Sean

Pulling my face out of the dirt, I quickly wiped my visor down.

"Systems check." I spat, activating my omnitool. I glanced at the readouts Mark, my geth AI, gave me. Everything looked green, my vitals were pretty good too.

"Now to figure out where the hell I am." I glanced around. I was in a wooded thicket of some sort, and the sun was circling overhead. It looked like the place.

"O'Leary to Normandy. O'Leary to Normandy, respond please." Nothing. Still, that was almost to be expected. Who knew when Liara's contraption would bring them here? Or if it would.

I started jogging and noticed I felt pretty damn good. Better than I had since I hit 50 anyway. Or hell, even 40. I swung my arms a bit, not even the least bit sore even after doing a face plant into the dirt. I looked down, but my standard Alliance kit looked the same as always. Dented and care worn, like it had been through hell. Which it had really, the Reapers were the closest I ever wanted to come to damnation.

Before long I made my way out of the ticket and spied an asphalt road. Cars, ground cars ran along it. They looked old but new, if that makes any sense. Old as in they looked like they came from the 20th century, new as if I was in the 20th century. Which considering I was supposed to be in the 20th century, was probably a good thing.

Several slowed down as they passed me, before a cop turn his lights on and pulled over.

Anchorage PD, I read on the side. Figures, that was where I was born after all.

"Morning officer." I said as he stepped out, saluting him. Technically I guess he was a civilian, but it had been so long since I saw anybody that wasn't military in some capacity I just had the habit.

"Ah, good morning. Who exactly are you?" The officer asked, squinting at me and fingering his gun. Like a chemical round spitter like that could pierce my barriers or armor.

"Flight Lieutenant Sean O'Leary, Systems Alliance Resistance. May I ask what year it is?"

"Er, 1988. Are you out of Elmendorf Airforce Base or something Lieutenant?"

"No, I'm attached to the SR2 Normandy, Project REDEMTION. Thank you for the information Officer, "I checked his name tag, "Lloyd. I'm going to have to commandeer yourself and your transportation. I need to get to the Anchorage airport ASAP, military matters. You can have your ground car back when I get there."

"Under who's authorization?" Officer Lloyd spluttered.

"Under Systems Alliance Protocol W-23, in the event of an active conflict an officer of the military is entitled to commandeer civilian transport and enlist the assistance of the citizenry to ensure the safety of the body."

"I uh, OK, but I've got to clear it with dispatch."

"This is top secret officer. No time. Let's move."

I climbed in the car and Lloyd reluctantly got in and started driving. I continued to hail the Normandy as I scanned for satellites. There were a few, and they were easy enough to hack, but they didn't really have any of the data or boosting I needed. Hell, they were so primitive it would have actually harder to use as a signal booster then my omnitool.

"So are the Russians invading?" Lloyd demanded, sweat popping out on his puffy face. He was a tad overweight, something I hadn't seen in humans in a long time. If you got ration bars you were happy.

"Can't explain, but this is the highest level of threat." I sternly told him, "Put your lights on."

He complied and sped down the highway, and I went back to trying to locate the Normandy.

"Come on Doctor, this has to work." I muttered to myself, "We can let those communist sons of bitches win."

The communist part was for Lloyds benefit. I was pretty sure at this point Russians were communists, and they were the bad guys in... This was the United States right? Damn, I hadn't been in the US for almost 30 years. Hell, when I was from it hadn't EXISTED in 100 or so.

My remark hit the spot, and we picked up even more speed as Lloyd radioed for a corridor to be cleared. Dispatch got a little upset, until I got on, hacked their radio system and made them think I was some sort of US Air Force Colonel. That got their attention, and Mark had fun fielding their calls and misdirecting them. They didn't even realize it was a geth, though admittedly they probably would have just called it a robot or some nonsense like that.

"These organics systems are even more primitive then I was lead to believe." Mark said.

"Hell Mark, they're still using vacuum tubes I think. Circuitry is about 6 years away."

"Can we really use this to help stop the Reapers?"

"Not back home," Funny, because this was home for me, but not how I thought of it anymore, "But we can stop them here."

"Anything to kill the old machines." Mark agreed, then went back to focusing on playing phone tag.

We got to the airport in what I figured was record time, and a whole mess of people were waiting for me. As if on cue, my comm crackled to life.

"...Anyone there? Is Earth? Goddess, my screen is blank, there's nothing there! Doctor, are you sure it-"

"This is O'Leary. I read you Normandy, securing a landing zone. Lock on to my signal, Mark will guide you in."

Liara jumped on the comm. "Thank the Goddess! O'Leary, did it work? Where are we? When are we?"

"Earth, 1988. It worked Doctor."

Liara paused for a moment, then started up with the technobabble. "But you were born in 1989, how could... Ah, humans have a 9 month gestation period, I imagine that we were transported back to the very beginning of your lifespan! This if fascinating, perhaps if I chose an asari subject and reconfigured-"

I sighed. "Doc, you're machine got me. I don't know why, but it did. We've bought ourselves about 150 years. It will have to be enough."

"Yes, of course. Forgive me, I get distracted sometimes."

"We'll talk later." I turned back to the perplexed airport administrator staring at me.

"Talking to yourself?" He asked.

"Nope, built in communicator to the helmet. You need to clear a landing pad, and call out the press. First Contact is about to happen right here."

"First contact? What you mean like ET or something?"

"No, asari, krogan, geth, EDI, salarians, quarians and turians. Roll out the red carpet buddy, this is your lucky day. Anchorage is about to be famous."

"How do I know that this is real? You could have made that costume from-"

I lost patience and drew my gun and activated my omnitool.

"Mark, seize control of their systems."

"I can't Sean." Mark said, forming a hologram beside me, "I can only fool their radios. Everything else is a hard line, none of it is networked."

"Oh, right." I muttered. Wireless wouldn't be around for what, 20 years? I forgot about that one.

"HOLY SHIT IT'S A ROBOT!" Someone yelled.

"I am geth." Mark admonished, "And technically, I am not a robot unless I am on a mobile platform. I exist only as software."

"Are you an alien?" The administrator demanded.

"No," I sighed, "I'm human. Now get me that landing pad, the SR2 is coming, ready or not."

There was a flurry of activity as that. As it turned out, the Normandy had made its entrance somewhere over Australia, so it didn't take them long to fly over Alaska. It was escaping notice so far, even though Liara probably wasn't bothering with the stealth drives. At least that's what I thought until I talked to some Air Force General.

"Are you telling me that's a space ship on our radar, not an ICBM from the Russians?" Someone called General Murphy demanded.

"Yes sir, it's the SR2 Normandy."

"So it's an extra terrestrial vassal? Some sort of UFO?"

"No sir, the SR2 was refit by the Alliance on Earth, so it's not extra-terrestrial. It's also not unidentified, I'm giving you it's registry now."

"God dammit do you have any idea what you've done! Washington and Moscow are ready to blow us all to hell and gone."

I glanced over at the assembled press out on the tarmac. "Tell them to tune in to the Anchorage news. The SR2 lands in 5."

"I haven't authorized-"

"Fuck you sir. I'm pulling rank. A Systems Alliance Lieutenant outranks any order of officer on a local militia."

"What!? How dare you-"

I stabbed the phone with my omnitool and implanted a chip, slaving it to Mark. "General says it's a go."
I told the administrator, "You can talk to him now." Technically he could talk to Mark miming the general, but he didn't need to know that.

"That was liberating." Mark commented, "These humans seem a lot harder to work with then the ones from before. "

"That's because before they were scared of the Reapers. Now they're scared of us. But that'll change."

I wasn't quite sure what the press was expecting, because they were keeping well clear of the runway that had been cleared for the Normandy. I didn't feel like explaining that it was a VTOL, and just stood out in front of the cameras. It was all local news reporters babbling away about what was happening and what a stir I caused. They all shut up when the Normandy arrived.

The asari pilot was pretty hot stuff I had to admit. Not as good as Jeff Moreau had been I'm sure, but better then a freight hauler like myself. She streaked the Normandy straight down from atmo and stood her on her tail, sending a blast of wind and a scream of engines and mass effect fields to buffer us. I ignored it, crash landings like that were the norm in reaper occupied territory, and I had done a few myself. Not as gracefully mind, but just as dramatic.

The whole airport seemed to be holding its breath. The loading ramp hissed open, and EDI Moreau walked out.

She raised her hand and made the Vulcan greeting sign. "We come in peace." She stated seriously, then leaned her head towards me. "Shoot to kill."

Someone let out a strangled sound, and I think everyone would have panicked if I hadn't started laughing.

"Come on EDI, we need to be serious. Saving the galaxy and all?" I chuckled. Still, that had been a pretty good one.

"That was a joke." She informed the press.

Before they could decided what to do, the refugees started pouring off the Normandy. Turians, quarians, salarians, asari, krogan, and humans all stumbled off the ramp. Some were rare intact family units, others were just desperate people we had cobbled together on Feros. Sadly, the few hundred people represented most of the survivors of the Feros refugee camps, maybe the last few non-indoctrinated living beings around from that time.

Their torn, bloodied clothes and injuries got the presses attention and I turned to the emergency responders I had ordered assemble at the strip, doctors and EMTs mostly. "Right, you're all newbies. Don't treat anyone who isn't human, and don't treat anyone who refuses treatment. Your job is to provide food, water and medical supplies. Follow the directions of anyone in a uniform who isn't from around here. Get cracking."

Immediately they rushed to get to work, clearly seeing the need. There were more refugees on board, only the walking wounded and uninjured had gotten off. Geth primes directed traffic and helped provide treatment, and surprisingly the newbies followed orders, even if they did come from a three meter tall killing machine.

Next off was Dr. T'soni, who went with EDI over to the press. I nodded and turned to deal with managing the refugees.

"Liara needs you Sean." A tired Urdnot Bakara told me, "Go, I can manage this."

"What does she need me for?" I asked, confused.

Smiling, Bakara answered, "You're our link. This is your time, your people. Go."

The hell I was. I was more at home in the 22nd century, Reapers and all. But I had a duty, so I turned and headed back to the press.

"Fuck me sideways." I sighed, "This is gonna be a long day."

Liara

Earth. I had been here before of course, in London for Operation Hammer. Our last great resistance. We failed. Shepard never made it to the Crucible. I watched him die as I was med evaced by the Normandy, shot dead by a Marauder. To have come so far and failed... But we didn't give up. We never stopped fighting.

Our fleets were decimated, our greatest heroes were dead. Tali, Wrex, Javik, Ashley, and of course my heart, Shepard. All dead. Admiral Hackett had died as well, and the scattered remnants of civilization got ready to fall to the Reapers.

It was a blow that was strangely long in coming. And that hesitation gave us time. I saw the principles of the Crucible, and how to improve them, how to change them, how to use them without a so called Catalyst. And most importantly, how to miniaturize them. With that much energy, I could do anything except actually destroy the Reapers. With our defeat assured, I turned to the once place where I knew victory was still possible: The past.

With Garrus now in overall command of the remaining resistance, everything was funneled into my project. I activated it, but realized I was missing something. A link to the past, a beacon to guide the way. I called forth someone, Sean O'Leary. He was not my intended target, but he would work. After years of effort, I had finally succeeded. Just as the Reapers descended upon us I sent the Normandy filled with the last remnants of our civilization back in time as Garrus and the few remaining warships sold themselves to give us a window to escape.

But now that we were here, I did not know what to do. These humans were not the humanity I had known. They were primitive at best, according to Sean this was over 150 years before the Battle of the Citadel. I prayed it was enough time.

"So are you really an alien?" One of the human reporters ask.

"Yes, I am asari. I come from the planet Thessia. With me are krogan of Tuchanka, quarians and geth of Rannoch, salarians of Sur'Kesh, turians of Palaven, and humans of Earth. But we are not of your time. We are refugees of a terrible war from the future. In the coming days, I will ask that Earth do what it did in our time: Arise to the greatest challenge the galaxy has ever faced. A terrible foe, machines ancient and powerful beyond reckoning descended upon us and destroyed us, as they have countless civilizations before. We could not defeat them in our own era, so we traveled back to give ourselves time to prepare. With us we have brought technology we will freely share with all the peoples of Earth. We ask that your differences be put aside and you stand united with us. As my companion Sean O'Leary, who is of your time can tell you, humanity too was destroyed by our Enemy the Reapers."

I turned to Sean, and he stepped forward, taking off his helmet and tucking it under his arm. I was shocked for a moment, then composed myself. He was young. The Sean I had known was in his matron stage in human terms, about 53 years old. This Sean could not have been more then 20.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I come with dire news. Our future is under threat. In 150 years, an ancient race of machines known as Reapers will attack the Earth. I myself barely escaped the first Battle of Earth, and I saw the destruction they wrought. Our cities burned. Our people were harvested and turned into abominations that killed their own children. Our fleets were broken, our armies slaughtered. But now we have a chance. We did not know the Reapers were coming, we had only 2 years warning and few believed the early signs. But now we have a chance. We can jump our technology forward a 1000 years and unite the races of the galaxy. We can find Sovereign and destroy him. We can sabotage the Mass Relays that the Reapers used to destroy us. We can find the Citadel and destroy the Star Child. This time, we can win."

He stopped and nodded, and for the second time I wondered what this "Star Child" was. He had spoke of it to me before, though we had only known each other for a few weeks. Sean had been called forward, but I had not been precise in my initial calculations. He had arrived on Earth fully 22 years before Sovereign attacked the Citadel. Somehow, he had known the Reapers were coming through a strange form of premonition or vision he had had while called forward. He had done all he could to prepare, joining the Alliance Military and training to fight. But one man was not enough, as Shepard had proven.

EDI and Luke, the leader of the geth stepped forward to field questions from the reporters. Sean motioned to me, and I stepped close so he could whisper in my ear.

"We've got to meet with Washington and Moscow. This is a blessing, there are two competing superpowers. If we give our tech to both, they'll race each other to see who can have the biggest and best dreadnaught. We can unite them once we show them the prothean ruins on Mars and the Charon Relay. I have a plan, but I need to talk with you alone about it. For now, we just rally support. Come on, I'll get us a line to the President and whatever they call the Russian leader. Primer or something I think."

I nodded, too tired to really consider everything. I was still young, but the years of constant war had taken their toll on me. I hadn't really planned past coming to the past and escaping the Reapers. So many dead, so many who would never see this day.

David lead me over to a frightened looking human. "Get me a line to the President."

"You mean President Reagan?"

"No, President Castro. Of course President Reagan! We're in America, aren't we?"

I was certain that Sean was asking a serious question, he claimed to have forgotten a great deal and this was technically before he was ever born.

"Um, right away." He scampered off, leaving Sean and I to our own devices.

"Damn. Can't believe I'm back on Earth. Never thought I'd see it again. Not alive anyway."

"And I can't believe this worked. I have a question for you though, what is the star child?"

"The Reaper's master, more or less. It's an ancient AI. Lives on the Citadel."

"Goddess, you mean this whole time..."

"Yeah. Which is why we can't just run off, activate the Charon Relay and tell the galaxy the Reapers are coming. Sovereign is out there, and the Star Child is watching. We're going to have to be sneaky. Like I said, I have a plan, but I'll need to run it by you and the other leaders. I'm just a grunt."

"No, you're the highest ranking member of the Alliance Military still alive." I corrected him, smiling despite my exhaustion. Sean was such a humble, unassuming sort. Bakara probably had to tell him he was needed, he likely would have found the dirtiest job available and started doing it. "I think that means you quality as a leader."

"Huh. Never thought about it that way. Kinda depressing when a Lieutenant is the highest rank left."

"We're in good hands." I assured him. And we were, Sean had come to Ferros smuggling two dozen asari children from a colony that the Reapers had attacked. Against all odds, he had risked himself and his rickety old transport just to save a few more lives. It had been daring and clever, he had gone in ballistic and timed his exit so he was covered by the launch of several dozen anti-air missiles, disguising his emission to match the missiles own. He had barely escaped, but because of him there were two dozen little ones among the refugees. Perhaps the last seeds of Thessia.

No. I couldn't think that way. Thessia was out there, alive and well. My mother was out there, with my father. I hadn't even been born yet. Strange, for someone who was now 124.

"Sir, ma'am, the Vice President's on the phone. The President was unavailable."A human said, one of the new ones. Or old ones. Goddess, time travel was confusing.

"Close enough," I sighed, and motioned for the woman to lead on.

We followed her to a room with a phone. Sean stabbed it with his omnitool so everyone in the room could hear.

"Mr. Vice President, I'm First Admiral Sean O'Leary. With me is Dr. Liara T'soni, the leader of the asari. They're one of the species of aliens who landed on the Normandy. I hope we can catch you up with events."

The promotion Sean had given himself brought another smile to my lips. Perhaps I would smile more now that we had a chance against the Reapers. It made sense though, and would help us rally the nations of the world.

"That would be excellent, Admiral O'Leary. I confess, I wasn't expecting to have aliens landing in my country today." The voice on the telephone drawled. President Bush, I assumed.

"Now remind me, your Bush Senior, not G W Bush. You were President after Reagan but before Clinton." Sean said, leaning over the phone.

"I am Bush the Senior yes. You mean to tell me I become President, and Junior does as well? And that hick from Alabama really succeeds me?"

"You do become President in my time sir. GW Bush did succeed you, maybe not anymore. Junior did take the country through a bad time. Terrorists hit the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Killed about 3000 people. Probably won't happen now, but he was a good President. Clinton was OK I guess, he's not really remembered that well."

That wasn't Sean's personal bias, I could tell from the way he chose his worlds. He was manipulating the President by praising his son and damning the man Bush obviously disliked.

"Well I'll be damned. Always thought it would be Jeb that followed me. But we're not here to talk about my family."

"No sir, we are not. Dr. T'soni brought complete technical readouts of everything you're going to need to kickstart the war on the Reapers. I'll let her explain."

I stepped up and spoke into the phone. "President Bush, I have brought schematics for every possible level of sophistication. I understand you are industrialized and have reached the moon, but do not yet have micro transistors or computers with processing power that exceeds even a gigabyte of information."

There was a moment of silence, then, "My experts tell me that the best our computers can do is store a few kilobytes of information, maybe a megabyte if we push it."

"Then we can help you. I have schematics for everything from steam engines to advanced element zero cold fusion cores. It will take a few years, but if we work together we can jump your technology about 1000 years in a decade."

"God damn, are you serious? This will put us over on the Russians by a long shot."

"We will also be giving this information to the Russians. Or anyone else who asks. This is not about countries, or even just about humanity. This is about all life in this galaxy. We can defeat the Reapers, but everyone will need to work together."

Sean stepped in at that. "Mr. Vice President, we should meet on neutral ground. If memory serves, Switzerland is considered to be neutral. We need to meet with every world leader that has an economy that can build an internal combustion engine. We won't forge a single world order overnight, but humanity is going to need to stand together in this."

There was a few moments of silence, then the President spoke up. "Let's say I buy this. That these Reaper are really a threat. Why should we help you? We have our own problems here and now."

"YOU IGNORANT SON OF A BITCH!" Sean and I roared, mostly together, "I WATCHED EARTH/THESSIA BURN! I WATCHED AS THE LAST OF HUMANITY/SARIDOM BURNED IN HIGH ORBIT!"

"If you won't help us Mr. President, I'll kill you myself and find someone who will." Sean growled.

"If you even consider ignoring this like the fools on the Council," I panted, "I will flay you with my MIND."

"You two do know threatening the President is a federal offence." Bush remarked.

"Abandoning humanity to die is treason." Sean snapped, "And I've got a spaceship with some goddamn big guns."

"Alright, alright. I don't know if this is wise, but I'm inclined to believe you. Those people look like they've gone through hell, and the stories I'm getting on CNN from the survivors are grim. Some of it doesn't make sense, but one thing is clear. Unless you found a whole bunch of people and aliens and convinced them all to sing the same tune, something bad is gonna happen in about 150 years. No one will say that George Herbert Walker Bush took this one lying down."

"Good." Sean sighed, "Because 150 years is going to be barely enough time."

I couldn't help but agree. It might sound like a long time to a human, but to me, it wasn't even a fifth of my life. The Reapers were still coming. This time, we would be ready.

Authors Note:

Just to be clear, I'm not inserting personal politics. Bush was elected President in 88, and Sean is trying to butter him up.

Also, if you read Sean's adventure, please review! I love feedback and want to hear what you have to say, good or bad.

Edit: I made a mistake. Bush was elected in 1988, but did not assume office until 1989. This has been fixed so that he is now refered to as Vice President. In future chapters, Ronald Reagan will appear as President until 1989, when Bush assumes office.