn't worked with him before. She can offer an explanation of the medical problems L2 biotics suffer, which provides some background for assignments later on. Shepard can replenish the squad's medi-gel stocks from the infirmary where she is usually working.
After the mutiny, Doctor Chakwas says it is strange being a fugitive from the Alliance. She tells Shepard that the crew has sacrificed everything for the Commander's mission: "don't let us down."
Mass Effect 2[]
Dr. Chakwas is present on the SSV Normandy when it is destroyed by a Collector cruiser during the ship's patrol in the Amada System. She managed to evacuate the ship via escape pods, along with several crew members and Shepard's romance partner. After Shepard's death, Chakwas was posted at the Mars Naval Medical Center. Missing the excitement of a starship, Chakwas joins Cerberus, getting a position on the Normandy SR-2 as the ship's Chief Medical Officer and can be found in the Medical Bay. She explains that she's not working for Cerberus, but for Shepard, in order to assist the fight against the Collectors, and making it clear that she has no regrets about it.
When Shepard asks Dr. Chakwas if she needs anything, she mentions a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy she had lost on the SSV Normandy which she regrets never opening. If Shepard purchases a bottle and gives it to her, she'll invite the Commander to have a drink with her. Some time later, a drunk Dr. Chakwas is shown reminiscing about Corporal Jenkins and Lt. Alenko. It is during this event that Shepard learns the real reason Dr. Chakwas joined Cerberus; it is because of Joker who will always need her help with his Vrolik syndrome, even if he never admits it. She feels that she needs stability in her life, and serving on the Normandy with Joker and Shepard brings her comfort. After the conversation, Dr. Chakwas is found passed out on one of the medical beds. The next time Shepard goes to have a chat with Chakwas, she apologizes for being a little unprofessional. Depending on how much Shepard got her to open up about her feelings, she may also give Shepard a chance to "vent." Regardless of how Shepard responds, Chakwas will then ask Shepard to promise that they'll share a bottle every year.
Email: Healing of your facial scars[]
Because some of Shepard's scars weren't fully healed while aboard Lazarus Station, Chakwas did some research about it and sends Shepard an email about the results and a request for some resources for the medical equipment to completely heal the Commander's scars.
Suicide Mission[]
Later, Dr. Chakwas and the rest of the Normandy SR-2's crew are abducted by the Collectors and taken to their base. If Shepard and the team proceeds immediately to rescue the crew and destroy the Collector base, the team will find Dr. Chakwas with the rest of the crew trapped in pods inside the Collector base and manage to free them all before they are processed alive by the Collectors. On the other hand, the longer the mission is delayed, the lower the number of the Normandy's crew remains alive, eventually leaving only Dr. Chakwas, alongside a few colonists, to be saved by Shepard and the team. In this outcome, Dr. Chakwas will become traumatized from having to watch her crew members dissolved alive, and the longer the team takes to find her, the more bitter she will be.
In any case, Shepard will then choose whether or not to assign a squad member to escort Dr. Chakwas and any remaining survivors back to the Normandy. If Shepard chooses a loyal squad member to escort them, they will safely return to the Normandy and evacuate the galactic core at the end of the mission. Back in her med bay, Dr. Chakwas gratefully comments that Shepard and Joker are the truest friends she's ever had. However, if Shepard decides not to assign a squad member to the task, Dr. Chakwas and any other survivors will be killed on route to the ship.
Mass Effect 3[]
Dr. Chakwas returns in 2186, provided she survived the Suicide Mission in 2185. When the Normandy SR-2 was impounded by the Alliance, the Alliance had no clue what to do with Dr. Chakwas as she had never officially been a part of Cerberus, and she had a proper leave of absence from her previous job. Though she hadn't technically done anything wrong by joining Commander Shepard to defeat the Collectors, she mentions the possibility of being tried as an accessory if Shepard was convicted as a war criminal. That aside, she has been working at an Alliance R&D lab at Shalta Ward, closely coordinating with Admiral Steven Hackett.
When Dr. Chakwas learns of the injured squad member, she comes to Huerta Memorial Hospital as soon as possible. Shepard can find her talking with Dr. Chloe Michel in the hospital's lounge. If Shepard invites her aboard the Normandy, she thanks the Commander, and she will reside at her previous place in the Normandy's medical bay, saying that it "feels like home". If she does not get invited aboard, she will continue her work at labs, assisting in the war against the Reapers.
In general, Chakwas is glad to see familiar faces in the Normandy. She wants to help Garrus with his facial scars, but thinks he actually likes them. When EDI takes over Dr. Eva's body, Chakwas quips that Joker is going to have a "field day", to which Shepard wryly agrees.
When Mordin Solus/Padok Wiks is tending to Eve in the med-bay, Dr. Chakwas spends her time in the Crew Quarters, chatting with Engineer Adams. She provides words of comfort and encouragement to Adams when he blames himself for not helping the team back in 2185.
Unlike Kelly Chambers who suffers from nightmares of the Collectors' abduction, Dr. Chakwas claims to have put the events of the abduction behind her, though she does wonder about the victims and tragedies of the war. Eventually, she emotionally succumbs to her thoughts, admitting to Engineer Adams that she lied about her feelings to put on a brave face. By contrast, she has no emotional baggage about working for Cerberus, instead viewing Shepard as having "used them" to defeat the Collectors, depriving the organization of their best ship and some of their most talented personnel in the process.
She reveals to Shepard that she has no real family, being the last of a long line of distinguished medical professionals. Instead, she views the Alliance as her "spouse" and her patients and shipmates as her children. She does maintain several close friendships with other colleagues in the Alliance, but as ships are lost to the Reapers she begins to lose people, fueling her resolve to help the Commander end the war as soon as possible.
Chakwas holds up her annual promise to share Serrice Ice Brandy with the Commander, even though it has not reached a year since their last drink. If they share a drink together, Dr. Chakwas does not pass out this time, having learnt her lesson from being drunk the last time. She also jokingly comments that even a krogan couldn't match the Commander drink for drink.
If Shepard does not talk to Dr. Chakwas at the hospital before Cerberus' attack on the Citadel, she will no longer be present there. If she is on board the Normandy following the coup attempt, she notes that she never liked Udina, and now she knows why.
After the mission to restart the reactors of a turian fuel depot on Cyone, Dr. Chakwas and Engineer Adams are found in the Mess Hall, arguing about the fundamental characteristics of sentient life with reference to the geth and the Reapers. Like Dr. Michel, Chakwas believes synthetics aren't a valid form of life. She questions Adams if he believes the geth share the same rights and liberties as organics, going so far as to think Cerberus has more rights than geth as they're still human. Shepard can defuse the argument with their own views, and in case they support Adams instead of the doctor, Chakwas retorts Shepard and Adams are practically machines themselves.
If Tali rejoins the crew, Chakwas makes sure to stock up on dextro-compatible medical supplies. If Tali died on Rannoch, the doctor deems what happened to the quarians as a tragedy, noting she doesn't have much of a choice but to mourn and move on.
Even if Dr. Chakwas wasn't sent away to assist in building the Crucible, she still misses out on attending Shepard's big party at Admiral Anderson's former apartment. An emergency medical consult somewhere on the Citadel demanded her attention, and Samantha Traynor relays her apologies to Shepard. The doctor did send some "fancy liquor", which apparently has already been consumed since Traynor laments that Shepard never got to have any.
On the eve of the final battle on Earth, Chakwas congratulates Shepard on having come a long way from the days under then-Captain Anderson's command on the original Normandy. She states that it has been her honor to serve with the Commander, bidding Shepard a last farewell.
Trivia[]
- In Mass Effect 3, if the player chooses to have a drink with her, Chakwas makes an in-game reference as to why she never calls Shepard by the Commander's first name. She says that after all Shepard has accomplished, calling the Commander by their first name seems disrespectful.
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "Karin Chakwas" article on the Mass Effect Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.