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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:13:22 GMT -5
This thread is reserved for a self-insert fanfic co-authored by myself, HK47FAN and Celestial-Insanity, as they are known as fanfiction.net.
Annnnnnd.... well, just to get this over with: We do NOT own Mass Effect or anything related to it. We just did this for fun.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:13:53 GMT -5
Prologue Aikido Dojo (Abby) "All right, good. Grab your jo's and let's line up." I wiped the sweat off of my forehead with a grin and grabbed the jo I'd lain on the edge of the large mat that dominated the entire dojo. We were all identical then, a swarm of exhausted people wearing rough white gi's, as we scrambled towards our designated place and, kneeling, bowed to the picture of O'Sensei hanging up on the wall. Clapping twice, as was our custom, we remained kneeling until Sensei turned and announced in a loud voice, "Domo arigato gozaimasu." "Domo arigato gozaimasu," we repeated. We leaned back, relieving our aching backs, and bowed to our partners of the night's classes. "Domo, domo," we chanted, and I glanced up to see Tyler, my younger neighbor I'd so forcefully dragged into Aikido, get up to retrieve the brooms. My wrists were going to hurt tomorrow, but today had been a good, productive class. If there was going to be another one, I would have joined in if I could, even though I'd already participated in two of them already. I couldn't wait to be an uchideishi, a live-in student, for a week over the rapidly-approaching summer break. We swept the mats off and got to our knees one last time to wipe them off. I could already see my left wrist swelling up, but a few hours of sleep would make it good as new. Singing under my breath, I sat down on one of the many chairs lining the edge of the mat and took my cell phone out of my bag. I could hear the other students around me talking and socializing, but with a weary tenor that suggested that they were going to be sleeping good tonight. Food, shower, bed, I thought, prioritizing. I had a new email from Sarah, but didn't bother to read it yet; it looked like a chain message, and I didn't believe in those things. Let's see. . . there was a letter from Dawson asking how to put a wallpaper on his cellphone. . . Typical Dawson, he knew I was training tonight. . . I checked Facebook and read my friends' latest status updates, then checked out my DeviantArt messages. Ah, the wonderful feeling of having a phone with internet! I'm a Floridian at heart; I'd lived there most of my life, until we had to move to Virginia. The snow, which was originally awesome, had lost its charm and I was glad when the warm weather began peeking through the clouds. I'd been sadder than I should have been when we moved, but I was starting to find a place here in Virginia, and, well, I had stuff and people here that I just couldn't leave right now. Dad and I dropped Tyler off at his house, as per our usual arrangement. When we got to our own I wasted no time in setting the water to boil on the stove. Yawning hugely, I logged in to MSN Messenger. Sarah: BOO! Abby: BOO! Sarah: LOL. How's it going? Abby: Awesomely, just got back from Aikido. You? Sarah: Ooo, awesome. I glanced up from the computer as the dogs began to cold-nose my hand. "What? What, you need to go outside?" I asked them. Bear, a black Chow with threads of Labrador in him, panted happily at my waist. "Oh, fine, fine, fine. C'mon, let's go!" I led the four of them downstairs and out into the backyard. "Go pee," I told them, and closed the door. Still humming that same song underneath my breath, I took the stairs two at a time and checked on the water. Steam was rising from the top, but no bubbles yet. "Grawr," I mutered under my breath, and went to check my messages: Sarah had brought HK into the conversation window. Abby: Sorries, had to let the doggies out. Hai peoples! Sarah: HAI! HK: Why hello there. HK: How are you? Abby: Doing pretty good. I'mma making me some RAMEN, yum. ^0^ Sarah: Ooo, that sounds good. We just had some pork chops for dinner. I made a face. Gross! Abby: Cool! So how're you guys doing? Sorry I didn't get on earlier, today was so busy. HK: Oh no, it's fine. I haven't been doing much. Just working on my fic. Abby: Awesomeness! Sarah: Actually, I wanted to ask you guys a question... Abby: yup? HK: ? Abby: brb! keep talking! Sucess! The water was boiling! I grabbed a packet of beef-flavored ramen noodles and cut open the plastic wrap with a very large, disproportionately-sized butcher knife. Humming the same song I'd been singing back in Aikido, I dropped the ramen in to the pot and began to break it up with the pasta spoon. Setting it to simmer on low heat, I glanced back at the laptop. Sarah: kk Sarah: So, anyways, you know how stupid those chain emails are, right? I mean, sometimes I send them on, you know, just in case they're true, and nothing ever happens. It's like... Sarah: All of these people SAY their wishes come true, but, really, they never do, you know? HK: Yes? Sarah: Well, one of my buddies on DA sent me this chainmail. If all three of us wish for the exact same thing at the exact same time, the wish will come true at 11:11 tonight. Abby : I wonder what Time Zone they're using. . Sarah: hehe Sarah: Well... Sarah: I was wondering if you guys wanted to try it out. It probably won't work, but... Abby: what if it does? Sarah: Yeah, exactly HK: hmmm, we could try it out, I suppose Abby: We should totally wish for something stupid, though Abby: Like Abby: 7 pineapples in the mail, tomorrow, with little strawberries inside of them Sarah: ewwwww Sarah: I think... Sarah: If we do this... Sarah: We should at least be serious about it, because the letter is only good for one wish HK: Alright, then. What should we wish for? Sarah: hmmmmm Abby: ...cake Abby: Strike that. How about... Abby: To be in Mass Effect 2! Abby: Wait, Sar, did the wish of your DA friend come true? What'd she wish for? Sarah: She said she wished for a red sports car. And she got one! I saw it in her Journal today. Apparently... Sarah: Two of her friends got a sports car, too! Abby: ...LET'S DO IT! HK: But it's not like we can just wish to be in a video game. Let's at least wish for something normal. Abby: Like...? HK: Well, I don't know. Abby: I vote ME2! Sarah: Well... I suppose we could try it... Abby: Or we don't have to. It's up to you guys. Sarah: No, I think it'll be interesting. I don't want to wish for like a gazillion dollars or anything. Sarah: Can you imagine in... Sarah: "Hey mom, dad, GUESS WHAT I FOUND OUTSIDE!" Abby: LOL! HK: LOL Abby: Pleeeeease HK? If I had to wish for anything, it probably wouldn't be to get sucked into Mass Effect 2. Seriously, that would just be... odd, to say the least. I'd probably end up wishing for a job at Bioware or something, though, so it was a moot point, kind of... Besides, it wasn't like this would actually work. Hah! HK: Okay, I don't see any harm in it HK: Leave it to YOU TWO to think this up, though Abby: *bows* Abby: You love us anyway. Sarah: Ooo I can't wait. You guys didn't read the email I sent you yet, did you? Abby: Nope. HK: No, not yet. Sarah: Good! Sarah: Okay, well, here are the rules... Sarah: We can only read the first paragraph... Sarah: And then we all have to close our eyes and think about the thing we wish ten times. Abby: Okaies. Does it have to be in exact word order or something? Abby: Like... "i wish we were in- Sarah: No, just the general impression, methinks Abby: Alright... Abby: SO! Abby: If we're going to be in ME2, we should at least have a starting point. Sarah: What do you mean? Abby: Well, if we just randomly popped into ME2, where would we be? Abby: I do NOT want to see Udina in the shower. Abby: Or... well, anybody else for that manner. Abby: and can you imagine what would happen if we popped in during a ROMANCE scene? Gah, the HORROR! Sarah: LOL! Sarah: That would be too funny Abby: Not if you're Shepard... . Abby: We should create our own Shepard, too, just to be safe. HK: We don't even know if this will work, but I'm willing to give it a try, LOL. Sarah: Yay! *hugs* Sarah: Okay... how about a female Shepard? Sarah: Paragon! I definitely don't want to meet a Renegade Shepard. Abby: Heeeell no. Sarah: hehe Sarah: Any other ideas, guys? Abby: Shepard should be a biotic Abby: So... an Adept. Sarah: kk Sarah: HK? HK: Did she save or kill the Council? HK: Because you all know what I did. Abby: "Ah, yes, 'Reapers.'" Abby: I DIED when the turian dude said that. HK: LOL Sarah:So, since I don't know much about ME1, you guys will have to figure that part out, hehe. HK: Well, it does make things a bit harder in ME2 if you killed them... Abby: More doors are open if they live. HK: Okay, then. So the Council is alive... Abby: Wrex is, too. And Wrex loves us. HK: You can't have Mass Effect without Wrex! Sarah: . Abby: Poor poor Sarah Abby: brb, noodles are cooking I drained the broth and poured the noodles into my bowl. It hit the bottom with a satisying glop. I mixed in the flavoring and took it over to the table, then brought the laptop over. It was 10:30. Abby: Alright, and her name is... HK: hmmmm Sarah: How about something pretty, like... Sarah: Amelia or something, you know? Abby: That works. HK: Okay. Abby: Love interest? Sarah: How about... Sarah: Kaiden? Abby: I LUV KAIDEN! Sarah: haha HK: Yes we all know you do, Abby. HK: Abby: ^0^ Abby: And while we're at it, let's wish for a greater and more in-depth story than the one they showed us in the game. Abby: Like... I want to know more about the characters. HK: Yeah, totally. Abby: And when I get there... Abby: i want my iPod, which shall always be charged, to play the music from the OST that matches the moment. Sarah: LOL okay! Sarah: well, I don't have an Ipod or anything, but... well, if I don't have anything else with me, like... no internet, no ability to watch DVDs, or whatever... I want my CD player with me, and some spare batteries, because... if things get too stressful or if I need a moment to chill or whatever, I like to listen to music. . Sarah: maybe... Sarah: I could have a special CD or something... that has assorted tracks on it. Like... it can just happen to play ANY song I want, anytime Sarah: bwahaha Sarah: whatever I'm in the mood for Abby: the Abby approves. Abby: it would be so awesome if this actually WORKS HK: Indeed. Sarah: Okay, so let's think about how we'll phrase the wish... Sarah: We need- HK: HEY DO I NOT GET A WISH? Abby: FIIIIIIIIINE! MAKE IT QUICK!11! HK: Sarah: LOL Sarah: LOL Sarah: LOL HK: J/K, I don't need a wish...I can't think of anything to bring along HK: Abby: ...you're horrible! HK: Well I can't! Abby: Are you sure you don't want to bring, oh, I don't know... a book or something? HK: Yes, I am sure. Abby: *rolls eyes* HK: Oh hush. Abby: Grawr. Sarah: LOL Sarah: Okay! Sarah: We should call this idea... Sarah: Well, some sort of name so we don't have to think about ALL of these details. Abby: Team Milky Way. Sarah: ...LOL HK: *facepalm* HK: Of course it is. HK: Abby: o:) Abby: So, basically we'll all wish together, on Sarah's cue... Abby: "Commence Team Milky Way." Sarah: Hahaha Sarah: I think we should say 'I wish' though, just to be safe Abby: awww, there goes my big bad movie impressions. Sarah: lol Sarah:So... are we all ready? Abby: Yup! BRING IT ON, you weirdo Collectors! HK: Yes. Sarah: Okay... Sarah: Now, remember... Sarah: We ALL have to wish it, at the same time, okay? Sarah: So as soon as I say it- Abby: Just get on with it, we know! Sarah: Okay, okay, just making sure Abby: bum bum bum buuuuuuum Abby:*cue suspenseful music* Sarah:Everybody ready? HK: Yes Abby:NO! Sarah:okay, we'll wait Abby: brb, doggies. If I'm going in to an alternate universe, I can't leave them outside. LOL HK: ...*sigh* I got up and let the dogs in, giggling. Dad had already gone up to bed and Mom was probably comatose up there as well. I shooed Hootch away from my ramen and ate it all before I looked at the computer. Abby: Okay... question Abby: shouldn't we wish to wear future clothes, as well? Abby: Because there are two things that may happen Abby: #1, we'll get there naked Abby: #2, we'll get there in whatever we're wearing And so we debated on the exact style of clothes we would wear. Abby: commence team milky way! Sarah: Okay... everybody ready? Abby: Yes HK: Yes Sarah: Alright... 10 times, wish right now. I closed my eyes immediately and thought, I wish for Team Milky Way. I repeated it again, and again, and again, until I got to my tenth time. I opened my eyes and waited for the others to get back. Sarah: And now... Sarah: I guess we wait. Abby: It's nearly 11:00. We'll know soon. Better eat up! HK: Just thinking aloud here, but I just realized something... Sarah: hmm? HK: Well... HK: After the Collectors basically destroyed the ship, Commander Shepard probably isn't going to like random visitors. Abby: I suggest we duck. Abby:
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:14:20 GMT -5
Chapter 1
Normandy Cargo Hold, (Sarah)
I wasn't sure what happened. One minute I was sitting at my computer desk, with headphones on and listening to something on youtube, and suddenly... I was somewhere else.
I blinked several times, trying to figure out where I was and what the hell happened. I felt as though I had simply blanked out. Was I... out shopping with someone? Did I take a wrong turn somewhere? Or was I asleep? Was all of this simply a weird dream?
My mind suddenly snapped back to the email, and the wish that me, HK and Abby had made on msn. "No," I muttered out loud to myself. "It didn't happen... did it?" My eyes went wide as I looked around.
Wherever I was... it seemed to be a large room, full of boxes, crates and canisters. The room itself had sort of a dull, whiteish gray color. It also seemed to be... metallic. I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, noticing that the air had sort of a... staleness to it? Maybe this was like what recycled air would smell like. It wasn't too bad, and it was certainly better than the smog I had to breath when I lived in Conneticut, but I didn't exactly like it either.
Suddenly I heard a noise. It sounded like footsteps, as if someone else was moving around. I cautiously moved around a large stack of crates to see what it was.
As I got closer, I suddenly realized that I could hear something besides foot scuffles. It sounded like... someone had started to laugh. It started as a small giggling fit and then grew into hysterical laughter. I could tell it was a girl who was laughing. It couldn't be... could it?
I finally moved around another stack of boxes and saw a girl standing there. I recognized her face immediately, because I had seen pictures of her before. She had light brown hair, light blue eyes and an outfit that looked... well, futuristic I guess? It looked like something that someone might wear on the Cerberus crew.
On impulse I suddenly glanced down at myself. I had on a brownish outfit, one that looked almost exactly like Commander Shepard's casual attire that you could see in the game.
I tore my gaze away from myself and looked over at the girl. She was roughly the same height as me. We both looked at each other for a moment. But before either of us could say a word, another voice spoke:
"I am detecting intruders in the cargo bay."
It sounded like some sort of ship-wide announcement. And it was... EDI's voice!
"Shit," I muttered under my breath. Usually I tried not to do that around people, unless I was chatting on the internet. But right now it didn't seem to matter much. All I knew was that we really weren't supposed to be here, even though it was obvious our wish had come true. And well, the voice of EDI had made it plain that we would be viewed as intruders as soon as someone saw us.
"Abby... that is you, right?" I spoke aloud, somehow managing to find my voice.
"Yep," she answered as she looked at me, as well as around the room. I was feeling nervous and a bit disoriented, but she looked like she was having a ball. In fact, she looked as if this was all some sort of joke and she was the only one who was laughing at it.
"Then... where's HK?" I asked, looking around.
That was when we spotted him. He stepped out from behind a large, cylinder-shaped canister. He was looking around. He appeared to as shaken as I felt. I could see the nervous look on his face.
Well, that made two of us, then. I glanced at Abby, wondering if she would change her tune if... oh I don't know, maybe if people started to come at us with guns or something! Technically we were on their turf, after all.
All of a sudden, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. And it sounded like they were in a hurry. HK and Abby were at attention as well, so I knew they were just alert as I was. HK's eyes were as wide as saucers and Abby simply looked around in anticipation. Well, at least Abby knew martial arts... not that that would do much good against real armor or guns...
The door on the far side of the cargo bay opened and we saw several people step through. It looked like a couple of them were human, probably security. I didn't recognize them from the game at all. Though there were a lot of random humans on the crew who looked the same to me. I never paid attention to them. All I really noticed in this case was that they had their weapons drawn. And they were aimed as us.
Well, I could safely say that I'd never had a gun pointed at me before. And by the look on HK's face, I could tell he didn't exactly like the prospect any more than I did. Abby was just... grinning. I wasn't a violent person or anything, and of course I would never do this, but part of me felt like slapping her. Just to knock her back into reality... if this really was reality.
Just then, Abby seemed to snap out of her initial giddyness or whatever mental state she had been in, and turned a little more serious. She spoke to me and HK in a firm but hushed tone as the soldiers came toward us.
"Stay close to the boxes. If they start shooting, duck behind, but you better hope they don't start shooting or we're screwed. They'll interrorgate us first, but they won't kill us."
Well, that sounded good enough to me. I glanced over at HK. He glanced at us, then looked back at the approaching men with the guns. He seemed perfectly content to stay quiet at the moment. That was good enough for me. I stayed quiet too.
Part of me even wondered if I should raise my hands above my head...
A small part of my brain noticed at that moment that HK was wearing an outfit similar to the one that Abby was wearing. Well, I'd say that their clothes seem to suit both of them... hopefully our choice of wardrobe might help prevent us from getting shot. Hopefully.
"Stay right where you are," one of the humans spoke up, keeping his gun aimed. His sidekick beside him kept his weapon trained on us as well.
Just then, another figure entered through the doorway. I couldn't help but stare at her as she entered. I was pretty sure I knew who that was... but could it really be? Was it her?
Surely enough, I knew it was her when she spoke, because I recognized her voice. "Well, what do we have here?" Commander Shepard said as she neared us. She stopped just behind the guards and folded her arms across her chest, eyeing us carefully.
She had short red hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a formal black and white outfit that reminded me of a Star Trek dress uniform, sort of. She was all business and she spoke in a firm yet quiet tone. At least I felt that she wasn't going to throw us out the airlock or order anyone to shoot at us.
Just so long as we didn't do anything stupid, I assumed.
I felt as though she was searching us with her eyes, taking in our appearance, our clothes, and probably whether or not we were a threat. Part of me hoped that the fact that me and HK most likely looked like scared turkeys might help our case. Yeah I didn't exactly want to appear helpless or cowardly, but if that meant she might think we were harmless... I could sacrifice some dignity for that.
Then, to my surprise, Abby spoke, clearly and boldly. "Commander Shepard. We heard you're taking on the Collectors, and we want in... uhm, if your buddies lower the guns, can we talk privately in your private quarters? You know, the one with the fish tank and the collectable ship display."
I saw Shepard's eyes widen with surprise, then narrow with suspicion. She unfolded her arms and moved toward us, although she did not make any moves to tell the guards to lower their weapons... yet.
"How do you know this?" she asked carefully. "Do you work for Cerberus?"
Right at that moment, EDI spoke up. "Commander Shepard, I have biometric data files on every individual even remotely connected with this organization. These three come up on my database as blanks."
"I see," Shepard replied, obviously analyzing this information in her mind. She eyed us warily. "So if you're not with Cerberus, how do you three know so much about our mission and my quarters? And more importantly," she added, placing her hands on her hips, "how exactly did you get here?" I had no idea what she was thinking, but I could definitely see the intelligent, calculating look in her eyes. She was probably trying to come up with her own explanation for this... if she hadn't cooked up one already. I was starting to feel very nervous.
In spite of myself, I somehow found my voice enough to speak up this time. "That's... hard to explain, Commander," I said slowly. "We just... know stuff." Okay, that had to be one of the stupidest things I'd ever said.
The Commander gave me a look that suggested she had surmised as much herself, and she probably suspected I was stalling or trying to give her the runaround. And she wasn't too pleased with that notion. I then glanced toward Abby, feeling a bit helpless. She seemed to be the best spokesperson in this situation for some reason.
"Commander... we came aboard this ship because this is where we need to be. Can we talk in private, please? Miranda Lawson can sit in, too, if she wants." Abby then gave what looked like a smile, although it seemed somewhat forced.
"So, you're familliar with my crew as well as the mission," Shepard commented. "Gentlemen," she said, turning her attention to the guards, "I'm not taking any chances with these three. I'm going to speak with the Illusive Man about them. They might be spies who've somehow tapped into Cerberus's listening devices and I want them put into a secure room and put under guard until I say otherwise."
"Yes, Commander!" the two guards said in unison. Shepard drew her own gun as well, obviously getting ready to go with us to make sure her directions were carried out before she made that call.
"Wait a minute," I said aloud, "you're going to lock us up in a room?"
"Until I can figure out whether or not you're a threat to me or my crew, or this mission," Shepard said sternly. "For all I know, you might be working with the Reapers like Saren."
HK finally decided to speak up after that intense accusation. "No! Trust me, no...we're not like that insane turian. We're not against you, but we're not Cerberus...uh...I don't know how to explain it...but we believe you. We know the Reapers exist and that the Collectors are stealing human colonies."
Then Abby spoke up. "We know everything that happened two years ago, from Eden Prime on. Your relationship with Kaiden, Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and Liara. How you left Ashley to die on Virmire, and she told you it was the right choice. That's exactly what she said. "You know it's the right choice, Commander.'"
Shepard frowned. She appeared unsure what to think. She seemed to be considering everything that was said, but she made no move to holster her gun. "Alright," she finally said, "before we go anywhere..." She indicated the guards to step back a little with a motion of her head, but they did not lower their weapons either. "I want to know one thing. What are your names?" And it was obvious she wanted each of us to speak for ourselves.
"I'm DJ... or well... you can also call me HK," I heard HK say.
"I'm Abby." Yeah, short and simple. Abby definitely was the blunt one at times.
"Sarah," I said as clearly as I could.
The commander merely nodded, obviously making a mental note of each of our names. "Very well," she said. "Now if you'll please come with us, nice and easy... I'll put you in one of the empty crew quarters for now, since we don't exactly have a brig on this ship." By the look on her face I could tell she thought this was definitely a poor oversight on the part of Cerberus. She waved toward the door with her gun nozzle.
I found myself moving first, more or less leading the way in front of HK and Abby. I wasn't sure why I was leading the way, maybe I was just eager to comply. I saw Shepard eying us again, then she turned and lead the way out of the room with the guards following right behind us.
It was then that I realized I had my CD player with me. Apparently it had somehow gotten into my pocket, along with my headphones. However I made no move to take it out. I didn't want anyone to think it was a weapon... and I certainly didn't want to risk them taking it away from me.
Finally when we got to the room meant for us, Shepard opened the door and we filed inside like a good little group of kids. Or whatever. "I'll be back," the commander said as she looked in on us. "After I talk to my boss." After that, she closed the door. And there was no doubt that she locked it from the outside as well.
I then took a moment to look around the room. Well, all things considered, I knew there could definitely be worse places to be locked up. This place at least had furnature... although the chairs didn't appear to be the most comfortable chairs in the world, at least they had cushions.
I took out my CD player and slipped my headphones on. "Hope you guys don't mind," I muttered. "Music helps me relax and I really need a moment to... you know, gather myself or whatever." With that I walked over to one of the corners of the room, as far from the door as I could get, and sat down on the floor instead of choosing one of the chairs. Then I pressed the play button on the CD player and turned up the volume to full blast. Yes, I know that was probably going to cost my eardrums someday, but it was an unfortunate habit I had... especially if I was under stress and/or very nervous.
Besides, for some reason... listening to "Telephone" at full blast just made the song even more... exciting, or something.
After I was halfway through listening to the song, I noticed that Abby was looking at both me and HK, so I shut off the CD player. She was squinting her eyes like she couldn't believe it. "HA! You guys are REAL!" she exclaimed.
Both HK and I stared at her for a moment.
"Yes... we are," HK said aloud, looking as though he was still trying to absorb everything that had just happened to us. I couldn't say I blamed him.
Somehow or other, my semi-sarcastic side decided to kick in. "Oh yeah, I'm sure you figured we were just computer programs like cleverbot that you've been talking to for these past few years, not that we were real people," I muttered with something like a smirk on my face, as I took off my headphones and put them aside.
Before any of us could say anything else, the voice of EDI spoke again. "Abby, HK, and Sarah," she greeted us in her soft, textured, mechanical voice. "I would like to ask you a few questions."
Well, that was something I hadn't been expecting. Sure, I guess I should have expected it. Maybe it's just that... it didn't even occur to me, at all, that the AI on the ship might choose to speak to us. I thought we would just have to wait around in here until Shepard came back.
Who knows, maybe Shepard herself asked EDI to talk to us... anything was possible at this point.
Without waiting for any kind of acknowledgement, EDI went on. "How did the three of you get here? We are currently in the middle of space and you were not detected until twenty-one-point-three minutes ago."
"How do you think we got here?" I asked aloud, partly because I was curious what kind of answer she would cook up, and partly because I was trying to stall for time until I had a good answer. Unless maybe Abby could think of something better to say.
"Since you were not detected until a short time ago," EDI replied, "I am going to surmise that you somehow managed to stow yourselves aboard the shuttle at Freedom's Progress, and used stealth tactics or possibly cloaking technology to avoid detection."
Part of me was tempted to blurt out "Well, maybe we did!" simply because it seemed like the most logical explanation at the moment. Yet something stopped me from doing it. Maybe it was because I wanted these people to accept the truth about us, and well... if any of us even came close to admitting that we stowed away, (even though we didn't, not like that anyway) well... that probably wouldn't look good for us. Especially if Shepard thought we were spies already.
So instead I blurted out, "We wished upon a star... and we ended up here." In spite of myself, I grinned.
"That hardly seems likely," EDI replied, sounding mildly irritated.
That was when Abby spoke up. "No, we didn't wish on a star..." She fought to keep her face straight. "We wished on a chain email!"
Both of us girls laughed in spite of ourselves and even HK looked amused.
EDI, however, was not amused. "If you do not wish to answer that question," she said, apparently deciding to move on, "I would like to ask how you have acquired so much information about this ship, its crew, and the mission. And how did you come by Cerberus uniforms if you do not work for Cerberus?"
I looked at Abby and HK and simply shrugged. How was I supposed to answer that, at all? I couldn't exactly say that we had popped into a video game or something just because we all wished at the same time.
Abby spoke up first. Somehow I was hoping she would, though. "We just... found these uniforms laying around so we put them on," she said with a shrug, as if it was the most obvious thing in the galaxy.
EDI seemed to accept that answer. At the very least, she didn't press that particular subject. "Now tell me how you have acquired so much intel," she stated.
Once again, Abby spoke up. "We just know things about people," she began. "We're mystics who can just tell things about people. And we know some things about the future."
I stared at her in amazement. I wasn't sure whether this was going to help our situation or make it worse. And so I wasn't sure if I wanted to hug her or let the floor open up and swallow me whole.
"HK," EDI then spoke up. "You seem very quiet. Why?"
Both Abby and I turned to look at HK. Indeed, he had been the most quiet out of all three of us.
After hesitating slightly, he spoke. "Well...uh, I'm just still a little disoriented, I guess, and they can put this stuff into words better than I can at the moment, but what they are saying...is true."
"I see," EDI acknowledged simply. It was hard to tell whether she accepted that answer or thought it was bullshit.
"Hey, is Commander Shepard still talking to the Illusive Man?" Abby chimed in.
"Affirmative," EDI replied. "They are currently engaged in a very private conversation. I anticipate they will probably be finished within fifteen to twenty minutes at most, at their current rate of discussion. Possibly sooner."
I honestly hoped it would be sooner... then again, part of me hoped it would be longer. Seriously, did I really want that conversation to be rushed when I had no idea what the outcome would be? For all I knew, both Shepard and the Illusive Man might decide the best thing to do is simply space us out the airlock. I seriously hoped Shepard would be better than that.
"EDI, do you believe us?" I finally asked out loud.
There was a pause. "I have not introduced myself to any of you, nor has anyone mentioned by designation, yet you know it." It was a statement of fact, yet it held the ring of a question mark in the air.
Before any of us could reply she simply said, "I do not have enough information to render judgement. Logging out." She then seemed to withdraw entirely from the room, the holographic globe shape vanishing from the terminal she had been speaking from.
"Well, I guess we're alone," I muttered with a slight shrug of my shoulders.
"Indeed," HK said simply. He seemed distracted.
A silence fell over the room.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:14:46 GMT -5
Chapter 2
Normandy Empty Quarters (DJ/HK)
I looked around, still quite weirded out by the prospect of any of this. I expected it to be some dream that I would wake up from any second...but that wasn't happening. This was no simple dream...their wish, as out there as it was, had actually come true, and here we were.
How had it happened? How had a stupid chain email, which were false 99% of the time, caused this to happen?
There was also a whole other side of this that I was considering. Due to their wish, had the Mass Effect universe somehow been made real? Had it been real all along, and they just didn't know it? It seemed impossible...but this wasn't simply being in the game. No one looked like they were designed graphically...they all looked real. Not pixelized, as real as anyone back on Earth.
Also, I had not seen these quarters before...if this were as simple as the game was, then these would not even be here, because BioWare didn't design them. Yet, here they were...Abby's wish of everything being more in-depth had taken on a whole new meaning.
For a brief second, I wondered maybe if we simply got killed, we would somehow appear back at where we were before this all started...but I quickly realized that wasn't the case. This was reality now, it was actually happening.
And then there was the issue of telling everyone where they came from. I knew all of these people better than they thought...they believed in Reapers, sure, but they wouldn't believe in this. We all pretty much had no choice but to make up some kind of story after we nearly died of laughter while trying to tell EDI the real story.
And now, Shepard was talking to the Illusive Man. Amelia was a Paragon...so no, she wouldn't kill us unless we tried to shoot...and unless Abby went more gung-ho than she already was, I could definitely not even fathom us leading some random assault. We were at their mercy, and luckily for us, Abby liked these people.
The Illusive Man was one guy who's reaction I couldn't guess accurately. In truth, I couldn't guess anyone's reactions, but I pretty much knew how they would handle everything. Shepard wouldn't kill us. Miranda would have some kind of fit and demand that we be interrogated or sent back to the Illusive Man himself, most likely. Jacob would probably be the neutral one in it all.
However, one thing that was clear on my mind was that Shepard had control here. We saw that in the games. No matter whether the Council or the Illusive Man is overseeing her operations, she has control. Everyone had to follow her, like it or not.
But, would we look like loons to her? Would she just keep us locked up like this the entire mission? And should we tell her all that we know? Because, in truth, we definitely knew alot...we could tell her the way to do everything to ensure everyone's survival.
Though, at the same time, I had to remind myself that this was not a simple video game any longer. Anything we did could alter the future, as all those movies, books, and tv shows emphasized in fiction.
Surely we could at least give them hints, if they'll listen, I thought to myself.
We had all been silent for a minute or so now...ever since EDI had vanished, we were just quiet, lost in thoughts. Sarah was having a similar reaction to me, only she was a little more talkative...and it was for the better. I needed to stop acting like a mime and talk, as well, too.
"Okay," Abby said, breaking the silence. She still seemed very excited. "We need to find out where we are in the game. Like, do they have Mordin yet? We know that they're off Freedom's Progress if they have the Normandy..."
Suddenly, EDI popped up again. "We are heading to Omega to recruit Dr. Solus and Archangel now. I continue to be surprised at how you know these pieces of information, but I will let Shepard decide on all of this herself." she said, then vanished once more.
"Ah, so we're just in the beginning stages." I commented with a nod to myself.
Right at that moment, Sarah chimed in. "I think we did wish to get here early in the game," she said thoughtfully. Her eyes darted around the room nervously for a moment, then focused on her friends again. "I don't know whether I should be the happiest person in the universe right now or scared to death, though. I mean... I'm going to meet Garrus and Mordin sometime soon!" She grinned like an idiot.
Abby was grinning, too. "This is so cool! I'm going to get to meet JOKER!" she yelled, her excitement barely contained.
I actually chuckled. Abby loved Joker, Sarah loved Garrus, and...who didn't love Mordin? I was still slightly shaken by the events, though, so there was no room for excitement just yet. I also knew that EDI was likely listening in, getting more and more confused.
Just then, the doors swung open, and Shepard entered. Behind her was Miranda and Jacob..Miranda was complaining, no surprise there. I still liked her, but of course she would have an outrage at all of this. I had to wonder if Sarah was thinking "BITCH" at that very moment.
"Shepard, this is insane! These people are obviously working for the Collectors, the Shadow Broker, or someone. We need to send them back to Cerberus for a proper interrogation. We have more pressing matters, and I certainly don't like spies on the ship." Miranda said, the rage clear in her eyes.
Jacob leaned against the wall. "Calm down, Miranda, they're kids. I doubt they can do any real damage."
Shepard held her hand up. "Both of you can go back to your posts for the time being. The Illusive Man and I discussed this, and before anything else happens, I want to talk to them personally," she told them.
Miranda nodded obediently. "Yes, Commander."
They both left, and I nearly shuddered at the thought of a Cerberus interrogation. I knew what happened to Veetor, or what would have happened if Shepard was a Renegade, and I was not about to go through the same thing...though all three of us were human, maybe they'd be less rough.
Shepard folded her hands behind her back, keeping her composure. "The Illusive Man wants to meet with you, and he will, but I don't follow him quite like Miranda does. I want to talk to you three first." she said.
All three of us nodded, Abby still grinning like she had hit the jackpot. Sarah and I were keeping more reserved.
"I want to know how you know so much about me. How you know so much about anything." Shepard stated, glancing out the window into space. She had a kind tone to her voice, but still one of a soldier. "I don't care too much for Cerberus, but I know they don't spread their info around, and we only just discovered that the Collectors were behind the attack on human colonies...I'd say you could have been present on Freedom's Progress, but the Collector swarms paralyze anyone and everyone, and that colony didn't have the best hiding places. More importantly, I want to know how you knew Ashley's last words...no one could know that, and its nothing that anyone would bother spreading throughout the universe."
We all looked at each other, and finally, I decided to stand up and say something to the woman. "Listen," I said, trying to keep my voice controlled and calm. "We're not going to be able to offer a full explanation to all of this...I'm not sure that we know it, but what you need to know is this: We're not spies, we're sure as heck not soldiers, or anything of the sort...but we know things that have happened in great detail, and we know things that are going to happen. Do we have special powers? Not really, but we just...know."
Shepard's eyebrows raised in what was most likely confusion and suspicion. "Like what?" she simply asked.
"Well, I'm not sure if we should even say too much, but-" Sarah started. It was obvious that this was risky waters for all of them.
Abby interrupted. "Okay, there is something we can tell you, just to prove it, because we know its true and no one else does. Archangel, right? He's this guy everybody hates on Omega...they're trying to kill him, and we're going to have to get to him first...but here's the big shocker: He's Garrus."
Shepard's jaw dropped. Her eyes were filled with pure astonishment, and it took her a second to collect herself. "Garrus? Garrus Vakarian?"
We all nodded.
"Thats impossible...last I knew, Garrus was re-applying for C-Sec, he wanted to be a Spectre, he was never a merc. That was Wrex." Shepard said, starting to pace.
"But the Illusive Man didn't know anything about Garrus's location, did he?" Sarah pointed out.
I had to admit, this was a smart thing to reveal. It was a fact that in no way could change, and we were going to be at Omega soon, anyway. I just hoped Shepard didn't think we were liars and toss us out somewhere before then.
Shepard glanced to Sarah, as realization dawned in her eyes. Could I ever be sure of much? No, but I had a hunch that she believed us now.
"If Cerberus, a group that has more information than the Alliance and Citadel and probably matches the Shadow Broker with intel, doesn't know that Archangel is Garrus, and yet we do, doesn't that say that we're legit?" Abby asked, giving a slight shrug.
"It could still be false," Shepard muttered, looking to be in a state of confusion. "But...its not unfounded. Come on, lets go see the Illusive Man."
Right at that moment, Sarah took a step forward and cleared her throat softly, obviously intending to speak. Shepard turned to look at her, and Sarah met her gaze evenly, although Sarah did look mildly sheepish.
"Um, Commander?" she said, her tone sounding a little timid. But as she continued, her tone became less uncertain. "If it's possible, um... I would like meet Garrus personally." Sarah then lowered her gaze and turned her face away, at least as much as she could without seeming too awkward. But it was apparent that she felt affection for Garrus... and was she blushing ever so slightly?
I wanted to laugh, not at Sarah, but just because I knew her fondness for Garrus...it made me wonder who Shepard was going to romance. Was my friend going to have to watch her and Garrus get romantic?
Shepard tilted her head slightly. "Well, if what you are saying is true, you're going to be seeing alot of him. There's a long journey ahead, and Garrus is going to be along for the bulk of that." she said, regaining her composure after the initial shock had worn off.
As we began to walk along, exiting the room and going out into the halls, I decided to say something myself, based off of Shepard's last statement. "Wait...so you're going to let us stay?"
Shepard nodded. "It depends on what happens when we find Archangel, or Garrus...but I don't see any reason in getting rid of you. You may be valuable to the mission." she replied, hitting the button on the elevator as we boarded it.
"And the Illusive Man?" I asked curiously.
"I think we all know that Shepard has more command here than him." Abby said with a chuckle.
Shepard actually cracked a smile. "So you do know me." she said.
The elevator headed upwards, and silence fell upon us again. However, I was starting to feel just a little better...we may have Shepard on our side, and we all knew that we'd be proven correct when we found Archangel. If we had Shepard believing us, no one else would get rid of us. No one could.
The elevator came to a stop shortly afterwards, and I saw the command deck...I had played ME2 enough to know how it worked. Nothing was new or spectacular to me, except maybe seeing the computers and the people up close. I saw Kelly give Shepard a concerned glance, and then worried that Shepard would be so nice that she romanced her.
I then had to remind myself that we blocked that issue...Shepard romanced Kaiden, so she's likely to romance one of the three options here...unless, since this was more real now...she somehow romanced someone like Grunt or some random crew member.
But I highly doubted anyone would romance Grunt.
We went through the armoury, where Jacob looked at us, and just had his usual expression on his face, not showing any surprise, anger, or happiness one way or another. He crossed his arms, like Jacob seemed to do often enough, as we went into the next small hallway, and then finally into the briefing room.
The table was already lowered, due to the fact that Shepard had just been speaking to the Illusive Man. She ushered us to step forward, and we did so.
We saw the Illusive Man's hologram, where he sat and smoked a cigarette or cigar, like usual, with that emotionless face. Shepard stepped in once we were all in the projecting area, and he simply stared at us for a moment.
"I think I deserve some answers," he said, putting his cigar down for the moment. "It is not everyday that three young people show up on the most advanced starship in the galaxy, and know so much. Shepard and I had a nice discussion... you are lucky that she actually is kind."
Sarah stared at the man for a moment. Then, whether it was out of nerves or a sudden burst of boldness, she said something a bit surprising. "Smoking will kill you." After those four words left her mouth, the expression on her face suggested she couldn't believe she even said that. She looked sheepish, then stepped behind Shepard.
The Illusive Man didn't give a firm reaction either way. "And you took quite a risk with your life by coming onto that ship into particular, and getting involved in this. I think my own risk isn't quite as big as yours." he told her in a very controlled manner.
It didn't surprise me. He only lost his temper, and even then it was only slightly, when Shepard blew up the Collector base. Mouthing off didn't seem to upset him too much.
"I understand you know alot about our mission, and Shepard herself," he continued, folding his hands. "Although it was initially expected that you were on Freedom's Progress, I think we all know thats impossible. The whole reason we are tracking down Dr. Solus is because he can develop a countermeasure so that people can survive the swarms. And this ship was only just released from a Cerberus-controlled facility. How do you know all of this?"
Silence fell again, as none of them seemed to be sure what to say. I wasn't entirely trusting that the Illusive Man would take the answers that we had been giving everyone else...in a way, he still intimidated me.
"Well?" he asked, after more silence.
Shepard finally spoke up. "I've decided that they aren't a threat...at this point, I'm not sure that it even matters. They're harmless." she said.
"Shepard, obviously they are harmless. But what concerns me is the fact that they had this information to begin with...I have been tricked big time if random people know much more about our operations than Cerberus thought. Like I told you, they could be working for someone. They, personally, are not an issue."
Abby actually laughed. "Ha ha, he thinks I'm harmless..." she muttered. "Not surprising, though."
"They also know about your past...I suspect Liara T'Soni and the Shadow Broker are involved. I told you we had suspicions that she was somehow affiliated with him now, Shepard." the Illusive Man speculated. "There is no other explanation."
Shepard shook her head. "I know Liara...she wouldn't give out information and send someone to find me. She'd come do it herself."
I nearly cringed as I thought about Liara's current state...best not to mention that now, or they would all think that the new Benezia sent us.
"Perhaps," the Illusive Man said, taking another puff of his cigar.
"Also, they've given me a valuable piece of intel...until I find out whether its true or not, I'm not doing anything to them." Shepard told him.
I continued to feel relieved that Shepard had some kind of trust for us, now. Otherwise, we would have crumbled in this meeting.
"Garrus Vakarian, who Cerberus could not find, is Archangel...according to them, at least. He is the merc operating on Omega." Shepard finished.
The Illusive Man's eyes flickered. "I...did not know this, but I would admit that its...plausible. It could still be the Collectors or the Broker, though..."
Shepard, once again, shook her head. "No, even though Garrus is my former teammate, the Broker deals with higher people than people on Omega, and I doubt the Collectors have the sources to find this out if you don't."
"Fair enough," the Illusive Man said, smoking once again. "Do what you want, Shepard, but if they turn out to be a threat, I reccomend that they be terminated as quickly as possible. This is humanity on the line, Shepard...we can't take any chances."
With that, he cut off the hologram feed. I looked to Shepard, taking a heavy breath...for a little while, I thought that would never end. "Wow, thanks...I don't think we could have handled that without you." I said.
Shepard nodded. "It's no trouble... I just hope that once we get to Omega, what you told me proves true. But for now... welcome to the Normandy."
I looked to the other two...this was likely the start of something bigger than we could imagine.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:15:06 GMT -5
(Abby)
Apparently my imagination was more thorough than I'd originally thought. Of course, there was a very high possibility that I fell asleep at my laptop (it wouldn't have been the first time) and was simply dreaming this all up. But there was a hint of a sweet smell in the air I'd never encountered before, refreshing and invigorating to my overwhelmed mind, that told me that no, this was real. This was happening, and it wasn't merely some detailed illusion.
I couldn't stop grinning.
Okay, sure, Commander Shepard probably thought we were crazy, Miranda wanted us 'taken care of', Jacob probably wanted us interrogated, and the Illusive Man probably thought he'd imbibed a very Illusive Drink. If I belonged here in this galaxy I would probably be worried about the consequences of acting the way I was, but from experience I knew that as long as you played it cool, stayed confident, and kept the story straight, people tend to take you a lot more seriously.
I was pretty confident that dropping Garrus's name had started a chain reaction of little rocks that preceded an avalanche. Commander Shepard would keep us here and locked up while she went to Omega, and hopefully she'd go see Archangel first, acting on our tip.
But there was still a few major questions to be answered, and I needed to get HK and Sarah alone to discuss them.
Shepard led us back to the unofficial brig and sat on one of the beds across from us. EDI appeared silently over her terminal, throwing a soft blue light on the reflective metal beds. "So tell me. . ." she said, tapping her fingers restlessly on the butt of her pistil. "What else do you know?"
I glanced over at HK and Sarah. Our eyes met, and an unspoken agreement passed between us. Shepard watched us, amused, and I had the distinct impression that both she and EDI were analyzing our body language. I'd bet a whole bucket ColdStone Ice Cream that the latter had some kind of lie detecting software in her programming.
I didn't know these guys outside of a computer box, but years of intuitively grasping their mindset through one sense alone lent us an unspoken communicational advantage that, for all our disadvantages, made up for a lot. Anybody could tell they were nervous, and for all of my outward confidence I was pretty shaken, too. Sarah bit the side of her lip, glancing from HK to me, questions in her eyes. HK pursed his lips a little bit and gave a slight shrug of the head, which I took to mean 'Well, do it, but be careful.'
My toes were jumping up and down in my boot. Nervousness, or excitement?
"We know a bit," I admitted slowly. "And, well. . . Huh, I really don't know how to explain it."
"Try your best," Shepard said, her voice carefully controlled. "Start with how you got the information."
Wrong question. "Well. . ." Now how do I explain this?
Shepard raised one perfect eyebrow, and inspiration struck.
"We have. . . dreams, I guess that's how you could say it," I said carefully, glancing at HK and Sarah. "Feelings, senses, whatever. We really can't explain it, and we've been trying to for years, trust us, but when we try to tell somebody how it works, outside our small group, then, well. . . it doesn't happen."
"Oh, really?" Shepard's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, please, Commander, don't tell me you've never heard of psychics before," I said stiffly, putting a slightly condescending tone into my voice. I'm so screwed, I'm so screwed, I'm so screwed... Talking to Shepard like she was an ignorant schoolgirl was not going to win me any points. "Only most of the psychics I've met or heard of aren't psychics at all. And I don't want to say we're psychics, but we kind of are. We can't control it. We just get these feelings, or information, or whatever, and boom, look who guesses the night's winning lottery numbers."
"We've never won the lottery or anything," Sarah muttered. "I don't think our powers work that way."
"So you just. . . know the last words of Ashley Williams, the exact layout of the Normandy, and where Garrus Vakarian is?" Shepard asked.
Oh, we were screwed.
HK blurted out, "You should know about this kind of stuff better than anyone, Commander Shepard...you got all those visions about the Prothean's destruction, Ilos, and Sovereign."
Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Well," she said carefully, weighing every word with a micrometer, "I can't dispute that. But you could have easily gotten my records of my testimony to the Council with a few bribes..."
But we could all tell she didn't believe that at all.
I could tell it was time to drop another bomb. "You didn't tell the Council that Shiala gave you the Prothean Cipher." I didn't even give her time to respond to this. "Look, do you think we want the entire galaxy killed by the Reapers? If you haven't noticed, we're not indoctrinated. Indoctrination and all other forms of mental manipulation equal a minus in intellect. Saren was given relatively free reign from Sovereign, but when he started questioning his mandate, Sovereign 'upgraded' him. And when you convinced Saren to shoot himself-"
"I didn't." Shepard's eyes were as cold as ice. "I fought and killed the bastard."
I held up one finger to stall her and turned to Sarah and HK, wondering. "Oops," Sarah muttered. HK's face was heating up with embarrassment, and I was thinking back to our descriptions of Shepard in Team Milky Way, wondering if I'd specified that. . . then, I had to wonder if we'd saved-no, no, we saved Wrex. I could feel my heart stutter in relief. There was no way I was going to be in the Mass Effect universe and not meet the famous Urdnot Wrex. That would just be the blackest type of torture.
"It was a strand of the future you could've followed," I said, putting a theoretical frown on my face as I pretended to 'look back' at our mistake. "Either way, Saren was going to die. The only real danger you had of Sovereign controlling the Citadel was when the Conduit was closing back on Ilos, but as soon as the Mako hit the relay it was set in stone from there."
"And after I killed Saren, what happened?"
He turned into a zombie. "Sovereign used him as a type of avatar. Soon as the body disintegrated, the Reaper's shields went down."
"The fleet took out Sovereign after saving the Destiny's Asencion," HK continued. "Wreckage nearly crushed you, and your crew and Anderson all thought you were dead...but you made it, popping up at the last minute."
"But you were limping," I supplied. "We didn't pay much attention to the injury itself, because you met with Anderson afterwards. After the Council meeting we lost track of you for a while, until suddenly we saw your ship, the first one, I mean. I. . . forget what planet it was, but it was icy blue."
I looked at her, all humor gone. "We saw you die."
Silence. I could see the words had affected her more much more than our privileged knowledge of the rest of her word. I had never expected it after playing the video game, but Shepard actually looked. . . uncomfortable, if a person like her could be. Obviously, mention of her death still struck a raw chord in her.
Sarah cleared her throat softly and spoke up, breaking the heavy silence. "So what are you gonna do, Commander?" she asked. "Are you going to keep us locked up in here, or let us come with you on Omega, or what?"
Shepard blinked, awareness of the situation creeping back in to her gaze. "Why would you want to come to Omega?"
"We're just asking what your plans for us are," I said.
Shepard snorted, some of her old life returning. "I find it hard to believe you can take Omega full on. It's safer for you on the ship." Her eyes caught mine. "Especially you. How old are you, kid?"
"Fourteen," I said promptly.
"Exactly. A fourteen-year-old girl shouldn't even look in the general direction of that God-forsaken place, much less step on it."
"Have you ever been there?" HK asked.
"No," she said wryly. "Except I know how to take care of myself. Now. . . let's consider this a test of your... skills. What am I going to find when I step off this ship?"
"Zaeed Massani," I said, glancing at HK and Sarah. I didn't know if they'd downloaded his character, but that was where they met up. "At least, one strand says so. You'll be summoned somewhere, first, though. You should go. You'll meet a friend."
"A friend," she echoed.
"Excuse me, Commander Shepard," said EDI, "but they aren't keeping to their story. They say if they tell any one person what happens outside of the three of them, it won't happen."
"That's a very good point, EDI," Shepard conceded. She looked at us. "Well?"
HK decided to speak up again. "I understand what you are saying, but for the most part, these are facts that can't change...maybe the Zaeed thing can, I think only Abby had that...dream."
"And Kasumi," I muttered, a small grin on my face.
"Archangel is Garrus. That's not an event that can change... that's a solid fact."
"Besides," I said, "we. . . we kind of have a general idea how everything will happen during this campaign. We were sent here, and our job is to keep the Reapers from killing us all. Every small revelation, every big one, we already know about it. We obviously can't tell it all to you yet, but. . . hints and pieces, I think that will work." I glanced at HK and Sarah. "Will it?"
Sarah simply nodded. "Yeah, I think so." HK simply nodded, too.
"So there we go," I said confidently. "You're stuck with us, Commander. Is Rupert's cooking really that bad as everybody claims it is? Because even though I just ate some awesome ramen noodles, I just got back from a class and I'm still hungry and insanely tired."
Less than five minutes later we were in the mess hall, eating happily next to Rupert, who seemed to think we were either crazy, as in bat shit, or totally telling the truth. His food actually wasn't that bad, either. It was on the same par as my normal school cafeteria.
"I've never had ramen before," Shepard said, obviously trying to force conversation. I stared at her in shock. "It's Japanese noodles, right?"
"You've never had ramen?" I asked, affronted. "Crap. Zakera Ward, on the Citadel-best place for it. I'll take you there."
"Been there?" she asked.
"Yeah." At least that was some of the truth. . . wrapped in a convenient lie.
"So. . ." Sarah began, sounding a bit unsure, "who are you going to pick up first, on Omega?"
"Archangel," she said. I was surprised she would even tell us that. "I need to know sooner rather than later if you're telling the truth."
I nodded. "Alright. . . and I suppose we're staying here, then?"
"Yes," Shepard said. "When I get back, we'll talk more."
"What's our ETA?"
"We're docking soon. Until I get back, you're going to stay on this deck, understand? EDI has the elevators locked down. No trouble." She looked like she meant it.
We all exchanged a glance. EDI had no powers over the innards of the Normandy, at least not yet, so we knew the threat was empty. Most likely she'd alert Joker if we were using them, who would call a security team.
I was starting to wonder if Commander Shepard was feeling alright. Back home I'd been writing a piece of fiction, titled 'Entanglement,' following the events of Mass Effect 2. In it, Commander Valar Shepard was having a hard time adjusting. Either Amelia Shepard had a better poker face or was sincerely not experiencing any side effects. I couldn't tell, but it intrigued me.
I wondered if, in like my fic, she heard Ashley's last words echo in her skull when she woke up in that Cerberus facility. After all, I was the only one in the group of us who'd written a Mass Effect fic so far, and when I said 'detailed' I was kind of hoping that some of the details would run right alongside my story.
I glanced behind me and towards the right, at Miranda's office. The door was closed, unsurprisingly. On the other side, Doctor Chakwas-I felt my heart leap when I saw her-was throwing a suspicious glance our way.
"You'll trust us sooner or later, Commander," I said, returning to look at her. I smiled, but there was no strength in it this time. "I wonder. . ."
"Wonder what?"
I was wondering if, like in the game, we'd each have our own little Loyalty Missions to complete. It was certainly something to think about. If it were so, I wondered inwardly what mine would be, or Sarah's, or HK's. "I was thinking Sarah should go with you to Omega. . . if you meet Zaeed Massani."
She blinked and looked at Sarah, then back to me. "Excuse me?"
"Zaeed will be chasing a batarian. He'll shoot him in the knee. He also wants to go take care of some unfinished business, but I don't know the world it's on. He'll tell you all of the details as you meet him. When you meet him, you should know we're telling the truth about our... feelings."
"I thought you said you couldn't get to specific," Shepard said harshly.
I threw her a patronizing look. "I know exactly how much to reveal," I said, mirroring her tone. "Look, take Sarah. She's the oldest out of all of us, anyway. Take her to meet your friend, then send her back to the ship."
Sarah was looking at me with a horrified expression. I grimaced in apology. Sarah swallowed, pressing her lips together in a thin line. Her eyes darted around nervously, then she said, "But um... I don't even know how to use one of their guns. I mean, I have used a BB pistol, and I even have one still, but uh..." She trailed off.
"There won't be any fighting," I assured her, speaking in a low, calming tone of voice. "Don't bring her to Archangel's base. After you get the info you need, send her back here."
Shepard wasn't the kind of lady who looked like she took orders from anybody, but she looked like she was hard-put to resist. "I don't suppose you have floor plans for the base? Seeing as you're psychics?" she asked sarcastically.
Okay, maybe she wasn't feeling that great. I filed that away for future info. When Shepard trusted us, maybe she would give me more fodder for my story. I smiled inwardly.
"You want floor plans?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"If you think you can be that specific."
"Got a piece of paper and a pencil?"
I drew it out for them, as close as I could reckon. I didn't include the merc's base of operations on the other side of the bridge, but I still remembered Garrus's hideout pretty well. "Here is the first floor as you cross the bridge," I said. "Best as I can remember it. X's are places you can take cover. That circle is a bomb you should probably dismantle. Just saying.
"Here is the second floor, up these stairs. Garrus is there, taking potshots. Other side of the balcony is a dead end I think. I'm not sure, it's very hazy.
"Here's a door leading down to the next floor. Left door here leads to a small hallway, with a tight corner right here. There's a flamethrower guy there, so grenade his butt. Lots of krogan... Blood Pack. Krogan and vorcha, with the varren. This door leads to a bigger area, here. I... can't remember much about the cover and layout, though."
Shepard actually looked impressed. "This could help."
I handed the papers to her. "They better. If they don't, I'm going to be so pissed at B-myself."
"Can you tell me how I'll get there?" she asked, interested.
"Uh, no," I said, shaking my head. "I know exactly how, though. It won't be hard, trust me. Actually. . ." I grinned. "I wish I was coming, but I'll ruin it for you, and so would HK or Sarah. We've never fought with the weapons you use, and we've never worn armor. I want a few test runs or something before you put us in a deadly situation."
Sarah nodded empathetically. Her eyes were still wide. She and HK had made occasional helpful comments on the map as I'd been drawing it, but were now silent again.
I wondered why I had such an easy time talking to Shepard.
I'm aggressive by nature, and I'm really nervous. That had to account for some of my bluntness. I don't sugar-coat things, and don't appreciate it when others do, either.
We'd have to put up with the omnipresent EDI, though, so we'd never be able to talk about it fully. And if Shepard did let us out of the ship... it probably wouldn't be without some kind of bug or tracking device.
She led us back to our unofficial prison and left, probably to get her team ready and suit up. I breathed out a deep sigh of relief as the doors closed. "I'm so sorry, Sarah. Really, I am. I just need you to see if Omega is the way we... dreamed it." Did EDI notice the hesitation before my lie? Probably. "Okay? Don't drink anything there, don't talk to anybody. Stick with Shepard and look tough."
Sarah's face turned more serious, as though she was trying to take the advice to heart. "Don't worry... I plan to stay close to Shepard," she muttered. "Just... well, pray for me I guess," she added with a small shrug. "And hopefully I won't get lost or... die down there." She smiled a little, but the smile quickly vanished, as though she realized that that really wasn't funny in this case.
I stared at her for a moment, frowning. Then I said, with utmost seriousness, "Don't stand anywhere near the edge."
Sarah blinked. "Oh yeah, they... wouldn't have the safety barriers on like in the game," she muttered.
I giggled. "That would be so horrible... just walking, trying to get a good look... and oopsie-daisy, a krogan pushes you off." I couldn't stop laughing, and I had to sit down. "There's one detail we might have missed."
I sighed and leaned back, stretching my cramped back. "Now, let's see. . . you know the basic self-defense moves, right? In case anybody tries anything on you."
Sarah looked thoughtful for a moment. "Um..." She pursed her lips, as if thinking or trying to figure out how to phrase this. "Well... I know that if anybody starts shooting, I should duck behind something... or maybe just get down flat on the floor." She laughed a little, but it sounded like a nervous chuckle more than anything.
"But..." She looked a little sheepish. "I don't really know any great moves. If they're not wearing armor, I could maybe kick them where it counts, or aim for the shin. But I don't know how well that would work on aliens."
I frowned, thoughtful. "Obviously, we'll have to improvise," I mumbled, thinking out loud. "Okay, um... for humans, basic stuff. Break the nose, gouge out the eyes, rake the face. A good fighter can ignore a punch to the balls, and there are techniques for resisting a punch to the stomach, so don't try those. Windpipes. Hit it with the knife-blade of your hand with enough pressure, and it'll seriously choke or kill them. But if you're that close then you're kind of screwed there... Hmmm. So just, like, run if you get into a confrontation. If they have a gun, don't run straight, but do the alligator-run, you know, the zig-zaggity thingamabob."
Sarah's face was growing more and more horrified as Abby rambled on and on, giving more and more info. "But... stuff like that can KILL someone, or seriously hurt them," she said, then shook her head at her own words, as if realizing how stupid they sounded. "I mean... yeah I know that that's the point, and uh... if somebody's attacking me, then they're not concerned with not hurting me. But um..." She pressed her lips into a think line and shook her head. "I've never had to hurt anyone before. I've never really even been in a fight!"
"Sarah, if somebody attacks you on Omega, it'll be either to kill you, rape you, or embarrass you because you're human," I said, gripping her shoulder. "It'll be hard at first, but when your back is to the wall and the adrenaline kicks in... well, we'll sort out the bad feelings afterwards. This is a risk you have to take. I'm so sorry for putting you on it, but you're the oldest. They would kick HK and me out soon as they saw us."
She sucked in a deep breath, then nodded slowly. She looked more resigned than anything. "I'll just stay close to Shepard," she finally said. She still looked nervous, but she looked a bit more determined. Then she purposely moved toward the door. "So when am I leaving, anyway?" she muttered, intertwining her fingers together in front of her.
"Well, there is some positive, and that is Shepard," HK interjected "Just do what you just said, and you should be fine. No one's ever died on Shepard's watch before."
I coughed a noise that mysteriously sounded just like 'Ashley.' "Okay, okay. But before you go, I need to tell you some more stuff!" I fluttered over to her side, suddenly excited with the new challenge of finding different ways to incapacitate turians, krogans, and who knew what else.
"Pull the turian's whiskers, but stay away from his mouth because I bet they can bite off fingers with that beak of theirs... um, take out batarian eyes, because that just plain-out hurts and Saren did it once (remind me to describe how he tortured that one batarian) and let's see... salarians look soft, and their neck is probably a very vulnerable spot. Such a big head on a small body is crazy. I wonder what their home planet looks like? Take out the neck of salarians first, and their eyes. Take out batarians with head strikes. Turians... ah, whisker-thingies. I just said humans... um, human stuff should work with asari, too. And if a krogan is running for you, just step to the side. It's all about angles with those guys."
Nothing could get me more excited than an explanation of how to hurt somebody. I hoped EDI was making notes.
Sarah listened, obviously trying to absorb all of this, although she gave a couple of dull nods from time to time. "Uh huh," was all she really said whenever there was a pause of breath. "Thanks for the tips," she finally added with a forced smile. "Well, I guess I'm ready to go," she said, and turned to face the door. "Wish me luck... and take care of yourselves."
My eyes suddenly widened and I ran up to her. "I'm so saying bye at the airlock," I said. "Besides, I need to see Joker."
HK looked at her with a look that said he was worried, but he wasn't too distressed. "Good luck, and just...stay safe and alive," he warned.
"Oh yeah... that would be good," I agreed.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:15:24 GMT -5
Shuttle (Sarah)
I sat back in my seat, double-checking to make sure I was all buckled in. Shepard and Jacob were in the shuttle as well, and I found myself sitting next to the commander. A human pilot who I didn't know the name of was apparently flying.
I was feeling a bit... uncomfortable. And it wasn't simply nerves. And no, it wasn't simply because I was sitting next to the famous Commander Shepard, either. Those were a couple of good reasons to feel uncomfortable, but another good reason was because I was wearing some armor. Shepard had insisted I put it on before we left the Normandy, especially since I didn't know how to defend myself. I noticed she didn't give me a gun, though.
At one point during the ride I reached up and took the helmet off, setting it on my lap. Jacob and Shepard looked at me quizzically when I did this.
"You'll want to put that back on when we reach Omega," Jacob told me quietly.
"Yeah, I will," I murmured agreeably. "But how do you guys stand wearing this stuff all day? It's hot and it's uncomfortable."
"You get used to it," Shepard replied. "Plus it's either that or risk someone blowing a hole in your chest... or in your head." She nodded at me indicatively.
Yeah, point taken, I thought. I put the helmet back on. Shepard looked mildly amused, then gave a small nod of approval.
We arrived at the docking port a short time later. As we got out I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the pilot. Surely it had to be utterly boring to wait around in the cockpit until the rest of us got back. Also... were there any bathrooms on the shuttle? Well, hopefully there was, for his sake.
I shoved the thought aside, hearing Shepard beckoning to me. I followed her and Jacob out of the docking area and down the long corridor. We were moving pretty quickly, although I could tell that both of them were keeping an eye on me as well.
When we started to slow down a bit, I realized that I was the one holding us up. My pace had slowed a bit. Shepard and Jacob were looking at me even more now. "Why are you slowing down?" the commander asked, sounding a bit concerned as well as annoyed.
I looked down at myself and made a gesture at the armor. "This, I'm not used to walking around in something like this," I answered. Ugh, I HATED the way my voice sounded inside this helmet. "I feel like the Tin Man."
Shepard chuckled a little.
"Well," Jacob said in amusement, "I guess we're not in a bit hurry... not yet anyway."
"We can slow our pace a little," Shepard consented. And the three of us walked side by side, with me in the middle and ever so slightly behind them, until we came up to a Salarian.
As soon as the bug-eyed alien spotted us, he seemed to perk up. "Ah!" he exclaimed in a friendly tone. "Welcome to Omega! You're new here, aren't you? I can always tell! Allow me to-"
Suddenly a Batarian approached, causing the Salarian to shut up and look in his direction. "Oh," the Salrian said, suddenly sounding nervous. "Hello, Moklan! I was just..."
"Leave, Fargut, NOW," the Batarian said firmly.
"Oh, of course, Moklan! Whatever she wants!" Fargut said, apparently all too eager to comply. The Batarian then gave him a light shove, causing him to turn and flee.
Moklan then turned back to face us. Or rather, he faced Shepard, and seemed to dismiss Jacob and I. "Blasted scavengers," he muttered. "Welcome to Omega... Shepard."
The commander straightened a bit, squaring her shoulders a little. "You know who I am?" she responded, casting a quick glance at me out of the corner of her eyes.
For a brief second, it occured to me that maybe I should have mentioned this before we got to this area. Surely it would have shown her that we were telling the truth. But well, it slipped my mind, and it was too late now. So I just stood there, kept my face as straight as I could, and stayed quiet.
I was also privately thinking that Batarians were even UGLIER in person.
"Of course," Moklan was saying, speaking as though Shepard was the only living being who existed at the moment. "We had you tagged the moment you entered the Terminus Sytems. You're not as subtle as you think. Aria wants to know what brings a dead Spectre to Omega. I suggest you go to Afterlife now and present yourself."
Shepard shook her head and spoke in a re-assuring yet stern tone. "Cut the attitude. I'm not here to cause trouble for Omega."
"Things explode around you, Shepard. You can't blame Aria for keeping an eye on you." The Batarian narrowed his eyes... all four of them. "Afterlife. Now." With that, he turned and walked away.
"Friendly fellow," Shepard murmured under her breath, once he was out of earshot.
"The Afterlife, hmm?" Jacob asked, crossing his arms. His eyes flickered to Shepard's, then at the corner where the Batarian disappeared. "You got any idea how nasty that place in?"
"We'll wear oxygen masks," Shepard replied. She jerked her chin towards the end of the long hallway. I squinted a little bit, trying to stay small and insignificant. I could see a splash of yellow armor, standing over a huddled body on the ground. The body tried to stand, a feeble effort on his part, and the human's kneed him in the face. "Looks like something's going on over there," Shepard stated. "I think this could be our man."
Shepard began to walk briskly, Jacob following, and I scrambled to keep up. The limp, broken-looking body looked up at us as we approached, and I was surprised it was a Batarian. It looked like Abby was right-the guy in the yellow armor had to be Zaeed...
"Please," the Batarian mumbled, his deep voice thick with pain. "You have to help me."
Zaeed growled. "No one said you could talk, jackass." He stomped on his face for emphasis, and I gasped, cringing away.
"You Zaeed Massani?" Shepard asked, covering my noise. Part of me wanted to rush forward and try to yank the Batarian away, or maybe even stand in the way. But I didn't want to get too close. The last thing I wanted was to be hit myself... or possibly punched aside. This brute looked like he might do either. I stayed frozen to my spot.
And then Zaeed turned around, and I was thankful I was wearing a helmet. I was gawking at him in a most unsoldierlike way; his face was old, lined with wrinkles and old battle scars. A circular tattoo could be seen on his muscular neck, and a wicked scar traced from his temple, to his eye, to his chin. His left eye was dark brown, maybe black, and the other one, where the scar touched it, was a blue so light that they reminded me instantly of watchdog eyes.
This was a very scary man.
"Yeah. That's me," he said, looking Shepard in the eye. He had an Austrailian accent, some small part of my mind realized. "And you must be Commander Shepard. I hear we have a galaxy to save."
Shepard wasn't even phased. "I assume you've been briefed?"
"I've done my homework," said Zaeed. His tone was very up front and aggressive. Abby has met her match, I thought inwardly, groaning. I wondered how long it would take for the two of them to start wrestling matches on the Normandy. "Cerberus sent me all I needed to know."
"What's your relationship with Cerberus?" Short, business-like, and professional. Bioware hadn't been fooling around when they created Shepard. I was glad.
"Easy. Cerberus is paying me a lot of money to help you on your mission. That's the long and short of it."
"Not many mercs would take a suicide mission for the pay," Shepard pointed out.
A faint trace of humor touched Zaeed's eye, then. Or at least, I hoped it was humor. Happy people are less likely to kill you. "Most mercs don't get an offer like the one Cerberus sent me." He turned around to check on the Batarian. "This mission doesn't sound like good business, but... your Illusive Man can move a lot of credits."
Behind him, the Batarian shuddered. I felt like doing the same thing.
Shepard seemed to notice him for the first time. "My contacts told me we were picking up one man, not two," she noted. "What's with the extra wheel?"
"Batarian delinquite," Zaeed explained. "Pissed off someone rich enough to hire me to go after him. For my 'bring them back alive' rates, even."
"Please..." the Batarian mumbled. "I didn't do it..."
"I said shut it!" Zaeed kicked him in the face again, his armored foot making an impression in the soft, malleable skin. I watched, my heart beating hard in my chest like it wanted to grow wings and escape. This was horrible, worse than a video game! Why did he have to be so mean? "Tried to lead me in a chase all over the Systems. He should have known better. People always end up running to Omega."
Shepard assessed this situation calmly, and I hoped she would at least tell him to lighten up. If anybody could, it would be her. She held out her hand. "Good to have you, Zaeed. We have a lot to do."
They shook on it.
"That's what they tell me," Zaeed commented. He took the pistil from his hip and gestured at the Batarian with it, who began to slowly, and with much pain, climb to his feet. "I assume the Illusive Man told you about our arrangement?"
"No, I guess he decided to leave that information out of the dossier..." Shepard muttered. She glanced at me, and suddenly I remembered what Abby had said, back on the Normandy.
"Zaeed will be chasing a batarian. He'll shoot him in the knee. He also wants to go take care of some unfinished business, but I don't know the world it's on. He'll tell you all of the details as you meet him. When you meet him, you should know we're telling the truth about our... feelings."
"Huh, figures," Zaeed said. "Good thing I asked. Picked up a mission a little while back, just before I signed on with Cerberus. I think you'll be interested. Ever heard the name Vido Santiago?" Shepard shook her head. "He's the head of the Blue Suns. Runs the whole organization. Seems he recently captured and Eldfell-Ashland refinery on Zorya and is using their workers as slave labor. The company wants it dealt with."
Shepard looked at me, obviously looking for some type of answer, but I was still paralyzed. She glanced back at Zaeed. "I'll make sure we get that done."
"Good. Get that out of the way so we can concentrate on being big goddamn heros."
The Batarian ran for it, limping and dazed, and I stood back in amazement to let him go. Zaeed just sighed calmly, as if he were expecting behavior like this and it disappointed him. He aimed carefully and shot the Batarian in the leg. His foreword momentum carried him onwards for a few more feet, where he fell in a disjointed heap on the floor.
"I better turn this thing in before it starts to stink," he said, holstering his weapon. "I'll be locked and loaded the next time you need some killing done."
He took out a pair of handcuffs that would make any normal police officer blanch and placed them on the Batarian's wrists. "See these babies, ass hole?" he sneered. "One word from me and your sorry ass will be fried by an electric jolt so hard you'll shit yourself. Get up and get moving."
And we watched in total fascination as Zaeed made the Batarian, already wounded, stand up and forced him to march down another docking hallway without another glance.
I found myself staring after them even after they vanished from sight. I didn't even realize Shepard was talking to me, trying to get my attention, until she put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle shake. "You okay?" she asked.
"Yeah!" I blurted, blinking and nodding my head. "Um, let's go!" I added eagerly. I didn't want to continue standing around here like an idiot, despite what I just saw.
After that we continued onward, until we came to a large area that looked very familiar. There were a set of huge steps leading into a large doorway, and the words "Afterlife" above it. The name was lit up and glowing, obviously intended to draw attention and to make it clear to any passerby just what the place was. It looked magificant enough in the game, but here... I swear it looked like the entrance to a palace.
I found it a little easier to shove aside the horrors I'd just seen mere moments ago as I entered the doorway. I barely paid any attention to the guard telling Shepard that she was expected inside, or the human grumbling behind us about how he wanted in, badly.
As we walked in through corridor leading into the main area of Afferlife, we paused long enough so that we could put on our oxygen masks, at Shepard's insistence. Jacob didn't need to be told twice, but I was a bit hesitent. I complied, though, just so we could keep moving.
Then we entered the heart of Afterlife, and I felt as though nearly all of my senses were overloaded as we walked inside. It seemed like everyone was talking loudly and the music was almost too loud for my ears. I was actually glad now that I had my helmet on because it helped muffle the sound a bit. The sight of the place was a lot to take in, too... seeing the way it looked in the game wasn't even doing it justice. I had never seen this many people in one place before, except maybe in a couple of large malls I had been in back on Earth. And I've certainly never seen so many different species in one place.
"Hey," Shepard was saying, giving me a nudge. "Wake up, we need to get moving."
"I'm awake," I muttered, and I found I had to speak up to be heard over all the noise. I was looking in every direction as we walked, and I was finding it harder to keep up with Shepard.
Then we stopped at a counter, and Shepard leaned forward and placed her palms on the surface. I moved closer to her, wondering what she was doing. She glanced at me, then at Jacob, then nodded toward the barkeeper. "Where can I find Aria?" she asked.
The barkeeper, a Batarian, simply inclined his head toward the upper level.
"Thanks," Shepard said. She then pursed her lips, as if pondering something. Then she shrugged in sort of a "what the hell?" gestured, and ordered herself a drink. I watched her in fascination as she downed it in one gulp.
I found myself remembering what Abby said. And I could almost hear her voice again, in my head, saying "Don't drink anything, Sar!" Nevertheless... I found myself considering it. Besides... this was probably going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity... right? Who knew if I would get another chance at another bar.
I moved a little closer to the counter, sitting down on one of the stools. I saw both Jacob and Shepard looking at me out of the corner of my eyes, but I ignored them. The barkeeper was now looking at me as well. It then dawned on me that I had no credits on me, but... well, hopefully Shepard would be willing to pay for it. I knew she had money on her... especially since she had ordered a drink herself.
"What'll it be?" the Batarian asked me.
Wow. This was the first time I had ever spoken to an alien! A real alien! "I'll..." I thought for a moment, trying to remember some of the drink names from the game. I think grinned impishly. "Got any ryncol?" I finally asked.
He blinked at me. "Krogan ale?" he asked. Then he chuckled. "Sure, we've got some of that back here, but you'll set off radiological alarms if you drink that stuff."
Okay, so I was starting to have second thoughts. But then again... wouldn't this be a cool experience?
(Abby)
Miranda was a babysitter, and I found that extremely funny. Caught between two major threats-us, and making sure Shepard stays alive on Omega-the Ice Queen had been ordered to stay behind and watch us, make sure we didn't try anything stupid. Apparently EDI had heard my lecture on self-defense to Sarah before she left, and deemed it too dangerous for me to roam the ship alone. And since all normal people take advice from Artificial Intelligences, Miranda felt obligated to stay.
HK and I were just sitting on opposite beds, staring at each other, oblivious to our warden when I glanced towards the door, a frown on my face. "HK..." There is was, that slight, mental whispering in my head that grew louder with every heartbeat. Goosebumps stood on my arms. "Somehow, I'm getting the feeling that Sarah is doing something really, really stupid. Are you getting that vibe?"
HK blinked, seeming like he was thinking for a moment. "Kinda, but I don't know why...maybe its just our nerves in the midst of all of this. We can trust Sarah."
"Sure, sure," I grumbled, unable to shake away the feeling that somewhere, somehow, something really stupid had happened.
(Sarah)
I stared down at the drink that had just been placed before me. Part of me half-expected Shepard to say something, possibly try to mother over me or question my decision. And yet somehow... she only looked amused.
I was a little surprised. I mean... wasn't she going to say something? Then again, maybe she considered it perfectly normal to drink. Or perhaps she figured this might be good experience for me. I had no way of knowing.
"Well... down the hatch?" I murmured, and brought the cup to my lips.
I was unable to down it in a single gulp like Shepard had downed her drink. In fact, I swear I nearly died over the first mouthful. I barely got it past the gag reflex before I broke out into a choking fit, spilling the rest of it down the front of my armor. My eyes began to blur and water to the point where I could barely see anything, and my throat felt like it was on fire. Hell, it felt like my esophogus and stomach were on fire too. I could then feel my windpipe starting to tighten and I was panting for air.
"Whoa there, Sarah," I vaguely heard Shepard's voice. I could feel myself being lifted up off the floor with her help, and she helped me onto the seat.
Wait... when did I fall down on the floor?
"Hey, you okay?" I heard Jacob's voice saying. Frankly, it sounded like both of them were speaking from far away, even though they were right in front of me. Hell, all of the noise in the bar sounded like it was coming from the end of a tunnel a mile away.
"Here, I want you to do something," Shepard said, gently but firmly. I then found myself being gently escorted down onto the floor, into a sitting position. "Put your knees up... there you go. Now put your head between your knees. That's right. That should help."
It took me a few moments to realize I was even in that position at all. Or even on the floor, for that matter. Gradually I began to feel a bit better... I could begin to breath again, the burning eased down, and the world seemed right-side-up again. And all of the noise returned to normal.
"How're you feeling?" Jacob asked. Gosh his voice sounded LOUD.
I lifted my head up to look at them both. Yeah, I was definitely feeling more human again. "Okay," I managed. My voice sounded a bit raspy.
"No more drinks for you, young lady," Shepard told me, "until you're sure you can handle it. And stick with the milder drinks this time." She handed me my helmet.
Jacob frowned. "You feel up to walking, or do you want to stay here at the bar?" he asked.
Shepard tilted her head a little. "Not sure if she's in any condition to walk right now," she murmured thoughtfully. "And I think it's safe to say she won't drink anymore... not unless she's got a death wish." She smirked slightly, then the expression faded. "Can I trust you not to run off? That you'll stay right here?"
I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. "I'll stay right here," I nodded meekly. "That's a promise."
Shepard grabbed my arm, right behind the elbow, and helped me up onto the bar stool again. "No more drinks," she said firmly. She then placed a few credits on the counter and slid them toward the bartender. "Do not serve her anything, even if she asks," the commander snapped. After recieving a nod from the Batarian, Shepard looked at me again.
"Alright, I'm going to meet with Aria, and I think we'll both agree that you're not in the best... shape to go see the person who runs this place right now," she said to me. "So I want you to stay right here, and don't even leave this stool. Got it?"
"Yeah," I nodded. My head was starting to throb. "Got it."
Shepard frowned, still looking a little concerned. She held up her hand. "How many fingers am I holding up?"
I stared at her hand for a moment, then grimanced. "That's not funny."
She actually chuckled a little and dropped her hand. She then patted me on the shoulder and, gesturing to Jacob, walked away. Jacob cast another glance toward me, then followed his leader.
So there I was, left alone at the bar counter... and the Batarian bartender was thoroughly ignoring me now as if I didn't exist. Well, maybe except for the occasional glance.
Suddenly a Turian appeared out of nowhere and took the stool right next to me. I looked at him, almost hopefully, wondering if by some slim chance it could actually be Garrus. But no... it wasn't. I could tell that much. His skin was a slightly lighter tone of gray than his, plus he didn't have that cool eye-visor thingy. Also his armor was a different color, too... more of a black color.
I found myself staring at him as he ordered a drink. Somehow... I always found Turians to be kind of cute. Especially Garrus. But still... part of me had to wonder... (whether it was due to all the crazyness of today, or because of the stuff I drank, I couldn't be sure) if maybe it was possible... a Turian might pay attention to me?
"Hey," I said, my voice still sounding a bit raspy. "How's life?" Did I really just say that?
The Turian gave me this long, slow look. I could well imagine what he saw: a small woman in armor too big for her, reeking of ryncol, and a sheen of sweat on her upper lip. I hastily wiped it off. "Uh... good." He turned away, obviously trying to shut me out of the conversation.
I nodded, feeling my head throbbing some more. I tried to ignore it as I grinned. "That's good," I said with a small giggle. "Life's been... good, huh?" I tried to think of something else to say. "You know... um... I've always thought Turians were kind of... cute."
...Did I seriously just say that? And somehow I was still grinning. I wasn't sure if I should feel silly, or if I should want the floor to open up and swallow me whole.
The Turian looked like he was wishing for the latter. "Well, that's lovely," he muttered. He sat ramrod straight, gazing with determination at the dancers. His small, beady green eyes glanced at me, then quickly flickered back to the strippers. "Barkeep, give me the strongest thing you have," he said in an undertone. The Batarian handed it to him, and he took a long drink. A shudder rolled through his body, and his shoulders relaxed as he took more sips. "And... your life?"
My grin had faded, almost giving way to embarrassment, but somehow it vanished. Maybe I was just getting into one of my giddy and hyper moods, the kind where people on MSN or DA wondered if I was on crack. Well, at least now... I could say I HAD been drinking something. I grinned stupidly. "My life is good," I blurted out. "Today has been... weird though."
Somehow I ended up leaning closer to him, placing one arm on the edge of the counter for balance as I scooted myself onto the very edge of my stool. "You know what it's like... to totally end up in a weird place, far away from your home, knowing what will happen next in your life, but still experiencing it for the first time?"
The Turian took another huge sip, and motioned for the barkeep to refill it. A slight smell, like sweet candy, seemed to be coming out of his pores. Only later would I know this was Turian sweat. "Yeah... well, I think so. That's why I'm here. You see... I had a ship, and a mate, and a crew, but they just..." He took another sip. "They vanished! Just... poof. And now I'm here." He sighed dejectedly.
He turned towards me for the first time and seemed to notice my sudden proximety. "But... uh, humans... humans are kind of cute, too. Just like asari... but with more colors."
I leaned forward a little more, and had to stop myself from going too far. I didn't want to fall off the stool, after all. I braced myself a little more by raising my other arm and putting my hand on his shoulder. "That sounds terrible," I said. "I'm sorry you lost everybody. And uh... um... do you think I'm cute?"
"You're all... curvy, like... a circle, but not a circle," he said after yet another long sip. "We're all... liney. You see?" he gestured to himself. "And quarian females... they look like that, except the feet. Human and asari feet are prettier. You see what I'm saying? But humans, you know-humans have color. Colors we can't see. Asari are blue, but they get boring. Humans are... varied and, and... and magical! You're all... magic, that's what you are. Magic people."
"Everything is magical, in this place," I said, never taking my eyes off him. "So umm... what do you want to do?" Somehow I no longer cared what I was saying. Almost as if I was in my own private reality at the moment.
The Turian looked at me in a strange way. "Well... I don't know..." He pondered this question. "I think... we should get some more drinks. And then I think you should climb up there," he pointed at the stripper table, "and show the rest of the Turians how... how magical and... circle-like you are. And you know... I think they'll stop hating you humans. You know?"
I stared at him for a long moment, blinking. It took me a moment to absorb what he'd just said. "I'm not Kelly," I finally muttered, and scooted myself back into a proper seated position on the bar stool. I then turned away from him and rested both of my arms on the counter top, folding them in front of me.
I then sighed. Weren't there ever any men around who didn't think about what females looked like under their clothes? Then again, maybe it was stupid to try talking to someone who was getting drunker by the minute. Somehow, my blissness was now wearing off... and wearing off fast.
The Turian sighed, drowned his cup, then mine, and abruptly fell backwards in his seat. The Batarian looked at him and motioned for two of Aria's guards to eject him.
...And this was one of the biggest reasons why I was probably going to stay single for the rest of my life.
Just then I noticed Shepard and Jacob approaching me again. I saw the commander exchange a brief glance with the bartender, as though trying to confirm that I hadn't drunk anything. He gave a small shake of his head, and she looked somewhat relieved. Or maybe she was more relieved by the fact that I hadn't gotten into any trouble, or tried to run off. I was suddenly grateful that that Turian was... well, gone now.
"We're ready to go after ArchAngel, and it seems that it is going to be dangerous," Shepard said. "We're going to put the plans you and your friends wrote out to good use, but in the meantime I want you to go back to the shuttle and stay there."
I stared at her for a long moment. "So... you're going to sign up as a merc?" I asked. I already knew that that was what she was going to do. I simply wanted to hear her say it.
She nodded. "First I'll take you back to the shuttle, then Jacob and I will come back here," she told me. She then folded her arms across her chest. "I did ask Aria if she knew who Archangel is. But she doesn't know... nor does anyone else, it seems. So if he does turn out to be Garrus..." She trailed off indicatively.
I knew what she was trying to say. She was saying that if it turned out that our intel was correct, she would probably believe what we were saying and possibly even put stock into it. To coin the phrase. I knew she was probably starting to put more faith into our words already, though... since one of our little "prophecies" had already come true, when it came to meeting Zaeed. I grimanced a little at the memory. Seriously, I wasn't looking forward to being on the same ship as that man.
"Let's go," I said, getting to my feet. Shepard merely nodded and turned to lead the way toward the exit, and thus toward the shuttle.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:15:42 GMT -5
Normandy, Private Quarters (HK)
I sat silently on one of the beds...Sarah had come back safe, thank goodness, and sound, but she seemed just a little...off. Not too off, but it felt like something had happened to her...but Sarah had never experienced anything like this in her life. None of us had. Maybe she was just excited, and maybe that was all that Abby was feeling earlier.
Miranda had continued to watch us like a hawk, and was now utterly baffled. She wasn't letting it show too much, but I could tell...Shepard had told her that the situation with Zaeed was totally accurate, and I felt that had gained some trust from the Commander. Shepard had gone off to find Garrus, taking Jacob and Zaeed with her, as Miranda refused to leave us.
"I refuse to believe it," Miranda said, continuing to pace. "I still believe something is wrong here. Not even the Collectors can view the future, as far as I know...are you working with Zaeed? Did you set that situation up?"
I shook my head, deciding to speak up before anyone else did. I did need to say more, after all...I felt partially bad that Sarah and Abby had said so much but I had just held back. I needed to at least attempt to help defend us. Miranda would be the most difficult. "No...I know you aren't that trusting Miranda, and thats okay, but I sorta would like you to at least stop accusing us of working with someone. We are not working with anyone...I mean, with all due respect, do we look like we could work with anyone? Sarah is the only adult here, and she's not even that old."
Miranda just looked at us with that face that she showed in the games, only this time it was more clear...much more clear. Anger? No. Believing? No. Just continuing to look like she didn't trust us one bit. "If you had asked me three weeks ago if I thought that Collectors were abducting humans, I would have said no. If you had asked me two years ago that the Reapers were here, I would have said no. Unbelieveable things, far more unbelieveable than this, have happened."
I sighed. "I guess I can't blame you," I told her with a shrug. "Look, Miranda, I have alot of respect for you...but I just want you to have a little faith, but its your choice."
I bit my lip, almost saying I was probably the person in this room that liked Miranda the most, or didn't start out hating here...both Abby and Sarah had hated her, if I recalled right, on their first playthroughs. Sarah's hate was notable, and I was pretty sure I saw her giving Miranda a glare.
Miranda tended to ignore it, either that or she didn't notice...and then a horrible thought sprung into my head. Sarah didn't like Miranda, sorta like Jack...what if eventually they had some kind of fight like those two did? Sarah wasn't quite so aggresive like Jack, and she didn't get tortured like Cerberus, but Miranda seemed to take the littlest thing the wrong way.
Lets hope it doesn't come to that..like I told Abby, I trust Sarah...but then again, she did tell the man funding this whole thing that smoking was bad for him...
I put it out of my mind for now. We had to deal with one day at a time right now, and I was anxious for Shepard to get back with Garrus to prove that we were right about more than one thing. Hopefully, they would walk in and that would give everyone en-
Then suddenly, something sprang into my mind. "Oh dang," I said outloud, shocked at how we all had forgotten this.
Miranda's eyebrows raised. "What?"
"Um...oh nothing." I said, glancing to Abby and Sarah. "Lets just say...be ready for a surprise liftoff in a little while."
Sarah's face went blank for a moment, as though she wasn't sure what I meant. Then realization dawned on her features, and there was a look of anticipation. I knew she was looking forward to meeting Garrus. But for some reason... she also looked a little... embarrassed?
Miranda's eyes flared with suspicion, especially after seeing the look on Sarah's face. "Whats wrong?" she asked in her cold tone.
Sarah seemed to blush a little, lowering her gaze. "Ummm..." She made a noise, somewhere between a cough and a throat-clearing sound. "I... like Turians," she said simply, and turned her head away.
"You like Turians?" Miranda asked, and I couldn't quite get a grip on how she was responding to this...shock? Disgust? Wondering what the hell this had to do with anything? I was actually surprised that Sarah came out and said that so bluntly. "Thats what you both are babbling about?"
"Its a recent discovery for her," I clarified. "I just randomly remembered it, and it still kinda takes me off guard."
"If it's okay... I just want to listen to my music for a while." Sarah said, more or less excusing herself from the entire discussion. She then walked over to one of the beds, grabbed her CD player, and put on her headphones.
"She daydreams about turians sometimes," Abby said, with a shrug and smirk.
Miranda was looking at us like we were all unstable. She just shook her head, sighing.
However, before anything more could be said, Joker's voice could be heard over the comm. Abby looked like she was about to die of amazement. "We've got to go make an emergency pick-up, apparently there was a problem while trying to recruit Archangel. He's been injured."
I wondered if I should sigh out of sadness or not, or if I should just keep it concealed that we knew about this. I glanced at Abby one last time, but she didn't say much one way or another.
Miranda looked at us as if she was going to ask us if we knew about this, but she just clenched her fist. "Damnit! We need him!" she screamed outloud in frusteration. "I'm heading up to help Shepard get him on board. If you dare try to screw anythin-"
"We'll be fine, I think Garrus needs you more right now," Abby told her, emphasizing Archangel's true identity.
As we felt the ship lift off, I nearly felt like grabbing something. Obviously, I had never actually felt a ship take off...Abby seemed excited, still, and Sarah was off listening to music, but I couldn't help and grab onto something out of pure instinct.
The Normandy was soon zooming around Omega, obviously locking onto the coordinates of Garrus's base, and Abby stood. "Come on...lets go see how he is when they bring him in. We never actually see what gets to happen between when he gets hit and when he's healed..and it'll get me closer to Joker!"
I blinked. "We aren't supposed to go beyond this deck, and wouldn't we get in the way?" I asked, concerned.
Abby snorted. "I doubt anyone has the time to focus on two teenagers coming up when they are trying to get a nearly-dead turian to Chakwas," she replied. "And the Normandy has a big command deck."
I glanced to Sarah. "What about her?" I asked.
"She seems pretty well distracted at the moment." Abby answered.
I sighed...what harm could it do, after all? And I would admit, part of me wanted to see everyone's faces when they saw it was really Garrus. "Okay...lets go."
I took a deep breath as Abby darted out of the room, with me following at a slower pace. I was expecting EDI to pop up and tell us to stay put, but she didn't...she didn't have total control of the Normandy yet, so maybe she could only focus on so many things at a time, and getting to Garrus was the top priority.
We both headed to the elevator, and went up to Deck 2. It only took thirty seconds or so, but I could feel the Normandy going as fast as it could while the elevator slowly accelerated upwards. Once it stopped and the doors opened, we spotted all but a few crew members gathered around the airlock.
Abby ran forward, and without thinking, I rushed forward as well. I saw Miranda in front of everyone, with Shepard, Jacob, and Zaeed all carefully hauling Garrus in on a stretcher that someone had probably provided from Deck 3.
"Damn, it is him," Miranda muttered, with a slight gasp.
I actually felt a bit smug at that moment, just because of how Miranda was, and how she'd been so resistant to believe us...and now we had more proof for her, even if Garrus's life was at stake. However, I expected him to survive, just like he did in the game...
But did we possibly alter things by telling Shepard of his identity?
How could we, though? How could that little fact damage whether Garrus lives or dies? It all depends on how the medical equipment operates, and unless we somehow caused Chakwas to go stupid or everything to maulfunction, nothing could go wrong. Everything had happened pretty close to how it was supposed to already.
With several random crew members now helping lift the stretcher, they darted towards us, and both Abby and I jumped back as they ran through...Shepard didn't even seem to acknowledge us, but I knew she had to be focused on Garrus. And thats how she should be.
They all crammed themselves into the elevator, and I was amazed that it actually held all of them...within milliseconds, it was already shut and likely heading down to Deck 3.
"Wow...just wow." I muttered. That was all I could say right now.
"Somehow, its not that different from how I imagined it." Abby told me, looking in the direction of the elevator. "Lets just hope Sarah's curiosity about meeting Garrus doesn't come around at the wrong time...and while we're up here, I may as well go meet Jok-"
"This is not really the time for that either." I told her, smiling sarcastically.
Abby rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay, lets get back down there...but I am going to meet Joker soon!" she vowed.
Oh I bet you will, I thought to myself.
After we were sure that they were down in Deck 3, we took the elevator back down there, and I could see some crew members outside the MedBay...others were inside, including Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda. I had no clue where that downloadable character went.
"We better go tell Sarah," I decided, with Abby nodding in agreement.
We then proceeded to our quarters, prison, or whatever it was, seeing Sarah still listening to her music. I approached her to where she could see me and know I was talking to her. "Uh, Sarah...they just brought Garrus in."
Sarah looked sharply at me and practically ripped her headphones off of her head and put her CD player aside. "What?" she asked, as if wanting to make sure she heard right.
"They just brought Garrus in on a stretcher...everything happened exactly like in the game," I told her, sighing slightly. "I think he's in the Medical Bay now."
Suddenly, as though she were filled with a burst of energy, Sarah moved quickly. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, moving toward the door. "I want to meet him," she exclaimed.
"Um, Sarah..." I started, not sure whether to put this bluntly or not...though she knew this, and now I was a little confused. "He's in critical condition...I don't think now is the time to meet him."
Sarah hesitated, then sighed. She then moved away from the door. "Well, how will we know when I can talk to him?" she muttered aloud.
"According to the game..." Abby said, looking like she was thinking long and hard. "Its hours until he's released."
Sarah made a face, then she walked over to the bed she had more or less claimed for herself and plopped down on it. She released a sigh and grabbed her CD player again, although she did not put the headphones back on. "Bummer," she muttered. "Everything is realtime now... I should have expected it. But I gotta say it's SO much easier when time could pass as quickly as it took for the loading screen to come and go." She sounded frustrated and impatient.
Abby nodded in agreement, sighing. "Yeah...I want to meet Joker already. There's alot more waiting than there is in the game."
"Um, honestly...I think we may have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. Shepard's probably going to want to talk to us aga-" I started.
Just at that moment, Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob all entered. Jacob leaned against the wall, and Shepard didn't have a firm expression either way...Miranda looked flustered. No different than usual.
"How's Garrus?" Sarah asked intently.
"He took a pretty bad hit, the doc's gonna have a hard time," Jacob replied, just staring at us.
"So, you were right," Shepard said, still in such a controlled manner. I had to wonder how, even if she was a character that was created and partially specified, she handled all of this so well. "Archangel was Garrus...but you didn't tell me about this."
"We already explained why," Abby told her in a very gentle, and almost pleaful, tone. I think we all direly hoped that she understood. "We can't tell you everything because it could alter things...we had to tell you some things to get your trust."
For the first time, Shepard let some frusteration out. "That is a very old friend of mine...and I don't have the intention of losing him as fast as I got him back. I feel like you should have told me."
She is a Paragon, right? A total Paragon? Please don't tell me she's going to randomly go Renegade...
"Hey I care about what happens to him too," Sarah spoke up suddenly. She looked straight at Shepard, although her fingers tightened around the edges of her CD player, as if for support. "Don't worry, he's not going to die. And when he's up and around again, I'd really like to see him." She smiled tentatively.
"You know he's not going to die?" Jacob asked, obviously not totally trusting us, as well. At least he wasn't like Miranda.
I nodded. "Positive...everything's already in motion, I don't think it can change now."
Miranda looked at Sarah with more fire in her eyes than earlier. "You want to see him? You want to see him?" she boomed. "You come onto this ship randomly, somehow predicting everything about our mission, and you want to see him? Just because you like turians doesn't grant you a right to visit with one under these circumstances!"
Sarah's face twisted as she stared at Miranda. Her expression was now somewhere between indignation and hurt. Her eyes narrowed into a scowl. "No offense or anything," she said in a darker tone than she usually used, "but I never liked your attitude. I hope your sister isn't too much like you."
Then her eyes grew wide with horror, as she realized what she had slipped out.
Miranda's eyes went wider than ever, and a gasp escaped her lips. She looked like she was about to fall down in horror and shock.
"Sister?" Shepard asked.
"Oh SHIT!" Abby yelled, probably out of pure shock. I had to admit, I was feeling the same way as her.
Jacob was just staring at Miranda, he probably knew about her sister..or maybe he didn't, I couldn't quite recall the conversations she had about who knew about her sister outside of Niket and Cerberus. However, either way, he seemed equally stunned that we knew.
"Its what we've been saying all along," I said, trying to get everyone to just believe us. This was getting incredibly out of hand. "We know these things, we just do, we can't say everything, and that wasn't intended to be said bu-"
"There is no way in HELL that came up in some dr-" Miranda started, getting incredibly defensive.
"Enough!" Shepard yelled, keeping that controlled tone even now, but raising the volume of her voice. "We are all getting way too worked up about all of this. I may care about my crew, but I refuse to let these kind of fights break out on my ship! We are getting majorly off focus here. The main objective right now is to hope that Garrus lives..and outside of that, the focus is to stop the Collectors, no matter who or what comes up."
Miranda just shook her head. "I'll be in my office." she said, darting off.
Shepard sighed. "I need to go talk to her," she said, turning to leave herself.
I took a very deep breath, looking at Sarah and Abby. "Well..that was...interesting."
"You three do this to every group of people you meet?" Jacob asked curiously.
"We try not to, believe me." I simply replied.
Sarah plopped herself down onto the bed again and sighed a little. "They call me the jinx back home," she muttered, yet looked slightly amused in spite of herself.
Jacob actually laughed. "Lets hope you three don't carry these habits around too much longer."
A few hours later, we were up in the briefing room...Abby, Sarah, and I had been called there first, because there was news on Garrus and Shepard wanted to speak to us briefly, anyway. We had all taken some time to cool off after that encounter earlier, and I was hoping that Shepard hadn't already lost Miranda's 'loyalty'...if it could be called that now.
Though, who said she was even on our side?
Shepard then came through the doors, sighing. "Before you ask, I don't know about Garrus yet. I need to talk to you three first."
"How's Miranda?" I asked with a gulp.
"She's not a field of roses, but she never is. I talked her down," Shepard replied, putting her hands down on the table, obviously still soaking all of this in. "I now see why you don't want to reveal too many things...but don't make a habit of it. If things keep up like this, this ship is going to be more of a circus than it already is."
"Don't worry," I said immediately, feeling like I was speaking for all of us here. "We won't reveal anything more like that, unless the situation calls for it, or you really need it. You were going to find that out anyway, just...not so soon."
"All she told me was that her sister was like a twin..a clone of herself, sort of, and I already knew about Miranda's origin," Shepard explained, tilting her head. "But I really think we need to leave the subject be for now."
Jacob came in, almost on que, and Shepard instantly looked up at him. Despite what we told her, she still seemed concerned. "Whats the verdict?"
"Well...he took a pretty bad hit, Shepard. The doctors have been working on him for hours...his face really got hit hard. I don't think he'll be up and around for aw-" Jacob started.
But just like in the game, he was cut off when Garrus Vakarian himself walked in. "Surprise, Commander." he told her, smirking as he walked in, with half of his face fried now.
I couldn't help but grin, myself.
Sarah was staring at the Turian with widened eyes and she gasped softly. She seemed frozen in place, unable to move or speak. There was a look of... pure awe on her features, as if she was simply trying to accept the fact that her favorite Turian was now standing right before her.
"Tough son of a bitch. Didn't think he'd be up yet," Jacob commented. He looked a bit taken off guard by this, himself, but I knew that would happen.
"Nobody would give me a mirror," Garrus said as he walked in. "How bad is it?"
Shepard laughed. "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly...just splash some face paint on there and you're good to go."
Garrus chuckled, but then grunted. "Don't make me laugh, damnit. I'm still sore...my face is barely holding it together as it is."
Jacob, obviously feeling that he was no longer needed, saluted and left. Garrus gave him a simple look, and I knew that the inevitable comment that every old crew member made about Cerberus was coming up.
"Frankly, I'm more worried about you. I've heard some bad things about Cerberus these past few years..." Garrus said, also looking at us. I assumed that Shepard didn't exactly have the time to tell him about the psychic youths galavanting around, so he probably thought we were Cerberus like Jacob.
"Thats why I'm glad to have you, Garrus. If I'm walking into hell, I want someone that I trust at my side." Shepard told him, smiling lightly.
Ah, so that line remains the same. So she still doesn't trust anyone, including us...not that I can really blame her right now.
"Hah, you realize that means I'm walking into hell too. Just like old times." Garrus told her, still smirking at the entire situation.
(Sarah)
In some ways, it felt like a dream was playing out before me, and I almost forget that HK and Abby were there at all. I was also simply itching for a chance be able to speak up and approach Garrus. But there were two reasons why I held back. One was because, well... I was on their turf, and I'd already been pretty stupid so far at times. Another reason was because I'd learned over the years that sometimes, it was better to stay quiet unless spoken to, or unless I found an opening to speak. That lead to less embarrassment, and less awkward situations.
But I also knew that I didn't want Garrus to simply walk out before I had a chance to meet him or talk to him. I just wanted a few minutes with him, surely that couldn't be so much to ask. Even if I somehow made a fool out of myself, even if he wanted nothing to do with me for the rest of the mission after this... it would be worth it. Unless I did something REALLY stupid, of course.
"Garrus?" I spoke up suddenly, interrupting the conversation between him and Shepard. I spoke more loudly than I'd intended, and I was already starting to feel a bit sheepish because of it.
Garrus and Shepard suddenly stopped their small talk to glance at me. Shepard stayed quiet, while Garrus looked like he was observing all three of us very closely. "Ah, death really has changed you, Commander...I don't recall you inviting kids onto the Normandy back in the old days." he said in that cool, but joking, tone of his.
"Its a long story, Garrus. But one of them has been really looking forward to meeting you," Shepard said, gesturing to me.
"Ah, really? I'm flattered, miss..." Garrus started, looking right at me.
I swallowed, inhaling any-or at least most of-the nervousness I felt. I also tried to shove aside those unpleasent memories of what happened with that drunk Turian in Afterlife as I boldly walked forward, extending my hand toward the turian in front of me. "Sarah," I said, wondering if he would shake my hand. To say he was "larger than life" in person somehow seemed accurate. His eye-visor, his scars, hell even his teeth... they somehow seemed even more real now, in front of me.
"Interesting...how the hell do you know about me, though? I'm not exactly a household name...unless you lived on Omega and knew about my...ah, work." Garrus said very slowly. He seemed like he was curious yet suspicious, like everyone else had been, at the same time.
I dropped my hand. Maybe it wasn't the Turian habit to shake hands. Or maybe he just didn't want to touch me or something. "I know stuff about you," I said just as slowly. I suddenly glanced toward Shepard, then at Abby and HK. Somehow... I just wanted to talk to him alone, not in front of an audience. "Can I talk to you for a sec, somewhere private?" I asked. At least as private as it got on this ship, with EDI everywhere, I thought.
Garrus glanced at Shepard, who smiled lightly. "Don't worry, she's not an assassin." she said.
Garrus laughed once again. "Ha, do you really think I need to worry about assassins?" he asked. "I suppose there's no problem with speaking privately..though I must say I am still confused. I was planning on heading down to the gunnery station, maybe you could follow."
I nodded and smiled. "Sure," I said. "That would be great." I then tried to keep a more casual expression. We were just going to have a chit-chat, after all. There was no reason to act all giddy as if he had invited me to a movie or something. Then again, it was not every day that you got to meet one of your favorite characters, after all.
Now if only I could meet Spock, Dinobot, and Prowl. Then I could die happy.
Garrus turned to the door, motioning for me to follow. HK and Abby were both looking partially amused, and partially taken off guard, especially HK...and I wouldn't be surprised if Abby were jealous, just because she hadn't gotten to meet Joker yet.
Garrus walked over to Shepard. "Its too bad everyone still flirts with me instead of you, Commander," he said, laughing again.
"Oh, very funny, Garrus, you know I don't swing that way." she said, grinning at the joke.
"I don't know, I always thought Liara and you had something going on...I'm not so sure Kaiden wasn't one of those cover-ups that people in the government do, though then again, the reason I always liked you was because you didn't put up with that. But I'm sure there's someone on this ship..." he said, trying to grin now, as he motioned for me to follow.
With that, we headed to Garrus's station on the ship. I kept my head down as we walked and stayed completely silent. I already knew that Garrus was the type who liked to tease. But did he have to go and embarrass me like that?
Then again, I always knew I was a bit sensitive. I didn't like to be the subject of jokes, so to speak.
Once we entered the gunnery, the door closed behind us. Garrus cast a glance toward me as he positioned himself at the console.
"So, as much as I'd like to say that having a fan makes me totally happy, you can't blame me for still being a little curious after having every single big merc group try to kill me," Garrus said, while trying to examine the console. "And I doubt Shepard liked me so much as to talk about me non-stop."
"She didn't even mention you at all," I said slowly and carefully, trying to choose my words so I wouldn't say anything stupid again. "I mean, when my friends and I mentioned you, she said you were a good friend of hers, but she said nothing else."
I paused for a moment, glancing down at my shoes, then continued. Hey, I have black boots on? First time I noticed. "Anyway... well..." Okay, now I was starting to sound like an idiot. I was stumbling around trying to think of something to say.
Finally, I decided to start with something simple, just to see how he would react. "I know some stuff about your father," I said, looking at him again. Of course, I still haven't played the first game, but I knew some stuff from watching clips. Thank God for youtube. "You always thought he was too... rigid. You like doing things your own way, without rules and regulations hindering you." I fell silent.
Garrus paused for a moment, no doubt a bit surprised. "How do you know all of this? I don't see how Shepard didn't talk to you...I know I was one of her crew, but not that famous..." he said, very slowly as he turned back to look at me. "You know, you are lucky that you're on Shepard's team...otherwise, I would really be tempted to lock you up and find out who sent you and why...but if you are working with Shepard, then I take it that you aren't...totally bad. So consider yourself fortunate, but I still don't get it."
That was when reality-this crazy new reality I was in-began to sink in a little more. Garrus was taller than me, definitely, plus I could tell he was strong. It dawned on me that even if he wasn't highly skilled in martial arts, he would probably be able to kill me without too much effort. That fact made me nervous, and I began to thank God and count my lucky stars that Shepard had indeed taken my friends and I under her wing.
I wasn't even wearing that stupid armor anymore... I had taken it off in the "brig". So I was a bit vulnerable... yet still a little determined.
Then I decided to try saying something else, just for the heck of it. After all... I had caused enough trouble and enough drama, sometimes indirectly, on the internet. Call me insane, but... maybe, just once, I wanted to try my hand at it in a real-life situation, just once. Well okay... just twice. I had actually forgotten about the Miranda episode.
I chose to say one simple word aloud. "Sidonis." I braced myself.
Garrus was obviously taken aback, much like Miranda, but didn't start screaming...instead, he reached back, and grabbed his rifle, proceeding to cause a few clicks to make sure it was loaded. He didn't hold it up, but had it there. "How do you know that name? Is he the one that sent you? No offense, but I didn't think he'd be that stupid..."
My eyes widened when I saw him holding his gun. Well, I wanted to be crazy, correct? Now he thought I might be working with the traitor. I sucked in a breath, trying to regain my composure. "Umm..." Suddenly I wished Abby was there. She was better at coming up with things to say on the spot than I was. "I-I'm not working with him." I took a couple of steps back, toward the door, though I made no attempt to run. That just might make me look guilty if I tried it. "But I know he betrayed you. Because of him, some gang killed the other ten men that was in your group."
Garrus didn't let go of the rifle, but didn't raise it just yet, either. "But if you're not working for him, then how? Barely anyone knows that."
"I... I..." I was stammering now. "I can see things," I finally said. "Like... things that haven't happened yet. Just ask Shepard when you get a chance. Abby and HK and myself told her that we would find you even before she knew that you were Archangel." I was babbling now. I just didn't want him to do anything stupid with that gun.
Garrus stared for a moment, in silence...for a brief second, he almost raised the gun, but then it seemed like something clicked in his brain, and he stopped...slowly, very slowly, he began to put it back. "You are very fortunate that I happened to go on a journey with one of the few people that had visions..." he said as he slipped it back into its proper place. "If I hadn't worked with Shepard, I'd think you would be giving me a pile of crap...hell, you still may be..but if I really thought you were lying to me, I would waste no time in getting information out of you. However, the Council refused to see the truth...no, they refuse to see the truth to this day, and I'm not going to be like them or C-Sec. Thats why I became a merc in the first place. Again, you're one lucky girl, Sarah."
Yeah, I guess I was lucky. Unlucky at the same time. Isn't that how it usually worked? I was so lucky to be here. Any fan of Mass Effect would love to be in my shoes right now. Yet if this guy had somehow gone crazy on me... I could either be in the infirmary right now, or worse. That was the downside of it.
"I know where he is," I muttered under my breath, before I could stop myself. Then, fearing that I was saying too much, I turned and moved toward the door.
Garrus's eyes went wide. "You...wait, no, I shouldn't..." he said, almost having conflict within himself. "Hell, no, this may be my only chance...where is he? I've been looking to kill the bastard for what he did for months."
I was silent for a moment. At least he wasn't freaking out on me like Miranda did, and at least he put the gun away. Of course, I didn't blurt out sensitive personal information in front of a crowd, either. If anything, I had just told him good news, to his ears at least.
"Look," I finally said, turning to look at him again, "do you really want to kill him?" Images from the game flashed through my mind... and after seeing what Zaeed did to that poor Batarian on Omega... well, I did not like the thought of that sort of thing happening to anyone else. At all. No matter who they were.
"Of course I do," Garrus said, being firm in what he was saying, but not raising his voice at all. "Sidonis was a coward and a traitor...he killed all of my men, innocent men...and has gotten away with it. He's been hiding, like cowards do, ever since...he deserves to die. Its justice for me and the people that died thanks to him."
"Yeah well... what if I told you that he feels horrible for what he did?" I said slowly, not quite looking at him now. He did not appear threatening, but he did have an... intense look about him. "He loses sleep every night over what he did and I think he even has nightmares about it."
Garrus shook his head. "I'm sorry...maybe you're right, but that has to be something I'll see for myself. That man didn't seem to feel horrible when it actually happened...he deserves to pay, and I can't believe that he's changed just like that."
"He felt like he didn't have a choice," I told him. Man, I was horrible at doing this... whatever I was doing exactly. But at least I knew he wasn't going to shoot me. "He was forced to it because some gang threatened to kill him if he didn't."
I sighed. Was this really such a good idea? Maybe I had only succeeded in screwing things up, because now he just might be more distracted about this. "Look, maybe I should just leave you alone," I said, moving toward the door again. "Can you open the door please?" I asked.
"Yeah...probably for the best. Listen, thanks, but this is just...alot to take in. Shepard's alive. I nearly die. Sidonis is out there...I'm going to need some time to think about it...maybe even before I ask you where he is, even if I sure as hell want to know right now...if I even can find the time in the middle of this mission. That comes first, but...I just need time to process all of this...thanks, though, I...think you meant well." Garrus said, as he went over and opened the door.
"Yeah, I'll talk you later," I said, and quickly slipped out the door and hurried down the hall. In some ways... I wasn't sure what just happened. Was I trying to be his friend back there or something? Maybe. I doubted we were, though. I also figured that if I kept saying stupid things, or speaking without thinking... I probably wasn't going to have any friends around here except HK and Abby. And maybe Shepard.
Right now, it might be best if I just... got back to Abby and HK. Wherever they were right now. Ah well, if nothing else... I could just ask EDI to help me.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:16:00 GMT -5
(Abby)
I wandered away with Jacob, grateful that now, at least, Shepard didn't seem too adverse to our walking about the ship. Shepard looked tired, all strung-out and ready for bed, dark circles like imprints underneath her eyes. She'd taken off her N7 armor in her quarters and had come back to the Command Deck wearing military-issued fatigues this time instead of that strange suit she'd been dressed in last time. I wasn't pleased. I'd been hoping she would stay in her room and get some much-needed sleep, but it looked like she still wanted to keep an eye on us. After a quick conversation with Jacob, she left. I wondered if Jacob was going to be my de facto babysitter for the day. HK had wandered off behind Shepard, throwing a cautious look my way as he passed. He was probably talking to Joker right now... lucky.
Jacob and I didn't talk much as he worked. In the game he'd stayed close to his computer, standing endlessly, but I could see now that a small chair had been set up for his conveinance. He wasn't using it, though; he was walking around the armory, checking and double-checking the weapons.
"You ever fire one of these babies before?" he asked finally, holding out a pistil. I took it gingerly, shaking my head. "Have you ever fired a weapon before?"
"Yes," I said, "but only with the older guns. I shot a Glock once."
"That's an old one," he said. He took the pistil from my hand and placed it back on its designated table. "So you say you can see the future, but you can't fight. That's-"
"I can fight," I said stiffly. "I've been fighting for six years."
He blinked. "Where did you train?"
"I took Shaolin Kempo until a year or two ago. It's getting closer to two. I had to leave, so I started Aikido. I like Aikido a lot more than Shaolin Kempo, though. The peacefulness side of it really appeals to me." I laughed hurmorously. When I'd been taking Kempo, I'd had a violent streak. I don't get in fights and I try to have an even temper, but in Kempo I couldn't help but be unhappy with how thoughts of violence dominated my life. Aikido was a peaceful, smooth transition. "I'm not great at it, but I'm getting insights I never saw before. I hope to progress to the stage one day where if I'm attacked, I'll use pure Aikido on them instead of my Kempo. But I have too much muscle memory for destroy and subjugate that I'm really having trouble."
My small rant seemed to have caught him by surprise. "Well, that's good you're trying to be all peaceful," he said, frowning. "How old did you say you were, again?"
"I'm fourteen."
"You don't act like any teenager I've seen."
"That's because I'm different," I said, shrugging. "I don't think I'm better than anybody, of course, but I just have different... priorities."
"Such as?"
EDI was probably assessing my psyche profile. I might as well give her the satisfaction. "I don't waste time on stupid crushes or... 'middle-school drama.' I'm here to get the job done, enjoy what time I can enjoy, and try to work through the parts I'll hate."
"'Parts you'll hate,'" he echoed. "You sound like you got it all figured out."
"Only the important stuff," I chuckled. "But unless it's absolutely neseccary, we're not doling out any more information. So I'm not going to mention Legion or anything. Oops." I grimaced. "Forget I said that name."
He blinked. "Done."
"Oh, good then." I grinned apologetically. "I'm sorry about Sarah back there, making Miranda blow off the handle like that. She will cool down soon, right?"
"Oh, yeah, Miranda's just not that used to having people in her personal business," Jacob said thoughtfully. "But she's probably trying to fit you in with just about every known information broker out there. I wouldn't doubt that she just foreworded a mission report to the Illusive Man."
I nodded, resigned to this already.
"I'm still trying to figure you out, too," Jacob continued. "I just can't bring myself to believe that you're... you."
I shrugged. "I'm me."
"That's what's weird. Just being able to tell the future doesn't explain, for example, how you got on to the Normandy undetected."
I grinned. "You know I can't tell you that." I turned my face up towards the intercom. "EDI? We just randomly appeared in the cargo bay, didn't we?"
"Yes, Abby," EDI said hesitantly, if an AI could hesitate. "Out of thin air. I am still hypothesizing on that."
"I know. I'm sorry we're putting the crew in such disarray. It's good we came in the beginning instead of right near the end."
Jacob sighed. "Will we ever get the full story?"
"Ah... probably not."
"But you're not with the Shadow Broker or anybody else?"
"Nope. There's no records of us anywhere, I don't think."
"And you've never shot a gun, never knew about armor, and forgot how heat sinks work in technical terms?"
"Yup."
"But you've shot a Glock."
"I'm surprised you still know what that is." I grinned.
"When's your birthday?" he asked suddenly.
"October 11."
"Year?"
"Ha! Nice try." It was 1995, but I didn't want to weird him out. "So was Sarah alright on the trip? She didn't freak out when she saw Zaeed or anything, did she?"
"She drank krogan ryncol," Jacob said, shaking his head. "I thought she was joking at first, but..." He gave one humorless laugh.
My face froze in whatever expression it had been adapting before. "She... drank... krogan-?"
"Didn't you notice how tipsy she was when Shepard got her back?"
My mouth was working, mouthing profanities I couldn't voice out loud. I abruptly turned around and began to march out of the room. "EDI, where the hell is Sarah?" I snapped.
"Asleep in the elevator. I was about to ask Yeoman Chambers to retrieve her."
"Oh, I'm going to retrieve her ass," I hissed.
I stomped outside, ignoring Kelly's shocked look. "Uh, Commander Shepard-?"
I activated the elevator call button, crossed my arms... and waited.
She was sitting in the corner, dozing obliviously with her head thrown back. A slight snore came out of the throat. Kelly gasped behind me, but I was well ahead of her. I took two steps and knelt down to look at her. "You are in trouble," I said slowly, enumerating the words carefully. "Enormous trouble. If you don't wake up, I am hitting you, and it will be neither pleasant nor forgetable."
Sarah's eyelids snapped open and she quickly looked up at me. She blinked, then her eyes narrowed. "What?" she said, sounding confused. "Did something happen?"
"Did you drink krogan ryncol?" I hissed in her face. "After I specifically said 'don't drink anything?'"
A small look of horror crossed Sarah's face, pretty much confirming her guilt. She was silent for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to try making an excuse-or possibly lying-or to simply own up to it. "Only a little bit," she finally said, putting very heavy emphasis on the words "little bit".
"You are twenty-one! I am fourteen! If even I know not to drink it, and you do, that's really, really STUPID! Did you get sick? Are you okay?"
"Twenty-three," Sarah corrected me with a trace of annoyance and sarcasm. "And I didn't drink much of it. It just about killed me when I took a sip though, and the next thing I knew..." She made a face. "I was flirting with a random Turian who sat down next to me at the bar."
My eyes were wide, and I knew I looked quite demented. Jacob had followed me out, and was standing next to Kelly with a strange look on his face. "Sarah," I said in an undertone, "There is a batarian bartender there that poisons the drinks of every human that walks in," I hissed. "There was a reason I said don't drink it. A reason! Besides the obvious reasons, of course, you know, like getting drunk in front of Aria! That's a reason! Do you know how close you came to nearly dying? I bet the only reason you didn't choke up and die right then was because Shepard's temporarily under Aria's protection! Ugh! You should-you-you should go brush your teeth and go to bed! Or something!"
Sarah pulled herself to her feet and gave me an indignant look. "First of all," she began in a defensive tone, "maybe you should have told me all of this before. If I don't get all of the information up front, then I naturally assume that there is no reason behind the cautions except for general common sense or over-protectiveness." She smirked a little. "Or have you learned nothing about me these past few years?"
"Sarah," I said in a forcibly calm voice, "haven't you learned that sense isn't common? Especially with us! Just-urgh! You're crazy! My dad had to bring home a girl once who'd have Roofies slipped into her drink. There is a reason that you don't drink at bars! And that alien stuff can really screw up your insides. That was krogan stuff, really strong stuff!"
I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Will you listen to me in the future? Please? Because you're not as durable as Commander Shepard and we can't reload a saved game if we die!"
She looked a bit ticked off, then simply nodded a little. "Yeah, I know this is... serious," she finally said. "And there's no savegames here." She sighed, looking toward the elevator controls. "Look, I'm gonna go back down to the level I was on for a while. I just want some time to myself. I already know what I did was stupid, okay?"
"S'long as you know that," I muttered. I sighed. "You didn't tell Garrus about our funny little secrets, did you? We shouldn't give out any more loyalty mission spoilers." I wasn't worried. Surely she could not be so crazy as to talk about Oriana and Sidonus all in one day. Ha!
Sarah smiled a small, tight smile. "No, of course not," she said with a shake of her head. "Now... I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but mind if I go down to the lower level now?" She placed her hand on the elevator control, but didn't touch anything yet. "You're in the elevator, and..." She shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head, obviously implying that if I didn't get off, I was going with her.
I sighed deeply and pressed the button. "I need to get on that deck, anyway," I muttered. I waved at Jacob as the doors closed. "I need to talk with Miranda and apologize about that thing with Oriana. If she considers us a security risk and kills us in our sleep, I will be very ticked."
(Sarah)
I simply nodded at Abby's words and stayed silent during most of the elevator ride. In truth, my head was still throbbing a little from drinking that... stuff. My throat still hurt a little, too. And I simply did not feel like talking all that much. For some reason, I swear that going to sleep only made the discomforts a little... worse. Unless maybe it was just my imagination.
The elevator came to a stop. Abby was still saying something but I was ignoring her for the most part. Yeah part of me felt bad about it, and I was sure I would feel even more guilty later if I dwelled on it later. But was it really my fault that I felt so crappy right now?
...Yes. I scowled at nothing in particular. And I hoped Abby didn't notice.
We passed by the mess hall area and then split up as we each went in a different direction. Abby was headed toward Miranda's office, and I was going to the gunnery to talk to Garrus. Why, exactly? I had no idea. It wasn't like me and Garrus were friends or anything. I was pretty sure I had weirded him out before. For all I knew, he might just tell me to get out or something. Though I knew Garrus wouldn't be THAT rude.
I approached the door to the gunnery and... well, since there wasn't really much option to knock, I simply entered. "Hey, Garrus?" I said aloud as I walked in, though I didn't get too close to him.
Garrus didn't turn. "Yes? Does the Commander need me?"
Okay, so maybe it really was stupid to come in here at all. "Am I bothering you?" I asked simply. Perhaps it would be a good idea for me to leave.
Garrus frowned. "I don't know," he said. "I...I really have to check these calibrations."
In other words, he didn't want to be bothered. Still, I knew that if I walked out that door right now, I would just feel like an idiot and like I wasted his and my time. So I didn't want to walk out without saying anything. "Can I ask you something? I... just wanted to ask you something," I finally blurted out.
"Okay," he said. "Shoot." He still wasn't looking at me. I wondered how badly I'd upset him with my casual mention of the man who betrayed him.
"Okay," I echoed on impulse. "Do you think it's stupid for a human to drink ryncol?"
"Very," he said without preamble. "Krogans and humans don't have the same gene structure. Turians and quarians can't eat human food. If you drink ryncol..." He shrugged. "It's bound to have some kind of lasting effect. Best bet is to stick to stuff from your own species." I wondered if his last words there had a double-meaning.
"Yeah... I tried some ryncol in Afterlife a few hours ago, and it just about killed me," I said with a weak chuckle. Why was I telling him this? It wasn't like he needed to know or anything. Then again, sometimes I had a habit of babbling about something I did, or something that happened to be, especially after being chewed out about it. Maybe I just liked to get other opinions. "I couldn't even drink it all."
His 'whiskers' seemed to twitch in surprise. "You'll probably feel the full effects of it later," he said after a long pause. "But you might want to go see Doctor Chakwas. She's in the room across from the kitchen."
I made a face. "I don't like going to see a doctor unless I'm actually dying," I said slowly. It was true enough, I did not like going to see a doctor. I paused for a moment, thinking. "I'm not dying, after touching that stuff, am I?" I asked out loud.
Garrus shrugged. "I'm not a human. I don't know. Most likely you'll just have trouble digesting things for the next few days until it washes out of your system. Drink lots of water... and don't do it again. Have you spoken to your friends about this?"
"Sort of," I said, making a face. "Well, one of them somehow found out that I drank the stuff and she basically told me how stupid I was for doing it." I moved over to sit on the nearby crate, like I had seen Shepard do in the game when she was talking to Garrus. I really hoped he wouldn't mind. "I guess she was right, though. She had good reasons for telling me not to, and I should have listened to her. I guess it's just... I don't like getting yelled at for something stupid I did if I feel like the results of the stupid action are punishment enough, you know?"
"Sometimes the point has to be driven home, though," said Garrus. "Besides, it's better if other people recognize the failure, too. Recognizing it yourself is all well and good, but it gets... frustrating if there is nobody there to critisize your work."
"Heh," I muttered as I thought over what he said. "Yeah well... umm..." I hesitated, trying to figure out how to phrase this. "Maybe this sounds stupid. But... it feels like it would be better, and less painful and embarrassing, if the people who are closest to me never noticed the stupid things I do. Like... well," I fiddled with my hair, unsure if I was even making sense. "Nevermind. I just care too much about what everyone thinks I guess." I chuckled nervously.
"Ah," Garrus said. "So... is that all you came down here to ask?"
"Um... yeah I guess," I said with a shrug. But I did not make any move to get up.
"So... since you're here... I was wondering if I could ask a quesiton. I was going to ask Shepard, but you're a human, too." I looked up, interested. "What are... cookies?"
I stared at him. That was what he really wanted to know? I felt a little... perplexed. Maybe even slightly disappointed. I wasn't sure what I was expecting him to ask. But not... that. "Well..." I began slowly. "They're something that we eat. They're made of dough and sugar, and sometimes they have chocolate or nuts or something else in them. They're kinda like candy. You eat them as a treat, and not too much, or they can make you sick."
"And they're sweet? Or bitter?" Garrus asked. "There was a human on my team who used to make them, but turians can't eat human food. They smelled... odd."
I found myself grinning suddenly. "To us they smell sweet and they taste sweet," I said. Then I found myself getting curious about something. "What do you eat for a sweet or delicious treat?"
"We can eat most sugar and carbohydrate-based foods," Garrus said matter-of-factly. "So we have a... variant of a cookie, I suppose. I didn't try the cookies that were availible to me because it's human food." He glared at me. "Just like you shouldn't drink krogan ale."
Ugh, we did not need to approach that subject again. As far as I'm concerned, we're done with that topic. Krogan ale isn't for humans, and I was stupid for drinking it in the first place. Yes, lesson learned. Let's move on.
And so, I decided to change the subject. "I know a good joke," I said suddenly, with a smile. "Wanna hear?" I said it in a way that made clear I wasn't going to take no for an answer.
"Is it about the krogan drinking the turian? Because I heard that one before."
"Uh, no," I said slowly. I hesitated, trying to figure out the best way to begin the joke. Finally, I began. "Okay, so there's two Alliance soldiers who find a dead Quarian on their mission. They investigate the scene, and they find out that she was killed by biotics. She was thrown again the wall. One of them says, 'Looks like her suit ruptured and she got an infection.' Then the second one says, 'Yeah, she should have taken more...'" I paused for effect. "'Anti-biotics.'" I grinned, and waited to see his reaction.
He rolled his eyes. "Okay, now that's cheesy... but good. I'll admit it." He laughed.
My grin widened. "Do you know any good jokes?" I then asked in spite of myself.
"Uh, Joker's the guy to go for that sort of stuff," Garrus said. "I'm about to go to sleep, anyway." He finished a slight calibration and locked the terminal. He looked very tired, just like Shepard. "Maybe we'll talk later."
Part of me felt a little disappointed, although I couldn't think of anything else to say. And I definitely didn't want to keep him if he was that tired. "Yeah okay, thanks for talking," I said and moved toward the door.
(Abby)
"Miranda, I..."
Miranda glanced up from her work, waving a curtain of black hair out of her face. Cool blue eyes studied me dispassionately, and I took a deep breath before entering. "Did the Commander send you?" she asked stiffly.
"Nope, I sent myself. I wanted to say sorry about what happened back there... about Oriana. We won't tell anybody else. We're trying to get used to this, too, and we won't jeporadize your sister's safety. And if you ever need help, I guess we kind of owe you for that slip-up." I gave a small smile. "Forgiven?"
Miranda's eyes softened for a bit. "I shouldn't have reacted like that," she said. "It's my fault, as well. I have a bit of a temper, as you've probably noticed."
"We all have our tempers," I said.
Miranda stood and crossed towards the window, looking out at space. "You're being consistant with your story so far... all of you. And I don't want to trust you, especially with the information you dug up. It took months for the full story to hit the Illusive Man's ears. I'd just think you were another spy, except...
"I don't."
"Well... that's good," I said. "So... we cool?"
Miranda smiled and held out her hand. "It will be interesting working with you three... as long as you give us some illumination if something bad is going to happen. EDI believes your story, and she can't be fooled."
"Good," I said, nodding. "Can I come out on missions with you guys? After I get some training, I mean. I want to be ready... just in case."
"We'll see," Miranda said slowly. "I don't want any of you out there. You just don't have any experiance."
"I'll prove I can fight... somehow," I said. "What's our next stop? Mordin? When are we heading to see him?"
"A few hours. It's actually very late at night, or early in the morning. We found you around... eleven at night. It's five in the morning now."
"So the times are the same," I said, surprised by this new information. "Awesome. I'm real tired, but I had no idea what time it was here."
"Go, get your friends. Go to sleep."
"Yeah, good idea. Sorry, again."
"Just don't tell anybody." For the first time, Miranda looked nervous. "Oriana is the reason I joined Cerberus."
"I know. 'Night, Miranda."
I left, waving, and ran into HK and Sarah. They seemed to have been waiting for me.
"Well?" HK asked.
"She's not going to kill us," I assured him. "Come on, let's go to sleep. It's five in the morning and I'm tired." We went back to our quarters and I climbed up the bunkbed in the corner, sitting down comfortably on top. "I wonder if I'm going to wake up at my computer," I mused.
"I hope not," HK said. "This is too interesting. And I don't think we're dreaming."
"Even if we were dreaming, this has to be happening. Just because it's inside our head doesn't mean it's not real." I thought about that for a moment. "If I wake up tomorrow in a straight jacket, I'm going to be ticked."
Sarah didn't speak-she already passed out on her bed without taking her shoes off.
I just had a thought. "Ooo, sleepover," I told HK, and laughed at the weirdness of it all. "This is such a weird way to meet you guys."
"Indeed," said HK. "But it's interesting, at least."
"True..."
He laughed and sat down on a bed. Yawning, I got under the covers of mine and pulled them over my head. Then I noticed something, something odd... I didn't have glasses on. I took the covers off of my head and looked around, half-expecting everything to be disturbingly blurry, but no... it was all normal. I placed a finger on my eye and moved it around, looking for a contact lense.
Nothing. That was nice.
Figures, the only place I would have perfect vision would be in a videogame. Ah, well-at least we weren't in Gears of War!
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:16:23 GMT -5
Chapter 7 (HK)
All of us knew that Sarah would definitely not be going on this mission. Shortly after she woke up she complained that her head hurt and she had a terrible stomach ache. Immediately after voicing those complaints, she got up and rushed into the bathroom. Abby and I could hear the sound of hacking and wretching over the next several minutes. Abby quickly left the room, a tortured look on her face, and I remembered vaugly that she had a very bad phobia of people throwing up. I probably wouldn't see her anywhere near Sarah for a long time. But, concerned for my friend, I stayed nearby in case Sarah needed help.
When Sarah finally came out, she looked awful. "Oh, God," she muttered as she staggered toward the bed.
Soon after that Shepard came into the room. After taking one look at Sarah, the commander insisted that she go to the medical bay immediately. Once there, the doctor gave Sarah some kind of medicine and then confined her to one of the sickbay beds for observation. It was plain that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
After Sarah was safely in the Medical Bay, Shepard came back to our quarters, with arms crossed once again. Abby tailed behind her, looking somewhat more at ease now that Sarah had vacated the room. "She'll be alright, but she's going to have to stay in there for awhile...she's definitely not coming on the next mission." she told us.
I nodded, almost relieved. Sarah needed some time to just take it easy and relax after drinking krogan drinks and then revealing Oriana's existence. "Mordin, I presume?" I asked, about the mission.
Shepard nodded. "While I was in Afterlife, Aria told me about him...and the lockdown in that complex. I'm not even going to ask if you know or not," she said, turning to stare out into space for a moment. "Garrus needs time to rest after what took place at the base, so I'm bringing Miranda and Jacob...and I want you two to come."
Abby's eyes flashed with excitement and she hopped once. "Okay!"
I tried to keep composure on my face, but I felt like it just fell to the floor in fear. Was it exciting in its own way? Sure...but I was not a warrior. Fighting through the apartments would be like walking into hell...like anywhere else in the ME universe. "A-are you sure we'll be able to survive?" I asked.
"As long as you stay close to me," Shepard answered, heavily emphasizing those last words. Probably because of what happened with Sarah.
I nodded. "Trust me, none of us are ones to go wandering off randomly...not even Sarah, despite what happened in Afterlife." I told her, nodding, even though I had no clue why. "Are you going to give us...weapons, or something?"
She raised a delicate eyebrow. "Will you need them?" she asked pointedly.
I honestly had no clue what to say. "Uh...well...I guess we could just...hide while you three shoot things..." I replied.
Shepard's eyebrow didn't go down. "I think you may be less dangerous to yourselves if you didn't have weapons..its not a matter of trusting you, its just the fact that no one knows how to use military weapons."
I nodded, a little relieved. "Probably for the best. When are we leaving?"
"I'd suggest putting on some armor...then meet the rest of us at the airlock." Shepard answered, turning to the door and exiting in the process.
I looked to Abby, still a mix of emotions. This would be horrifying, fun, and deadly all at the same time. "Well...what do you think?"
She looked grumpy. "No weapons," she said, outraged. "That's like offering a kid a sugar-free snack. Grawr!"
I sighed. Abby and I were so similar...yet so different. She'd take a gun and shoot three people at once...I'd take a gun and drop it on my toe. "Its probably for the best," I told her, trying to ease her frusteration. It was like instinct after all those years of advising everyone. "We may have written about people in RPs grabbing lightsabers and blasters and slaughtering everyone, but we aren't really soldiers. We have no clue how to use actual, big guns...especially not in this time period."
"True," she muttered, kicking at the floor with the tip of her shoe. "But what better time to learn than in the field, right?" she asked brightly, and I felt distinctly uneasy when she next said, "That's okay... I'll just take one from a dead vorcha or something. Wish I was biotic."
She rolled her shoulders, like she was psyching herself up for something. Knowing her, she probably was. "I'm worried, though. There, I said it. Don't repeat it. I don't exactly like the idea of getting shot. At all, really." She laughed nervously. "We're going to have to rely on each other a lot more now than we do in an RP. So if one of us says duck... don't look around and say 'why?' Because we would so do that." She stuck out her tongue.
I sighed...she was almost too right. We were not built for battle, but now we would have to learn...it just wouldn't be easy. At least we'd have more protection than usual with the armor...however, as I looked at Abby, I realized something. "You know, umm..." I started, not sure how to say this. "I can probably get some armor for Jacob or some random crew member...Sarah can just borrow from Shepard or Miranda in the future...where do we get you any armor? You aren't quite the size of the rest of us..."
She frowned. "Uh... huh." Her eyes glazed over as she thought it through. "I guess I'll just take the kinetic barriers instead... like Jack does, or Miranda. But I really, really, really don't want to go out looking like a postcard for a Cerberus adventure. Hopefully somebody here has some clothes that might fit me." She looked doubtful about it, though.
"Oh! Idea!" she said suddenly, jumping. "EDI?"
She appeared in her large, holographic ball form. "Yes?"
"Is there any way we can rectify that problem?"
"I believe both you and many other female crew members share the same height and build. I will find you something. It is unadvisable to leave the ship without proper attire."
EDI winked out. Pleased with her success, Abby shot me a toothy grin. "Problem solved."
"Good," I said, happy at that news...I was still getting used to the fact that there were actually other people on the ship that weren't just nameless, like we saw in the game. They actually had names, and in this case, armor to give. You typically just thought of the party members, Joker, Shepard, and the few members that had names, like Kenneth, Gabby, and Rupert. "I guess we better go get suited up."
With that, we both left, preparing to head out into our first mission with Shepard...
Soon enough, we were at the airlock, with Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda..much to my surprise, Miranda didn't go off about us again...she wasn't the warmest person ever, but she didn't complain. Abby's talk with her must have helped.
I felt...weird, in armor. It felt very clunky, and slightly difficult to move around in. It also consumed me, just a bit, because although I was as tall as most of the crew, I didn't have the total build that all the males had. But I would manage...as long as I could jump down when someone fired at me, I should be fine.
"Are we all ready?" Shepard asked.
All four of us nodded.
Shepard turned and open the airlock, and both Miranda and Jacob prepared to leave. I stepped out next, and I heard something from the cockit.
"Bye Commander! Don't die!" Joker's familiar voice yelled.
"BYE JOKER!" Abby yelled, excitedly no doubt, as she jumped out, squealing in the process. Shepard just shook her head.
Should've known she wouldn't just walk by him without saying something, I thought to myself.
Once out of the Normandy, we took the usual routes to the slums...I glanced around, not believing that I was actually on Omega. Abby seemed to have the same reaction...despite being a "pisshole", which Miranda was rambling on about at the moment, it still was amazing to people who had been on Earth their whole lives, in a time where space supposedly had no life.
Everything seemed the same as it did in the game, only more real, just like the Normandy. I'd have to expect that from everywhere. The same people wandering around, everything looked the same...there was still that batarian priest rambling on about how bad humans are, and he only increased in it when we walked by.
Then, suddenly, something popped into my head. Something that we should probably do, just to be nice. "Hey, Shepard..." I slowly said.
They all turned to look at me. "Yes?"
"I...I know where you can find Kenneth and Gabby some FBA couplings...I just thought it'd be nice to get it out of the way." I told Shepard with a shrug.
"We really should get Dr. Solus first," Miranda said, in a polite tone. "But it's your choice, Shepard."
"I don't think there could be any harm in it, Kenneth and Gabby do need them...are they nearby?" Shepard asked.
I smiled, happily. It would be doing something nice...and it would lead Abby to see something that I had wanted her to see for a long time now.
"Yes...at Kenn's salvage, a small store right near here. Follow me." I told them, taking the lead, as I went through the streets of Omega. It was still a little weird, not to mention scary, but I knew this place...and much to my surprise, Miranda nor Jacob objected to me briefly leading them somewhere.
Soon enough, before we got to the corridor where the shop was, we ran into those vorcha...the ones I had actually forgotten about. "Tell Gavorn we not kill today!"
"What?" Shepard asked, looking to be confused, like always.
"No! No more talk! We not kill today!" he yelled, before turning to leave.
"What was that about?" Jacob asked, looking to Abby and I.
"Eh, vorcha are grumpy ones..." Abby said, smiling cheerfully. I decided not to interfere. They'd find out about the vorcha's havoc soon enough.
They stayed silent, not demanding that we tell them anything...could I be sure of what was going on in their heads? No, but I had a feeling that they were adjusting to us, or starting to...and that was a good sign. We definitely couldn't leave now.
We proceeded down the hallway, and I motioned towards the quarian working, and his kiosk. Shepard nodded, approaching the kiosk, and within no time, she had the FBA couplings purchased.
"Thanks," Kenn said, turning to look at her while she retrieved her purchase. "I really need the money."
I smiled lightly, and Shepard looked at him. "Is something wrong?"
"I just...have some problems, really. No big deal, but Omega isn't the best place for business...I want to get off of it after I make enough money, but Harrot isn't letting me get any business." Kenn explained, sighing as he went over his troubes. I hoped I didn't look like I was enjoying his pain...but everything was going like I wanted it.
"Any way I can help?" Shepard queried curiously.
"Give him money," Abby said in a low tone.
"No, that won't do it all the way," I said in an equally low tone.
"Conflicting visions?" Jacob teased with a laugh.
Abby shot him a glare, and I was tempted to do the same. This was the bad part of doing some things differently in the game...we didn't know other things that could be done if we didn't explore every option. Abby typically did, but this was one thing she hadn't done, as we discussed at one point in time.
Kenn remained silent. I typically tried to read people by their faces...with Quarians, that was impossible for obvious reasons.
Shepard simply glanced to both of us, looking like she was contemplating. She looked back to Kenn. "What would you prefer to me to do?"
"Giving me money is nice, I'd accept it," Kenn answered. "But if you could, I really would like you to talk to Harrot. His emporium is not too far from here. He's an elcor by the slums."
"I'll see what I can do," Shepard told him, immediately turning and leaving. We all followed.
"I actually agree with Abby," Miranda commented, still in a peaceful tone of voice. "You should have just given him money. It would get us to Dr. Solus faster."
"It wouldn't fix Harrot's problem," Shepard explained. "Someone else would just come in and he'd be just the same. We have to set him straight."
"Whatever you think is best, Shepard, we're with you." Jacob told her.
I had to admit, it was hard to keep up with Shepard and the other two. Not difficult, but just...a little hard. She ran fast, like in the game, and Abby and I had to hurry to keep up...nonetheless, I was sure I'd get used to it over time, and it wasn't really a problem.
Seconds later, we reached the emporium. Harrot immediately spoke. "Tentatively excited: Welcome to Harrot's Emporium. Would you like to take a look at my impressive kiosk?"
"Actually, no, I'd like to talk to you about Kenn." Shepard said, diplomatically.
"Confused; What do you mean, human?" Harrot asked.
"I need you to leave him alone. What you're doing isn't right." she continued.
"Defending: I have been here for years, and was before him. It is unfair that he should take my customers from me." Harrot argued.
Elcor remained so bland in life...but strangely enough, I had a bit of sympathy if Shepard was about to say what I thought she was going to.
"You leave Kenn alone or I'll break your legs." Shepard growled, frusterated.
And here was the part I was waiting for.
"With barely contained terror: Alright, alright, human, I shall not oppress the quarian any longer."
This time, I couldn't take it. I let myself laugh, causing the other three to all give me a look.
"Good." Shepard simply said.
"Kindly: As an extension of friendship, I offer a discount on all my items." Harrot said. That always impressed me.
Shepard nodded. "Thanks. Maybe I'll come back sometime." she said.
"Excited: I look forward to it, human." Harrot told her, as we turned to leave.
Abby began laughing, herself. "Wow, that was awesome!" she exclaimed.
I smiled. "I knew you'd like it."
Miranda glanced at us, obviously still slightly confused, and I saw Jacob briefly do the same, but no one spoke. We returned to Kenn, gave him the good news, and headed towards the entrance of the slums...I was satisfied with what had taken place, so far, but the true mission was about to begin.
We approached the entrance, but like always, the guards stopped us. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but the slums are locked down." he told Shepard.
"Why?" Shepard asked.
"There's a plague going on...it effects everyone but humans and vorcha. We have our orders." he replied.
"Who's orders?"
"Aria T'Loak." the guard answered.
"Well, I was sent here by Aria herself...move aside. I have important business here. I need to find Mordin Solus. Do you know where he is?" Shepard quizzed.
"Don't lay off with the questions, do you?" the guard remarked. "The Professor is away in his lab, working on some kind of cure last I heard...be careful, he's dangerous, and I think he's all the way on the other side of the slums."
"Anything we can expect on the way?" Jacob asked.
"The Blue Suns pretty much controlled the district, but the vorcha are starting to overrun it...they've been on the attack since this happened, but the mercs still hold some areas. You'll probably have to fight through them both...you'll encounter the mercs first, then the vorcha as you go in deeper." the guard explained.
"And you say it doesn't effect humans?" Shepard said.
He nodded.
"Well, then lets go...we have a long way to travel."
The guards moved aside, and the five of us headed down in there...Shepard was in the front, like always, and Abby and I were behind Jacob and Miranda...no doubt because the front three had the weapons and we didn't.
We walked down the long ramp, and I could see the Blue Sun troops ahead...we came into view within seconds, and instantly, they spread out and opened fire. I felt the anxiety well up in me...while everyone but me took cover, I just stood there for a moment, frozen in anxiety.
"GET DOWN!" Shepard shouted, causing me to snap out of it. I gasped and jumped for cover, beside Abby, as I thanked the powers that be that I was still alive.
While the other three fired at the Blue Suns, Abby looked at me, in partial shock and frusteration. "You can't just stand there when people take SHOTS at you, HK! You've played ME enough to know the concept of, you know, taking cover!"
I nodded slowly. "Yes, yes, I apologize..its just...thats the first time anything has ever happened like this..."
Abby nodded. "Yeah, I understand."
A minute or so later, the mercs were down, and everyone looked at me. "You need to be quicker next time." Jacob told me, shaking his head.
"I hope you won't be like this the rest of the mission," Shepard told me, seeming concerned.
I shook my head. "No, no, don't worry...its just trying to get used to all of this...I've never been in the presence of anything like this..." I told her.
"There isn't exactly time to get used to it," Miranda told me. "Its take cover or die."
I nodded. "I know. Really, I know."
"We'll be fine, promise." Abby said, looking assured.
"Lets keep going, then." Shepard said, turning to continue on.
Abby was pereversly interested in the dead bodies of the Blue Sun mercs. "Niiice," she complimented, nudging a corpse with her toe. A nervous laugh escaped her throat.
I shuddered at the corpses as we walked by them...of course, you saw them in the game, but now to be right next to them...it wasn't a usual sight. I walked along, trying to ignore them, and also told myself that I better adjust, because I was going to see alot more of them in the future.
"Hey, Commander, look over here..." Jacob said, pointing to the sick batarian.
Oh, joy, the racist.
Shepard walked towards the batarian, who coughed and groaned. "Go away, human...I do not want to give you the pleasure of watching me die.." he said.
"What happened to you?" Shepard asked, leaning down.
He laughed. "Like...you...don't know...you released that virus here...its killing everyone, except, of course, humans...and the wretched vorcha..." the batarian explained, in-between coughs. I still felt sympathy for him, despite his bad accusations.
"Why do you think we released the virus?" Shepard asked, shaking her head. "Just because it doesn't affect us doesn't mean we did it...and the vorcha aren't effected, either."
"The vorcha...are not smart enough to release a virus like this...and everyone knows that...humans are always trying to bully and push aliens out of the way...to get what they want..." the batarian answered, obviously getting more and more sick.
"This man is useless. We need to leave him and keep going." Miranda said.
"Yes, humans, go away...leave me...to rot..." the batarian told us, continuing to cough heavier and heavier.
However, as the batarian began to die, Shepard grabbed some medi-gel and leaned down...I had to admit, I was wondering whether she would or not, but was glad to see it. It felt so weird not being in control of Shepard and her actions, even if they remained similar to the game. "Here, take this." she told him.
As the batarian took it and used it, he looked up in confusion. "What? A...human...helping me? Perhaps your kind...are not as bad as I presumed..." he said, still giving the occassional cough.
"I'm going to find the Professor, Mordin Solus. I'll send help for you." Shepard told him.
"Ha, you may not even make it there...that salarian shoots nearly anyone that looks to be a threat...but he does...like humans..." the batarian said as we left.
Abby looked upset as we left. She threw one last glance back at the sick batarian as we rounded the corner and he disappeared from sight. "I like being the good guys," she said quietly. We were lagging in the back, behind the main group. "Every mean decision that could be made is concerning me, but it seems like we're on the right track."
I nodded at her, trying to keep a good distance from the group at the moment, but not enough so that they got worried. "I know...Shepard's a Paragon, and seems to be a pretty good one...but I don't think we ever exactly restricted her from making a wrong choice. Its worrisome...it feels weird to not be in control of her, and have to actually watch to see what she does. I just hope she stays smart."
"Uh-huh," she agreed fervently. "And just think... we never said what would happen at the end, either. That kind of sucks."
I shuddered, actually fearing that. "That...is troublesome. What if we die? What if Shepard doesn't bother to get any loyalty, or makes horrible choices, and somehow gets everyone killed? She may be Paragon, but that doesn't gurantee that she'll be as wise as to make every single correct choice in the final battle..."
I shifted my attention back to the others for a moment, and they were looking at the assortment of locked doors in the area. "Everything is in complete lockdown...they really weren't kidding," Miranda observed.
"If you want, we could just hack them open or bust them down." Jacob said, shrugging.
I walked up to the front of the group, deciding to say something. Unless Amelia Shepard was a looter, this would be useless. "All you are going to find in there are dead bodies, and some logs of how the residents got sealed in and died," I told them. "There may be some nice stuff in there, but thats about all you'll find."
"We've used up alot of extra time already," Shepard said, continuing to proceed forward. "We just need to find Mordin."
We walked into the next area of the district, and it was that rather large area...riddled with Blue Sun mercs. This time, I took cover immediately, while Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda began to shoot at them. A vicious fire fight had begun.
Abby's eyes were wide, and I could tell she was just itching to lean over and shoot something. She was giggling... giggling while people were shooting at us. At one point she moaned, "Let me hit somebody!"
"Not sure you could make it across the room," Jacob muttered.
I shook my head at my...dear, dear, odd friend, but was immediately distracted as a bullet literally went right over us...I would have jumped, but then I would have actually gotten hit. All you could hear right now were bullets flying off the wall, and the cries of pain, or battle cries, from the Blue Sun mercs. It was the same as in the game.
At least its better then every single enemy in ME1 that wasn't a geth screaming "ENEMIES EVERYWHERE".
I also had to wonder about that Zaeed guy...I had never used the downloadable content, but from what little I knew, he was the co-founder of the Blue Suns. Why didn't he come along and tell these people to run before the plague killed them, or at the very least, let us pass?
Ah well, too late for that now.
I saw Miranda, Shepard, and Jacob use biotics as well...in-between taking cover and shooting like madmen, of course. Curiosity got the better of me, and I slowly peeked out...only several mercs left.
However, one of them saw me, and I could tell he was taking aim. Letting out a gasp, I jumped back behind cover.
"My TURN!" Abby growled, but she didn't attempt to move yet.
"Um, yes, well, he knows we're here now..I doubt its the time to start bouncing all arou-" I whispered over all the chaos.
However, suddenly, I interrupted. "Everyone's down." Shepard announced, standing up.
I stood up, brushing myself off, as Abby seemed visibly irritated. "Abby, why you like fighting so much I will never understand..."
We then walked across the rather large room, the three with guns picking up some more bullets in the process and re-loading. I glanced at one more locked door...it was where those humans were.
I wondered if we should go see them or not.
They're humans...they'll be fine, and I can just tell Mordin to send someone for them. We have to hurry.
I felt partially guilty for it...but what could happen to them? They were locked up, we had cleared out the mercs around here...the plague couldn't spread, and they'd be out soon enough, but I also wondered if it was just me getting scared and wanting to end this as soon as possible. I wondered if there was a 'right' or 'wrong' to this.
Nonetheless, we all passed by without a second thought, and I still felt bad for it...but no one's life was on the line here. It would be okay. There were more lives at stake over the plague than two humans stuck in an apartment.
Wow, I really won't fit well with Cerberus. I'm practically choosing aliens over humans all in my first days around the Normandy crew..
As we rounded another corner, more Blue Sun mercs emerged.
This time, though, they were taken out rather quickly.
We went through another door, and entered an area that I hated in the game...it was very close to Mordin's lab, but it was filled with the worst enemies. The hardest? No, but it was filled with vorcha and mercs.
Shepard and the other two led the way through the corridor, and I glanced at the staircase that you could take upwards...it might be a safe hideaway, but they'd just shoot up there, too.
By the staircase, there was that large opening into where another shootout was bound to take place.
And sure, enough, it did.
Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob all immediately rushed behind boxes as the fight began...I stayed near the large opening into the room, behind a wall. "Lets stay here," I suggested to Abby, who was behind me.
There was quite an assortment in here...if I recalled right, there were pyros...snipers...maybe even rocket troops.
The place was filled with noise quicker than I could clap my hands, and all you could hear were screams and constant firing of bullets. For a minute or two, I just stayed behind the wall with Abby, listening...Shepard, Miranda, and Jacob all seemed to be okay, still.
Another minute went by, and I decided to take a quick look to see how many were still standing.
I did so, and I saw quite a few...this battle was far from over.
However, as I looked on, I saw a krogan slowly approaching the group.
Dangit, I had forgotten about them.
As I watched, though...he spotted me.
Almost instantly, he darted right towards me...my jaw dropped, and as I heard Miranda yell her typical 'Krogan charging!" line, I hit the ground...only after feeling what was likely a gun hit me right in the nose, no doubt causing some blood.
As the krogan ripped me to shreds, I tried to look to Abby with my blurred vision. "HIT HIM, HIT HIM!" I screamed, though it only came out as extremely choked words.
The krogan suddenly lurched to the side and fell to the ground, roaring. I rolled the other direction, breathing hard and clutching my nose. Abby had climbed on the krogan's back and had wrapped her long arms quite successfully around his large, fleshy throat. The krogan was gasping and gurgling, struggling uselessly against her embrace. He staggared to his feet, dragging Abby with him, and abruptly launched himself backward. I heard her cry out in pain as three-hundred pounds of armored alien slammed into her chest, but out of either instinct or training she had angled her body diagonally to redirect the force. Her hands were beginning to slip upwards, and where they originally were orange blood gushed out.
The krogan roared again and tried to grab her hands with his arms, but, sensing this, she let go imediately and I caught a glint of a knife as she drove her right hand again, again, and again into his face. She maneuvered her legs around his body and pulled herself even closer, hugging herself to his frame as she mercilessly killed him.
Finally, the krogan lay still. Abby relaxed, breathing too hard, and crawled out from under his massive, inert frame. The knife was still in her hand. "Never... ever... ever..." she panted "go anywhere on Omega... without... a knife... oh crap, that was fun."
I was breathing heavily myself, still clutching my bleeding nose. "Fun? Fun?" I yelled, astonished, even if I shouldn't be. "Well, uhhh...thank you...I guess...maybe taking a weapon of your own saved my life..."
I very slowly looked towards the open fight...another krogan was just shot down by Miranda, and it seemed that now they were finishing off the last of the vorcha. Some stray bullets came our way, but we easily dodged them...I finally took my hand off my nose, which was probably bruised and maybe even broken, but I was just lucky to be alive.
"Gah," I muttered, the comment steming from the aching that was still there. I'd have to ignore it.
After the last vorcha died, we both took the liberty of heading out from the hall...there were bodies everywhere. The vorcha really were trying hard to slaughter the slums with all the people they poured into this.
"Wow," I commented, breathless.
"You okay?" Jacob asked, looking at my nose.
I nodded. "I'll...I'll be fine."
"All three of you are going to have to learn how to fight...though I'll commend Abby on doing a decent job, from what little I saw," Shepard told us, gesturing for everyone to keep on following her. "But this is nothing compared to people like the Collectors."
I decided not to say anything, for now. Truly, Shepard was right.
We walked around for awhile...we scared off those looters, or rather, Shepard did...after they ran off, we kept on our path, and it wasn't long before we finally reached Mordin's clinic.
It wasn't over, yet, though...but at least we had gotten to him.
Heading inside, past the guards and receptionist, I looked around...quite a few sick people in here. Not shocking, but still...they all looked to be in so much pain and dismay. I heard a few comment on how Mordin shouldn't be so kind to humans, since they did this. That's what they thought, anyway.
I still don't get it, and I never will. Okay, the Council was irritating as heck, but humans have so much that aliens don't...we got a seat on the Council much sooner than the volus, elcor, or anyone else. There are so many aliens suffering here on Omega, in the slums, while the humans remain just fine...how can Cerberus want more human dominance?
I tried to shrug off the thoughts as we, at long last, found Mordin. He was standing, working, like he always was.
I was amazed...I truly was. Here I was, standing right in front of the most amazing scientist in all of the ME universe, and no doubt, one of my favorite party members.
"Professor Mordin Solus?" Shepard asked the salarian.
Mordin began scanning us. "Hm, too well armed to be refugees...don't recognize you from this area...quarantine still in effect. Don't have mercenary uniforms. Here to clean vorcha out? Causing plague? No, plague not spread by weapons, and not scientists. Soldiers. Who are you? Hired guns, looking for someone valuable, someone with secrets...someone like me. Who are you? What do you want?" he asked as he paced.
Hearing it in person, it was surprising that he didn't get tongue twisted.
"Do you ever pause for breath?" Shepard asked, looking confused.
"Sorry...I'll...try...to...slow...down..." Mordin said, now speaking slower than normal. "No, wait, can't! Not enough time! Who are you?"
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy, and I'm on a critical mission. I need you to come with me."
"Mission, what mission? No, no, clinic understaffed, plague spreading too fast...who sent you?" Mordin said, walking back over to work on something.
Shepard paused before approaching him again. "Its a covert and privately funded human group."
"Related to plague, must effect humans, human centric-interests for human group to know...equipment suggests military, top Alliance standard...Spectre? Not human...only one option: Cerberus." Mordin said, giving us all a cold stare at the end of the long-winded speculating.
"You're well informed. How does a Salarian scientist know about Cerberus?" Shepard asked.
"Crossed paths on occassion. Thought they only worked with humans. Why request Salarian aid?" Mordin replied.
"I'm on a mission to stop the Collectors, and I need your help."
"Collectors?" Mordin repeated, scratching his chin. "Interesting. Plague hitting these slums is engineered. Collectors one of few groups with technology to design it. Our goals may be similar, but must stop plague first. Already have cure. Need to distribute it at environmental control center. Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them."
Shepard nodded. "I'll get in and deal with the vorcha."
However, right as she finished that sentence, we heard a rather loud noise, and we all looked around. "What the hell was that?" Jacob asked.
"Vorcha have shut down environmental systems. Trying to kill everyone. Need to get power back on before district suffocates." Mordin answered, looking upwards for a moment, before approaching Shepard. "Here, take cure. Also, a bonus in good faith: A weapon from a dead Blue Suns merc. May come in handy against vorcha. One more thing: My assistant, Daniel. Went into vorcha territory, looking for victims. Hasn't come back."
Mordin's eyes were filled with worry, and I sighed as I thought of Daniel and what he was going through right now.
"We'll find him. Lets head for the environmental plant." Shepard said, glancing to the rest of us. We all nodded, and turned to head out once again.
I looked at Mordin one last time, and took another deep breath. "Wow," I whispered to Abby. "We just met Mordin Solus!"
"And he gave us a gun!" she squealed. "Hey, Commander! Can you give HK that gun? Because I'm not groundfighting with another krogan today."
Shepard looked around, and actually seemed like she was considering it. "Alright...if it weren't for the krogan encounter, I wouldn't consider it, but I will give it to you...just let me show you how to use it."
"Muahahaha," Abby chuckled, and leaned over my shoulder to listen in.
Shepard walked over to me, giving me the gun, and as I took it, I began to tremble slightly...I saw both Jacob and Miranda roll their eyes, and Shepard just shook her head. "Here's the proper way to hold it, and aim," she said, grabbing my hands and putting the gun in the right position.
"O-Okay..." I said slowly, feeling like I knew that much at least.
"You have to be quick...and be careful. Its simple, just aim, pull the trigger, then reload," she said, giving gestures of how to do each thing. I felt like a five year old in kindergarten, which was quite embarrassing.
But at least I wasn't dead.
"There's not much more I can tell you." Shepard told me, and I nodded as she walked back to the front of the group.
With that, we proceeded on once more, and came into the next room: A room with two krogans.
My eyes widened, and everyone opened fire on them...but, like last time, one came charging at me. For a brief second I did nothing, but knowing that my life was on the line, I opened fire. I shot at his head profusely, refusing to stop...and after about fifteen seconds, he collapsed to the ground.
"Whoa," I whispered, breathless.
"Good, you at least can do that much." Miranda said and Jacob snorted. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes at both of them.
We kept going, and entered a hallway...my eyes darted to the left door, knowing that was the one with Daniel inside of it.
Shepard, without giving Abby or myself a look, went towards the door...it actually relieved me, showing that she could do more smart things without our help or someone at a game controller and/or keyboard.
We walked in, and immediately, saw Daniel being held at gunpoint by the two batarians. Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda all pulled their guns back out almost instantly. I kept mine at bay.
"Please...I'm telling you the truth...I work for Mordin at the clinic. I'm here to help you!" he yelled, his face one of complete terror.
"We know you're spreading the plague virus. We saw the vials in your bag." the batarian replied, holding Daniel by the collar.
"No!" Daniel yelled. "Those vials contain the cure. Please...you have to believe me!
"Maybe we should cut off your fingers. That should loosen y-" the batarian started, until they all looked to finally see us.
"Look out!" the other batarian yelled.
"Don't move!" the front batarian shouted. "One step and we kill your friend!"
"Everybody stay calm!" Shepard exclaimed, pointing her gun right at the batarian.
"You humans won't get away with this...I know he's trying to spread the plague!" the batarian protested.
"No, thats not true. He's telling the truth." Shepard argued.
However, I couldn't help but get confused...if I remember right...this was a Paragon thing to say, but not one of the really Paragon options...basically, Daniel was going to die.
But Shepard was a Paragon, she had done everything right so far...and she could say anything she wanted, right? Did points even matter now? This didn't make any sense.
Dangit, he's going to die!
Almost on instinct, I jumped forward, trying in a desperate attempt to stop the inevitable.
"NO-" I started, but it was too late.
As the batarians saw me hop towards them, they took that as an act of assault, and immediately shot him. I watched in horror as Mordin's assistant hit the ground, obviously dead...he was gone.
And was I responsible?
The batarians turned to us, and I backed away as fast I could. I raised my gun up and fired at them, along with Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda. They died rather quickly, but that didn't help at all..I could feel the guilt mounting inside of me.
"Ohhh damn," Abby was muttering. "Shit. Shit. You guys just... Haven't you heard of peaceful resolutions?"
"He was going to kill us next, we had to shoot him," Jacob answered.
Shepard sighed, while I continued to stare at the body of Daniel. "I don't like it, but Jacob's right...damnit. I hate that they all had to die, but we have no choice if they decide to attack like that." she explained. "But lets not make his death worth nothing...lets go put that cure in."
They all began to walk out, but I continued to stare at Daniel's corpse...maybe he could have lived. He still had a chance, maybe...if I hadn't done what I did.
Then again, Shepard wasn't saying the correct things...but still. We could have shot the batarian, we could have done something...and he may not be dead.
It was a pat on the shoulder that caused me to snap out of my brief daze. "Come on, we can't change what happened to him now," Jacob told me.
Slowly, I nodded, and followed everyone across the hall and into the next room.
The next room had more vorcha...we quickly disposed of them, as there were only several, and I continued to get the hang of using this gun...it got easier as time went on, but it was still weird. Still moderately difficult. However, at least I was able to use it as best as I could.
Next, was the room I direly hated: The room before the place where we could spread the cure, with vorcha everywhere.
As we entered, it was no different than in the game. "Oh, no," I muttered.
Before anything more could be spoken outloud, the vorcha started firing. Shepard darted for cover, and every one of us followed, and she began directing us on what to do. She ordered Jacob and Miranda to follow her to take care of the ground troops.
And directed me to take care of the rocket launchers.
Of course, I did not disagree or protest, just because we didn't have time for that at this point. I merely went up to the balcony on our side of the room, if I could call it that, along with Abby.
"Dangit, dangit..." I whispered as I crouched down, trying to take aim at the vorcha on the other ledges. "I can't believe I am doing this."
"Just stay calm. We can do this, you can do this." Abby lightly encouraged.
I nodded, slowly taking aim at the rocket launchers, who were churning out rockets like there was no tomorrow...and for them, they knew there may not be. I could hear utter chaos going on downstairs, and knew that I had no time to sit and carefully make sure I got the shot right.
Pulling the trigger, bullets poured towards one of the vorcha, and I didn't let go. It held on for a moment or so until finally falling. After it died, I immediately turned my attention to the two others...I repeated the process, and soon enough, they were gone.
"We're all clear." Miranda said from down below.
I glanced at Abby, still shaken but actually impressed with the turnout. We headed back down to the lower level, and met up with the three. No time was wasted, as we immediately darted into the next room...the room that would end this dreadful mission.
We walked in, and saw the console at the end of the room. However, there were several vorcha in the way.
"You no come here!" the vorcha yelled, walking forward. "We shut down machines, break fans! Everyone choke and die! Then Collectors make us strong!"
"Why are you doing this? What do the Collectors want?" Shepard asked.
"Collectors want plague! You work for doctor, turn on machines, put cure in air! We kill you first!" the vorcha screamed.
The vorcha grabbed their weapons and prepared for a fight...I rushed for cover, getting down behind one of the platforms...I tried to fire at them, but missed a few times...I have alot to learn.
But, nonetheless, Shepard and the party members took them down quickly.
"Shepard, you need to inject the cure into that console across from you." EDI's voice chimed in.
"Alright, lets do it and get out of here." Shepard said, walking towards the console.
Once there, Shepard put the cure in, and activated the machine.
"Now, you need to turn on the fans," EDI told us, as we turned to see more vorcha arriving. "There are two consoles on each side of the room."
Shepard jumped right back into battle, as she took out some of the vorcha quickly. Abby and I took cover together, again, as I fired off some shots, managing to kill a few. I also aimed at the ones on the ledge above the entrance, as they would be easy to hit and give the others some help.
Once that crew was out, Shepard turned to all of us. "Okay, we need to do this and fast...lets split up. Jacob, you take HK...I'll take Miranda. Abby, you can go with whoever you like."
"I'll go with you!" Abby happily said, still looking giddy at all of this.
"Okay. Lets move!" Shepard ordered.
We broke off in different directions..Jacob and I were taking the console on the right side of the room from the entrance, while the girls headed for the console on the left side.
Slowly, we headed down the ramp into the hall. Jacob glanced at me. "Lets go in fast and easy...I'll alternate between shooting and biotics, you just hit them with everything you got." he told me.
I nodded. "Alright, I'll try to do my best."
"Don't get me killed."
I knew he was probably joking, but I also knew that he was, more than likely, peeved at the fact that Shepard gave him the rookie teenager who could barely operate a gun...heck, he probably preferred Abby over me.
We headed down into the halls, and both of us stood with our backs to the large pillars, or whatever they called them...there was a nice number of vorcha ahead, so we had to do our best.
I took out a few of the weaker ones, while Jacob took out most of the others...I also took some shots at the pyros, but they were hard to kill.
I took some more shots, but they didn't do much...it was Jacob's biotics that really came in handy. When he wasn't firing, which he did well enough, he took out a number with his biotic skill...that was what ultimately finished off the pyros.
Jacob looked around, very carefully, to make sure they were all gone. Once he was sure, he spoke. "Lets go get those fans turned on." he said.
I followed him along as we ran to the control room, and I could hear the other fans blowing...Shepard had reached the fans before us, which really wasn't a surprise. She was...well, Shepard, and she had a skilled fighter in Miranda, as well as little help from Abby if needed.
I also heard more fighting. They were facing the vorcha that arrive after the fans had been activated.
We reached the fan controls, and within seconds, Jacob got all the switches pulled and all the buttons activated. I breathed in relief as I heard our set of fans activate.
However, I turned my head to see more vorcha coming towards us now. "Dang, Jacob, take cover!" I yelled.
Jacob immediately looked at me, then at the vorcha, and ran for cover. I also ran, but I wasn't fast enough: I felt some bullets hit my armor...I wondered if I was about to die, but I didn't feel any pain. Not enough to pierce the armor entirely.
I suddenly felt myself go flying towards a wall, and it didn't take me long to realize that Jacob had pushed, or kicked, me there for my own safety. I hit it with an 'oof', and nearly collapsed to the ground afterwards.
Still alive, though.
As I came out of a daze, I staggered to the unoccupied wall that stood right next to the entrance to the control room, and reloaded my gun really fast. Jacob was giving the fight his everything, but that wouldn't be enough.
"Come on, HK, I need a little help here!" Jacob shouted.
I could feel the sweat running down my face after all of this running and fighting, and the anxiety coming up in my chest. As I tried to swallow it back down, I peeked out and took some shots myself, but they were nothing spectacular...I got two down, but that was nothing, and they were getting closer.
Both Jacob and I had to jump back as quick as we could when we saw rockets coming, and I was constantly thankful that I was still alive.
We looked out again, and continued to fire, but it still wasn't enough. The vorcha were going to be right up close, soon, and would kill us.
However, my worries began to go down when I suddenly saw a vast array of bullets pound several vorcha in the back...all of them turned in shock to see Shepard, Miranda, and Abby slide down the ramp. Shepard and Miranda were shooting and tossing out biotics as fast as they could, and I even saw Abby run up to one or two of the lesser armed ones and stab them in the chest.
Jacob and I continued our own assault, boxing the vorcha in...all of the biotics, bullets, and stabbings combined took the group down really quickly.
"Wow..." Abby said, panting as she walked towards us once the vorcha were dead. "This has been sooo awesome!"
"I wouldn't call nearly dying 'awesome', but it has been...interesting." I admitted. I couldn't think of any other way to describe it, and I still felt guilt for what happened with Daniel.
"Come on, we've done our part...lets go see Mordin." Shepard suggested.
"Good, I'll be glad to get out of here." I told her.
A short time later, we were walking back into Mordin's lab, and saw him working intensely. Despite all that had happened, it remained fantastic to just see the great salarian.
"Environmental systems engaged. Airborne viral levels dropping. Patients improving. Vorcha retreating. Well done, Shepard. Thank you." Mordin congratulated as he paced. "And did you find assistant?"
My heart dropped. I knew he would ask that dreaded question, but it didn't make it any easier.
I decided to speak here. "Uhh...I'm sorry, but...he was held hostage by batarians...Shepard tried to negotiate with them, but I made a stupid move and he got shot."
Mordin looked at us, shaking his head. "Unfortunate, but not surprising. Was good assistant. Thank you for trying, though."
His reaction wasn't horrible, but it didn't ease the guilt.
"We've cured the plague," Shepard said, getting us back on track. "Will you help us stop the Collectors?"
Mordin nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes. Unexpected to work with Cerberus. Many surprises. Just need to finish up here at the clinic. Won't take long. Meet you at your ship. Looking forward to it."
"Yeah, we need to go check on Sarah anyways..." Abby muttered.
"Still can't believe she drank krogan ryncol." Jacob commented with a chuckle.
Mordin had begun to walk away, but whirled around. "Krogan ryncol? Dangerous even for krogan. What species consumed it?"
"Er, well, she's a human..." I replied.
"Oh my. Very shocking. Must give her a check-up once on ship." Mordin said, before turning back to his work.
I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was going to do. "Um, well, I guess we better go inform her, then..." I said slowly. "But...glad to meet you, Dr. Solus. I can see why Cerberus would want to work with you."
"Thank you. Nice to meet all of you, too. Now, must work." Mordin said, rushing off.
I nearly sagged in relief...I was still feeling sad over Daniel, but we had lived. After that long, tough mission...we had survived, and another great person had been recruited.
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Post by Marishal on May 28, 2010 18:16:47 GMT -5
Chapter 8 Medical Bay (Sarah)
Well, I heard that Shepard, Abby, HK, and whoever else had gone with them had returned to the ship safely, along with Mordin. I was glad they all got back okay.
Also I was looking forward to a chance to meet Mordin, and now I was really beginning to regret being forced to stay in this stupid medical bed. I was getting tired of feeling crappy and being stuck here anyway, because being sick is not fun, and it's thoroughly boring. I'd already gotten way too much sleep. But also, well... now I wouldn't be able to meet Mordin right away!
But at least I had gotten to meet Garrus as soon as I could. That I was grateful for. So I knew that I could wait a bit before meeting Mordin... it wasn't like this trip was going to be over a few hours, after all. It was probably going to take weeks, if not longer.
I still felt sick, though. Damnit, Abby, WHY did you have to be so right?
As if my thoughts had summoned her, the doors to the medical bay opened with a muffled hiss. She was wearing some kind of clothing she must have picked up from Omega: rough-textured blue pants, a brown tanktop, and a heavy jacket with too many pockets. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck, and she had this smile on her face. Either she'd finally met Joker or finalized her plans for how she would assassinate Udina. I wondered inwardly how I was going to talk her out of whatever scheme she'd cooked up this time. After all, it was her fault I was even in this mess in the first place.
But even smiling, she still looked nervous as she approached me. "Hey, Sar," she said nonchalantly, sitting on the bed next to me. She swung her legs happily. "Guess. What."
I looked at her for a moment. "What?" I asked, a bit warily. From the way she looked... I was starting to think that either she got a promotion of some sort, and had come to brag about it, or... well, why was I starting to feel a sense of dread here?
"Oh, we met Mordin," she said. She was actually bouncing her seat, bouncing, and for the first time I noticed that she was the teeniest bit prone to overexcitement. Mentally I'd always known that, but her body was reacting to it in an unprecedented way. You don't just go bouncing randomly... unless you were Abby and had good reason. "And..." She giggled. "He wants to give you a physical."
"Uh... a physical?" I stared at her. "He wants to give me a physical? But why? Hasn't the doctor here been doing a good job?" I did want to meet Mordin of course, but... hell not like this. NOT like this.
What would he do to me in a physical, exactly? Would he poke and prod me all over? At least the good doctor in here--who's name I kept forgetting--was satisfied to simply check my pulse, my temperature, and give me a pill to swallow or even a shot. I didn't want to go through a full physical.
"Well! Doctor Chakwas is a doctor. Mordin is a scientist. He's perversely interested in seeing the effects of krogan ryncol on a human."
I was going to kill her. I didn't know how, but I was going to kill her.
"When... is he gonna get here?" I asked, suddenly wishing that I had a blanket or something. I wanted to pull one up over my head and disappear under it.
"After he takes Miranda's expensive listening device out of the lab," she stated. "But he'll give it back to her. It's to be expected I suppose." She shrugged. "And, well... I just thought I'd mention you might want to go up there, because, you know, the med bay has..." She coughed politely, her eyes flickering over to the wall. "Windows."
Frankly, I felt like I wanted to thank her profusely... and maybe strangle her later. "Well," I said, sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, "I guess I'll go up there then." As I stood, I turned to look at her. "Could you... tell the doctor here that I'm going up there, please? I mean, I'm not trying to brush you off or anything, it's just... if Mordin is really gonna do this... I'd rather go alone. I don't want an audience." I winced. I was actually hoping I could talk him out of this.
"Oh, it'll be... fine..." She ducked to hide a fit of giggles. "Oh my God, this is... way... too funny! Hahahaha! I am so sorry, but at least now you'll never, ever drink again!"
"Yeah," I said a bit tersely as I simply turned away from her and then went out the door. I wasn't trying to be rude. I just didn't feel like being laughed at, especially since she didn't have to go through this humiliation. And to make it even more undignifying... I also knew that if I had listened to her, I wouldn't be going through this at all right now. Damn those Salarian scientists and their curiousity!
I found that I had to walk slowly, and a bit stiffly, to get to the elevator. I swear it felt like I had an active numbing agent throughout my muscles and nervous system or something. That and my stomach still felt queasy, and my head throbbed. It also sounded like my pulse was throbbing in my ears as well.
I took the elevator to the top floor and tried to ignore everyone as I made my way toward Mordin's lab. Oh gosh I was so not looking forward to this.
Once I reached the lab, I made sure the door was closed behind me before I approached the Salarian scientist. "Ummm... Dr. Mordin Solus?" I said slowly as I approached the table.
The salarian was huddled over his table, which was overflowing with expensive-looking scientific materials. "Ah, yes. The human patient who ingested the krogan ryncol. Not the best thing you could have done, anybody would tell you, but can't change the past, can only move on. Please excuse mess, I'm setting up my lab. Now..."
He took out a datapad and keyed it on. "Take a seat, take a seat." Hesitantly, I moved to sit down on the edge of one of the storage containers. "Human female, age twenty-three. Name?"
"Um, Sarah," I said simply. "And... is this really necessary?" I scratched the back of my neck lightly, in a nervous manner.
"Oh yes," said Mordin. "If I collect enough data about your condition, may be able to cure it if you choose to imbibe ryncol again. Helps all, don't you see? Besides... tired of working on cure for the plague. Hard, was fun challenge, but still..." He sighed happily. "Now, blow in to this canister here." He held a white bottle in front of my mouth and I obliged. He frowned at the readout. "Blood toxicity level above average levels. To be expected. Main ingrediant in ryncol is varren stomach acid, after all, highly toxic in large quantities, even to krogan."
I made a face. "Varren stomach acid? EW!" Honestly if I had known that, or even suspected that, I would never have even thought about trying the stuff. What did the krogans do, kill varren and pour their innards into vials or something? I did not really want to ponder that idea. I shoved it aside.
"Um... so what are you gonna do now?" I asked warily.
"Blood toxicity leads to hypertension, arteriosclerosis, cardiac arrhythmia, coronary ischemia, all very bad news for a human. Before I treat you... hmm. Look up for me." Then, before I could, his cold hand turned my face upwards. "Ah-hmm. Arteriosclerosis is starting. Interesting. How many sips did you take? No, you took one. You would not be coherant if you took two. Hmmm... Exposure to hematopoietic toxicants can reduce the oxygen carrying capacity of red blood cells, disrupt important immunological processes carried out by white blood cells, and induce cancer. Nowhere close to cancer, however." He smiled, like this was good news.
I couldn't help but think of the characters on Emergency and ER when he began to talk in medical jargon. Well, at least I knew I was in good hands... and I suppose part of me liked the attention, at least a little. But I still felt a bit awkward. I kept perfectly still of course, but I wondered how long he was going to keep his hand on my chin.
"So... what's next?" I asked. Part of me wondered if he was going to have to touch me elsewhere at all. I didn't want to ask that though.
"Blood toxicity relatively easy to control in this day and age. Simply administer this injection--" I didn't even see where the needle came from, but suddenly he was pressing it into the crook of my elbow "--and feed you these tablets. Interesting, interesting..." He laughed. "You are experiancing a headache, yes? Intense vomiting? Short temper, perhaps slight... hallucinations?"
I thought about it. Sometimes it was hard to tell when this guy was actually asking me something, or talking to himself and answering his own questions. But in this case, he seemed to want an answer. "Well... a few hours ago I threw up until nothing was left in my stomach, at least it felt like that... I haven't eaten anything since before that happened. Haven't like it, and... yeah, I've had a constant headache, and maybe I've been short-tempered. But I tend to get like that anyway when I don't feel good."
He was taking notes like the good, model scientist salarian he was. "Yes, okay," he said. He proceeded to do a few more tests, refusing to tell me what they were for. He checked my eye dialation, reflexes (they were pretty slow), and even took a sample from the inside of my mouth. "Wonder if... hmmm."
"Wonder if what?" I asked a bit irritably. As much as I liked Mordin, I was really hoping that this would be over soon. I didn't really like doctors, especially since they were armed with needles and who-knew-what-else. I was just hoping he wouldn't do anything that would actually hurt much. Part of me was surprised he hadn't tried to poke or prod my stomach or something yet.
"Captured Cerberus agents before," he said cheerfully. "All had cyanide capsules in back molars. Knocked them out before they got a chance to use them. Ocular nerve flashbangs harder to disarm. It was a waste, though. Ended up killing them with farming equipment. Tried to escape with valuable intel. Bad idea for them." He chuckled.
"Um, yeah," I muttered. I wasn't really interested in what he was talking about right now. But I did notice that I was starting to feel a little better, at least. "Are we almost done here?" I asked impatiently.
"Take off shirt. One last test."
I was really, really going to kill Abby.
"Um..." I said, pushing against the crate to stand up, a tad bit stiffly. "Why exactly do you want me to take off my shirt?" I asked, taking a step back.
"Must see if medication is taking," he said impatiently. "And must run scanner over stomach. Cloth interferes with the technology." He seemed to suddenly understand what he asked with a social gaffe, so he said, in a bit calmer tone, "Would never use position as a doctor to look at another of the other gender like a gawking bird. Purely medical reasons."
"Um..." I was sure using that word a lot, wasn't I? "But... uh..." Oh geez, did I really need to say this to anyone? Especially a man? Well, at least he wasn't human. "I'm not wearing a bra." There. At least I said it.
He blinked very slowly. "Ah." He pursed his lips. "I realize this is... uncomfortable. Hmm." He cocked his head to the side and tapped his foot impatiently on the floor. "Preferable you keep support wraps on while on-duty. Certain breach of Cerberus dress code somewhere."
I didn't feel it was necessary to tell him that I never wore a bra while I was relaxing. Like, when I spent time in front of my computer. I only wore one when I was actually going somewhere, or had company or something. And what was I doing before I got sucked onto the ship? Relaxing at my computer!
"Yeah well, maybe I can borrow one," I grumbled, trying to drop the subject. "Do you really need me to take my shirt off?" I then asked.
"Erm... yes." I never knew Mordin could get flustered--he'd just admitted to killing people with farming equipment, for God's sake!--but this was where he was totally out of his depth. He activated the scanner. "Just very quickly. I promise I won't, ah, stare."
"Fine," I muttered with great reluctance. I figured that if we just got this over with as quickly as possible, it wouldn't be too bad. Besides, I knew he'd already gotten rid of the spy devices, and the room was empty, plus it had no windows. So long as no one walked in, we would be fine.
I grabbed the edges of my shirt and lifted it up to near my shoulders.
I had to give him credit--he wasn't distracted, and he worked fast. I almost thought that, despite the intense mental discomfort, it wasn't too bad. He wasn't even interested in humans, anyway, and, well... as long as he wasn't looking at me like a dog, it should be good, right?
Then Kelly had to walk in. "Professor Solus?" she asked. Her eyes flickered over to me, and her mouth opened in a comical 'o.' "It can wait," she said, flustered. "I'm so sorry, I'll come in later." She turned around and walked right out.
Mordin's scanner hummed quietly and he quickly pulled my shirt down. "We are done here," he said, crossing back to his table. "Your skin will turn slightly orange, but that will fade. Thank you for helping me with my research. You may go now."
I pressed my lips together in a thin line and tugged at the edges of my shirt, making doubly certain that it was in its proper place. I glared toward the door, not looking at him. "Hope it was worth something to you," I muttered darkly.
"Oh yes," he said, cheerful again. "Been trying to guess human radiological effects for a long time, but always been so busy. Working on a Cerberus vessle will provide me lengthier studies on this matter. When I'm not working on the Collector threat, of course," he added.
"Yeah well..." I slowly turned to look at him again, thinking. He just put me through something awkward and embarrassing. I felt like somebody, somehow, owed me something now. "I was wondering... if I could maybe talk to you about something."
"Go ahead. Very busy, but can't start real research yet until I get this room sorted out..." he sighed, as if Cerberus had fallen below his standards. "Very nice lab, though. Go ahead and ask, I have time."
"Well..." I pursed my lips, trying to figure out what I was going to ask exactly. Then I simply said, "You performed Gilbert and Sullivan... right?"
He glanced up. "How do you know that? Background check?"
"No... I just know." I smiled widely. "I... have my ways of knowing stuff." I fell silent. I did not need to tell him anything he didn't need to know. Abby would murder me for sure.
"Cerberus people do have their way of knowing things," Mordin muttered to himself. "Not unexpected. But still... mission must be graver than I thought, if they go through those files. Odd. Any more questions?"
Part of me wanted to say I wasn't really with Cerberus. But well... I actually was now, wasn't I? At least in some ways. "Um... can I ask you something even if it sounds really stupid?" I asked sheepishly.
"Go ahead. I have time. But quickly."
I really hoped he wouldn't read anything into this. I was only asking out of sheer curiousity anyway. "Do turians ever... get turned on by humans at all?" There. I asked it.
"By 'turned on' I suppose you mean the chemical response most species tend to get of another performing... certain acts." I nodded, shamefaced. "I would not know. There are many different variables in all alien cultures. For example, some think it is perfectly acceptable to perform sexual acts on lesser-evolved creatures. Some are interested in children. It's all fetishes, which vary from person to person." He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Doctor to patient, I would advise against sexual acts."
I was getting more awkward and impatient by the minute, but that last thing he said really set me off. Perhaps it was the aftereffects of that stupid ryncol stuff, or the medicine, or simply the fact that this had been a very weird day and I'd been through a lot of stress. Or maybe it was all of the above. Whatever the reason, I ended up losing my temper.
I moved forward and smacked the palm of my hand firmly down on the top of his table, causing some of the closest items to jar or rattle a bit. "You think I'm some kind of stupid sicko who would go after somebody just so I could have sex with them?" I shook my head venomously, taking a couple of steps back from the table. "Drinking that krogan stuff was a stupid thing to do, but even I'm not that stupid."
I sucked in a deep breath through my nostrils, and staggered a bit for some reason. I ended up having to grab the edge of his table for balance. Okay, apparently I wasn't totally better yet... even though my condition seemed to be improving.
Mordin merely looked amused. Suddenly, EDI popped up on her special table. "Perhaps it is best for Sarah to calm down and go back to the medical bay until she is fully coherant."
I shook my head, feeling a bit defiant for some reason. I gripped the edge of the table so tightly that my knuckles started to hurt. "I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to..."
My brain seemed to freeze up. What was I going to say? What was I trying to say?
Mordin was frowning, stroking his chin thoughtfully as I tried to figure this out. "Perhaps the ryncol is having after effects..." he mused aloud.
I gazed downward at the tabletop for a moment, then gave my head a very firm shake, trying to get the cobwebs and fuzzballs out of it. "Sorry," I muttered, starting to feel a tad more human and coherent.
"Bedrest," Mordin announced. "Yes, yes, best idea. Logical idea. You have a hangover. Sleep it off. You'll be normal soon." He smiled encouragingly.
For some reason, sleep sounded like a great idea. Even though I'd had a lot of it already. "Yeah," I muttered. I tried to move away from the table, only to end up stumbling over my own foot... or something. I ended up grabbing at the table again, but my hands ended up slipping across it, due to the clutter. So I ended up falling down on the floor... taking a collection of datapads, vials, and small electronic gadgets down with me.
Mordin was suddenly above me, helping me to a sitting position. He sighed. "I don't have room to keep you here. Medical Bay."
"Perhaps I should call for an escort?" EDI asked.
A voice sounded over the intercom. "Uh, this is just me, being me, of course, but maybe we better just drop her off at the next planet. Just sayin'."
"Your concern is noted, Mr. Moreau," EDI replied, "but the Illusive Man gave specific orders."
"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Joker sighed heavily. "Well, at least she'll make good entertainment. No more cheap extranet vids."
I reached up and grabbed Mordin's arms. Then I moved a bit too quickly in an attempt to pull myself up, which resulted in disaster. He moved at an angle at the same time I staggered in another direction. I ended up falling down again... landing on the floor and pulling him down with me.
Mordin tumbled past me, turning his fall into a lithe, flowing roll over my body. Good reflexes, I had time to think, but Joker was complaining again. "She can't even stand and she's been puking everywhere since day one. I vote 'airlock.'"
"Suggest you call Commander Shepard," said Mordin, staring down at me with a strange look in his eyes. "Perhaps--"
"Hell no," Joker interrupted. "Shepard's all nice and moral when she's awake, but I am not waking her up for this. She's got enough on her plate--"
"Waking up the Commander would not be sufficient," EDI agreed.
"Just let her lay there, Professor. She can't get nowhere," Joker said.
Mordin sighed.
It then dawned on me that Joker was apparently seeing all of this. Apparently Mordin hadn't had a chance to get that "expensive" device out of the lab yet. It then suddenly dawned on me that that might mean Joker could see me when I pulled up my shirt.
I was going to kill somebody later, I swear. Even though I'm not a violent person. Maybe I would go strangle Abby in her sleep. Nah... I would never do that. But I might fire off a gun right over her bed while she slept to see if I could make her jump out of her skin.
"Just let me stay here, I guess," I muttered, and curled up into a fetal position on the floor, resting my head on one of my arms. It wasn't the most comfortable position in the world, but I was so damn tired right now that I found myself growing more numb and lethargic. Maybe whatever medicine Mordin had given me was kicking in.
That's when the entire world--or ship, rather--gave way to complete blackness... and then images began to fill my mind...
I saw a turian moving swiftly down a corridor, as if on urgent business. It was not Garrus, nor was it that turian I had seen in Afterlife while I was there. My mind felt somehow... vague and numb, as though I was seeing and feeling a lot of things at once, yet not really seeing or feeling anything at all.
I could see the determined expression on his face, as though he was all business. He hadn't spotted me yet, for his back was turned to me and he was moving away quickly. Yet for some odd reason, I felt compelled to approach him, to speak to him.
So I moved quickly toward him, approaching him from behind and giving him a light, tentative tap on the shoulder. He stopped and his head turned toward me to look at me. I was sure he hadn't felt me touch him, not while wearing armor. Maybe he simply heard my hand's soft tap on his armor. "Hello," I tried to say, but I wasn't sure if he could understand me. My own voice sounded weird to my ears, like a hollow, faraway echo.
Saren looked down at me, with those piercing, and almost strange, blue eyes of his. "What do you want, human? I am on important Spectre business, if you haven't noticed." he said in a very cold tone of voice.
His frigid manner of speaking to me, along with the look on his face, made me cringe and take a step back in spite of myself. It was quite obvious that I was bothering him, and he didn't like it in the slightest. Part of me felt as though I'd rather be facing Garrus's reaction to my mention of the name "Sidonis" again than to keep bothering this person.
"Sorry," I squeaked, hating the way my voice sounded. "I just wanted to meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Did that sound cheesy or didn't it?
Saren's eyes flared. "You just wanted to meet me? If you have heard so much about me, you should know that I am always trying to protect the people in Citadel space...save lives. I don't have time for simple bystanders to pull me aside," he growled, visibly angry. "Thats the problem with you humans...you don't care what the price is, you want what you want. Even with something like this."
I blinked at him. "All I did was say 'Hello'," I muttered, taking another step back. "You got something against humans?" I knew the vague details about what his problem was. I didn't know everything since I hadn't played the first game. But I wanted to hear him say it.
"Any turian who doesn't is a fool," Saren snapped, pointing a finger at me. "Your kind randomly entered our space, causing an act of war...and ever since, they have been greedy and pushed anyone aside to get in their way."
"Yeah well... maybe you should watch your attitude," I said timidly, yet smirking a little. "You're gonna die because of a human. In fact, you're already dead."
Saren actually did a double take. "Watch my attitude? Excuse me?" he asked, growling. "And dead? What is wrong with you, human? Are you really that stupid and foolish? I am right before you...and I am the top Spectre. Some petty human will never kill me."
"You're gonna die at the hands of another Spectre, a human one." I smiled smugly in spite of myself.
Saren's jaw dropped, though he quickly regained his composure, and narrowed his eyes. "You delusional human...despite your obvious fantasies, there will never be a human Spectre. Humans are too rogue, too bold, too brash...I will ensure that they will stay off a group that provides justice, not injustice. You should face the reality of how lowly your kind really is."
"Well, you might want to decide what you want written on your tombstone," I smirked as I turned away from him. "Just in case."
Saren stormed after me, grabbing my shoulder. "You should show some respect...I could turn you in because of your insane babbling. You would be tossed in a mental ward for what could be the rest of your life."
Somehow, even though he was gripping me tightly now and looking me in the face--with his mouth so close I could smell his bad turian breath--I grinned like a maniac. "Go to hell. You're going there soon enough anyway. And you're gonna be sent there by a human."
He clenched his free fist. "You really have convinced yourself of this...perhaps I should pity you, but I won't. Humans need to learn their place...you need to learn yours. They will never be on the Council, never be a Spectre...and certainly will never defeat me. And you must have alot of nerve to disrespect a Spectre in such a manner." he told me.
It was as though I'd become a completely different person here, somehow, because I was doing things I would never do--or say, for that matter--normally. And somehow, I just kept on grinning. "You know something?" I began, "There's something I've always wanted to do with a turian... I doubt I'll ever get close enough to the one I really like, so... I'll make do with this." Then I reached up and, grabbing onto his "whiskers", I pulled his face down enough so I could give him a small peck on the cheek.
Saren looked at me in pure shock and horror, jerking upwards. "You crazy bitch! I don't think turning you in is enough...I am not like C-Sec. I am not afraid to kill someone who could harm society..." he said, grabbing his gun out.
My eyes widened when I saw him grabbing the gun with his free hand. My grin had faded, but I was still feeling... smug, and the tightness in the corners of my mouth suggested I was still smiling, at least. "Do it," I encouraged, as if I was drunk or completely off my rocker. "I'm going to a better place than you, I bet."
Saren scowled. "I'll take pleasure in this." he said, before pulling the trigger.
My eyelids snapped open as the thundering "BANG" sound faded away, like a desolving echo bouncing around inside my skull. I stared upward for a long moment, then finally blinked as I began to regain my bearings. That... had been a dream?
I inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, and then looked around. I was... where was I? Not my bedroom, that's for sure...
Oh yeah. I was in a room onboard the Normandy. Weird... it felt almost like waking up from one dream to find myself in another.
One thing was better though... I no longer felt quite as bad as I had before. About all I had left was some nausea and my head still hurt, but... at least it was bearable now. Maybe I could go ask somebody for an aspirin or something.
Hell... I actually felt like eating something now. Or at least going to get a drink.
I then noticed HK in the room. I didn't know if he'd just gotten here, or if he had been waiting here for a while. I didn't see Abby anywhere; maybe she was visiting Joker or somebody.
"Hi HK," I muttered. It felt a little weird, calling him his internet nickname instead of his real name, but well... it still fit. "Have I missed much?"
HK sat on his own bed, looking at me. "Hmm...well, not much. You know that we got Mordin, since he, uh....examined you..." he said, nearly snorting, even if he didn't know quite how it really went. "We've all just been sorta resting since we got Mordin and left Omega...Shepard's asleep up in her own room, still. Not sure where Abby is, actually."
"Ah, okay," I said simply. I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position on the edge of my bed. "Hey... who moved me in here?" I asked. "Last thing I remember is..." That's when it all came back to me. Mordin examining me... having to pull up my shirt, and Kelly walking in... then losing my temper... "Oh... God..." I pressed my face into my hands momentarily. Geez I felt embarrassed.
"Well, erm...you sorta went to sleep in there, and after a little while, Mordin had to really start working...and everyone figured it would be better for you to be in your own quarters, so some of the crew just, well, picked you up and tossed you in here." HK replied, looking a bit confused at the entire thing himself.
"Yeah, okay," I mumbled, lowering my hands away from my face. "Ugh, how am I going to be able to show my face out there again after this? Everybody probably thinks I'm nuts now, or really stupid or foolish or something."
HK was silent for a moment. "Well, what I sorta want to know is...what exactly happened? I knew Mordin wanted to examine you after finding out about you drinking that krogan ryncol thing...and I knew that the crew carried you back in here, but I was in the shower for awhile, cleaning up after the mission in the slums, so I don't know what all of this is even about. What happened that was so bad?"
I sighed and leaned back a bit on my bed so that I was sitting back as far as I could without laying down. "Well...." The details were a little fuzzy in my brain, but I told him what happened as best I could remember. I told him that I went in, let Mordin give me a physical, and then...
"Ugh," I said, grimacing as I got up to the beginning of the worst part. "Mordin told me I had to take my shirt off so he could scan my stomach. And when I did, Kelly walked in! After that... I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it's because of that stupid ryncol or whatever medicine Mordin gave me, but... I just lost it. I yelled at him, and I knocked some of his stuff down, then I ended up falling down and knocking him over, too." I winced again, looking away to stare at the wall. "Then I find out that apparently Joker and EDI saw the whole thing."
"Oh...oh dear," HK said, blinking after I finished the complicated and confusing story. "Of all the people....Kelly? Kelly the...well, we know. And one thing you have to expect on this ship is for EDI to see and hear everything...maybe Joker, too, though I've always been unsure about that, but dang. However, we've all had our embarrassing moments...and the Normandy isn't highschool."
Well, of course I knew this wasn't highschool. I was grateful for what he said, but at the same time... that didn't help much. "Hey... can you do me a favor?" I asked, then I blurted it out before he could say anything. "Could you maybe... find Abby and tell her what happened?" I just wanted to have at least a few minutes to myself, and I figured Abby would want to know what happened. And I did not feel like repeating the story again.
HK nodded, standing and turning to the door. "Sure, sure...and just stay calm...I know its hard right now, trust me...this is a doozy on all of us. But we have to at least try to keep control," he said, sounding uncertain even as he said that.
After that, he left.
Once I was sure he was gone, I located my CD-player on the nearby table and grabbed it. After listening to "Telephone" and "Angel of Darkness", along with a few songs by "Celtic Woman", I began to feel better. Music always helped.
But then I felt like I wanted to get moving again. So I took the headphones off and put the CD-player aside, and left the room. If HK had found Abby, he might have told her the whole story by now. And I didn't really want to talk to them at the moment--more specifically, I wanted to avoid another "Abby-lecture" if I could.
Somehow I wound up in the elevator and I ended up going to another level of the ship. I stepped out and found myself on the bridge level. I stepped out and I felt relieved that Kelly wasn't there. Maybe she was getting some sleep or something to eat, I wasn't sure. I just didn't want to have to pass by her.
I walked through the bridge, keeping my head down and trying to ignore everyone, and simply headed toward a certain lab. I went through the doors, and walked in to see the salarian scientist standing over his table. From what I could remember of how the place looked before, it looked a lot more organized now. And he seemed to be working busily on something.
I swallowed, unsure why I was even here. Then again, I knew that there was a good reason to be here. I slowly moved forward, feeling as though my feet were dragging through molassas. "Um, Mordin?" I said as I neared the table, and then I spoke quickly. "Hi um, I wanted to apologize for... what happened earlier. And... um, thank you. I feel a lot better now." I stared down at my boots.
Mordin looked up at me, actually smiling when he saw me. "Ah, good, you are awake! Was afraid that effects of ryncol mixed with medicine and treatment damaged you, but was sure that you'd be fine. And apology accepted, just glad to see you feeling well."
I smiled sheepishly. "Thanks again," I said, and... well, that seemed to be that. I still felt embarrassed, but at least he seemed okay with it all. "Cya." I turned to go.
I headed back into the elevator, once again with no real destination in mind. I decided to down to the level where the mess hall was. I could use a drink at least.
When I arrived, I found that the guy who cooked--I couldn't remember his name, and I didn't ask what it was--and he was friendly enough. By talking to him, I also found out that what happened to me in Mordin's lab had spread through the ship a bit, and I noticed a few people were subtly staring at me. Well, part of my mind rationalized, out in space you probably had to have something to talk about... things would get mundane otherwise.
Didn't make me feel any better, though.
I guess something about the way I talked made it clear to the chef-guy that I was not in a chatty mood because he simply gave me some juice and we exchanged brief farewells. Then I had to decide where to go next. I was not going to sit down at one of the lunch tables and have everyone staring at me or whispering about me.
Somehow I found myself wandering down the corridor toward... the armory. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I was curious if Garrus had heard any rumors about what happened with me in Mordin's lab. And well... at least I was starting to feel better. I could drink water and feel assured that it would stay down. Plus... well, I had already made a pretty big fool out of myself. I doubted anything I did now could be worse.
I hesitated briefly as I approached the door to the armory, then I walked in. As usual, the turian was standing over the console inside, doing some sort of work in there.
I stepped to one side of the door, then plastered a smile on my face as my hand tightened around my glass of water. "Hiya, Garrus," I greeted him in what I hoped was a friendly tone.
Garrus turned around from the console, looking at me with the facial expression he seemed to have. "Ah, Sarah. Is there something I can do for you?" he asked.
I shrugged a little, starting to feel a little awkward. I kicked myself mentally, realizing I should have come up with something to say before walking in like this. "Well..." I took a long sip from my glass, giving myself a little time to think up something. "How're things going in here?" I finally asked.
"Great, actually. Shepard upgraded the cannons right after she got back from recruiting Mordin, with my help of course...and I've been working on getting those in," he said, in a friendly enough tone, but still that cool one that Garrus always had. "I'd ask how things have been going with you, but I have....uh, heard quite alot about you today..."
I couldn't be sure if I was blushing now or not. I did turn away from him though, focusing intently on my glass of water. "Yeah uh... I just went and apologized to Mordin." I wasn't sure why I told him that. Maybe because it seemed like it mattered somehow. Or because I couldn't think of anything else to say. Or maybe in a distant, clumsy way... it was sort of my way of apologizing for whatever stupid things he'd heard about me doing.
"The Professor himself is...odd, so I don't think it would be out of the ordinary for him...I heard about him sometimes on Omega," Garrus said, shrugging. "It could have been much, much worse."
I turned my head to look at him again, smiling. "Yeah, you're right, it could have been," I agreed readily. I then finished the contents of my glass and then turned my full attention to him again. "Um... is it okay if I just... hang out in here a bit?" I asked. I almost added "with you" but I chose not to at the last minute.
Garrus raised an eyebrow. "Uh, sure, I suppose. Don't see any harm in it." he answered.
I smiled more brightly and then moved over to the nearby crate to sit down on it. I set the glass down on the edge beside me and leaned forward a little, folding my hands together in front of me. Then I found I couldn't think of anything else to say. This was getting kinda stupid, wasn't it? I couldn't just keep coming in here, having to make up things to talk about on the spot.
Then again, why did I keep coming back here? Because you think Garrus is awesome, that's why, part of my mind retorted. So... I guess the bigger question was... what did I want now? I got to meet him, and I have already talked to him several times. If I kept coming around like this, with nothing to talk about except small talk, it was probably going to annoy him and embarrass me sooner or later.
As I pondered this, I realized I must have been making some funny facial expressions, and my eyes had been darting around the room. Garrus was still standing near the console, but he was looking in my direction.
"Are you...alright? You look like something is on your mind." Garrus asked, raising an eyebrow again.
"Um... yeah, something is," I acknowledged sheepishly. I turned my face to look at him, but my eyes were focused on the floor.
"Um, well..." Garrus said very slowly. "I'm not good at this type of stuff like Shepard is, but would you like to talk about it? Don't expect any great wisdom, though. The Commander is the best with this type of stuff."
"Actually it's not something I could talk to anyone else about anyway," I said truthfully. "I mean, uh... it's about you." Good grief, hopefully I wasn't going to make things worse.
"About me? Does it have something to do with Sidonis?" Garrus questioned, sounding like he hesitated at the last word.
"Not... really," I replied, nervously fiddling with my hair. It made me glad that I had kept my long hair instead of cutting it. Gave me something to do with my fingers. "It's just... I...." What was I going to say, exactly? I was so sick of getting tongue-tied around him! "I... really... like you."
A silence fell in the room.
Then I swallowed, hard. No! I did NOT mean for it to sound like that!
Garrus blinked a few times, silent for several seconds. "Uh.....wow, I'm sorry, its just...that is unexpected...we only just met, and I don't know too much about species liking another species...since there were no other turians on board, I just sort of assumed that kind of thing wouldn't...uh, nevermind."
Okay, crate, you can open up and eat me whole any time now, I thought. I almost wondered if Joker's suggestion of putting me out the airlock would be such a bad thing right now.
I cleared my throat, forcing myself to look at Garrus. "Um... I didn't mean to just blurt that out and I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable..."
"Its...well, ah, crap, I'm horrible at this...but I just wonder how. I mean, I know you 'see' things like with Sidonis, but...we've only known each other a very short time, and have had all of three conversations. How can you...like me?" Garrus questioned.
"Um... well..." At this point, I figured blunt honesty was probably the best. "Yeah, I've seen things, and... I... I've really seen some things about you I like." I made a face, knowing I was stumbling over words again. I forced myself to continue. "I know you're... different from other turians. You like to get things done the best way you can, without anything in your way. And your father didn't approve when you left C-sec."
"I must say, if there's one thing that impresses me about you, its your vast knowledge of things...though I've been hearing alot about that ever since I rejoined Shepard," Garrus commented. "But yes, you are right...you seem to know me well. But, uhhh....I really don't want to be rude, but...you may know me well, but I still don't know you..I hope you didn't anticipate on me returning the feelings...damnit, this is a bitch to explain. I really don't want to hurt you, though."
I nodded. Somehow it was getting a little easier to breath again, and to speak. Maybe it was because I'd seen how he was going to react now, and at least he didn't react strongly or leave the room or anything. "I know, I didn't really expect anything," I told him. "You're right, you don't know anything about me. But I guess I wanted to... clear the air."
Garrus nodded back. "I understand...sometimes, maybe, it is better to get it out in the open, though I wouldn't know...but I understand your reasoning, and I appreciate you understanding."
I nodded again. "So um... what do you think of me?" I asked in spite of myself. "I mean... can we be friends at least?"
"Yes, yes...I don't think that would be a bad thing. I'll admit, I like honesty...I can't say I really trust anyone on this ship except Shepard, not really, but I admire honesty...I've dealt with enough of lying and betraying for one lifetime. So, I may not trust anyone totally, and I may not be all warm and cozy...but being friends wouldn't be so bad." Garrus answered.
I beamed. "I appreciate that. And... I understand. Honestly I have a hard time trusting anyone a whole lot, for reasons I won't go into. But I think it's been harder for you, because all of your men were killed... and the ones who were still alive when you got there didn't last long." I didn't care anymore if Abby would kill me later or not.
"You know more details than I thought, but I don't think I'm shocked at this point...but yes. I'll get justice, though...my own brand of justice, once I find Sidonis...hopefully, that will be soon." Garrus said, though strangely enough, he didn't flat out press me for his location.
"Tell me something," I said, leaning forward again. I was beginning to feel a bit bolder now. "Why haven't you asked me where he is? I mean, what he did to you and your men has been tearing you up inside for all this time, and you've been dying to find him and kill him. So why aren't you trying to get that out of me?" I was glad he wasn't, truthfully. But I wanted to know why he wasn't.
Garrus tilted his head slightly. "Multiple reasons, really. Do I want to know where he is? Hell yes. Am I going to kill him? Hell yes. The pain hasn't gone away...its still there, and I am ready for revenge...but for one, I was only just recruited by a person who I thought was dwas dead for two years. A good friend. I need time to let that soak in, and, I can't start making demands from her after only just coming onto the crew...it would be wrong, and she has a mission that I respect, and am going to help her with...petty personal issues are not a top priority in the main agenda. Also, I didn't want to pressure you...I was tempted, and it may sound strange, but I don't want to mess with whatever you have...visions, senses, whatever. I know you are not helping Sidonis, so I see no need to drag you into some cruel interrogtion like I would do to someone who actually was. When the time is right, I'll know." he explained.
I nodded a little. "I'm... impressed," I told him after a moment. Since he just said a moment ago that he admired honesty, I was oddly encouraged to go right on talking. "I mean... when I first blurted out that name around you, I thought you might threaten to break my neck or even shoot me like you did to Harkin."
Oops. And triple oops.
"Ha, I was tempted to when I first wondered if you were working for hi-wait, Harkin?" Garrus asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Oooooops," I said, putting my hand over my mouth. "Nothing, nothing, just forget I said anything." I looked at the door, wondering if I should make a run for it.
"What does Harkin have to do with any of this?" Garrus asked, still in a gentle tone, but a firm one.
"Uh..." Images from the game flashed through my brain. Harkin being kicked between the legs, Garrus threatening to break his neck, threatening to shoot him in the leg... I stared at the person before me with widened eyes. I knew that Garrus had a gentle side, definitely, but he also had the potential of being dangerous.
"Harkin... has talked to Sidonis," I finally said, choosing my words carefully.
"So...he knows where he is?" Garrus questioned, beginning to pace. "So...Harkin may be helping Sidonis...then that could mean that he's on the Citadel, if Harkin still hangs around there....wait, no, no...I need to wait. I want to kill Sidonis, but not now. For the reasons I said. Not now."
I got to my feet. "I'm sorry," I told him. "I shouldn't have said any of this. But... please don't hurt Harkin, okay? He's a criminal but... um..." I shook my head. "Nevermind, maybe I should just go." However, I didn't move.
"You're a very nice girl, but what I do to Harkin depends on how cooperative he is when I find him," Garrus said, lowering his tone as he finished the sentence. "I don't know whether to thank you or not, but I'm not mad...Sidonis will pay. Its imminent now."
"Yeah, and there's three possible outcomes to that," I muttered, slowly moving toward the door.
"Outcomes?" Garrus said, sounding partially confused. "In my eyes, despite whatever you may know, there is only one: Sidonis will die...he'll pay for what he did to my men. That I will make sure of."
"Well actually there's only two outcomes, I'm just counting all the things that I did in the ga--er, I mean, that I saw in my visions. Let's just say, whatever happens--or however it happens--you'll be satsified with the results in the end." I nodded toward him, then I turned toward the door and started to leave.
At the very last moment, I turned back to look at him. "Hey, you know..." I paused, choosing my words carefully. "I was wondering if maybe you could help me something."
Garrus began to turn away, but then he looked back at me. "Yes?"
I simply blurted it out. "Can you teach me to fight?"
"Teach you to fight?" Garrus repeated, blinking. "What exactly do you want to learn?"
"Well... hand-to-hand," I answered simply with a little shrug.
"I do know hand to hand very well, and I suppose you are going to...need to know how to fight if you want to save your species," Garrus said slowly, as he stared right at me. "But are you sure?"
"Yeah, sure I'm sure," I told him, blinking a little. "Why wouldn't I be sure?" I felt surprised and just a tad offended, wondering if he was thinking I couldn't fight. I know I might not look up for it, and I probably wasn't up for much fighting right now, but... was he comparing me to real fighters he'd known?
"Um, well....I don't mean to offend you, but its...well, I am a turian that is...quite a bit bigger than you." Garrus answered.
I folded my arms, feeling a bit... cocky in spite of myself. "I have a feeling we're gonna find some things out there that are even bigger than you," I told him. "And if I happen to run into something big and dangerous... it's probably not going to be nice enough to warn me that it's stronger than me like you just did, and it probably won't give me a chance to run away."
"Hmm...I'll admit, you got me there...fine, I'll try to train you." Garrus said.
I smiled triumphantly, although the realization of what we just agreed on hit me as well. My smile faded a little. "Is this gonna hurt?" I found myself asking.
"Yes, yes it will," Garrus answered very bluntly.
"You mean... that's a guaruntee? Even the first time?"
"Well, it depends on how much training you have had..." Garrus told me.
"Well... my dad told me about a few things I could do if I ever got in a bad situation somehow, though I never really have been," I shrugged. "Other than that, well..." I cocked my head to one side, narrowing my eyes. "How accurate do you think the action scenes in... movies are?" I asked.
"Well...alot of the time, I'd say they are much lighter than the actual battles. I've learned that while fighting Saren and working as a merc..." he answered, shaking his head.
"I guess... I don't really know anything then," I finally said. "So uh... what would the first thing to learn be?"
Garrus held up a single pointed claw. "Number one," he said seriously, "is to avoid the fight when you can. Just because you know a few moves doesn't make you invincible. Anybody can take down somebody with the right amount of luck. Got that?"
I nodded. "Yeah I think that's pretty obvious," I stated firmly.
"Number two," Garrus stated a bit more stiffly, "is don't sass the guy teaching you. You learn the basic lessons first, or not at all."
I knew I was going to have to keep a lid on my... opinions and my feelings here, so to speak. And to keep my impatience in check. In many ways, I knew that I did not make a very good pupil in some areas. Why? Because I preferred to be doing something, or being allowed to do it right away, not simply stand there and listen to the teacher. Yes I knew that verbal lessons were important, but I felt that things stuck in my mind better if I could actually... practice them.
I did not learn my way around Corel Paint by sitting around reading the manuals all day long, I did a lot of experiementing. But well... I also knew that this was very different from writing or drawing on my computer. And maybe this was why I shouldn't even be in a military situation. But thanks to the wish, I was here, and I felt I needed to learn this. It was either that or stay on the ship all the time or cower behind someone who had a gun anytime I felt threatened.
"Okay," I said in a more respectful tone. "Got it."
Garrus gave me this long, slow look, like he was appraising my mental toughness. "A fight never goes the way you plan it," he said finally. "The guy that wins has a flexible mind, adaptable. Plans never go off without a hitch. But since you won't be doing a hostage extraction any time soon," he chuckled, "we'll work with the basics. The general obstacles we encountered during our hunt for Saren were the usual--big guys with big guns and superior advantage.
"Always rely on your teammate. They're watching your back at the cost of their lives. Unless you're fully prepared to die for the guys on your side, then you'll never be fully effective. Teamwork. Take your orders from Shepard and follow them to the letter, because she's in charge.
"I suppose we'll work on target practice later," he mused. "Right now I think we should get you outfitted with shields at the very least. They'll stop any high-velocity missile like a bullet, but a punch is hardly going to be at that speed. I suppose I'll show you to break a few bones. That should be fun."
I blinked a little. Frankly, any person who enjoyed playing games and watching action movies as much as I did enjoyed watching people kicking the hell out of each other, especially when the good guys came out on top. But... the actual thought of me breaking someone's bones, literally? My eyes widened as I thought about what that might be like... the sickening crunch and a moan of pain as someone went down, face twisted in agony... I swallowed, not liking the thought one bit.
"The next time we stop at a civilized area with a viable human populace we'll go shopping for paintball guns," Garrus said. "They're not as efficient as the military tranq darts, but they sting. Target practice in the cargo hold should do you up nicely. Actually..." And at this he lowered his voice. "Your friends could probably use some help, too. There's a rumor going around that the other girl tackled a charging krogan with a knife and won. Example of pure luck. She should never have won that fight. It's no wonder Chakwas X-Rayed her chest for broken ribs after you left."
"Abby did THAT?" I blurted out, surprised. I would have thought even she would have enough common sense not to do that. And she thought I was stupid for drinking ryncol? Frankly, I wasn't sure which was worse. Unintentionally poisoning yourself, or running the risk of being smashed into a mass of broken bones and flesh.
Well... assuming the rumor was true, if she EVER mentioned the ryncol episode around me again, I was going to bring that up. My hands clenched at my sides. I wasn't going to do or say anything, at all. But I was feeling a bit... pissed off, I suppose. I mean, WHAT a hypocrite.
Garrus obviously wasn't expecting my strong reaction. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Shepard was bragging about her when she came by to talk. They let HK and Abby tag along with them without weapons. Another test, apparently. A krogan circled around the lines and smashed the boy in the face. Would've killed him if Abby didn't ride on his shoulders." He actually laughed. "She literally threw her arms around that thing and stuck that knife right up it's trachea. Stupid, stupid tactic, but hey, it worked. And I bet she'll be allowed to carry a gun more often now."
"Wait just one damn minute," I snapped, taking a step closer to Garrus and glaring up at him. "Are you telling me that the krogan hit HK and then Abby attacked the brute and won?" I could feel my breath quickening a bit in my chest as I tensed up. Apparently while I was lying around in the medical bay, both of my friends nearly got themselves killed out there. That wasn't supposed to happen, although I knew I should have suspected it was possible for it to happen here.
In the game, this was all merely fun, and if someone died... you could just feel bad about it for a while, then restart the game. But here... now...
How could either of them just totally act like nothing had happened down there on Omega? Or was it because I'd been so focused on my sickness and my embarrassment that I didn't even think to ask them? Still... they should have said something. I huffed a little and took a step back from Garrus.
"Basically," Garrus said dryly. "Things like these happen," he added unnecissarily. "A friend gets hurt, it drives all other thoughts from your mind. Piggybacking a krogan is probably the best and only thing she could have done in the situation. And from the other stuff Shepard was saying, those two watched each other's backs like you wouldn't believe." He was silent, and his large, reptillian face suddenly seemed a bit more approving. "I don't know why Shepard is letting you guys tag along, but we've certainly had weirder people. And experience teaches more than any inside-lesson can. What's the lesson you can take out of that story?"
Ugh. I hated it when people asked me stuff like that, because for all I knew, they could be asking me a trick question. "I think I get what you're saying... out on the battlefield you just have to... act, especially if others are in trouble, not be worried about getting hurt, right?"
My anger and indignation over the matter was fading a bit, even though I still felt a bit pissed. In a way... I was actually starting to envy Abby now. I wasn't sure if I could have done that if it needed to be done. And I had seen HK just a short time ago... so I knew he was fine.
"Out on the battlefield," Garrus said softly, "just make sure you follow the orders to the letter and make sure everybody gets out alive. And don't be afraid to die, because we all do eventually."
And on that solemn note, he turned back around. "We'll have to continue this later. Give me about another day to get these calibrations rigged for the new teeth, and then we'll go have some fun downstairs."
"Yeah, okay," I said, still feeling a bit dazed. "Thanks." Without saying another word I left the room.
With that I walked back over to the mess hall area. There weren't as many people there now, only a couple. And they were talking about the latest planet to be attacked by Collectors. I ignored them and, even though they glanced at me, they kept talking about their current subject.
With that I got a small bowl of soup from the chef guy and took a seat to eat it. Figured I might as well keep my strength up. After I was done... I guess I would go find Abby and HK.
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Post by Marishal on Jun 2, 2010 11:49:04 GMT -5
(Abby)
"And so she's alive!" Jacob said, looking up from his terminal. He smiled just enough to allow the faint sheen of his white teeth to appear over dark lips. "That's good. Break anything?"
"Nah," I answered. "I'll just be sore a couple days, but I really don't see how you can escape that. I was pretty lucky, and Doctor Chakwas is very good at her job."
"She's the best," Jacob agreed. He came over and slapped my hand. "Hey, good job out there. Both you you. Did better than I expected."
"We can do better, though," I said, though secretly I was pleased with the praise. "Can I have a real weapon next time?"
You could've thought that killing more than a few sencient beings would have dented my outlook on life, and maybe it did. Seeing Daniel die before my eyes certainly had. I'd had enough time to think it through on the shuttle ride back, though. And in the end, really, it was simple:
They were shooting at us. They died.
Easy, right? There were always going to be casualties in a war—and this was a war—but it was the realization that we could have talked the batarians down that twisted my gut in circles. Everything's going to be different now. How many more people would die if things didn't play out exactly as planned? How many innocents would I inadvertately kill because I didn't specify in the convo, 'Hey, let's make sure she has pure Charm and Intimidate scores!'
We hadn't thought it would happen, though. It was just a cheap trick, and I don't think anybody in our small group thought that it would really work. And if we were sent here...
It was real. An alternate universe, perhaps? After the mission, if we survived, would we be sent back to where we came? Would we even remember? I couldn't imagine that I could forget it, but sometimes things worked out like that, didn't they?
And what if we died?
No, don't think about it. Focus and don't screw around.
Jacob, for all of his initial weirdness in the game, was actually an easy guy to be around. He didn't treat me like some crazy girl, which was fine by me. All the odd looks people were throwing me were getting old fast. He was a guy I could respect easily, just like my first Aikido sensei. "Yeah, I think you pretty much qualify for the small stuff," he said smoothly. "I think Garrus is going to make sure you and the other two are up to stuff tomorrow. Think you'll be up to it? You don't have to brave out that bruise, you know."
The bruise was blue and stretched up from my left thigh to my upper chest in an inky splatter. I wasn't going to be running marathons any time soon, but with Doctor Chakwas's administrations I was sure it would fade in time. "I'm good," I said, chuckling. "Are you? You did more of the fighting than I did."
"Pss, I'm good. I'm always good." He turned back to the terminal. "How's HK doing? Nose still attached?"
"Oh, yeah. Chakwas got the inflammation under control while she took my X-Rays."
"Good. That's alright, then."
I began to wander around the room, towards the pistils. "Where's Commander Shepard?"
"In Miranda's office, I think," he said. "Or downstairs welcoming the new guy."
"Zaeed."
"Yeah, him. Interesting fellow."
You have no idea. "Mmm-hmm."
"Hope he turns out to be a good catch..."
I shrugged my shoulders, deciding not to answer that. "Then do you know where we're going next?"
"Purgatory. There's a convicted felon there that the Man's managed to loosen up for us. Goes by the name of Jack."
"Ah."
"Know anything about that?"
I was struck by a sudden, horrible thought. "Keep your weapons with you at all times," I said, trying to emphasize this point very, very seriously. "Don't give 'em up, no matter what."
"I wasn't intending to do that," said Shepard, walking in. "Why? Know something?"
I gave her The Look.
"Ah, of course, you can't say," Shepard said, holding up her hand with a small grin on her face. "I remember now."
Her smile was just a bit too patronizing. "I'm not screwing things up this time," I said. "I'm not lying. After everything we've already done, how can you still think we are?"
"Relax, relax, I'm just playing with you," Shepard said. "I belive you have some kind of precognition. But I'm naturally suspiscious, and until you do earn your place in the crew, then you're all going to have to work hard."
"I understand that."
Shepard's eyebrows twitched in surprise, but she said nothing of it. "So, here's what we're going to do," she said, crossing over to lean nonchalantly on the table. "I'm bringing you with me to Purgatory." Shit. "We're going to extract Jack. Hopefully there will be no krogans involved this time." No, not at all... just two heavy mechs... a shield system... and a lot of baddies... "We'll be there in six days. I suggest you use that time to train."
Jacob shifted his weight uncomfortably behind me; I heard the fabric shift. "You'll do fine, kid," he said, but I could hear a slight edge to his voice. Could he see the shock in my shoulders? "Commander's got her reasons."
"I don't like bringing a kid there," said Shepard, watching my eyes intently. "But I'd rather have you with me where I can see you."
That rankled. "Understood," I said. My voice came out a bit stiffer than I'd originally intended. "I'm not going to make you believe us thoroughly. I can't. But I hope you start to realize that we're not here to sabotage your mission."
Shepard nodded. "I understand," she said, echoing my previous statement. "Mr. Taylor and I have some business to discuss. If you'd like to find your friends, go ahead."
Her words were blunt, but her tone was neutral. "Got it." 'Get the hell out.' "'Bye, Jacob."
I didn't even bother to glance up the bridge at the cockpit when I rounded the corner to enter the elevator. But apparently going to Deck Three wasn't to be: Kelly turned away from her duties and said, "Abby! Good job out there. You did really well."
Okay, maybe Kelly wasn't so bad...
"Thanks," I said, forcing a smile. "How's it going, Kelly?"
"Oh, business as usual," Kelly said. She beckoned for me to come closer, so I sat on the dias leading up towards the galaxy map. "Your friend Sarah seems to be recovering well from her expeditions in the Afterlife," she chuckled. "HK is very polite. Why do you call him that? It seems like a nickname, of some sort."
"It is," I agreed. "We... er, never met before. We've known each other for years, though."
"How is that possible?" Kelly looked extremely interested.
"We were penpals. He, Sarah, and me, plus a few other people. Other people flitted in and out of our little social network for a while, but we're always the constants in the group. We've seen pictures of each other, too. But never really heard each other's voices, or seen each other in person. It's very different and strange."
"I bet it is," she said. "What kind of penpal group was it?"
"A writing group," I answered. "We got together on the 'net and wrote stories about our favorite things. Been real good friends ever since."
"Wow," said Kelly, impressed.
I smiled grimly. "Thanks. It was always fun." Maybe she knew enough not to question me like Shepard, because she didn't inquire any further about it. She turned back to her terminal, humming to herself. "Thanks for the clothes, by the way," I added with a smile.
"Oh, it was no problem," said Kelly. "I'm glad it fits."
"I'm going to find my friends. It was nice chatting with you." And it was. Surprising, actually. Kelly beamed at me as I stood, and I smiled back.
I found HK and Sarah in our little area. It was becoming more of a meeting place lately than a brig, even with EDI listening in on our conversations... and Joker, probably, too. I pat HK once on the shoulder as I passed him and climbed to the top bunk of my bed. Seeing them both immediately improved my mood. "Feeling better, Sar?" I asked, crossing my legs.
Sarah smiled a little. "Well, I think I'm over the ryncol episode if that's what you mean," she said as she got up from her bunk.
"Good," I congratulated. "Because we're heading to Purgatory, and Shepard wants me along." I had the strange idea that Shepard might have just been dragging us behind her tail just to get us killed and out of her way. Paragon Shepard wasn't above being down and dirty, I remembered, a dark shadow passing over my mind as I thought about the 'Paragon' choices in Zaeed's mission. I studied the faces of shock on the others, and knew they understood. "We'll be there in six days."
"Purgatory..." HK commented, taking what sounded like a deep breath. "Thats going to be a mad house, er, space station...will you be alright there?"
"I think this mission is gonna seem even uglier than whatever you guys saw on Omega," Sarah muttered. "You know, Jack seems cool in the game, but... I'm not sure if I really want to meet her."
I grinned. "You kidding? This is going to be great-you know, if she doesn't kill me. And if we make it through the prison..." I knew EDI was listening, so I added, "unmolested."
I was trying to get myself ready for it. I needed a good spar, though. I hadn't sparred with anybody since my last night in Aikido... and how many days ago was that now, exactly? One, two, or three? I'd do the mental math later. No reason to stretch out my brain on pointless things like counting days when I probably wouldn't have Algebra I class for a long time. And if we all lived through this, and carried on to Mass Effect 3, I probably wouldn't have class ever again.
I liked that idea. Too much.
Guns. I needed some gun practice. I didn't even bother to brag about me taking down an armored krogan with a switchblade-I was too nervous about the upcoming event.
"Jack is a great person but...uhh...I don't know how much I would want to talk to her myself," HK commented, shaking his head. "Just be careful in the prison. Sarah's right, that is worse than Omega."
"Thanks," I said gratefully. "Part of me's wondering why she's bringing me, though. I don't know if she's taking any of you guys. She'll probably let us know soon..." I glanced at the door and gripped my knees hard. "At least meeting Jack will be an... experiance."
HK nodded. "Oh, it will...Jack's interesting. This whole team is interesting, and even more interesting when actually meeting them. But everything seems to be going as best as it can for the most part...but I'm still shaken up about Daniel."
"You wanna stay here?" Sarah mused out loud, apparently feeling a little concerned.
I was appalled at the idea. "Yes way! I want to go. I've been in prisons before, and, really, as long as you keep a knife where nobody can see it, you're good." I grinned at this obvious answer.
"This...isn't going to be your standard prison, though," HK said, blinking.
Sarah rolled her eyes, looking a bit annoyed. "I meant HK," she said in irritation. "I already know you're not bummed out about Daniel, Abby."
I raised an eyebrow.
HK looked surprised. "Oh, oops, sorry," he said, seemingly embarrassed. "Umm...well, if Shepard asks me to go, I will...but I am still shaken up after Omega and seeing all that happened. Though, Abby was there, too, and she is going..."
"I already thought it through," I mumbled. "And I was shaken about Daniel, too. I'm just not going to go off whining about it. People die. It happens." And she better understand that.
"I understand, its just...I guess I'm still disturbed by it because I was the one that lunged forward. I caused the shot to go off. It was because Shepard wasn't making the right dia-" HK started, but then glanced to EDI's terminal. "Because Shepard wasn't saying enough to convince the batarian, but still...I just feel like...I just feel like it could have gone differently if not for me."
"Hey I understand," Sarah said, holding up a hand. "I mean, I wasn't trying to say that you were wrong to be to be bothered by what happened, HK. And I didn't mean to imply that you were a cold fish or anything like that, Abby. I was just trying suggest that maybe HK would feel better if he stays here this time around."
And let me go kill some more people. I didn't know whether I should be pissed or enthused by her confidence in my uber-awesome assassination skills. "Yeah," I said. "But for now, let's forget about it. Alright?"
HK nodded. "I understand, alright. Now is not the time to focus on who is going to Purgatory, anyway."
"Yeah well, I didn't mean anything by what I said," Sarah muttered, shrugging in irritation.
I didn't roll my eyes... with effort. "Shepard said I'm going with her. If she wants the rest of us, I'm sure she'll call... or something. Wonder if we'll get any Loyalty Missions, huh?"
"Depends...maybe? But the question is...how the heck can we even have loyalty missions? Everyone's is something personal, and how can we have anything personal when we are in a timeline where we have nothing personal in our lives except each other?" HK wondered outloud.
I had no clue what my type of mission would be.. but then again, did anybody on this crazy crew? "Maybe we're not supposed to know yet. Like everybody else."
"True...I don't think any of them know whats going to happen to them yet." HK remarked, nodding in agreement.
"So what," Sarah said with a shrug, "maybe we'll just have something randomly come up? Maybe get a random message through Kelly or something?"
I held my head in my hands. "Uh, no. No. No. Bad idea. Let's just go with being cheerfully knowledgable about our fate and stuff like that."
Sarah shrugged. "If any of us have bad dreams about our futures, I don't want to hear about it."
"I'm going to be totally quiet on that part," I muttered. I'd had a dream last night about Commander Shepard putting a leash on us all and feeding us to her fish, which turned out to be just toy sharks. Then Shepard fed us pie. It was confusing.
"Depends on what kind of futures we even have now," HK muttered beneath his breath.
"True."
And then we went to sleep.
I woke up soon after I drifted off, blinking stupidly in the dimmed light as I tried to remember where I was. Rubbing my eyes blearily, I looked around before sitting up as quietly and stealthily as possible, trying to make no rustle of movement that would wake up the others sleeping quietly all around me. Sometimes I had to remind myself that these weren't only being used as a holding pen for my friends and me, but also as a living quarters for the crew. It was only lightly populated, with nearly half of the beds vacant and emptied. I took a peep below and noticed Gabby, from Engineering, sleeping quietly below. I leaned back, a little disappointed, and moved slowly, inch by inch, towards the ladder. One foot under the other, slowly, slowly... My bare feet hit the warm deck without a sound, and I slipped towards the exit.
There was no way I could disguise the quiet hiss of the door opening, nor the bright rectangle of light that escaped into the room. I got out of range of the motion detector as soon as I was out in the hall and ducked into the women's restrooms. Empty, thank God.
Something I couldn't help but notice in the original game was how you could see the showers, plain as day, if you opened the door. Thankfully, our wishes seemed to have expanded it and made it longer and deeper. Privacy screens around the showers and toilets offered a quiet sanctuary for those who needed to think.
I looked at myself in the mirror, bracing my hands against the counter. I drummed my fingers against it, caught in thought, and eventually took a towel and bathing soap into the showers. The hot water loosened up my tense muscles and eased away some of the aches and pains around my chest. The bruise was still there, inky-black in the bright bathroom lights, but it was beginning to fade with the medication Chakwas had me taking.
I dried myself off, feeling strangely awake despite the time on the analog clock above the mirror. The fact that it was two in the morning didn't concern me at all. We had six days before we had to be really awake, right? I squeezed out water droplets in my hair and wrapped it in a tight braid that would keep it out of my eyes, then, deciding that I probably shouldn't go back to the room in case I woke somebody up. There was already enough distaste regarding us circling the ship, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let them have another thing to add to the list.
And with that enchanting thought, I went to the kitchens to get some food. Munching on a slice of bread and ham, I wandered around for a while before finally deciding to head back to the room anyway. I climbed into bed at two-thirty and hid underneath the covers.
At five o'clock on the dot we were awakened by a general call from Joker up at the cockpit. I stumbled out of bed, yawning, and followed the congregation out as they went to the kitchens. Jacob, Garrus, and Miranda were sitting in an obvious group at the far end of the table, talking softly as they dug into their respective meals. I grabbed a bowl of cereal from the bar and gestured for HK and Sarah to take a seat with me close by their group. Sarah needed no prodding—she was the one with the crush on the turian—and HK just looked mildly curious as he sat down. Unsurprisingly, they both looked tired. I wondered if they'd had as much trouble sleeping as I did.
"Hi, guys," I said, digging into my food.
Miranda nodded in acknowledgement, her mouth too full to answer, and Jacob said, "Hey."
"We're going to get started on a few basic drills today," Garrus started. "Jacob has decided to help me out, and Miss Lawson said she would pop in after a while."
I was suddenly excited. "What kind of basic drills?" HK asked, obviously concerned for our mental and physical wellbeing.
"Shepard only gave you a crash-course in actually firing a weapon," Miranda stated. "And the others didn't get the lesson at all. We'll start there, then actually get into the target practice."
"That's the standard crap," Jacob said. "Afterwards we'll see if you can hold your own in a sparring match."
Heaven.
"Then Shepard's orders," Garrus added. "Hand signals. Nonverbal communication."
"Omni-tools," Jacob said.
"All that fun stuff," I said with a grin.
Sarah leaned forward just a little, a thoughtful expression crossing her features. She was looking in Garrus's general direction. "What will these sparring matches be like? I mean... I assume they'll be up close and personal?" Then she looked a little sheepish and sat back a bit, glancing down at her food. I could imagine what she might have been thinking; that this might be a chance to get "up close and personal" with her favorite turian.
I didn't roll my eyes, but I did shoot her a look. Sparring matches weren't meant to consumate romantic feelings. I considered telling her that later, after breakfast, but dismissed the idea. Hopefully the three of them would be smart enough to pair her with Jacob or Miranda.
"Groundfighting," Garrus clarified. "We'll have some mats set out to take the falls, but we still have to be careful. We'll do the quick basics before actually doing the sparring. Arm locks, joint pins, pressure points, demoralizing blows. And most of all, how to create distance. If you can't get yourself distance in a fight, you're screwed."
"Ma-ai," I said.
"What about your eye?" Jacob asked.
"Ma-ai is a Japanese word. It's the distance of space between yourself and an opponent," I clarified.
Sarah was paying a lot of attention to her food at the moment, stuffing her face. She wasn't going at it like a hungry pig, but it seemed to be a way to keep herself occupied during a conversation which she had no idea how to contribute to. She was paying attention, I could tell that much; her eyes would occasionally dart to whomever was speaking.
And her eyes definitely lit up when Garrus spoke, even though he didn't even look at her directly.
At this point however, she put down her utensil and glanced up. "You know," she said, "I don't really why you make all of this martial arts stuff sound so hard. I mean, yeah I've never really done it or anything, but... surely it can't be all that hard, can it? You just give a good slam into a sensitive or weak area and your opponent will go right down... right?" Her eyes glanced around the table at everyone-her gaze lingered on Garrus a little longer, then she glanced back down at her food and picked up her eating utensil again.
I blinked, and I could feel my mental hackles rising. I opened up my mouth to reply, but Miranda got there first. "You'll see that it's not what you're used to in the vids," she said. "Just ask the krogan."
Sarah nodded a little, taking Miranda's words into consideration. "Um, I didn't mean that I think it's all fun and games," she stated, sounding slightly defensive. "But..." She shook her head a little, as though realizing how her words must have sounded. "I guess it just looks like it's fun in movies, at least sometimes. I know that when you're out there in the field, so to speak, it's life and death. But I guess I just thought..." She trailed off, fiddling with her fork again.
"You thought what?" Jacob prompted.
"...That somehow these sparring matches might be fun, since we're all friends here and this isn't totally serious," Sarah finished, eyeing everyone again. She frowned slightly, as though realizing she had mispoken again.
"Practicing is fun," I agreed. "As long as you're practicing with the right people, and these guy'll be alright. It's the people like Michael you have to worry about."
HK smirked. "Well, I don't think the Illusive Man would have let anybody like Michael on to the ship."
"True! Thank God for small miracles." I grinned. "But yeah, practicing will be fun. New stuff to learn, great people to learn from."
"How long have you been training?" Miranda asked curiously.
"Five years of Shaolin Kempo, two years of Aikido," I answered. "Since I was seven, basically. I'm fourteen now, about to turn fifteen."
"Good," Garrus said. "but like I said, the sparring won't happen for a while until we're sure you can take it."
Sarah looked a little confused. "But if we're not going to try sparring right away, what are we going to be doing?" she asked. Part of me began to wonder if she was even paying attention here.
"Uh, weapons stuff, and disarming stuff," HK said. "And joint locks."
"When can we start?" I asked excitedly.
"Right now, if you want," Jacob said, frowning a little. "I have the SMGs and the heavy pistils moved downstairs in the cargo hold with nonlethal rounds in them."
"I'll come down later, Jacob," Miranda said, standing. "Keep an eye on them."
Jacob stood and we all threw our trays away in the disposal canister. The elevator ride down was short, but the confined space was awfully crowded with all of us gathered in there. I could imagine Joker eavesdropping on us, and wondered when exactly I was going to meet the greatest guy in the Mass Effect series. Instead of stopping on the Engineering deck, we went down one more level... to a place that could only be seen at the high strung ending of the game. As promised, the weapons were all spread out for us in a neat line.
I debated for a little bit over the M-6 heavy pistil Mordin had given HK, but eventually decided to learn more about the M-3.
Jacob began to teach as Garrus positioned small bottles precariously around the room. EDI's activated blue ball watched at her terminal. "This is the M4 Shuriken," he said, picking up the smaller pistil on the far end of the line. "It's a semi-auto SMG—a submachine gun. "Unfortunately, this is the only type of SMG we have so far. It fires in three-round bursts, but the accuracy is a pain in the rear. "Pretty effective against shields and biotic barriers, though, so I suppose it makes up for it. We don't have a lot of stopping power here for those big armored guys. Twenty-four shots per clip, and you can carry up to ten clips in reserve. So that makes for two-hundred forty. You reload by pressing this button here, which pops the chamber out and gets rid of the heat sink. Don't reload in the middle of an oil spill, or in the middle of any flammable shit, because these things are hot when they come out."
I nodded, glancing at the others. HK and Sarah looked like they were paying very close attention. "How bad is the recoil?" I asked.
"Not too bad," he supplied, "but keep a tight grip on it. I have a few ammo clips here. We're going to learn how to reload fast and effectively. Ammo is on the left hip. Each clip has a special mixture of alloys that make it stick to a gunbelt only, so it won't stick to your armor. When you have to reload, duck under cover and eject the heaksink with this button. You might have to press it down pretty hard. Heat sink will pop out. Feed this clip in to the bottom cell like so, and the gun will do the rest of the work. Here, try it."
He tossed the gun to HK. He paused a moment, trying to remember how to work it, or probably trying to remember the exact steps involved. He ejected the heatsink and placed the other one in. Jacob nodded and handed it to Sarah.
Sarah hesitated a moment before she actually took the offered gun. Her face scrunched up a bit as she looked at the weapon, turning it over in her hands. She simply held it, not really doing anything with it.
"Is something wrong?" Jacob asked her.
"Uh..." She frowned. "Can we go over that one more time?"
Jacob showed her one more time, patient.
Sarah nodded, apparently absorbing the info. "Um, one more question," she said slowly. "What kind of gun is this again... and do all three of us have the exact same gun?"
"It's an M4 Shuriken," Jacob said. "We have a good supply of them on the ship, so this is what you'll be using most of the time until we can find something even better."
She nodded and then focused on her weapon for a moment. She aittempted to get the ammo into it... only to drop it on the floor. "Oops," she said apologetically, then bent down to snatch it up, and tried again.
Jacob's eyes tightened momentarily, but the consternation was gone before I was even sure I'd seen it... but I was really struggling not to burst out laughing. It was something Sarah would do, alright. I loved my friends. Jacob eventually had to go over and hold her hands-literally-as she did it. When she finally did, she handed him the weapon with the air of somebody relieved to have it out of her hands.
Then he handed me the gun, and I felt like Christmas had come early. I'd been going over the movements over and over in my mind, trying to nail them down to as much perfection as possible within that short amount of time. In Aikido, the Sensei would go up and call upon another student to help him out (or, more accurately, to be the test dummy) and he would do the move over and over, about four times, and we had to recognize and remember what the attacker's various attacks were, and how the defender was supposed to respond. We watched hand movements, foot placement, where he distributed his center of balance, which pin he used, and whether it was omotewaza or uruwaza. Reloading a gun was like doing a two-step defensive move in Aikido. Fun and easy.
Jacob nodded in approval when I finished, then turned around. "To aim, line up this small piece of metal on top with the target. There is an auto-corrector with the older guns if your aim is off, but those aren't entirely accurate. Trust your instincts more than technology, because trust is something that can easily malfunction can get you killed." He lined up with the target, one of the bottles Garrus had put up, and pulled the trigger. A loud crack-crack-de-crack-crack-crack echoed in the large room where Shepard would one day fight for her life, and I tried not to flinch as the bottle broke into millions of small, sharp glass shards.
"Obviously," Jacob said, "the SMGs aren't the best for accuracy. I still hit it, but I used five more rounds than I needed to because it's a semi-auto. Heavy pistils are better hitters, but I need you guys to get used to this first. Garrus, clear the fire zone."
Garrus came over towards us and I caught a whiff of his otherwordly, alien smell. It smelled somewhat... good, actually. I was surprised at myself. I just hoped Sarah wasn't going to shoot one of us with the SMG. I nodded a greeting at Garrus and turned towards Jacob. He handed the gun to HK.
HK took a long time lining up his target, making sure it was right in his sights. Even when it was, he was hesitating. I could see the tense set to his shoulders and realized he was afraid of the recoil. i could feel my heart thrumming in my chest like a pair of bird's wings as he licked his lips and pulled the trigger. The recoild made his arm go upwards, making a vertical line of fire. Only one of the six shots his the target. "Sorry," he apologized, handing the gun over to Sarah. "You really have to keep a strong grip on it."
"That was still a good shot!" I congratulated.
Sarah took the gun carefully, as though it was something contaminated. She looked it over in her hands for a moment, looking it over. "Okay..." she muttered. Then she put both of her hands around it and held it out in front of her, stretching her arms out as far as she could, as though she wanted to hold it as far away from her as possible. Then she squinted, as though having a difficult time aiming it properly.
I drifted over to her. "Just relax. Line it up and fire."
Sarah nodded. "Uh huh." She did relax her arms a little, brought the gun down a bit, aiming carefully. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger, right at the exact same time.
The recoil caused her arms to jolt a bit, and the shot missed the target entirely. But she did hit something.
She hit EDI's terminal. I guffawed in disbelief as EDI fuzzed and winked out of existance. HK watched in horror, and Jacob let out a small curse. "Uh, probably not the best thing to have done," he muttered. "Sorry, EDI," he said louder.
EDI's voice came over the intercom. "Please inform Sarah that I do not like my functionalities tampered with, or else I will be forced to take action." Her voice had hit a low note, one betraying slight anger.
I spoke before I had even thought about it. "How could you take action? I thought there were safeties."
"I could, for example, let Commander Shepard know of the incident, which would confine her to the ship for lengthier periods. Also, please inform Sarah that I have full audio surveillance of everything she has done aboard the Normandy, and that I know of every conversation she's had with a certain male crewmember."
Sarah's face was bright red. She was shocked into silence.
"Aw, c'mon, EDI, don't be like that," Jacob said, but I could hear a note of curiousity in his voice. "It won't happen again, alright?"
"As you say, Mister Taylor." EDI cut off, and we were once again alone... but I knew she would still be watching and listening.
Sarah's eyes were wide, her irises darting around the room as she took a couple of steps back. She was looking toward me and HK, and glancing toward Jacob. I noticed she avoided looking in Garrus's direction altogether. "I'm sorry," she swallowed. "Can I have... can I go for just a few minutes?"
"Sure," Jacob said hesitantly. "Take a ten-minute break."
I watched her leave, slightly concerned, but this was something she would have to work out on her own. I wondered how much she'd told Garrus, though, and wondered if she'd said anything... bad. I watched her enter the elevator and leave. HK and I exchanged a significant look, and I could tell he was thinking along the same lines that I was.
"Well," Garrus said, breaking the tense silence, "that was... illuminating. Remind me not to get on EDI's bad side."
"She'll be fine," said HK. "It's just a bit stressful right now, and I totally understand where she is coming from."
Oh, but he knew. He knew as well as I did that Sarah said something to Garrus. I had a clue about what it was, and I was wondering if Garrus was just play-acting or sincerely didn't know that Sarah had a crush on him. That was why they called it a crush, after all, with all those crushed feelings...
Jacob got immediately back to the lesson. The heavy pistils were larger, but they carried more stopping power and better accuracy than those measely SMGs. I chose the M3, my favorite out of all of them, and hit the target on the first try. HK did, too. I fired the M6 just for fun, but it seemed off somehow. Not for me. HK, however, was a pro at it. It had already saved his life before, and he seemed to have grown attached to it.
"Are we going to learn how to fire an assault rifle?" I asked. "Or a sniper? I really, really like sniping."
"I don't know, I'm kind of fine with these two," HK said uneasily.
"You won't be a pro all at once," Garrus warned. "I think some more practice with the pistils will do you good, actually. Since there are only two of you left, and a ton of bottles..."
"Abby takes left, HK takes the right. We'll set them back up later."
This was by far one of the best moments of the training. I made sure to aim carefully before pulling the trigger, but I quickly realized that all of those yearsof videogames and the Wii had greatly developed my hand-to-eye coordination. The targets went down quickly and effectively. HK and I finished at about the same time, and we exchanged a grin, flushed with our success. "That was a lot of fun!" I squealed.
Jacob laughed. "Easy, now, don't go swinging that around."
I hadn't been swinging it around, but I handed it to him anyway. "What are we doing next?"
Six days can pass like the blink of an eye. At the end of every day I was worn out, mentally and physically, but I was happier, far more happier than I could have ever could have been if I'd just been left to wander the ship at my leisure. Jacob, Garrus, and Miranda were all excellent teachers and I learned more from them than I could have ever imagined. Miranda was an excellent tactician, and she knew Commander Shepard more intimately than her own mother, so it was obvious she would be teaching us each how to respond to her commands and hand signals. We went over a brief history of the Commander's fights and tactics with Garrus, too, who was a first-hand witness. Realizing he would never make great soldiers out of us with less than a week, he implied heavily on trust. Trust your comrade, and watch their back. Jacob and he had similar styles, but I found myself gravitating to Jacob more. As repulsive as he'd been to my female Commander Shepard in the game, he was actually a nice guy. If I ever got out of here alive, I promised to myself, I would write a very long Shepard-Jacob fic that reported accurately on his character.
Sarah was timid and moody whenever she came into contact with Garrus, which wasn't surprising in the least. But I did manage to get her to spill what EDI's comment meant, and I seriously considered right then and there to just hit my head on a wall to emphasize my frustration.
HK was great at picking things up, if you gave him time. And he was motivated, too, much more motivated than I thought he would be about learning how to kill and disarm people. He'd pretty much mastered that heavy pistil by now, and he creamed us at target practice. I now had a new goal I wanted to accomplish before the end of our stay here: beat Garrus in a sharpshooting contest.
We did learn a few things about sniper rifles and assault rifles, but only I was given the all-clear with the sniper rifle. When we'd gotten time off I was researching the type of snipers we would encounter (from what little I remembered) and had memorized by the time they showed them to us how to disassemble it, reload, and the best sniping positions.
The best, best part, though, was the sparring, which they'd been putting off until the fifth day, the day right before we'd be hitting Purgatory.
A few years back when I was still taking Kempo I would spar once a month, the last Thrusday of every month to be exact, with the other guys. Since I was the only girl in the class, I had to try harder, push myself harder. I had conflicting views about how to fight, though, and took a kick to the head that ended up breaking my jaw. The best thing about it was that I kept fighting. We didn't even know it was broken, but it hurt like you wouldn't believe for the next few weeks. I couldn't eat an apple, and I had to chew very slowly. Eventually it healed—wrongly. Even now, years later, if I open my mouth too quickly it snaps and hurts, hurts, hurts! I didn't like it when objects rushed towards my head, and would often flinch and block it before I even know what I'm doing. It took supreme self-control for me to stay perfectly still when Garrus launched out a viscious punch that stopped only a millimeter away from my chin.
But I wasn't afraid. No, I definitely wasn't afraid. For all the good Aikido had done for me in tempering down my violent tendencies, I was way too excited to hit somebody than I should have been. After going over and over and over the basic locks, pins, and grabs that would work on any humanoid alien, Jacob and Garrus reluctantly cleared an area for us to begin fighting for real. They both started out first, and Garrus won the first match by a hair. Jacob won the second. Then they asked for a victem.
It was only right that I would volunteer to go first.
Jacob was large, strong, and intimidating in a way only an adult could be. I remembered bleakly the muscles underneath his shirt, and realized that a gutpunch would be out of the question. A groin shot would be bad, too. It was all about angles, outmaneuvering him, backing him in to a corner.
Aikido focused on the primarily defensive side of life. In Kempo, we terminated. I tried to fall back on Aikido when he punched at my face.
I moved as his hand came up, grabbing his outstretched first in a simple kotegaeshi. He crumpled to the ground when I torqued his hand the exact right way, 'pushing the button' as I called it. He grabbed at my leg, which I'd stupedly placed in front of him, and I fell down atop of him.
He had the advantage now, and we both knew it.
He put me in an armlock that would have impressed a krogan, and I had to consciously relax my muscles so I could be flexible enough to escape... somehow. I heard a grunt of disbelief as he pushed my arm up further and further, and I started laughing. I twisted deeper into the lock, knowing that he'd hit the nerve in my arm that would pain me soon, and I jerked my head back in to his face. But I couldn't get up. I knew I was beaten, then.
Dammit.
I tapped out, and he immediately let go and helped me up. His hands lifted up under my armpits and set me on his feet. He began to examine my arm. "Did I hurt it?" he asked anxiously. I shook my head. "Damn," he whistled. "Garrus, come over here and feel this." He was shaking my arm up and down, and I kept it consciously relaxed. "It's like a wet noodle."
"Huh. Interesting," said Garrus. He took my other arm and put me in a police armlock they used back on Earth. Even when he pressed up as high as my arm would go, there was no muscular resistance. "That would have torn so many muscles I don't even want to think about it," Garrus said, shaking his head and releasing my arm.
At least I'd impressed the fictional turian. That made my day. "Thanks."
"Alright," Jacob said. "Sarah's up next with me."
Sarah eyed Jacob cautiously. She seemed to be thinking about what she'd just witnessed and wasn't entirely sure if she knew the basics all that well. "Um," she finally said, taking a step back, "can I go last?"
"Nope," said Jacob. "Better get it over with."
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Post by Marishal on Jun 2, 2010 11:49:42 GMT -5
(Sarah)
I sucked in a deep breath and slowly moved toward Jacob. Did I seriously think, just a few days ago, that sparring would be fun? In many ways, just learning basic moves and defensive postures, along with firing a gun, had been bad enough. But now I was going to have to fight with someone. I knew that Jacob wouldn't really hurt me, but I did not like the idea of him touching me, regardless. I had a phobia for head-locks or being pinned down in any way.
Well, at least I wouldn't have to spar with Garrus. That would have really made me feel uncomfortable.
I stepped onto the mat and faced Jacob, standing several feet away from him. I wanted to be a safe distance from him, at least from the start. It gave me... a slight sense of control, at the very least.
A sense of control that he immediately negated by taking one large stride foreword. His hands clenched into fists, and I stiffened, aware that he was about to hit me. I braced myself for the punch, and was totally surprised when his leg shot out and tripped me up. I hit the floor with a cry as the breath was knocked out of me. But instead of finishing it, he gave me time to stand up and get my bearings.
I scowled at him as I stood up, knowing that he was giving me a fair chance here. I was deeply grateful for the fact that he didn't move in while I was down. But I also felt frustrated because I knew that he was just giving me a fair chance here, something that an enemy out on the field wouldn't have done. I was sure we both knew that.
I thought quickly, trying to decide what I was going to do. On impulse, I bent my knees as I went into sort of a defensive crouch, holding my left arm out in front of me in a defensive posture, readying my right arm at my side in case I needed to throw a punch.
Jacob sighed. "Stand up," he ordered. "Getting down like that is only going to get you a kick in the face. Control your center, control your line of attack. Stop telegraphing with your right hand."
I straightened up, a bit stiffly. Okay, so I had only "borrowed" that posture from a Power Rangers stance I had seen once on youtube. Okay, maybe that was a stupid example to go by anyway.
I watched him closely, waiting for him to make some sort of move. He didn't expect me to make the first move... did he? I was totally not going to start a fight. Not even in a sparring match.
Thankfully, he didn't wait. He came up close and placed his fist underneath my chin, knocking me back a couple of paces without hurting me. He punched towards my chest, and I tried to move, I really did, but either I was too slow or he was simply too fast. I crumpled up as the wind was driven out of me.
I sucked in a couple of deep breaths, placing my hand over my chest as I tried to get air back into my lungs. I glanced around, aware that the others-Abby, HK, and Garrus-were still watching the entire thing. I didn't really look at them, although I knew they could see that I was getting creamed here. It probably didn't even look like I was trying!
Just then, I got an idea. Well, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but it was worth a shot at least. And I always did things the weird way anyway... right?
I sat up and groaned softly. I winced dramatically and placed a hand over my chest. My plan was to try and convince him I was hurt and then... maybe kick his shin or head-butt him in the forehead if he got close enough. It might work at least enough to make it seem like I could really do something... right?
"I didn't hit you that hard," Jacob admonished softly. "Come on."
"No, I think I might have broken something in my fall," I stated, wincing for effect. I really hoped he would buy it. Either that or I was going to have to get up soon or risk looking like a big wuss.
"I hit your diaphram, not your chest," he said. Either way, he took a careful step foreword. Still not within reach, though.
"I didn't hear anything pop," Garrus said. He was standing close by me. During our training I'd learned that turians have super-sensitive hearing. "Nothing could have broken."
I shook my head, thinking fast. "No, not broken," I replied. "But I think I might have pulled something. I slept wrong in my bed last night and I've been hurting all morning." I turned my face toward the mat, grimacing again for the added effect and hoping they would buy this. Then I lowered myself down onto the mat, on my side, as if it hurt too much to keep sitting up.
I tried not to eye either of them too closely. I didn't want to give anything away. I allowed my eyelids to flicker a bit but I was trying to keep an eye out. If either of them came close enough-I didn't care which one-I was going to smack them, one way or another. Somehow, slamming my head into one of their foreheads seemed like a very satisfying idea right now.
Jacob appraised me with an amused look in his eyes. Abby coughed politely. "If you can't take it, get off that mat," he said. "Head up to Chakwas's or watch the next fight. Either way, since you're hurting too much to continue I suppose we shouldn't wail on you any more."
Right at that moment, I chose to simply make my move, such as it was. Apparently they weren't going to come closer or touch me, so that wasn't going to work. But at least they seemed to think I was injured.
So then, as quickly as I could muster, I scrambled to my feet and simply leaped toward Jacob, aiming to tackle his legs so that maybe, just maybe, I could knock him down.
He simply stepped back, and I fell to the ground in a heap. "Nice try," he complimented, "but you might want to work on your acting skills a bit more. If you'd really pulled a muscle, or tore something, you wouldn't be in that much pain. And I could see your shoulders tensing up. Relax. Get up and let's try it again."
I huffed a bit as I pushed myself up, shoving some of my hair out of my face. "Okay," I said with a scowl. I was really starting to feel my temper flaring. "Bring it on, bastard." When I looked back at this later, I knew I wouldn't be able to believe I said that. But right now I was in the perfect mood for it, and this was no time to be gentle. I was figuring that much out.
He cocked his head like he was surprised, and I heard Abby giggle. I didn't see the punch that knocked me back a couple of steps, nor the one that pushed me in to the cargo crates. He stepped back, allowing me to recuperate.
I breathed in and out heavily, then I practically leaped to my feet and stamped my foot. I scowled at Jacob as if I was going to murder him. I was really, really getting frustrated now, to the point of feeling angry.
I simply stood there, glaring at him for a long moment, then a noise escaped my throat that sounded somewhere between a scream and a battle cry. I then lunged at him, a bit wildly. I wasn't thinking, I was simply acting.
He reacted quickly enough, knocking me to the ground again. "Don't lose your temper," he said forcefully. "You'll only get hurt."
I was getting SO sick of being knocked down. So I stayed down and simply scooted myself toward him, then attempted to aim a good swift kick at his shin, from the floor. It connected, but it didn't nearly have the effect I was hoping for. Apparently his clothes had an extra layer of protection at the shins. "Calm down, girl. Sheesh."
At least I was still close enough to touch him. I lurched forward and grabbed his leg, then I wrapped one of my arms around it as tightly as I could. That move seemed to take him by surprise, at least a little. I then reached up and grabbed his hand, gripping it tightly. I wasn't sure what I was doing-I was just trying to get something, anything, accomplished here.
I pulled his hand near my mouth and did something that I was sure shocked everyone in the room. I parted my lips widely and stuck Jacob's index finger into my mouth and bit down HARD. I could feel my teeth sinking through the skin and I could taste blood.
Something connected hard with my head, and I knew no more.
(Abby)
I gasped and ran over just as Sarah's limp form hit the floor. Jacob walked away, holding his finger with disgust on his face. "That was uncalled for!" he snapped, digging through the first aid box. His finger was pretty mangled. Blood dripped a steady beat on the steel floor. With one hand he got the bandages out and disinfected his finger with a spray. "I told her not to get angry."
"I agree," said Garrus, checking her vitals. "Looks like she'll be out of it for a while. I don't think I've ever seen a human move their knee that fast, Jacob: I'm impressed. But don't you think you went a bit hard on her?"
"Yeah, well, you don't go around biting your instructor on the finger. I know gunny sergeants that would have done worse to her for it."
I was giggling to myself. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. She just had to lose her temper. All of that 'rage is powerful' stuff from Star Wars doesn't work so well in real life. Now she knew it. Sometimes the burned hand teaches best, so they say. Sarah wasn't going to be leaving herself vulnerable and bite somebody again any time soon, that was for damn sure.
Somewhere up there, EDI probably approved.
"Is she going to be okay?" HK asked concernadely.
"Oh, yeah," Garrus said. "She'll have a nice bruise on her temple, but oh, well."
"You were winding her up," I told Jacob. "You knew she wouldn't calm down. You kind of deserve that, just like she deserves the K.O."
"I thought she could handle it," Jacob said, shaking his head as he ripped off a bandage with his teeth. "Here, Abby, come help me with this."
I took it off for him and placed it over the wound. She'd opened a centimeter-wide gash in his finger, alright, and it was dripping blood. "Dang that girl can bite."
"Well, umm..." HK started as he walked over, looking half shaken and half shocked. "The enemies attacks sometimes are...unexpected I guess...wow..."
"HK'S NEXT!" I announced.
HK's eyes widened. "Umm, well...I guess Jacob is ready?" he asked, looking to the bitten man.
Jacob rolled his eyes. "I got bit, not shot. Come on, let's go."
I giggled. Jacob shot me a look and I giggled again. He just turned away and walked into the ring, looking far more comfortable now that the crazy lady had been taken care of.
HK just shook his head, and I knew it probably was out of fear for what was going to happen to him...but also knowing HK and how he had to worry about everything and everyone, he probably still was concerned for Sarah, too. However, he walked into the ring, and took a deep breath.
He looked right at Jacob. "So how do we start?"
"You ready?" Jacob asked. He nodded. "Then we just fight."
(HK)
I almost shuddered, but tried to keep my fear back, even though everyone in this room, minus the knocked out Sarah, knew how scared I probably was. Sure, I had gotten through Omega and had grown quite used to using a gun, but this was much different.
I knew some moves to fighting, but I rarely had actually fought. I preferred diplomatic solutions, but this was Mass Effect. There were no diplomatic solutions.
"Okay, I'm ready," I finally said.
What the heck do I do?
Jacob opened up the same way he did with Abby, punching straight for my chest. It was up to me to figure out how to deal with it.
What fighting instinct I had kicked in, and I immediately ducked, but he had gotten a good shot in. Unsure for what to do for a couple of seconds, I figured out something very random to do.
I was not some jellyfish that could be turned every which way, and I couldn't move like some could, but I could at least try to do this. I stayed close to the ground, and swung my legs towards his, trying to knock him off his feet.
"Good!" Jacob congratulated, turning his leg to block the kick. "Take my balance. Control the center."
To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what that meant, or the last part anyway, but as he turned his leg, I did see an opening. There was a weak point that not many people seemed to think of, but I knew it. Raising my foot again, I slammed it as hard as I could into the back of his knee.
Jacob toppled foreword, rolling on his shoulder. He came up behind me, his fists held on guard. He grinned. "Good!" And he moved for my chin.
I had to think for a quick millisecond. My thoughts were like speeding cars at the moment. It would be ridiculous for my skinny arm to try to grab his large muscular one, so I immediately pulled both of my arms in front of my face, and clasped them together in a blocking manuever.
"Dodge him," Abby said. "Break his nose!"
I heard Abby's words, and knew it was something I should have thought of two seconds ago, but you couldn't expect someone who had barely fought to know everything, right?
His fists came through my blocked arms, swiftly punching them aside, and then he hit my chin. I stumbled backwards with a grunt as I felt the crashing pain, tempted to clutch it, but I quickly reminded myself that I couldn't do that.
I saw him come closer to try to hit me again, but this time, I did take Abby's advice. I swerved to the side, and used my elbow to slam into his face.
Jacob lurched backwards, keeping one hand up to ward me off as he felt his nose experimentally. Abby's laugh was like a high-pitched whine in the back of my head, and I barely paid any attention to it. Did I actually just break Jacob Taylor's nose? Blood smeared his face, and I could remember the exact noise my elbow had made when I slammed it into his face. It was sickening. "Are you okay?" I asked, coming closer.
"Yeah, no problem. Good job," he said, patting my shoulder. We both relaxed, and Abby came on to the mat holding a wet washcloth. She tossed it to Jacob and hugged me around the shoulders. She was laughing too hard to say anything.
As comforting as the hug from Abby and the pat from Jacob was, I did feel slightly guilty. However, Abby had told me to do that, so I should have known that if I made the right move it would...but still, I couldn't savor a victory when hurting a potential friend. Heck, I could barely savor a victory after hurting anyone.
"Umm...wow...I'm...I'm sorry," I said, even if I felt I shouldn't be apologizing. Jacob now had a bitten finger and a broken nose, and I felt a bit bad about that.
(Sarah)
My eyes opened. The first things I knew was that my head REALLY hurt, and that I was lying down. I blinked. I didn't know why I had a headache, but my bed felt awfully hard...
No wait. I wasn't in my bed. I wasn't even in my room. I was on the floor. Why was I on the floor? And why did my head hurt so badly?
That's when the memories came flooding back to me. Oh, yeah, that's right. I had been sparring and... the last thing I remembered was biting Jacob's finger... did I really do that? And what the hell happened?
I groaned, reaching up to touch my head. I quickly yanked my fingers away. Damn my temple hurt just touching it. I glanced around a little. It looked like everyone was over by the mats, and not really paying much attention to me.
I scowled, knowing that this sore spot on my temple, and the fact that I had just woke up on the floor, couldn't have been an accident. I slowly sat up and then carefully got to my feet. Then I looked around. I was actually considering just seeing if I could slip out of the cargo bay without any of them noticing me.
I could hear a commotion in the room, and both HK and Jacob looked worn out. Abby looked excited, and I could hear Jacob telling HK that something was no big deal and to not worry about it.
However, as their conversation died down, HK looked to me. "Umm...hey there, Sarah." he said, sounding hesitant.
I wasn't sure what kind of expression I had my face, but it definitely wasn't a cheerful expression. I felt my eyes tighten. I looked around at each of them, and then I gave a little nod toward HK. That was the only greeting any of them were going to get out of me right at this moment.
"I'm finished," I muttered, and I turned on my heel and began to move toward the door, ignoring the throb in my head. Good lord, I thought I was going to be done with headaches after getting over the ryncol episode.
Abby was suddenly at my side. "Hey, you alright? You took that knee hard."
I stopped, turning to look at her. "Well," I snapped, raising my voice so that everyone-including Jacob-could hear me. "I'm up off the floor, aren't I? That should be good enough."
"Congratulations," Abby said stoically. "Are you leaving now or something?"
I gave her something like a "duh" look. "Let's see, I'm walking toward the door. So... yeah I guess that must mean I'm leaving." I only looked at her; I did not look at anyone else.
"Oh, jeez, there's a jump in logic I couldn't have possibly figured out on my own," Abby snapped. "You coming back?"
"No," I said simply.
I could see Abby's eyes flashing dangerously, but I was too pissed to care. But quick as the flash came, it was gone. "Want me to come up with you?"
"No... that's why I'm walking out," I stated. "I want some time to myself." I glared at her, part of me almost daring her to try and stop me.
She seemed to know it, too. "Heh, alrighty. See you later."
"I will say one thing, though," I said snippily. "I think..." I stopped, waving a dismissive hand. "No, nevermind."
"Yup, nevermind," Abby said cheerfully. "When you're ready to be civil, come back." She turned on her heel and went back to the sparring ring.
For some reason, that set me off. Maybe it was because I was still steamed up over what happened on the sparring mat with Jacob. I turned around and followed her, then ignored everyone else as I talked to her. "You know something?" I snipped. "When we all agreed to make that STUPID wish, I had no idea it was going to be like this. If I had known that it was going to be like this, I never would have made it with you guys. I wish I hadn't even told you guys about it."
I took a step back, sucking in a breath. "I think I'll just stay in my quarters for the rest of this trip," I muttered.
Abby's shoulders were tense, and she wasn't even looking at me. She said nothing. Everybody seemed to be in the thrall of tense, angry silence.
Part of me knew I should just turn around and leave right now, while the getting was good, before I dove in too deep. But I was still mad and my hurting head wasn't helping matters. And part of me wanted to keep throwing verbal punches, since it seemed as though I sucked at throwing physical ones.
"What are we doing here, anyway?" I went on. "Let's face it, the three of us aren't fighters-" I looked at Abby and then HK, just long enough to include him into this with my gaze, "And we're not up for this kind of nonsense." I waved a hand toward Garrus and Jacob, referring to them as if they were Mass Effect mascots right at this moment. "We're just a group of writers with too much imagination for our own good. We shouldn't be here, and I don't think we should be expected to learn everything that they can do."
HK spoke up after being mostly silent. "Thats enough!" he said, in a somewhat firm tone. "Everyone needs to take a minute and calm down. We are going to have to literally fight for survival, and we can't let a simple training session bring us to this."
I drew in a deep breath. "Okay," I said a bit more calmly, holding up a hand in a passive gesture. "I'm sorry I got so snappy. I'm just not used to all this." I nodded toward him and Abby.
"But," I continued, my tone taking a darker edge again, "I'm through with learning how to fight. If you guys are doing okay with it, don't let me get in your way. But obviously, I'm not going to get anywhere with it." I then looked past my friends and scowled at Jacob, then at Garrus. For the moment, I had forgotten any awkwardness I had felt around the turian before. "If that is alright with everyone here," I added, still glaring toward the two military men.
Jacob spoke up, next, after fully cleaning up what looked like a bloody face. "You do know what we're heading into, right?" he asked, crossing his arms. "We all have to be in top shape, or we're not going to live through this."
"You can't just give up," Garrus interjected.
I eyed Jacob's finger as he spoke. There was a bandage on it. I must have gotten him good, then. And HK must have gotten him good in the face. I smirked a little in spite of myself. Excellent.
I turned to look at Garrus when he spoke up. My soft spot for him kicked in at least a little. "You saw what happened back there," I said, speaking to the turian and ignoring Jacob. "The only time I was able to do anything to Jacob was when I bit him, and we all know how THAT turned out." I gingerly touched the sore spot on my head again. I knew I would have to look in a mirror to see how bad it was later.
Jacob just shook his head at me. He probably wouldn't be too willing to talk to me after what had happened.
"So you aren't the best fighter right now," Garrus stated. "Abby didn't exactly do well in her sparring session, either, but we don't just give up. We all have to learn at some point. Do you really think Jacob and I never had to learn the way to do this stuff?"
I shrugged. "I see your point, but I'm just not a fighter." I folded my arms. "And I don't want to be."
"We can always drop you off at a safe location," EDI's voice chimed in.
"Well maybe you should," I snipped.
"Sarah," HK said, blinking as he stared at me. "Do you really want that? I think you'd regret it."
Abby was studiously ignoring me.
"You know, I just want some time to think about all this," I muttered. I was still angry but well.. part of me knew that I really would regret it later if I didn't at least try to make amends right now. "I'm sorry, everybody, for being so snappy. And I'm sorry if I offended you guys. And..." I forced myself to look at Jacob. "I am sorry I bit your finger. But," I added, tapping the sore spot on my temple very lightly, "I think we're even now, at least."
I turned away. "Please just give me some time to myself," I said, and then I walked away from the ring and out the door. I was going back to my quarters.
(Abby)
O Queen of dramatic exits, I salute thee. Jacob just snorted and itched his nose, but Garrus looked vaguely interested. "It's probably a good thing she's not a Cerberus agent," he said offhandidly. "I don't think she has the right temper for the job."
"Brat," Jacob muttered.
I'm going to Purgatory tomorrow. Alone, with Shepard and whoever she brings with her. Alone. And Sarah knows this. And she thinks she has the right to create drama on a ship where we're all going to be fighting for our lives? Oh, she is so damn blessed that I don't hit people first.
But if she had hit me, I would have-
No, I couldn't think about that. If I did, that would only make me angrier.
Oh, but it would be satisfactory...
"Glad to know she keeps our best interests at heart," I muttered. "Really helping us out. Great."
HK sighed heavily. "Listen, I think we are a little too worked up right now...we can't let friction keep growing and growing," he said, looking to all three of us. "Shepard won't like it, and its not going to help the mission. This entire thing is effecting us all in different ways, and I think its really effecting Sarah."
I rolled my eyes. "Well, until she grows some common sense, I'm not bothering with it," I grumped. "Purgatory is tomorrow. If some inmate jumps me, I want to be able to defend myself." Inmate, prison guard... what was the difference there, anyway?
And so, without Sarah, practice continued.
Jacob and I retreated up to Deck Two, carrying the weapons between us in one large shopping bag he probably lifted from some old granny on Omega. The rest had gone away to do their thing, but Jacob had insisted I help him. So here I was.
I heaved the bag on to the table and began to sort them out according to type and numeral. "What she said really got to you, huh?" Jacob asked quietly.
I pursed my lips. "It's always the crap closest to home that hits you hardest. I should know that by now."
"Still, though, it's gotta be hard to take stuff like that. Right before going on the prison ship, too." He lowered his voice. "And from what I'm guessing, it's not going to be all fun and games there."
"No... no it's not."
"It's alright, you don't have to tell me what happens. Just keep the guns close, right?"
I nodded. My mouth was suddenly very dry. "Don't let the guards take them from you," I whispered.
"That's the reason I wanted to help train you guys this week. I know Shepard's got her heart in the right place, but you're... legit. She should know that by now. Maybe she's just being cautious, I don't know, but the thing is—I don't approve. I don't like her forcing you into a situation where you know shit's going to hit the fan. Were you in any of those dreams or feelings you had about us?"
"No, I wasn't. That's why we're all so afraid. We're tampering. We shouldn't be here. It's against the laws of something, that's for sure. Depending on the choices commander Shepard makes, I know who will live, who will die, and what will happen for every next stage of this mission. I do. But with me, HK, and Sarah in it? We're invisible. And those dreams, they won't just visit us again with us in it. We don't get feelings about ourselves."
"I'm sorry about that," Jacob said. "Wish I could help."
"You did. I'm going to kick some butt tomorrow because of you."
"Those guards are going to betray us."
"I don't need to answer it. Just go in like you normally would and everything will turn out okay for you. Okay?"
"So your friend knows you're going to walk into some serious crap tomorrow and goes off on you guys like that?"
"She's like that. She cares..."
Apparently my tone was disbelieving, but he was wise enough not to press further. "You'll do good," he said. "You have to, if you wanna live. But you watch my back, I'll watch yours. Deal?"
"Deal." We shook on it.
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Post by Marishal on Jun 2, 2010 14:48:37 GMT -5
(Sarah)
I stepped into the elevator, thinking deeply about everything that had happened. I'd spent a considerable amount of time--I wasn't sure how long--in my room. The room I also shared with HK and Abby, that is. It was just nice and easy to think of it as "my room" because, well... it made it seem more "homey" to me.
I really didn't mind sharing a room with them. After all, when I was sixteen I shared a room with two of my younger cousins for a few months. And frankly, sleeping in the same room with HK and Abby was much better than that. At least they didn't have a TV on at full blast or have an alarm clock that went off EVERY morning just so they could sleep through it while it kept me awake.
I shoved those thoughts aside. This was NOT the time to be thinking about that. The fact was, I had blown it pretty badly back there. Not only did I mess up big time, failing a fight, I also made pretty much everyone mad at me. EDI didn't think too highly of me right now, Jacob was mad at me, and Abby was mad at me.
I knew that I would need to apologize to each of them... especially Abby. And I needed to do it before she left. Something might happen to her out there, after all...
But there was something else I really needed to do first. That was why I was in the elevator. I punched the button and rode it up to the top level of the ship.
Once there I stepped out, moved toward the door of the captain's cabin, and took a deep breath. Then, after a moment's hesitation, I rapped my knuckles on it, making certain I did it loudly enough to be heard. I just hoped she was in.
"Come in," Shepard's voice, calm and controlled as always, said. Once I entered, I saw her at her desk. She looked like she was going through her private terminal, but I could also see her glancing to a picture of a man right next to it. It was Kaiden Alenko. I may never have played the first game, but I recognized him well enough.
"Commander," I said, speaking in what I hoped was a formal tone. "I was hoping I could speak with you. It's important."
"Is it to talk about your actions earlier?" Shepard asked, turning towards me. Her voice was not mean in any way, but she was being quite blunt.
I felt my mouth go dry. I also wondered if my face had paled at all. "Um... actually it has something to do with that," I finally murmured.
Shepard nodded, looking unsurprised. "Well, then speak freely." she said encourangingly.
"Okay," I said slowly. I knew that "speak freely" meant I didn't have to act ultra respectful or stand in a stiff, "at attention" posture, most likely. But I also had to be careful not to sound disrespectful or rude or anything.
"Well Commander... um, is it okay if I sit down?"
Shepard didn't say a word, but nodded as she gestured to the one extra chair in the room.
"Thank you," I acknowledged as I went over and sat down in the chair. I folded my hands tightly on my lap as I looked at her. "Commander," I began, "I want to talk to you about... Purgatory."
Shepard nodded once again. "Is there anything I should know?" she asked.
"Well," I said, leaning forward and looking at her intently, "I think you should know that it's going to be as dangerous as hell when you go over there. You're going to be lucky to come out of there alive."
She actually raised an eyebrow. "Not that I expected anything less, but I thought this was going to be a simple pick up. We pick up that prisoner called Jack and leave...Cerberus already negotiated his release with the prison."
I was shaking my head. "Oh no, all hell is going to break loose after you set foot in there. It's a trap, Shepard. The leader of that place is gonna play nice at first and act like everything is standard as usual. But then he's gonna turn the table on you and try to capture you, once you're deep enough in. Because you're valuable."
Shepard blinked, but didn't have too harsh of a reaction. Not yet, anyway. "What kind of prison is this? I knew it was nothing regular, but this sounds stranger than I expected."
I sat back in my chair a bit. "It's a prison where the most violent criminals and prisoners are sent," I answered. "They are kept there, and kept under strict control, by the enforcers. And..." I smiled in spite of myself. "You're gonna find out that Jack isn't quite what you're expecting either."
"I know about the most violent prisoners being kept there," Shepard said, seeming to ignore the last part of my statement for the time being. "But why would someone try to lock me up just because I am valuable? That doesn't seem very justice-like."
"Those people seem to have their own unique methods of doing things," I answered. "I mean, they even torture prisoners and beat them up. Just because they can. They have guards who do that sort of thing regularlly."
Shepard didn't make a move, one way or another. "The bottom line is, I am going to have to fight my way out of this highly secured place," she said. "And what was that about Jack?"
I already knew Abby would kill me for this if she found out. Well, if we reached friendly speaking terms again after what happened down in the cargo bay...
Still, I decided there was no harm in going one step further. "Well, maybe it's best if you wait and see her for yourself," I said, intentionally making a slip.
Shepard gave me a look, probably of shock. "Her?" she repeated. "Hmm...the dossier never mentioned her exact gender, I don't even know her last name. Either way, she is needed on this team, and I'm going to have to get her and myself out of that prison. What else?"
"She's a powerful biotic, in case you don't know that," I said. "Like, she's like a biotic god, and she will wreck havoc all over the place before she gets here. And the only way she'll agree to come aboard is if you let her have access to Cerberus files, because she hates Cerberus."
"I really won't mind doing that," Shepard said, shrugging. "Miranda may, but I don't. Is that all?"
"There is one more thing," I said as I stood up. "Please, please don't tell anyone, especially my friends, that I told you all of this. I wasn't supposed to tell you any of this and... they'll kill me if they find out."
"I won't, but I hope you know that I am leading one of your friends into danger...however, she already knows that, I am sure, and she has yet to object to it." Shepard told me, staring right at me. "And I am surprised they didn't kill you after the incident downstairs...which we do need to discuss."
I sank back down into the chair. I almost thought I heard a slight "thump" noise as I sat down in it. I should have known I couldn't just walk in here and then walk back out again, just like that. "Okay," I finally said, deciding to get this over with. I looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"I try not to be strict, and I know how hard this is on everyone here," Shepard began, still sounding very calm. "However, I still have to run a tight ship, and my crew has to be ready for whatever lies ahead...I asked Jacob and Garrus to train you for a reason. I didn't anticipate on you trying to bite the man's finger off."
I swallowed, nodding. "I'm sorry," I said, and I knew I was going to have to say that again at least three or four more times after this, to certain individuals. "I was just frustrated because I couldn't even lay a hand on him. I lost my temper and I just wanted to get at him and do some damage any way I could." I looked down at the floor.
"You can't let yourself lose your temper like that in battle, or it will get you killed...and you need to learn these things if you want to be here. Survival isn't guranteed, so we need everyone to try their best. I am not going to give you some big speech, because you probably have had enough of that...but I still needed to address it." Shepard finished.
"Yeah I know," I nodded. I pointed at the bruise on my face. "I think this is the price to pay for it, too," I added, trying to show that I had indeed learned something. "And Jacob knocked me out. I know that if that happened during a battle..." I glanced down at the floor again. "I'd be dead, not just knocked out and left to wake up with a headache."
"The stakes are higher than ever now, and I just need everyone to know that," Shepard said. "But that is all I have to say on the matter."
I nodded. "I understand," I said. "Um... I was wondering about something though." I pressed my lips into a thin line.
"Yes?"
"Uh.... do I need to continue learning how to fight?" I knew I was on her turf here. I couldn't exactly continue to live under the illusion that I had full say over whether or not I could simply hide away in the crew quarters... or in the bathroom or something. I was on her ship, so... she was the one who decided that, I knew. Whether I liked it or not.
Shepard nodded. "Yes. It may not be pleasant, but we all were in that learning stage at one point...and we are going up against a huge threat. Everyone has to give it their all." she answered.
"But... I'm not good at it," I stated. "I heard that HK gave Jacob a bloody nose and he didn't even get knocked down as much as I did. And Abby has actual experience in martial arts. But me?" I shook my head. "No way. I couldn't even defend myself or launch a successful attack... until I bit Jacob's finger." I bit my lower lip.
"Like I said, we were all at that learning stage at one point. We all started out knowing next to nothing, but we can learn. We have to...and once we get the hang of it, it gets easier and easier. We can't just give up. If I acted that way, the Reapers may have already wiped out all of civilization." Shepard told me.
"But you're a natural," I protested. "I mean, I know it probably wasn't easy for you at first, but I just think some of us weren't really... meant to fight. Some of us weren't really designed for some things. I'm not a fighter, and I'm certainly not a people person either. I'm no good in the military, Commander. What I do best is write, among... other things." I shrugged dismissively.
"There may be some exceptions, yes, but alot of the great fighters had to train alot to get to where they are. You shouldn't have that attitude about it...it may just take some time." Shepard shot back.
I stuck out my chin. "What if I choose to have this attitude about it?"
...Did I really just say that?
"Then you won't get anywhere, or you will have to really force yourself through it," Shepard simply responded.
"What if.... I choose not to?"
"Then you very well could die on this mission," Shepard said.
I was silent for a moment. In truth, I didn't know if me, Abby or HK would survive to the very end. We could help and make sure Shepard did everything she could do so that we could make sure nobody else died... but what about us? We would just have to be very careful, and do our best.
"Well, can I be completely honest about my feelings here?" I asked slowly.
"I prefer honesty over lies," Shepard said with a nod.
"Okay," I said. I got up from the chair and started to pace unevenly around the room as I spoke. I was getting too restless to keep sitting in one place. "I hate all of this," I muttered, lifting a hand to indicate the ship around me. "When me and my friends first popped up here, I wasn't expecting... it to be like this."
I paused, unsure how to continue. How could I tell her that I was used to seeing things from the point of view of a computer screen? That I had seen her mission many times already and I had the luxury of watching it as a form of mere entertainment? And that now, suddenly, it was reality and nothing about it was fun at all?
"It's just..." I walked back over to my chair and sat down again. "I'm a civilian. I should be living a perfectly normal life, not getting scared over whether or not I'll die, or if my friends will die, or... learning things I should never have had to learn... like fighting."
Shepard was silent for a moment. "I don't understand how you can know everything about this but then hate it, but we can drop you off somewhere like the Citadel." she said.
I thought about that for a moment. "Knowing about something and then actually going through it and seeing it up close and personal are two completely different things," I stated, raising a finger as I spoke. Then I dropped my hand, realizing that that could be seen as a condenscending gesture. "And um... I guess I'll think about that," I muttered.
"But, let me say this: If you were to leave, then it would dissappoint your two friends, I am sure...and I doubt that they will leave. Also, I do think that you are useful on this mission." Shepard told me.
I blinked. I knew she was right, it would disappoint HK and Abby if I left. But I chose to put that aside for the moment. "I don't see how I'm useful," I said. "I mean, think about it. HK and Abby know all the same things I do. In fact, Abby probably knows the most because... she remembers things the best. So it wouldn't be that big of a loss if I left. But," I added quickly, just to clarify, "I haven't decided yet if I... want to leave. Unless you just want to kick me off, of course." The corner of my mouth quirked a little.
"I don't want to kick you off, and I don't want you to leave, but I am leaving the option open. And you all are equally useful, even if you know the same things...and I am also still not sure what to think of you all. I know what you are saying is true, I know you are not here to kill me, but it still gets confusing from time to time, and I also know that it wouldn't be the best idea to let any of you out of my sight." Shepard explained.
"I'm not sure what to do," I finally admitted. "I hate being here, but I also don't want to leave any of you. Especially my friends." I looked at her with a firm expression, wondering if she could magically give me some pearl of widsom to make the decision so much easier.
Yeah... I tended to do that with nearly anyone I spilled my guts to.
"If you want, there is also a rather dark theory to all of this: You may die either way. If you go with me and don't train, you could still die...along with me, or without me. If you go live a normal life and I die, then the entire Galaxy is doomed."
I nodded a little. "I guess I would like to help out however I can," I finally said.
Shepard actually smiled lightly. "Then stay, and at least try to forge on and train...thats how you can help." she simply said.
I tilted my head slightly to one side. "Is Jacob.... mad at me?" Ugh, I sounded like a timid kid the way I said that.
"Well, you did bite his finger...I think he is still pretty angry," Shepard replied with a nod.
"Yeah, I figured as much," I murmured with a nod of my own. "The main reason I was asking was because... well...." I pursed my lips.
Shepard didn't say anything, waiting for me to continue.
"If I need to learn to fight... I was wondering who might teach me now," I muttered with a shrug.
"Jacob is a grown man, I am sure that he'd be able to get over it and train you...but if it had to be someone else, there is always Miranda, or Garrus...and myself, but I typically am pretty busy around the ship." Shepard answered.
I figured as much. Part of me wondered what it might be like to train under Shepard... then again I knew that she could probably just as well knock me on my butt. She might be a woman, but she could be even fiercer than Jacob in battle, paragon of virtue or not.
"I'd rather not train under Miranda," I murmured with a shake of my head. "I mean, she's a good person and she does her job well. But it's just... I know she would expect nothing less than perfection, and she still looks at me and my friends like she thinks we're spies."
Shepard sighed, nodding yet again. "Garrus is skilled in hand to hand combat, but he excells at shooting...it may take you patching things up with Jacob, as you will be seeing him around, regardless. Your friends' training is far from over, too, and both of them are continuing on with both Garrus and Jacob. You should probably work with those two, as well."
I nodded. I figured as much. "I'm just curious about one more thing," I said. "What does... Garrus think of what happened in the cargo bay? Did he say anything?" Okay, so I cared way too much about my favorite turian character's opinion on things. Sue me. But well... I also needed to know since I would be seeing him around a lot, too. And apparently I would still need to work with him. I just wondered if I would have to give him an explanation, or possibly an apology, too, just to keep things from feeling awkward.
"From what I know, he wasn't upset by it, much...I think he may have been indifferent to it, but I haven't spoken to him alot about it. Either way, I haven't heard any significant complaints from him." Shepard said with a shrug.
"Okay," I said with a nod. Apparently that was going to be the easy part, then. I wouldn't have to say anything to Garrus. "May I go now?" I asked. "I have some apologizing to do," I sighed.
Shepard nodded, turning back to her private terminal.
I got up from the chair and moved toward the door. I found myself hesitating as I neared EDI's terminal over there. I slowly turned toward it, sucking in a deep breath. "EDI?" I said softly, trying to keep my voice down, but I sure sure Shepard could hear me anyway. She was only a few feet away, after all.
I simply figured that I might as well get this over with. EDI just moved to the top of the list... since she was everywhere anyway.
"Yes, Sarah?" EDI asked, her blue head popping up.
"I wanted to apologize for what happened down in the cargo bay, where I blew up your terminal," I said. Okay, so it hadn't been as dramatic as an explosion. I'd merely damaged it. But I was trying to communicate my sincerity. "I'm sorry I did that. It won't happen again."
"As an AI, I am not programmed to have emotions...but I know human emotions and thoughts very well, and believe you to be sincere. I accept your apology as best as I can, and hope the friction between us does not continue." EDI told me.
I nodded. "Thanks, EDI," I said. Well, that seemed simple enough, at least.
I cast a quick glance over at Shepard. She was still looking at her private terminal, focused on it. So I turned and left her quarters.
I figured I might as well talk to Jacob next. After all... he deserved an apology more, didn't he? I did take a chomp out of his finger, after all. I still needed to talk to Abby as well, but... she could wait.
Eh, I was probably just putting it off in a way. Sometimes apologizing to a friend could be a lot harder than apologizing to someone who wasn't really your friend. There weren't as many deep feelings involved there.
I arrived on the bridge level and walked quickly toward the area where Jacob usually was, ignoring the people I passed by the best I could. I walked through the doors and entered the station where Jacob was.
"Um... Jacob?" I said softly as I approached him.
Jacob turned from whatever he was typically doing when someone approached him, and narrowed his eyes when he saw me. "What is it?" he asked coldly.
Yup, he was still mad. I looked down at the floor. "I came here to apologize," I told him. "I'm sorry I bit your finger. I shouldn't have done it." I opened my mouth again, but closed it quickly. I figured I shouldn't try to give him the same explanation I'd given Shepard. He would probably take it as nothing more than an excuse.
Jacob's facial expression didn't really imply anything. "You really need to work on your temper," he simply said after a moment.
I folded my hands behind my back and shuffled my feet a little, not quite looking at him. "Um... I agree," was all I said. "How's the finger?" I added after a moment.
"Its still got a bandage on it, but its fine. Look, I don't really hate you, but you can't just go around doing that after making a few wrong moves. And then wake up and storm off in a huff." Jacob replied, leaning against the wall.
"Yeah I know," I said, taking great care to keep my tone civil. "And I am sorry for that. But... I've never been in the military and I have never even been in a fight or anything." I hoped he didn't think I was trying to make excuses. But surely some part of him HAD to understand that.
"Yeah, I get it...but neither have your friends, and you're a full adult. But I can get your side of things, I guess." Jacob said, nodding ever so slightly.
"So... are we good?" I eyed him carefully.
Jacob actually laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not Miranda...I'm still frusterated about the whole thing, but yeah. We don't need shit like this on the ship, and it'd be stupid to hate you over a bitten finger, even if it was pretty crazy."
I smiled a little, feeling a bit relieved. "Yeah, thanks," I murmured. "I guess I was wondering just cuz... well... I talked to Shepard, and she feels that I should still try to learn to fight. And I guess I agree." I watched him, waiting for his response.
Jacob smirked. "Trust me, you do need to learn how to fight. You can't bite a Collector," he said, before pausing. "And I know what you're getting at. I'll still train you, if you just keep your cool and stay calm. It won't work if you go bezerk at every little failure."
My smile widened into a small grin. "Yeah I see what you mean. I'll try to do better," I said. Then in spite of myself, I asked on a sheer whim, "What do you think would have happened if I bit Garrus instead?" I couldn't resist the urge to snicker a bit.
"Uh, then he'd be the one you would be apologizing to right now...but he may not have reacted like I did. I dunno, I haven't worked with him long enough to figure out everything about him." Jacob answered.
"Heh, yeah," I said. "Well.... I guess I'd better go apologize to Abby now," I said with a small sigh.
"She seemed pretty pissed, but not as much as I originally was...she'll probably be okay." Jacob said. "But you do need to apologize. How you acted was uncalled for."
"Yeah," I murmured in agreement. "Cya later," I added and then turned to walk out. I had to go and find Abby now. I began to rehearse what I was going to say to her in my mind.
I didn't have to look far. I could hear her voice floating down the hallway from the other room. She was holed up in Mordin's lab, sitting crosslegged on a cargo box as she watched him go about his work. Her eyes flickered to mine when I walked in, and Mordin looked up, too. She nodded in acknowledgement, but otherwise made no greeting, and Mordin simply looked careful and said, "Sarah. Hello. Effects of ryncol gone I see."
I coughed a little, nodding at him. I gave him a small smile. "Hi Mordin. And... yep." That was all I said.
I then turned to look at Abby. Yep, I could tell she was still pissed. Part of me wondered if she'd told Mordin anything about what happened but.... well, did she really need to? I was pretty sure it was all over the ship by now.
"Hey, Abby," I said, moving toward her. Part of me wondered if I should ask her if we could talk somewhere else, instead of in front of Mordin. But maybe it was a good thing Mordin was there, I don't know. At least someone could intervene if we started yelling at each other again, perhaps.
"Hola," she said. Well, at least she was going to be civil... even if it was in another language.
I decided to get this over with. "Abby, I'm really sorry for what happened down there in the cargo bay." I kept my eyes locked on her, and kept my back to Mordin; I was trying to pretend he wasn't even in the room. "I shouldn't have acted like that."
A corner of her mouth twitched, like she was either going to smile or was trying to bite back a retort. I stood on the spot for a moment, watching and waiting, and finally she nodded. "All right. We good now? You're not going to be dropped off anywhere, are you?"
I smiled a little, nodding, although my heart wasn't really into smiling. "I'm good if you are," I said slowly. "I apologized to Jacob and EDI and... I talked to Shepard." I fell silent, hoping we could just end the subject right there.
She chewed that over. "And what's the verdict?"
I shrugged. I really didn't want to talk about this now, not right before she was leaving on a dangerous mission. She didn't need anything to worry about while she was fighting alongside Shepard in a dangerous place. "Things seem okay," I said simply, hoping she would accept that answer.
Irritation flashed in her eyes. "Sarah, are you leaving or not? Like you threatened to do downstairs. I'd kind of like to know that part."
I narrowed my eyes a little. Couldn't this subject wait, at least until I'd had more time to think about it? Until after the Purgatory mission, at the very least? Still I knew that there would be no weaseling my way out of this one. "I haven't decided yet," I finally answered. That was the best answer I could give her, and at least it was honest.
She sighed and got up, stretching. "All right. Let me know," she muttered, and I could tell she was slightly hurt. "Apology accepted. Thanks for the help, Mordin." She grabbed an omni-tool off of the table and fitted the wires on her left arm. She glanced back at me, her face impassive. "So... breakfast? We're getting there soon."
"Yeah," I murmured on impulse. I was actually responding more to the "getting there soon" part than agreeing to go to breakfast. "Um..." I pressed my lips into a thin line for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. "Actually... I said some things to Shepard about how I feel about being here, and... she said she wants me to stay. And I kind of told her I would like to stay. But at the same time I'm still... trying to keep an open mind on leaving or staying."
"You...!" Abby glared at me for once, and her hands balled in to fists at her side. She turned away, her shoulders tense. "Whatever. See you when I get back."
I watched her go, and then I watched the door close behind her. Once I was sure she was out of ear range, I turned to look at Mordin. He seemed to be busy with something or other but I could also see him glancing at me. I knew he was paying attention to the entire thing.
"Well," I muttered out loud, "I guess I better not leave. Don't need anyone throwing a huff like when I randomly left msn."
"Leaving when we need you most?" Mordin asked, and he did not sound like the kind and caring salarian doctor that he was in the game. "I cannot stop you, but I wish I could. But you know what we are up against: Collectors. They will continue to kidnap entire colonies, planets, even, maybe. I'm still hypothesizing. But to leave your friends to face them alone? Repugnant. Maybe ryncol still affecting your brain. Maybe not. Either way, she has a right to be angry." He looked at me with piercing, bulbous yellow eyes, "I will say no more on the matter."
I stared at Mordin for a moment. I suddenly realized that if I did leave, I wasn't just going to disappoint HK and Abby here. Probably the entire crew was going to look at it like a cowardly act, possibly even a betrayal of sorts. After all, they were all dedicated to the cause. None of them were going to run out.
Just then, I got a very wild idea. I was probably crazy for even considering it. But I was the one who always had the weird, crazy ideas, right? And Shepard herself had done--and would soon do--some crazy things herself. Like sleep with alien. I smiled slightly.
Well, there was no harm in asking about it, at least. "Hey," I said slowly, looking up at Mordin. "I'd like to... ask you something."
"Yes?"
My mind was racing now. I felt... excited, and scared at the same time. But all I was doing right now was talking about it, so I didn't need to worry. Yet.
"Well, as you've probably heard, I didn't do too well in that sparring match down in the cargo bay," I said, then started speaking faster so he wouldn't have time to comment on it if he wanted to. "I was wondering if there's a way that I could... get an edge. Would it be possible for me to become a biotic?"
"No," said Mordin. "Biotic potential in humans very limited, very rare. Only those who were exposed to the variables in utero would have the potential. All biotics within the same age group, by definition. Children in the Alliance's Ascension Project, adult members of this crew--all around the same age, because of element zero exposures. Therefor, impossible for you. Enjoy being normal."
He looked around at the technical readouts behind him, and browsed through a variety of slides. "Can strengthen your shields, can even place small medi-gel inserts within your circulatory system. You can learn to hack, which is useful. Improvisation. That is useful, too. Captain Kirrahe once hit a charging krogan with a vacuum cleaner." He chuckled. "Learn what you can. It will be hard, but anything that is easy is not worth accheiving."
My face fell as disappointment set in. I then winced when he mentioned hacking. I liked computers but I doubted I could ever be THAT good with them. Still, I wasn't about to give up entirely on the whole biotic idea... yet. I had one more question I wanted to ask. "What if I somehow let myself get exposed to element zero now, even though I'm an adult?" I asked curiously, and a bit hopefully.
"You would die," he said simply. "Don't think of those things. Cerberus does horrid experiments as a means towards that end. Absolutely horrid. Evil. People die for that research."
I nodded, still feeling disappointed. Still... it actually gave me a bit more hope. In many ways, the main reason I'd been so bitchy lately was because... well, that's how I got sometimes if I felt useless or unable to accomplish anything. But the simple fact that--as Mordin just suggested--that I could found another way to be useful besides fighting... well...
"You know," I said, placing a hand on his desk and leaning forward, "I'd really feel better about staying here if I didn't feel so damn useless, or like I'm not good at anything. How many other things are there I could learn around here, do you think, besides fighting?" I wanted to know.
Mordin actually had to stop and think about that. "Commander Shepard explained your... situation," he said, "and since you're not part of regular Cerberus crew... hmm. Help Rupert in the kitchens. He needs it. Help Doctor Chakwas. There are many things you can do aboard a ship besides fight constantly."
"Hmmm," I mused. "I definitely have experience in cleaning and washing dishes, you know? I did that quite a bit back home." I chuckled at the thought.
"Then do that," Mordin said. "You don't have to be a part of the assault team to make a difference. With your demeanor that probably would not be the best place for you, anyway. If you picked up slack around the ship, Shepard would be grateful. The operation will run much more smoothly."
I actually grinned. "Thanks, Mordin," I said. "I think I'll go talk to Rupert." My sour mood was draining away now, to be replaced with relief and something akin to cheerfulness. I reached over and gave him a light pat on the shoulder.
"Ah, well, it was my pleasure," Mordin said. "Goodbye." And he went back to his work like nothing had even happened.
"Bye," I giggled, and then I was out the door and heading toward the elevator again.
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Post by Marishal on Jun 2, 2010 14:48:53 GMT -5
(Abby)
I was dressed and ready for a quick trip to Purgatory. I still wore Kelly's brown tanktop, her jeans, and her many-pocketed jacket because there was no armor availible for me quite yet. But just like on Omega I had shield overlays that would stop a high-velocity projectile from penetrating unless they were completely drained. The M3 was strapped to my right hip, and my knife (which I'd stolen from Rupert, actually) was resting nicely in it's shiny new holster. There was an omni-tool on my left hand, which I only knew the basic functionalities of. I probably looked like an undersized Shepard or something, because I sure as hell felt like an idiot. A lethal idiot, but an idiot nontheless.
HK came to see me off. We were waiting by the airlock, alone except for Joker at the cockpit. I only glanced at him shyly before turning my back to him so I could watch for Shepard and whoever she wished to bring with her. I loved Joker a ton, but I'd have to talk to him when I had some downtime.
“Okay, I'm officially completely freaking terrified,” I muttered to HK.
HK seemed to hesitate, slightly. He knew Purgatory was insane. However, hopefully he'd dish out some of that HK-style advice.
"Well, just remember what we've learned...its only been a week's worth of training, and we have alot more to do, but what you have should get you through it, since you also have Shepard and two other team members along. Just...don't get too worked up," he said.
I let out a nervous laugh. "Yup, not getting worked up at all... nopity-nope-nope-nope. Totally in control. Grawr."
"Stay calm," HK instructed. "I know how you feel, believe me. But you know Shepard can make it through this, and now she has an extra person along."
"Grawr de grawr grawr grawr grawr," I muttered. I consciously relaxed my shoulders. "Okay. Ready now." I blew out a long breath when I saw Shepard, in full armor, exit the elevator. Jacob and Zaeed were right behind her.
Zaeed. Wonderful. I wondered when we were going to take care of his business on Zorya.
"Here we go," I muttered.
"Arriving at Purgatory," Joker called over his shoulder. "Lining us up with the airlocks."
There was a slight rumble underneath our feet, and a jolt as the Normandy slid smoothly into place. Jacob gave me a reassuring nod as he approached, and I gravitiated towards him. He pat me once on the shoulder. Zaeed stared at me quizzically with his different-colored eyes. Originally I'd thought his eyes were very cool-looking, something that just made him seem more bad-ass, but now I just knew why they made him look so unnatural. One of his eyes was the color of the blackest night, and the other was so light that his pupil contrasted vividly against the brightness. When I looked at his face, I couldn't decide on which eye to focus on.
"This kid's coming with us?" he asked, disbelieving.
"Yes," Commander Shepard said. "She'll help us out. You have a problem with that, Zaeed?"
He snorted. "Hell, I'll bite. Better to get experiance in the field than holed up on Five anyway."
So he'd been watching our 'practice' then. Oh, well, everybody else probably had, too. I didn't know why I was suddenly so embarassed about it, though.
"It's just a simple pick-up," Shepard assured us. "But Purgatory is a dangerous place. Keep your weapons on you at all times."
"Yes, ma'am," I said.
Zaeed snorted. "At least she takes orders well."
I cracked a smile I didn't feel.
"Transmitting our verification code, Commander," Joker said, twisting around in his chair to look at us. "They say to come on aboard."
Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. This was going to suck. "Let's go meet the welcome party," Shepard said. "Move out."
I waved a little half-heartedly at HK as the door slid closed between me and the safety of the Normandy.
~-~--~-
Purgatory was everything the game made it to be, then more. A game could never convey the sense of creepy-crawly atmosphere, nor the way that the overhead lights only made everything seem darker to my eyes. Our footsteps echoed in an unpleasant way on the metal flooring. I could see the Normandy docked precariously outside the large viewscreen, though I tried not to look at it much.
There is a sixth sense in humans, often unseen and unheard, that makes itself apparent in only the most dangerous of situations. It was the sense that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck, the feeling that you were being watched, the knowing of the deadly intentions coming your way soon. I could feel the crushed hopes inside this dull, dreary, scary place. Psychos, for the most part, and there was an overwhelming anger in the air.
Or maybe I only felt this way because I knew of the inhabitants and what went on. Either way, I wanted out.
I followed Shepard, keeping my outward appearance calm and in control. I almost did a Han Solo and placed my hand on the butt of my pistil, but I wasn't that confident. Guards in Blue Suns armor, holding assault rifles casually in their hands, stood waiting for us at the bottom of a slight ramp leading up to the main observation tunnels.
“Welcome to the Purgatory, Shepard,” said the turian in front. His face was covered by his helmet, as seemed to be the custom among the guards. “Your package is being prepped and you can claim it shortly. As this is a high-security vessel, we will need you to relinquish your weapons before you proceed.”
No. No. Shepard, you better tell them HELL THE EFF NO!
“I'm keeping my gun,” Shepard said cooly. Yeah, you tell 'em, girl. You're my favorite.
The door opened at the top, revealing the baddie in all of his glory. “Everybody stand down,” he said. “Commander, I'm Warden Kuril.” So that was the name. Ha. I wondered who would kill him. Maybe Zaeed. Wouldn't that be lovely? “This is my ship. Your weapons will be returned on the way out. You must realize this is just standard procedure.”
Go to hell, you creepy, weirdo, stupid little... turian-thingy. You're an ugly turian. I don't like you. Go away and die already. You suck. A lot.
“It's my standard procedure to keep my gun,” Shepard said. Still civil, still good. I was beginning to like Bioware. Then I rememebred Thane's romance scene, and abruptly tried to forget it.
I could feel Kuril's emotional state change, harden, as he tested his will against Shepard's. It was the classic trick you saw in movies (and dogs) all the time: look them in the eye until they backed down. Shepard wasn't some scared puppy, though, and she could play hardball with the best of them—and win. The confrontation lasted just two seconds, and it was Kuril who conceeded defeat... as I knew he would. “Let them proceed,” he said. “Our facility is quite secure enough to handle four armed guests. We're bringing Jack out of cryo, and as soon as the funds clear you'll be on your way. If you'll follow me to Outprocessing for the pick-up, Commander...?”
“Let's go,” Shepard said, gliding foreword smoothly. I fell in line behind Zaeed, glancing around at the other guards as casually as if I was just a random sightseer. Jacob nudged me along.
The door opened, leading into the observational tunnels. I glanced this way and that, amazed at the sheer size of it all. If there was ever a prison like this back home... Huge machines, bigger than I'd ever seen in my short life, moved cells out of their containing rooms with apparent ease. I wondered if the cells had some kind of artificial gravity within them to keep the occupants from tumbling around with the movement.
Who had jurisdiction here? Whose legal laws did these so-called 'guards' follow? I knew the answer, even though I hated it. Greed. “Cellblock Two,” Kuril stated, gesturing around us in a fanciful manner. “As you can see, we keep a tight control over the population. Each prisoner's cell is a self-contained, modular unit. I've blown a few out of the airlocks as an example.”
How could he announce that so calmly? You don't just go around blowing people out of airlocks!
“This ship is made up of thirty cellblocks identical to this one,” said the baddie. “We house thousands of criminals. We can put the whole place in lockdown in under a moment's notice.” And you will. Kuril paused his tour to look very seriously at the Commander. “Nothing goes wrong here.” Irony. Oh, the sweet smell of irony.
“Let's get on with this,” Shepard said, crossing her arms.
“Anybody ever try and scarper on you?” Zaeed asked as the Warden turned around, leading us further down the tube.
“We're in space,” he replied. “They have nowhere to go, and they know it.” No legal jurisdictions, either. I remembered Jack's story about being gang-raped by an assortment of prisoners and guards, and then how she killed them each seperately and painfully. It was why she was in cryo. I wondered if the Warden knew the entire story. “But still, we exercise extreme caution.”
I glanced out towards the right. Two prisoners in orange slacks, human, were beginning to tussle. “These are dangerous individuals,” Kuril said matter-of-factly. The batarian guard watching them activated his orange omni-tool, and a shield system popped up to seperate the two in an impenitrable bubble. “We have many ways to control the population.”
I don't like you. Kuril led us through a door to a more familiar-looking area. “I'm going to go confirm that the funds from Cerberus are cleared,” said Kuril. “Outprocessing is straight down this hallway. Just keep going past the Interrorgation Rooms and the Supermax Wing.”
I wondered if I should ask him what form of tortures they used, because I was actually pretty dang curious as to how they got the psychos to actually talk, if they said anything. But I kept my mouth shut and just tried to look mildly entertained. Kuril's eyes flashed to my face for a moment, and I tensed, expecting an attack of some kind. He turned away and walked out. “I'll catch up with you later... Shepard.”
Jacob placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I nearly jumped—I hadn't realized he was that close. “I don't like him,” he stated in a quiet voice.
“Should've questioned him more about the way they do things,” Zaeed said. He scratched absent-mindedly at the tattoo on his neck, glancing out the tunnels towards the grounds below. “I was curious about how they keep the place running.”
“They're in space,” I said in a small voice. “There are no legalities here. These men can do whatever they want to their prisoners. They blackmail the planets who send them, charging fees just to keep them here. And if they stop paying, the Warden says that they can't keep 'em any longer, and says they'll have to dump the inmate off back on his world at an unspecified place and time.”
Shepard scowled. “The Council condones this?”
“Maybe they should put a Spectre on it,” I joked.
“It probably won't be that simple,” Jacob muttered.
I heard the screams long before I saw him. A human cowered on the floor in one of the Interrorgation Wings, crying out in unendurable pain as the turian guard pounded into him again, and again, and again. Outside the bulletproof glass, another turian watched calmly. I remembered the inmate's name with a jolt—Billy.
“That's sick,” Shepard said disgustedly.
I turned away, my hands balled into fists at my side. Stop him, I begged inwardly. Shepard paused, watching for a second, but the turian just waved her away. “Move along.”
Shepard moved along. I watched in disbelief. She even passed up the other guy, the talkative one. What? Why? “Hey, hey, guys, come over here!” said the inmate. He was knocking on the glass. “Pick me!”
“Shit,” muttered Jacob.
On a sudden impulse, I distanced myself from the group and placed myself directly in front of the third man in line, the one that nobody would talk to in the game. He looked at me, a self-satisfied expression on his face. He was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, and rocked back and forth gently on his butt. “Hello?” I asked softly.
He looked up at me, his eyes hazed and foggy with waking dreams I couldn't even begin to fathom. “I hear you screaming in my head,” he told me. “It's nice... yeah.”
Jacob took my arm. “What the hell are you doing? Come on.”
Shit. “Coming,” I said, throwing one last glance over my shoulder at Billy. Commander...
Zaeed wasn't saying anything, but I thought I heard a slight sigh from up ahead. Shepard led the way through the door straight ahead. I couldn't help but be impressed by the big, bad-ass doors they had going for them. It would take some serious demo charges to blow them up. “Outprocessing is through the door on the far side of the room,” said one of the tech unconcernedly, typing away at his computer.
Here we go! Shepard calmly led the way. The door opened and she would have stepped into it, probably thinking it was an elevator, had I not grabbed her shoulder and shook my head seriously. She took another look at the room beyond and, with a sneer, stepped away from it.
“My apologies, Shepard,” said Kuril's voice over the intercom. “But you're more valuable as a prisoner than as a customer. Drop your weapons and proceed right into this open cell. You will not be harmed.”
“Go to hell,” Shepard retorted. “I'll send you there myself.”
The next words were a general call to all on Cellblock Two. “Activate systems!”
Zaeed pushed me behind on of the heavy-duty desks—no need, I was heading there already—and I hastily grabbed for my pistil. Zaeed took up cover next to me and began to spray an arc of covering fire at the doorway. The Blue Suns must have already appeared. Damn, they were faster than they were in the game. “Go, go, go!” Zaeed yelled.
I glanced up, firing carefully at the heads of those who were rushing in. Shepard took off, running towards the next rows of desks in front of us. A few rounds were harmlessly deflected off of her shields before she hit cover.
I ducked underneath cover again when they began to pay attention to me, feeling as though being hit in the head with a high-caliber sci-fi bullet wouldn't be the best way to end the day. And where was the music? Could it have been too much to ask for some music in the Team MilkyWay wish of ours? My iPod was back on the ship, but I doubted I'd actually listen to it right now if I even had it. Bummer. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
The gunfire was loud in my ears, scaring the hell out of me. I took a deep, deep breath, and retrieved the rest of my courage so I could pop up and spray a few rounds of my own in to their midst. Shepard's body was outlined with a subtle heatwave detectable even from my angle. She made a flipping motion with her hand. A shockwave of pure energy lashed out from her fist, throwing everything this way and that in a disjointed heap. I fired at them while they were on the ground, feeling absolutely horrible about the killing even though I knew it had to be done. “Shepard is loose!” Kuril snapped. “I repeat, Shepard is loose!”
The Abby is loose! The Abby is loose!
“We need to get to the Supermax wing before they all converge on us!” I told Zaeed. “It's where Jack is.”
He nodded. “Shepard, let's move!”
A FENRIS mech—no, more than one—turned the corner at a surprising speed. They ran for us as we tried to exit. I jumped backwards and to the side, already firing, but Shepard took care of them with another Shockwave. She looked slightly drained, though, and gestured for Jacob to take the lead while she recuperated.
We fought our way up the hallway, and I experianced a very scary experience when I felt rounds deflect off of my shields with a jolt. After gunning down the scientist in charge of the cryo unit, I bent down and picked up a heatsink from his body. Any queasiness about touching dead people soon vanished.
“If we hack that control panel, every door in the cell block opens,” said Jacob, examining the commands and functions with an expert flick of his fingers.
“It'll be the only way to get Jack out of cryo,” said Zaeed. “Do it, Shepard, we'll deal with the political bullshit later.”
She looked at me. “Do it,” I urged her.
“Hit the button, Jacob,” she ordered.
There were three heavy mechs downstairs in the cryo room, guarding it from unwanted visitors. They glanced up as a large iron claw came down and deliberately unscrewed Jack's cryo cell from the floor. I leaned against the window, watching and waiting, wondering if she would look anything like she did in the game...
Jack's eyes were closed, that much I could tell. But I couldn't see any of her tattoos, not a single one, because she was dressed in an orange prisoner's jumpsuit. It made sense, I supposed, for her to wear the same uniform as everybody else, but I was still shocked. But the jumpsuit was tight enough around the places that counted for Jacob and Zaeed to stop and stare. “That's Jack?” Zaeed asked.
Shepard nodded. She didn't even seem to be surprised. Maybe Tim told her about it, I thought.
And then Jack woke up. She began to struggle while the mechs looked on, confused. What were their orders for this? Then she freed one hand. Then the other. She pulled on the neck brace and freed herself, rubbing her jugular to relieve some of the ache there. She glanced up to see the mechs, pure anger bubbling to the surface of her face. She braced herself against the cryo pod and yelled, launching herself at the middle-most one and out of sight. There was an explosion beneath us that nearly threw us off balance.
“We've got to help Jack, come on!” Shepard snapped, running for the door that would lead us down.
A synthesized female voice spoke from the intercom: “Warning, Warning.”
Another explosion. It rocked the hallway so hard that I nearly tripped over my own feet. “Sounds like heavy fighting,” Jacob grunted, steadying himself.
It probably took us ten seconds to get to the bottom of the ramp, but it took another twenty for Jacob to cut through the lock leading into the chamber. What we saw blew my mind, even though I knew about it. I couldn't imagine how the others felt.
Three heavy mechs lay in a crumpled metal heap on the group, their armor so twisted and warped that it was a wonder how they still retained their shape at all. Only one of them had self-destructed.
Shepard took one look at this mess and grinned. “I want her.”
~-~-~-
The entire place was in an uproar, and it was getting worse. Jack was running, killing everybody in her way, and we were stuck behind taking care of the lucky guys she left behind. The entire Cellblock was in flames, and the extinguishers weren't working. Warden Kuril was yelling orders over the intercom, sounding harried and breathless, but I was barely paying attention. Sweat stung my eyes as I ducked beneath cover and reloaded, taking a brief respite from the fight. We have the bridge, I thought. One heavy is down... just a ton of baddies left. And another heavy mech.
Some idiot had activated both heavies at the same time, and even with the other one taken out, Number Two was still trying to flank us by coming up the stairs at the other end of the walkway, firing at our exposed heads. I screamed as a concussive missile blasted in to my cover, jolting my body hard against the railing. “Shepard!”
“Keep your head down! Don't look up, it's focused on you, understand?”
“SHIT.”
“Stay calm! We're disabling it as fast as we can.”
Well disable it faster! “Okay!”
“You have to be my eyes. Relax. Tell me if anybody starts to come up on the bridge behind Zaeed, okay?”
“Nobody yet.”
“Just tell me when.”
Zaeed was downstairs taking cover from the menegerie of Blue Suns mercs, attempting to flank them. Since he and I had taken down the first heavy mech—me from above, him from below—he was moving much easier. “I need a biotic to deal with the asshole behind the left corner barrier.”
“I got him,”Jacob replied.
I squealed again as another missile hit my cover. I wondered why it didn't simply blow it to pieces, and me along with it, and had come to the satisfying and relieving conclusion that sci-fi metal was just awesome. “I think this guy wants to bring me home with him,” I joked half-heartedly.
“Well, we ain't selling,” said Jacob. “You hold tight. I'm going to draw it's attention away from you. Set up the Overload program.”
I nearly dropped my gun in my haste to activate the omni-tool. I scrolled down the different functions and chose a shortcut Mordin had made specifically for me just this morning.
“Done!”
“Okay... I'll tell you when... now!”
I stood, waving my omni-tool in the mech's general direction. A green light winked from my palm, confirming that the program had been carried out. A second later, blue electrical arcs spun around the machine, disabling the shields.
“Aha!” Jacob yelled. I thought he'd been hit, and felt instantly afraid, until he said, “Good work!”
“Warping him up,” Shepard said in a calm voice. I heard a crash, and risked a look: the white armor had fallen off of it's body in a rumpled heap not common to metal at all. So that was what Warp did. Nice. I squeezed off a few more rounds, aiming for the optics.
It hit the ground smoking.
“It's gonna blow!” Jacob yelled. Where was he?
I ducked anyway. A boom sounded, and metal flew. When I risked another look, I noticed that some of the heavy mech was now buried in the steel walls. Wow.
“I have ten more guys holed up down here,” Zaeed said. “Nine.”
“They're coming us the stairs,” I announced with a calm I didn't feel, peeking over cover to fire off a few more rounds. “Two less now, though.” Hey, at least I was getting the hang of this damn thing. Everything was bathed in a red, fiery light that gave an unreal sense to the proceedings, like it was some kind of strange dream.
“Squad—shield status!” Shepard quipped.
“Twenty-five!”
“Fifty!”
“Ten!”
“Zaeed, pick off the ones heading for the bridge. Jacob, lay me down some cover fire at those barricades.” Shepard took off as soon as she figured her orders were being taken care of, running hunched over to the end of the walkway, which would, I figured out, flank the enemy. See? This is why she's the tactician. She knows this crap.
Since I had no orders to the contrary, I popped out of cover once more and helped Zaeed take them out. You could have danced to the statacco rhythm of gunfire.
Eventually, it all went silent.
“Report!” Shepard snapped.
Jacob, who I just realized was in cover two barricades ahead of me, glanced back at us to see if we were all walking. “We're all good, Commander.”
“Reload and get your bearings. We're not done yet.”
No, we most certainly were not.
I forced myself to get up from my crouched position and loot the bodies of all availible clips I could hold on my gunbelt as my shields restored themselves back to full power. There was something dark obscuring my vision, but when I wiped my hand over my eyes it seemed to help. I stumbled over towards the jagged metal of the last heavy mech we'd had to take out, raking my eyes over its' charred white chassis. “Don't you think that using security mechs so soon after the geth attacked the Citadel is a bit stupid?” I asked, knowing they'd pick it up in their earpieces.
“C-Sec's numbers were in record lows after the attack,” Jacob grunted from behind me, stretching his back. “It was either sanction the things or let the gangs take control. Soon as businesses got the okay from the top, people started to buy them out like crazy. Somewhere out there, somebody's making a damn good of a living.”
“The Citadel should've put sanctions on proper use,” I muttered.
“They did,” said Zaeed. “It doesn't stop them from appearing all over the black market, though.”
I frowned and knelt next to the mech's eviscerated torso, poking the wires with my finger. “Don't touch that,” Shepard snapped, coming up behind me. “It can still shock you.” I quickly backed away, and Shepard turned towards the next dead body and scrounged for ammo clips.
I wiped my hand over my eyes again to fix my eyesight, and caught a streak of crimson blood painted across my skin like a stripe. Frowning, I probed the area more with my fingers, finding a long, jagged cut from my eyebrow to the center of my hairline bleeding profusely. When did that happen?
Probably when the first heavy mech exploded only a few feet in front of me. Oh, well. I let it be.
“All right,” said Shepard, “let's move out.”
I lagged behind, as usual, still keeping a lookout. “This place is in bad shape...” I whispered. All of those bodies, just laying out there like that... I felt horrible about it. The ship hitched a little bit as an explosion rocked the inner wings, and I could have sworn I saw one of them twitch. Zaeed passed the turian body, casually reloading his gun as if he didn't care what these Blue Suns had done, and then I realized that it really had twitched—twitched it's finger towards the gun laying too close next to it.
He held it in a three-fingered death-grip and aimed for the back of Zaeed's head. My pistil was up and raised before I'd even consciously thought about it—crack-crack-crack! The rounds hit the turian's exposed head with a sound that vaguely reminded me of the sound a melon would make if it were pierced by a knife: the squishy noise of an unstoppable object sliding deftly in to the core.
The turian relaxed, dead. My hands were shaking. Zaeed glanced back at me in surprise, then at the turian. “Shit. Good work, kid.”
I nodded grimly and kept the gun out, just in case. I wasn't putting it away again.
There was another connecting hallway, safe and sound for now, with a first aid kit and a secluded safe housing ammo for the guards. We took all of the medi-gel the first one had to offer and skipped the second, though we filed away its location for later. Shepard took one look at my head and had that concerned-parent look on her face, but I wasn't going to buy it. “Warden Kuril's in the next room,” I said quietly. “It'll wait.”
“And how the bloody hell do you know that?” Zaeed asked.
“I'll explain later, Zaeed,” Shepard said. Jacob took a step closer to me, examining the injury with careful hands. “It'll have to wait, Jacob.”
“Ma'am, this is pretty deep...”
“We're good,” I said. “Seriously.”
“She said she's good, Jacob. We can't patch her up now, anyway. Smear some medi-gel on it and let's go.”
“You'll need the medi-gel, Commander,” I said. “Go on, let's go.”
They were silent for a second, contemplating. I was grateful when Zaeed broke in, saying, “Oh for God's sakes, she's not going to die. Get a move on!”
I nodded in thanks and led the way towards the door, opening it from the side like I'd been taught. I could hear gunfire. Shepard led the way, followed closely by the rest of us. I came out last, pistil held out and trained on any idiots who dared to stop us. Kuril stood on top of a large podium in the center, brandishing his assault rifle. Blue tech armor boosting his shields glowed fiercly in the red light.
The bodies of prisoners lay in his arc of fire.
“You're valuable, Shepard!” Kuril yelled, taking a potshot at her with his rifle. We hit the cover, narrowly avoiding the shot. “I could have sold you and lived like a king!” He panted heavily, foam crusting the sides of his mouth like a rabid dog. “But you're too much trouble! And at least I can recapture Jack.”
A round thudded into the cargo box I was using as cover, and I gasped despite myself. “Not happening. You're just a two-bit slave trader,” Shepard said loudly, “and I don't have time for it.”
“I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to do!” Kuril roared. “This is for the good of the galaxy!”
“He's going to send his minions at us first,” I said as the first rounds thudded into my cover. “We have to kill the shield system to take him down.”
“What shield system--? Oh.” Shepard sounded disgruntled. Apparently she found it.
“There are three generators,” I panted. “Don't hit them yet. We can't kill Kuril, but he can't shoot at us yet, and he has the high ground.”
“Understood,” said Shepard. “What's the best way to deal with this situation?”
“They're coming at us from three sides. We'll take the left and go around. Sound good?”
“Good.”
I ducked a stream of fire heading in my general direction and let loose with my pistil. Here were five of them in front of us alone, not even counting the ones on the upper balcony with the high ground. We'd have to get up there quick, or we were screwed. Shepard seemed to be thinking along those lines, too, because she wasn't even aiming the the threat in front of us, but instead at the people trying to come down the ramp to flank us.
I had to honestly wonder at that point if anybody had ever outflanked Commander Shepard, because I didn't want to be the bad luck charm that made it a first. “I'm heading up, cover me!” Shepard snapped. She didn't even wait for Jacob to say okay. She ran full tilt up the ramp, sliding smoothly into cover as soon as her feet touched level ground.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack! I downed the sniper taking a bead on Shepard, then ducked back behind to reload. The movement was becoming instinct to me now. “Zaeed, you next,” Shepard panted. She disappeared to the other side of the wall, leaving room for Zaeed. The merc ran as fast as he could, but I still felt a moment of pure terror when I saw those rounds thud into his shields.
“Shield status?”
“Ten. Give me a moment to recharge before I make another run.”
“Agreed.” One of the men from the upper balcony was lifted into the air quite suddenly. Jacob gunned him down with ease. “Good shot, Mister Taylor. Abby, we are not supposed to hit the shields, correct?”
“Yes,” I panted. “Not yet.”
“There's no chance of Warden Kuril slipping through a back door or anything, is there?”
“No. He's saving his ass while his minions get killed. He thinks he can overwhelm us. He's just in it for the creds, Commander, not his life. He probably thinks we'll be dead soon, anyway.”
“Understood. Zaeed, we're going to switch positions. Shields ready?”
“They're at fifty percent. They'll hold.”
“Switch... now!”
Zaeed disappeared from the top, but Shepard never appeared. She must have taken cover somewhere else. “Jacob, you come up here, now,” she said. “Abby, you okay down there for a moment?”
There were still three guys left. “Fine!”
Jacob pulled another one out of cover with his biotics, and I put a round through his temple. “Coming, Commander.”
Jacob left. Breathing heavily, I took my knife out of it's sheath and held it in my hand, blade against my forearm so it wouldn't get in the way, and hit them again. The two remaining ones began to flank me, sneaking around on both sides. There was no way I was going to be able to hit one without leaving myself vulnerable to the other in the process, but if one got close enough, he was going to find out that I'm a gung-ho ninja with a knife... or something.
I fired at the closest one anyway, trying to keep the other in my perephial vision. My first victim fell behind cover to recharge his shields. I held my breath and sprinted up the ramp, jumping the last three feet. I rolled on my shoulder, coming up right next to Jacob. I glanced around him and fired off a few more shots, hoping to get a parting blow in at least. The one under cover fell back. I couldn't see the other guy.
“Press foreword. Jacob, take the barrier ahead of you. Zaeed, with me. Abby, stay on the tail side and pick off the guys we miss.”
Where is that other guy?! I lined up my pistil with the head of the commander of the Blue Suns. He wore tech armor over everything else, so I knew this had to be him. I fired off a few shots, but it did nothing more than grab his attention.
Then I remembered something...
Everybody pressed on ahead, taking away from of the aggro from me and giving me a sufficient amount of time to grab the sniper rifle laying in the lifeless hands of the guy I'd killed for it. A giant smile on my face, I cocked it, made sure the ammo was in it, and took a peek through the scope. Oooooh, this is nice! I sighted up and fired. The commander went down.
I laughed.
I sighted through the scope again, waiting for a blue head to expose itself. There. I missed and cursed, knowing that the lives of my newfound friends were at stake. “Just so everybody knows, I have a sniper rifle. Don't shoot the idiot with the sniper rifle. Enjoy your day.”
I was grinning as I searched the battlefield, squeezing off shots when I could.
The muzzle of a pistil was placed against my temple, too close for the shields to kick in. “Bye-bye,” my Blue Suns stalker whispered. I was on my knees, he was bending over. I dropped the sniper rifle and twisted inside of him, taking out his leg with an outward slice, just like I was taught. I grabbed my pistil from the ground next to me—the idiot didn't kick it away, sloppy—and brought it around towards his head--
He rolled over as I did so, palming me in the face. He got on top of me, holding my hands apart while I tried to kick him with my feet. He was helmeted. “Get off!” I cried, struggling fruitlessly against his hold.
He grabbed me around the chest and lifted me to my feet—literally lifted me—and threw me down the ramp. I hit the ground, my shields already thudding as rounds bounced off of it. Panting hard, I ducked behind cover. “Shepard, on your six!”
“He's coming down the ramp, I see him!” The man was suddenly thrown sideways as Shepard's biotics slammed into him. He hit the wall hard enough to break his neck. He slumped to the ground, dead.
I checked my shield display and waited patiently for them to recharge, calling out enemy positions to the others from my safe spot here. When the shields were at seventy-five percent, I bolted back up the ramp, grabbing my weapons. “I'm hitting generators one and two,” I said.
It exploded, and one of the large, thick lines keeping Kuril's blue shields up vanished with a pop. I moved to the next one, extinguishing his safety one more time. Somebody hit the last one, I didn't even know who, and Kuril, with no cover and no possible way to keep us off, shouted in his fury.
I Overloaded his shields. Shepard crushed his armor, mangling it to his skin. He cried out in pain as the metal pieces pierced his organs. He jumped off the edge of his podium, screaming, and landed, stomach-first, on one of the barriers. Blue-colored blood dripped out of his open mouth. Jacob took two steps, just two, and put his pistil to Kuril's temple. The shot sounded like a punctuation mark to a very long day.
“Abby,” Shepard said, panting, “where is Jack?”
“Upstairs, where we came in,” I answered, leaning against the railing as I tried to catch my breath. “Think you're ready to meet her?”
“Yes,” Shepard said. “Is everybody ready to head out?”
“Oh, I suppose,” I said.
“We're good, Commander,” Jacob said.
Zaeed merely nodded. I stumbled towards them, feeling lightheaded. Jacob sat me down and applied a sweet-smelling glue to my forehead as he scanned my biometric signs from his omni-tool. “We need to get you to Chakwas,” he said, hiding the results from my eyes. He helped me stand up.
Shepard frowned at the results and made a grunting sound in the back of her throat. “Let's go.”
~-~-~-
There she is, breaking turian necks and thinking nothing of it, I thought wryly. Shepard took out the batarian running for her, and Jack, all lithe grace and bad manners, glared at him, tensing to strike. Slowly and deliberately Shepard put away her pistil. “What the hell do you want?” Jack snapped, clenching her fists.
It was... odd, not to see her in her usual leave-nothing-to-the-imagination outfit. With the prison slacks on, she almost looked normal.
“You're in a bad situation and I'm going to get you out of here,” Shepard said calmly.
“Shit, you sound like a pussy,” Jack said, pacing. “I'm not going anywhere with you: you're Cerberus.”
“I'm here to ask for your help,” Shepard said testily.
“You show up here in a Cerberus frigate and want to take me away somewhere? You think I'm stupid?”
“This ship is going down in flames, but we can get you to safety and we're asking for your help.”
“Oh, just knock her the bloody hell out and take her,” Zaeed said, waving a dismissive hand.
“I'd like to see you try, fucker,” Jack sneered.
“It might just come to that,” Shepard said icily.
“You'd have to kill me,” Jack stated. All was silent for a moment. “If you want me to come with you, make it worth my while.”
“What are you thinking?” asked Shepard.
“I bet your ship has loads of Cerberus data files. I want to look through them, see what they got on me. You want my help, let me go through those databases.” She crossed her arms resolutely.
“I'll give you full access,” Shepard said, quicker than I expected, like she'd already thought this through... or maybe she was bluffing. She better not be bluffing!
Jack jabbed a finger in her face. “You better be straight-up with me.”
Shepard nodded.
“So why the hell we standing here?”
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Post by Marishal on Jun 5, 2010 15:05:58 GMT -5
(Sarah)
I felt... content, in a weird way. Rupert was more than happy to get an assistant, and now I had found something that I could actually do on the ship without feeling useless or inadequate. Of course it took me a while to figure out where the cleaning supplies were, and I knew it would take a while before I could learn some of Rupert's... more unique dishes. (But hey, working with stanard ship rations was hard... right?) But right now, I was in the middle of cleaning the men's bathroom.
I spent quite a bit of time just scrubbing the floor, trying to get all of the dirt and grime up. It looked almost as if Rupert had only been cleaning the toilet bowl and the shower, and leaving the rest of the bathroom a mess. Then again... I could assume that he was a busy man.
Well, I thought, at least now we have a woman's touch around here. I snorted at the thought. Who would have imagined that I would be on the best ship in Mass Effect 2, on my hands and knees doing cleaning, while Abby was out there fighting for her life?
...Part of me wondered if EDI was somehow watching, and if she was getting a kick out of seeing me on my hands and knees. Gosh I hoped not. I didn't want to think that she could see it every time one of us had to use the bathroom.
I was up to my elbows in soapy water when the intercom blinked on. "Man your stations, folks, Shepard's back and we're busting outta here!" I could feel the slight weight of the artificial gravity as it began to work harder to compensate for whatever g-forces Joker was putting the ship through now. We must have been making quite an exit.
I remained as still as I could, wondering if I should grab ahold of my cleaning bucket to try and keep it steady in case things got really rough. I took my hands out of it and grabbed onto the edge of the toilet seat for support, yet all things considered it didn't jar me too much. I figured the ship must have had some decent stabilizors.
Once I was sure that I wasn't going to get sent flying into the wall or sent sliding across the wet floor, I grabbed the cleaning rag and decided to get on with what I was doing. I figured I was almost done anyway.
After a little while I finished cleaning the floor and I did my best to mop up most of the water with a towel. After all, if people came in here with their dirty shoes on while the floor was still wet, that wouldn't exactly be a good thing, would it? I still had to clean the toilet, because Rupert asked me to do that too. But that could wait a moment.
The door to the men's room opened with a very audible hiss. Startled, I glanced up to see who was intruding, words already half-formed in my mind that would make them leave, when they died on my lips. Jack raised one eyebrow. "What the hell are you looking at?"
I realized I was gaping at her. I closed my mouth and blinnked a couple of times. "Uh..." I cleared my throat, grabbing the towel I had been using up off the floor. "What're you doing in here?" I blurted out. "This is the men's room!"
Jack snorted. "So? What the fuck are you doing in here?"
"Cleaning," I said, indicating the towel in my hand, along with the bucket of soapy water and the damp floor. "Now what're you doing in here? The women's restroom is down the hall from here."
"Shepard's gossiping with the Cerberus cheerleader in there," she said, a look of intense dislike upon her face. "So I'm here. I'm just going to take a piss and get changed. Get back to your... cleaning, or whatever the hell you're doing."
I stared at her with widened eyes. In many ways this woman definitely had an... intimidating look about her. And yet for some reason I also felt as if I was dealing with a swarm of bees here; if you left the bees alone or didn't aggravate them too much, they would leave you alone for the most part.
"Uh..." I muttered, suddenly unsure what to do. I simply moved out of her way and grabbed my bucket.
Jack was wearing orange prison overalls, something I hadn't... been expecting. She carried pants and what I supposed was five or six leather belts in her hands. She wriggled out of her clothes and dumped the ones she must have scrounged up from somewhere on my nice, clean floor. The overalls were stained with red, orange, and blue blood. I looked away politely when I realized she wore no undergarments, like a bra.
She sat down on the toilet, naked as a jay-bird, and took a very long pee. I could feel my face heating up as I struggled to do something with my hands. The stream didn't stop for the longest time, and when it finally slowed to a trickle and ceased she held out her hand and said, "Toilet paper?"
My lips pressed into a thin line and I looked at her with widened eyes. I couldn't even imagine what my mother would say about this woman if she'd seen her. I quickly glanced around, but then I remembered that I had taken out the toilet paper when I started cleaning. I put it... out there somewhere. I didn't even remember where at the moment.
"Uh..." I swallowed. "I need to go get some. Wait here and I'll go get a roll, okay?" I didn't really wait for a response; I simply opened the door, got out, and closed it behind me. I did have more decency than SHE apparently did, after all; I wasn't going to leave the door open for the whole world to see her.
I looked around, trying to remember where the heck I left the toilet paper. Then I remembered; I put it behind the kitchen counter. So I walked over there, smiling innocently at anyone who happened to glance at me, and grabbed the two rolls of toilet paper.
I then walked back toward the men's restroom, still smiling. But as I approached the door to the men's room, I noticed that someone was coming. I glaced up to see none other than Zaeed approaching.
I flinched a little in spite of myself. He looked as though he wanted to go in.
He glanced at me, as if looking me over, then said simply, "Uh... you might wanna wait for a bit, girl. Can't you hold it in?"
What was with this ship? Was it considered okay to use whatever bathroom you felt like using at the moment or something? "Uh, I'm just the cleaning person," I said simply, and I shoved the toilet paper rolls at him. "Here," I said. "All I wanted to do was put those in there. So uh... have fun."
With that I turned on my heel, just as he opened the door to go in. Then I broke into a run, not wanting to be there in case chaos broke out before me. I just wanted to get somewhere safe... fast.
I ran as quickly as I could, my mind racing as I tried to quickly decide where to hide. As far as I was concerned, the two biggest bad-asses were now in the same bathroom, violating each other's space, and I just wanted to spend a few minutes behind a door or a bulkhead or something until I was sure they weren't going to blow a hole into the side of the ship.
I paused at the door to Miranda's office... then decided no way. So I turned away from it and sprinted in the other direction, moving straight down the hallway toward the door to the armory.
I went in through the door, and noticed that Garrus wasn't there. Well that suited me fine; I only wanted to hide anyway. I dove behind one of the crates in there and simply... stayed there, on the floor, listening to the "hum" of the ship and to my own breathing for the next few minutes.
Suddenly the door opened, and I cringed. Although I doubted that Jack or Zaeed would have any reason to... well, come in here. I stayed where I was for a moment as I heard footsteps approaching the terminal. Then I slowly peered out from behind it.
It was Garrus. It looked like he was doing something at the console. And I doubt he noticed me.
Very slowly I sat up, peering above the crate. "Hey," I said, smiling cheerfully as though nothing was going on. "What's up?"
Garrus glanced up, his mandibles tensing up as his body reacted to the sudden stress. "What are you doing in here?" he asked, staying a good ways away.
I moved out from behind the crate and sat on the edge of it. "Um... hiding."
"May I ask from whom now?" Garrus sounded like he was getting testy. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
I shook my head a little, standing up awkardly and moving just a little toward the door. "You don't want to know," I said. More specifically, I didn't want to talk about it. "Just tell me one thing... is it safe out there? I mean, you didn't hear any screaming or yelling, or anyone getting smashed against the wall or getting shot at while you were coming here... did you?"
He frowned... if turians could frown. "No... Maybe I better go check, though. What did you do?"
I blinked, then scowled. What made him think I did anything at all? "Uh, forget it." I shook my head, hoping he would just forget it. I was preparing to sprint... again.
"No, no, tell me," he said. I noticed he was wearing his pistil on his side. "Does this have anything to do with the crazy criminal Shepard just picked up?"
"Yeah kinda." I was staring at the door, but I stayed where I was. "I um..." I paused. "I got very nervous. Let's just leave it at that."
"What did you do to him?"
Now I glared at him. "First off, Jack is a she," I said. I was getting tired of him acting like I had done something terrible, like provoked someone or whatever. "Secondly, I didn't do anything. I was just doing my job and cleaning the men's restroom because Rupert told me to. Then Jack comes in saying she wants to use it to change her clothes. So she takes off her clothes and sits down on the toilet, then asks me for toilet paper.
"So," I went on in a huff-finding that it felt somewhat good to rant a little, "I go to get her some. I then saw Zaeed coming. He wanted to use the bathroom. So I simply gave him the toilet paper and ran here because I didn't want to be there in case hell broke loose."
I sucked in a deep breath to inhale more oxygen into my lungs, and waited for his reaction.
"Oh, dear," Garrus said, scratching his head. He turned around and locked the computer console. "I suppose I better go make sure they don't kill each other... stay out of trouble," he warned, and then he was gone.
Yeah, he could handle them if he wanted to. I would just stay here... and hide behind the crate some more.
And I did just that.
He came back about ten minutes later with the most bemused expression on his face. "Uh... you're... safe." He coughed and unlocked the console, then just stared at it for a few seconds before getting to work... or writing up a resignation email for Shepard.
I slowly moved out from behind the crate again. "You sure?" I asked, glancing around the room.
"Uh, yeah... she went downstairs wearing the weirdest outfit... I think all the males here are going to be very interested in her..."
"Um... yeah, I think I can imagine," I said with a nod. "Thanks, Garrus." I turned to go.
"Zaeed is taking a cold shower, so you might not want to... go in there."
We would never know exactly what happened in the bathrooms between Zaeed, Jack, and Garrus, but I had an inkling that it had to be something horrible to take Garrus by surprise like that. I felt my face heating up again.
"Yeah, okay," I said dully, and then I hurried out the door. Right at this moment, I didn't care about shirking my duties. I was going back to the room I shared with HK and Abby and listen to some music... or something. Just ANYTHING to try and unwind my nerves after this.
Abby wasn't in there, like I'd kind of expected she'd be. Neither was HK.
So I simply grabbed my CD player and plopped myself down onto my bed... hard. I put on the headphones and listened to "Telephone" by Lady Gaga at full blast, hoping it would sooth my nerves and make me forget about what just happened.
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