Radioactive
Fanfiction by Krystal Shepard
A/N: Radioactive is a purely fanmade story. I hold no rights to its creation.
That being said, this story has two central AU's. I know, quite a bit more than I probably should have, but just believe me that this'll be good.
In Radioactive, my Shepard is a Colonist, with a twin brother who survived the Mindoir attack but sustained heavy injury to his legs. Upon reaching Citadel space, Jonathan requested that he join the Alliance for biotics training – the first time he had extensively used said biotics was Mindoir – and was rejected. No one expected the strength of his biotics, so the Alliance Brass thought that he was part of an illegal experiment, and a danger to his fellow humans. He was effectively banned from entering the Sol system, along with his twin. Instead, the Asari Councilor approached him with a Spectre position, training on Thessia, and full payment for all of his brother's medical expenses by the Asari government. I am jumping the rails here. Hope you enjoy the ride! The second AU will be explained in the bottom notes!
Chapter 1: New Assignment
Council meetings were always boring. That much was a certainty that one learns while living amongst the members of the Citadel who enjoyed the thought of being around the politicians. Of course, one of those people, first human Spectre, and by far the youngest Spectre ever, Jonathan Shepard, did not exactly have a choice in the matter.
However, any way someone looks at it, Council meetings were boring.
This particular one, Jon almost had left before he even heard what it was about. Of course, it was a combination of things: he was nearing the beginning of his menstrual cycle, the cramps had started the day before, and he had been given ambiguous orders to join an all-human ship for reasons that "were going to be explained shortly." The moment he had seen Ambassador Udina, he knew that this was not going to be a good meeting. The pig-headed man had a way of grating against his nerves – maybe it was because he was the man who signed off on his inability to travel to the Sol system all those years ago. The one thing, or should he say person, keeping him there, was Nihlus, someone whom he would consider a friend and has nearly died to protect from the line of fire. A heavy, clawed hand was sitting on his shoulder, all but pinning him to the spot where he stood. Jon had long since crossed his arms in complaint, and had been ignoring what was being said.
Until Nihlus flicked his ear. He flinched, sending a glare towards the Turian, who only twitched his mandibles. "You really should pay attention. I know you don't like him, but he's just giving the Council a briefing on the Systems Alliance's new prototype." Jon's glare intensified.
"Just because we've been assigned there for who knows what reason does not mean I have to listen to the man who denies my very existence," he bit out in a quiet voice, so only Nihlus would hear him. His Turian friend's mandibles only twitched once more.
Before he could continue, Udina's voice finally cut through Jon's mental block. "The Alliance also has placed our Spectre candidate aboard the SSV Normandy, Commander Kaidan Alenko. He has yet to be informed or evaluated, so I must request a Spectre to go along with our prototype for as long as the evaluation must last." Councilor Tevos gave the Human Ambassador a small nod.
"We have already chosen our two Spectre's to evaluate the Commander. Nihlus, Jonathan, please step forwards."
Human and Turian both stepped up level with Udina, Jon making sure his gaze was directly in front of him the whole time. He could not help but notice that Nihlus purposefully moved so that Jonathan would have to be between the Turian and the Ambassador.
His stomach almost twisted itself into a knot and forced his lunch up at the thought.
Udina glanced the two over and scowled. "I only see one Spectre here, Councilors," he said disdainfully, "and it is not the human you have called forth." Sparatus looked like he was about to launch himself at the Ambassador.
"Shepard has proven himself as a Spectre for years. Why can't you just accept the fact, Ambassador, and move on?" Jon smirked on the side opposite Udina, so only Nihlus would see it clearly. The Ambassador shifted and crossed his arms.
"The Systems Alliance has already stated that we do not recognize Jonathan Shepard as a Spectre. Therefore, he is not allowed on one of our warships." Taking a deep breath, Jon forced the laughter that attempted to bubble out of him. Oh, this was going to get interesting.
"Jonathan has been ordered to oversee the evaluation of Commander Kaidan Alenko by the Council, a force in which you have no say in who gets placed where, Ambassador. This meeting of the Council is adjourned. Spectre's, we wish you luck." And with that, the three Councilors left. Jon let his smirk cross his entire face, and when he turned to leave, he gave Udina a shit-eating grin.
"I win."
Jon Shepard was not someone to be trifled with. Luckily, his fellow Spectre Nihlus, who was also boarding the prototype Alliance warship, called the SSV Normandy, with the human biotic, understood this fact. One only had to look at his track record: one of only two members of the Mindoir raid that lived, he was the only human biotic refused by the Alliance because he was "too dangerous to be around other humans and had to be some part of an illegal experiment", had received training on Thessia when it came to his biotics and gunmanship, and whom just a year after being flat out banned from the Sol system not only had beaten an Asari matron in a sparring match but was also inducted into the ranks of the Council's Spectre's. That should have made it necessary to inform the crew of his temperance, much less his actual presence aboard the ship.
Apparently, his good friend Anderson did not get the memo that he was coming along.
He received some odd glances from the crew as he strode on board with Nihlus right next to him, violet eyes burning as he headed towards the bridge. Nihlus placed a clawed hand on his shoulder, making the twenty-nine year old pause and turn to face his elder counterpart. The Turian might as well have had a wary look on his face. "Listen, Shepard, you try and acclimate to the human crew while I inform the Captain about our, arrival," the Turian suggested, that wariness hidden deep in his vocalization. Jon tilted his head, a sly smirk twisting his lips.
"Don't worry about me," he said quietly, winking at the elder Turian as he walked in the opposite direction, towards where he believed the crew quarters were. His Spectre fatigues stuck out amongst all of the Alliance, but he did not care. His only job was to check out this Commander Alenko and see if he's up to snuff.
Jon was so focused on heading to the crew quarters and racking out that he did not notice when a bouncing young man started following him. That was, until said bouncing young man placed a hand on his shoulder.
Bad mistake on his part.
Jon gripped the young man's wrist tightly, using it as a leverage point to twist the young man around and pin his arm painfully against his back. "And you are?" he asked in a quiet, patient voice, not entirely caring that the entire crew was staring at him. The young man chuckled nervously before clearing his throat.
"Um… Staff Lieutenant Jenkins, sir. Can you please let me go? This is kinda hurting," the young man asked, glancing back with trepidation in his blue eyes. Jon blinked before releasing the young man, who immediately brought his arm in front of him, rubbing at the abused shoulder and wrist. "Thanks. Sorry I startled you," Jenkins said, turning to face Jon with a large grin on his face. "I was just curious. You're obviously not used to being around fellow humans, being a Spectre and all, so I just wanted to help you get to know everyone on board, if that's all right."
Jon blinked several more times, carefully keeping his face blank as he thought over the offer. It was a good one to make: Jenkins was someone that the crew knew, and he seemed like the type of person who would know just about everyone on the ship. And it would give Jon time to "acclimate to being around humans again" as Nihlus would put it.
Slowly, Jon nodded his acceptance. "Can I drop my stuff off at my bunk first?" he said, holding up his bag so Jenkins could see. The young man's grin grew, buzzed head bobbing in excitement. Jon gave a small nod before following Jenkins towards the crew quarters.
Jon smiled as Jenkins brought him to yet another group of crew members, feeling more than a little out of place amongst the all-human crew. The conversation was practically inane chatter and gossip, nothing really for him to note. Jon started looking around for anything to draw his attention away from the chatter of the three before him when Jenkins seemed to perk up and run off towards someone else.
"Commander Alenko!"
Jon whipped around to the direction that Jenkins had all but bounced off to. The young Lieutenant was currently bouncing around what had to be the Commander that Jon and Nihlus were to examine for Spectre rank. He raised an eyebrow at the man before him, almost not believing that this man was a Commander. He barely looked older than Jon, had hair that Jon had never seen before on someone in the military – not that he'd ever seen very many humans outside of the Citadel, and they stayed far away from him on principle, and currently was rubbing at his temples like all he wanted was to swat Jenkins away from him and go off to a quiet corner of the ship. Shaking his head, Jon walked over to the two, listening as Jenkins rattled on about how shocked he was that the Commander was on board, if he needed someone to show him around, if he could answer a few questions the young man had…
Jon sidled in next to Commander Alenko and told Jenkins, "Hey Lieutenant, why don't you go talk with the crew? I think the Commander here might need to see the doctor." Alenko glanced at him with a thankful look in his gorgeous whiskey colored eyes, causing Jon to have to force down a flush and shift slightly to readjust a certain area, while Jenkins practically squeaked an apology and scrambled off. Jon rolled his eyes at the young Lieutenant, which helped to hide the fact that his eyes were starting to trail down the Commander's physique, before turning his attention to Alenko. "Come on, I'll take you there," he offered, jerking his head in the direction of the med bay. The Commander paused for a second, looking him over – and widening his eyes when he saw the Spectre symbol on his fatigues – before slowly nodding.
"Sorry if I'm a little… off, you could say?" the Commander started with as Jon started towards the med bay. "I've had a migraine since yesterday morning, and all of my meds had been sent here the day before that." Jon nodded, knowing the feeling; all of his migraine meds had been destroyed when the raiders had hit, and those meds were the one thing keeping him out of pain while he had to hide his biotic abilities. They remained in silence for the short distance to the med bay, and Jon waited in the doorway as Alenko approached the doctor, a thin, graying woman who almost appeared younger than her gray hair led him to believe. "Hey Chakwas," Alenko said, "did you get my migraine meds two days ago?" The doctor, Chakwas as the Commander called her, glanced up and chuckled.
"Commander Alenko, I'm starting to think that you are stalking me. Yes, they did show up. Top right cabinet, dark red bottle as always," she said, remaining professional as she returned to the datapads before her. Or, almost returned to them, seeing as how her graying head jerked back up when she saw Jon in the doorway. "Spectre Jonathan Shepard, I do not believe we have met." Jon gave her a smile. He liked this woman. "Doctor Karin Chakwas, Alliance Medical. I'm the CMO aboard. If you have any injuries or are in need of medication like some people," she turned a tasteful glance to Alenko, who had the decency to flush and look away, "then I'm the one responsible." Jon nodded.
"Actually, I probably should talk to you anyways…" Chakwas tilted her head, so he continued: "Throughout my career, I've found that some medication's do the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do when I take them. Only fair I should warn you that if you prescribe anything while I'm aboard," which might be longer than any of them knew, "that they might backfire on you." Jon swore that Chakwas' eyes lit up.
"You have an opposite reaction to medication?" Alenko had asked the question, pausing afterwards to dry swallow the pills he needed to take. "Isn't that, well I don't know, mostly unheard of?" Jon shrugged at the question.
"Actually, other doc's think it might just be human medication. Someone mixed up while I was on Thessia, and I wound up with an Asari sedative being injected into the IV, you know, since there aren't that many humans on Thessia to begin with. Was knocked out for days after that." He pushed away from the doorway and walked into the room fully, door sliding shut behind him. "Then the Salarian's tried to put a normal sedative in me so they could pull shotgun shrapnel out of my back. Didn't work out so well," he shrugged once more, this time from remembering the tiny pieces of metal that still sometimes work their way to the surface of his skin.
Chakwas looked like she was a kid in a candy store.
Alenko, however, was a bit skeptical.
Lucky for him, the comm. opened up in the med bay, and someone said, "Shepard? The Captain would like to see you." He nodded before a, "You too, Commander," was added. Alenko groaned, shaking his head as he trudged past Jon to the door.
He felt the need to say, "We'll be there momentarily," before leaving.
Jon followed Alenko up the stairs and to the briefing room at the back of the bridge. He had to admit, the view was almost as nice from behind the man as it was from the front, and Jon most certainly was not beyond ogling while he had the chance. All too soon, however, the view was removed, and Jon was forced to look up to see Anderson once more.
A grin worked its way across both men's faces. Anderson walked over to Jon, and as soon as they were close enough they gripped hands tightly and pulled one another into a one-armed hug. "Shepard, its good to see you again," the Captain said before pulling back. "Since I had no time to tell you last time we saw each other, I did try to convince the Brass to give you a chance." Jon's grin increased.
"David, it's fine. I take it you got the sit rep?" He received an odd look from his old friend, and he sighed out a, "No you weren't." Giving Nihlus a hard glare – which at least caused the Turian to shift uncomfortable if not wince slightly – he said, "Sit rep on my file was what I meant, which my lovely cohort was supposed to tell you, as ordered by the Council."
Nihlus gave his version of an eye roll. "If you two were so close, I had figured that you would tell him yourself."
"Oh yeah, and what was it that Councilor Sparatus said again? 'Nihlus, you make sure the captain knows about the improvements in Shepard's biotics once you get aboard?'" Jon placed his hands on his hips and let the right jut out. "Really, Nihlus?"
Insert Turian shrug here.
Jon threw up his hands. "I swear I have to do everything," he grumbled, looking up at the ceiling before returning his attention to Anderson and Alenko, who appeared to be doing a lot better now that he had taken his medication. "All right, I'm only going to say this once. After I was forbidden from entering Sol space, much less joining the Alliance, due to me being a "threat to other humans and an illegal experiment, so fuck you", Councilor Tevos approached me with, literally, an offer I could not afford to refuse: full training on Thessia, Spectre ranking, and the Asari government would pay for my brother's medical expenses." He rolled his neck, cracking it unintentionally as he walked around the room to one of the seats. "I really had no other option, and honestly, all I cared about was making sure my brother wasn't going to be in any pain. I accepted, was taken to Thessia for training, and Jason received the best medical care possible. A year later, I was sparring an Asari matron in pure biotic combat and managed to beat her, matching her biotic power for biotic power even. Apparently, my biotics decided to grow to match those surrounding me in power." Gingerly, he ran his fingers over the back of one of the seats, not looking at the three who were raptly listening – he had never told Nihlus this, and it really wasn't put in Jon's file the way he was telling it. "The rest is history: been a Spectre for the past twelve years, recently highly regarded amongst their ranks, and the most powerful human biotic in the galaxy."
Silence came from the other occupants in the room, and when Jon glanced up he saw them all staring at him. "What?" he asked, defensive all of a sudden for no real reason. "I'm supposed to take care of my baby brother, and that's what I did. The fact that I also became a Spectre was a bonus in my mind." Anderson shook his head at that, but continued on.
"Thank you for informing me. I had just figured that the three of you needed to be properly introduced before we leave the Citadel and head for Eden Prime." Anderson fell into his professional role nicely, his face going stony. "You two don't cause any trouble, understood? I don't want the crew hating you any more than you probably dislike the crew." Out of the two Spectre's in the room, Jon received the harshest glare. "And I hope I do not have to place you, Shepard, under Alenko's watch like you were placed under mine a long time ago." Jon flushed.
"Hey now, I've cooled down some since then. That was thirteen years ago, David." Jon waved a hand as he walked out, adding over his shoulder, "That and you guys had pulled me off of a battlefield that had once been my home. You actually expected me to be somewhat stable?"
He did not wait for a reply, walking straight to his bunk and collapsing for the night cycle, completely worn out from all of the interaction he had today.
1) Carriers are humans who are normally more fertile than other humans, and can be either male or female. However, due to weak genetics in comparison to the Protectors, or even the regular humans, Carriers had died out in the late eighteen hundreds, mostly unknown to the normal population. In the late twenty-first century, genetic researchers unearthed the basic Carrier gene, and had managed to turn that into a legal genetic modification. If the Carrier is male, then they are capable of bearing children as well as siring them. There have been no natural Carriers since they died out.
2) Protectors are humans who have naturally high protective instincts, normally towards the Carriers, and can be either male or female, although they normally are male. Their genetics are stronger than a normal human's, thereby creating a high number of Protectors, especially after the Carriers had died out. Since then, it was normal that a Protector was a soldier, seeing as how they really had no other choice in the matter. A Protector is genetically wired to do just what their name suggests: protect people, no matter whom or what cost that protection will be. Since the gene-mod for the Carriers had been created, there have been numerous Protectors that have families now, instead of constantly going into the army and dying in combat.
Side Note: Carriers and Protectors have to be kept separate while in the military due to the Protectors genetic requirement that they protect the Carrier with their life. This, of course, causes some issues while in the military. Also, Carriers are given the right to say whether their "gender" is the normal male/female, or if they want the Alliance to know about their actual genetics and keep the gender of Carrier. This helps in separating the Carriers from the Protectors, however if a Carrier declines to have his/her public gender to be what they really are, then it is at their own discretion and they must deal with the consequences. (The Carrier's Rights Bill of 2156 had established this. (Yes I am totally creating a law for this XD))