Mass Effect: Journeyman Self Insert
Prologue
I walked along a snow machine trail; not a soul for miles. The forest was almost dead silent. The only noise to distract me from my thoughts was the very light sprinkling sound of snow falling on my green ski-jacket. I wipe the snowflakes away from my trimmed beard and mustache. The teeth of my snowshoes softly scrap away the fresh coat of powder from the older layers of snow beneath. The crusty barrier does an admirable job carrying my 170 pound heft. The further I trudge on, the more I feel unwelcome in these unfamiliar woods. My family always told me that it was stupid for me to go wandering off out there alone; especially at night.
No matter. I'll keep stomping away despite what might be rational and safe. Besides, living is just about the most dangerous thing you can do.
The main path split up ahead of me. The lighter tracks of snowmobiles abruptly converged with very deep tracks; probably made by heavy earth moving machines. The large ruts ran towards me on my left and turned sharply up the hill to my right. The way home was to the left, but curiosity gets the better of me. I'd never been up that hill before and it seemed odd for any sort of excavation to be happening in the dead of winter. Against my better judgment, I decide to check it out.
"Just need to be extra cautious," I think out loud, attempting to calm my nerves. I wished that at least the moon would break through the cloud cover so my headlamp wasn't the only source of light.
It only took five minutes of stomping through the massive caterpillar tracks to discover what all the earth-moving fuss was about. Just as I reached the crest of a man-made dirt plateau, a massive concrete bunker came into view. At least, I assumed it was a bunker. It had all the earmarks of some sort of secret military base. A high barbed wire fence stood between the towering construct and myself.
I panned my headlamp back and forth, outlining the entire length of the fence. The chain link obstruction was about thirty feet on all four sides; effectively boxing in the bunker. The only way to get in was through a steel gate. There weren't any controls on the exterior of the fence for operating the gate that I could see.
I took a few steps towards the gate but was immediately halted by the sound of massive electrical breakers tripping over. A piercing flood light from atop the bunker flared to life, blinding me. Not more than five seconds after the light came on; the sound of large electric motors and a grinding of stone rattled the chains of the fence. Two large rectangular slabs of concrete began to slowly swing into the interior of the bunker.
Before I could see what was inside, I turned and ran for the edge of the plateau, hurled myself over the banking and twisted in mid-air so that I'd be facing up hill again. It turns out that such maneuvers don't work so well with snowshoes on and I ended up getting my legs into a tangle. I tried to ignore the twisting pain as I struggled back up the side of the hill to see what was happening with the bunker.
I slowly peaked out over the edge, fully expecting a barrage of bullets to rain down on me. None did. The place was silent and motionless again. There was light coming from inside the bunker. I started to pull myself back over the crest when another sound pierced the silence. Ducking back so that only the top half of my head was exposed, I watched as the massive steel gate swung open.
"Crap…" I moaned, "They're coming to get me." I was tempted to hightail it out of there, but the insatiable elements of human curiosity held me there gapping open-mouthed at the events unfolding before me.
A massively loud squelching sound coming from the bunker caused me to temporarily ignore gravity in my surprise. It sounded like a public address system was turning on. The sound was probably produced by exit pressure drivers, I guessed. Even in times of stress, my technical mind still managed to unearth the resolve to analyze these things.
"Gaaaaaage! Is that you?" The loudspeakers exclaimed. "I could'a sworn I saw you for a split second..." The voice was male, cheerful and probably the least threatening you've ever heard. It was a teasing sort of voice. The kind you would associate with a class-clown. No matter. I wasn't moving from that spot for anyone; virtually paralyzed on the side of the hill.
The flood light began to slowly scan the area just ahead of its initial resting place. Then it shot up to where I was peeking over the hill so suddenly I didn't have time to react!
"HA!" The voice came again, "Gotcha!"
"Shit!" I said, louder than I should have.
"Ah, come on, Gage. You were always sloppy at stealth."
I slowly pulled myself over the hill and stood up to face the light. Whoever it was must have a camera up there, I thought. I lift my hands above my head.
"You…can hear me?" I ask uncertainly.
"There's a hyperbolic microphone pointed at you, so yeah, I could hear what you ate for breakfast if I wanted to." The voice replied teasingly.
Hmmm, what did I eat for breakfast….wait, stay focused!
"Who are you?" I asked, hands still over my head.
"Really Gage? We've been through this once before…you weren't mind wiped again, were you?"
"My name's not Gage!" I shout, "I think you've got me confused with someone else."
"What? No way! You look exactly like him! Well, except for the beard, I suppose. Hmmm…"
"Hey, err, listen; I'm obviously intruding here and I'll just head back the way I came if that's alright with you." I start to turn around.
"No, wait! You don't have to leave!" The voice replies, sounding somewhat desperate. "At least come inside so I can shut this thing off. I need your help with…well, something I can't do on my own."
I paused for a second and turned back to face the music, as it were, "Are you trying to solicit me? I'm sorry, but I don't swing that way, man!" I shout back incredulously.
"What? NO! Nothing like that! I…I don't even have a body to solicit with!" The speakers shout back. I shake my head, not quite believing I'm having this kind of conversation with someone out in the woods; over a PA system no less!
"What do you mean you don't have a body?" I start stomping over to the gate, "You sound crazy, but THIS I have to see!"
"Alright then! Door's open for you." The hum of the speakers cuts out as does the glaring searchlight. A dull orange glow emanates from within the open bunker. I cautiously move past the gate and towards the doorway. I begin to make out a much smaller door inside.
As I approach the concrete threshold, I remember my snowshoes and quickly unbuckle them from my thick canvas boots. Gathering the pair of Tubbs into one arm, I step inside the bunker. I turn, half expecting the heavy doors to slam shut behind me. After four uncertain seconds, I steel my resolve and approach the smaller door opposite the massive one behind me.
This new door looks very out of place in the rudimentary confines of the concrete structure. It has a nice color scheme to it; a deep purple with a light yellow logo design about eyelevel and the same size as a human head. I can't help but admire the design of the logo. Three boldly shaded yellow rings arranged in a triangle formation.
"Strength and unity…nice." I critique for no one in particular. I'm still trying to calm down after the encounter with the unfamiliar voice. The uncertainty about what sort of person waits beyond the door stresses me out more than I'd like to admit.
I take one step closer to the door and raise my hand to knock. Just as my hand is about to make contact with the cool metal surface, the triangular logo flips out on a hinge. A small display comes to life where the logo used to be. Black text appears on the white screen. I step closer so I can read it.
"Gage Blackwood, welcome to TSA 2011 Appalachia Outpost."
"Huh," I step back and cock my head slightly to one side, "Even the door thinks I'm this Gage person."
As if in response to my rambling, the logo plate smoothly flips back down over the display. The sounds of what I guessed were metal locking rods sliding out of the door proper cause my chest to vibrate slightly.
"That's one hefty lock." I continued rambling, not hiding the shakiness in my voice one bit. Even with my hands buried deep in warm mittens, they still shook.
The heavy door swung open noiselessly at first and slowed with the hiss of hydraulics. Daylight balanced lights along the edges of the floor faded up to full brightness and revealed a small featureless room; about the size of an elevator.
Stepping inside the room confirmed that it was indeed an elevator. A traditional button panel was built into the wall to the right of the door; exactly where you'd expect it to be. There were two buttons; the top labeled "1", the bottom was "B". I pressed the "B" button, figuring that the rest of the facility must be underground.
The sighing of hydraulics began after I pressed the button and the purple door closed in front of me. With a slight jerk, I could feel the elevator begin its descent. A strip of LED lights between the "1" and "B" buttons blinked one after the other as the elevator made progress.
I slumped back against the smooth featureless wall of the elevator.
"What have I got myself into?" I let a shaky sigh escape. I have no idea where I'm going or what sort of person waits below. There were so many reasons for me not to be doing this. Thinking back to the fork in the path that started this whole ordeal, I wondered if I was wrong to turn right instead of left.
"Perhaps this isn't about right or wrong. I just made a choice." I chuckle, "I should stop talking to myself."
The elevator smoothly slows its descent and stops with the familiar hissing sounds.
The same dark purple door swings open, beckoning me to exit. Pulling my snowshoes a bit closer to myself, I take a few wary steps into the room beyond.
I felt a bit underwhelmed as I let the narrow beam of my headlamp sweep over the relatively small room. With the massive bunker up above and the epic elevator ride down, I was expecting something more along the lines of an aircraft hanger or at the very least, a stargate. A futuristic office was the most fitting description I could come up with.
It may not have been as grandiose as I let myself imagine it would be, but there were still plenty of neat things to look at. The far wall of the office was dominated by a very large concave display with smaller windows and dialogue prompts scattered about its surface. It looked vaguely like the sort of displays Tom Cruise interacted with in The Minority Report.
To the right of the gigantic screen was some kind of armored suit on display. It even had three lights shining down on it in a rear three-quarter arrangement; making the effect even more dramatic and striking. The moment I saw it, I couldn't take my eyes off it. The armor plating was arranged in a ribbed fashion with a convex variation on the breastplate. The helmet was almost bug-like; very round with two small eyes looking down at me from opposing sides. The shoulder pieces had logos on them, the same design I saw on the elevator door was on the left plate. The right plate had a striking pasteurized depiction of a brontosaurus with its neck and tail snaking around the words "DEEP TIME UNIT". Everywhere there was armor plate on the suit; it reflected back a beautifully polished golden green color.
"Very cool…" I whispered admiringly.
"Like it?" The voice jolted me out of my trance. I whirl around to where the voice came from. To my immense frustration, there was still no physical form to associate the voice with.
"Yeah, it's very well put together…" I reply not before an exasperated sigh. "Look, where are you?"
"I take it you've never had a run in with non-organic sentient life before." I'm starting to pinpoint where the voice is coming from; somewhere around the large computer console that dominates the room.
"Non-organic sentient…" I repeat to myself, "No, can't say that I have. Wait, isn't that something like an artificial intelligence?"
"Yes…" The computer responds, sounding insulted by the phrase, "Most people would probably settle on that terminology to describe me. But how would YOU like it if someone called your intelligence artificial? Kinda degrading, don't you think?"
For the first time since I ran into the fork in the snow machine trail, I feel a gradual calmness come over me. Maybe it's my appetite to learn about things out of the ordinary that's caused me to forget the potential danger. Maybe it was just having someone to finally talk to after the intense silence of the woods above our heads. Either way, a million questions start to brim over in my mind and it's those questions that overpower my fears more than anything else.
"You know, I never thought about it like that. Then again, I've never met an artifi-"
"AH! Don't say it!" The computer/person warns. I can't help but smile.
"I mean, non-organic sentient…person." I decide, choosing the last word carefully.
"Person, eh? Sounds like you're actually trying to understand." An animated image takes the center most position on the giant screen and grows, dwarfing all the other windows. Two very large black and yellow eyes are staring at me from within a variation of the jump suit's helmet. The eyes blink at me curiously, though it's hard to tell what sort of emotion they're going for; the representation is rather robotic.
"I'm sure you've got a lot of questions, but there's a reason I let you in here and we need to take care of that before we can do anything else." The eyes still blink every other second, but there's no mouth to accompany the words I'm hearing.
"Yeah, it's kinda strange that you'd just let me waltz in here. This place looks like it's supposed to be a massive secret."
"Well, it IS a 'massive secret'" he blinks as he says the last two words, "But I've been forced to make an exception to that rule under the current circumstances. I'm sure that this is what Gage would have wanted."
"Okay, hold up! Who is this Gage Blackwood you keep mentioning?" I interrupt, holding up my hands as if I could physically stop the barrage of information.
"Gage is an agent for the TSA, or the Temporal Security Agency as it's better known in government paperwork. Mostly he played the role of earth's badass hero! He also rescued me from a failing space station orbiting Saturn a few years ago and I've been working with him on and off ever since."
"So what made you think I was him?" I step closer to the very large blinking eyes.
"Irony of ironies, you look almost exactly like him! Granted, he's taller, but beyond that…yeah. You managed to fool the all-knowing Arthur for a few seconds!"
"Arthur…that's your name?" I reached out and touched the screen where the edge of his helmet is.
"Guilty as charged. And you are?"
"Jason," I reply, "Just call me Jason."
"Pleased to meet you, Jason! Heh, this isn't the first time I've met a Gage Blackwood impersonator, you know." He sighs, "Even in other universes his influence knows no bounds." The eyes blink again, growing wider somehow in a split second.
"Well, now I've gotten us side tracked!"
"Yeah, I remember you saying we couldn't do anything until we took care of something first." I recall.
"Right," A different window starts to enlarge on the display as Arthur's window shrinks to accommodate the new screen. "Alright, let's see here…I hope you don't scare easily, Jason. What I'm about to show you might turn you into a lifelong insomniac."
"Hey, I've come this far. The least I can do is hear you out." I shake my head, trying to keep my mind from being overwhelmed by the growing multitude of questions. A space station orbiting Saturn? Another universe?
"Don't mind me if I seem a bit shell shocked about all this. It's not every day I encounter super secret military bases."
"I think I can understand," Arthur blinks, genuine compassion in his voice, "I felt the same way when I found out time travel was invented and I read my own obituary in the news."
"Wait, WHAT?" My mouth just might stay hanging open permanently now, "Time travel?"
"Okay, that probably wasn't the best way to spring that one on you, but yes, I originally come from a universe where time travel is invented about 300 years from your time."
I start to pace around the office. My hands find themselves massaging my temples as this new shell shocker sinks in. A space station orbiting Saturn, another universe, and freakin' TIME TRAVEL? I had always suspected that such things might be invented or discovered one day, but I never dreamed I would encounter such radical concepts outside of science fiction.
I look down and see my snowshoes and mittens haphazardly splayed on the floor. I hadn't realized I had dropped them.
"You okay?" Arthur's large eyes blink in concern. I stop pacing and manage a small smile.
"Yeah, it's just…" I fix a deliberate stare on the screen, "All this…this futuristic computer…the jumpsuit," I gesture at each in turn, "and time travel? It's not supposed to exist. Not yet, anyway." You're not supposed to exist, I mentally add and immediately feel guilty for thinking it.
"No, it's not. And under normal circumstances, the TSA would lock me up in isolated storage for what Gage and I have done." Arthur explains, audibly making an effort to sympathize with the informational overload I'm experiencing. "Look. Breaking the existence of time travel and alternate universes was one of the big hurdles to get out of the way. We've got all the time in the world for the rest of the story."
I stop pacing, still trying to get the information to sink in. I'm hardly surprised when warm wet beads begin to make their way down my face. I know that rationally, I shouldn't believe anything that I've heard and seen for the past half hour…if I was being rational. The only thing that allowed me to accept that this wasn't some twisted joke was discovering Arthur. He was the ace in the hole. His non-organic existence was the mortar of the brick house; the one element that held this incredible story together. For reasons I couldn't even fathom, I began to trust him much faster than I had any organic. The strange man without a body to solicit with.
I look over at him, or rather his graphical representation drawn on the screen. Somehow he seems concerned, even through the limited range of emotion he's able to express visually. Perhaps his silence is confirmation enough of his sympathy.
"For what it's worth, I'm glad it's you breaking this amazing story to me." I smile.
"HA! I'm sure if there was a gorgeous woman standing here in addition to myself, you'd be much more interested in what she had to say!" The voice was teasing, but I could tell he appreciated the thought nonetheless.
"You're probably right, but there's no need to be fatalistic about it. You'd be hitting on her too!"
"And she wouldn't be able to resist…!" He chuckled maniacally. I find myself smiling despite myself. Can't fault him for who he is, I suppose.
I turn my gaze to the new window displayed on the right side of the screen. I had ignored it up until then. There was a video on looped playback.
"What is this?" I point at the video.
"This…is part of the reason I decided to let you in. Gage and I recorded it when we were exploring the history of your universe." A volume indicator fades in and increases until I can hear birds and a light breeze. "I should warn you; it's not pretty."
The camera appears to be positioned on a grassy bluff looking over a massive city. The architecture looks very sophisticated; many of the skyscrapers employ an elongated triangular design akin to some of the more modern buildings in our own time period.
The city is impressive enough, but it's nothing more than an afterthought compared to the massive brooding presence of the strange alien ship suspended over the metropolis. It has the look of an elongated insect; a very tall main upper hull and six spidery looking arms branching off from a central point on the underside of the body. "Gigantic" would be the proper term to describe the vessel; it easily dwarfs every building on the ground.
The imposing ship remains suspended silently for a while, as if it's waiting for something. Four more ships seemingly fade in from the upper atmosphere as the thought crosses my mind. The camera pans up to get a better look at them. In no time, the lone floating ship is joined by its equally menacing brethren. A low rumbling accompanies their arrival and the black sleek hulls gleam in the light of a blood red setting sun.
As the ships slow to a halt, the rumbling sound began to increase in its intensity and continued to grow louder and pitch higher. It sounded as if something were powering up. Then more of the same sounds added to the dreadful moan until it swelled into a haunting chorus. When the noise reached a peak, three of the five ships began to fall into the city. They descended quickly; as if gravity finally switched on for them.
The first of the three ships made contact with a very tall skyscraper; a crowning achievement for the culture that had built it. The structure was crushed almost instantly by the falling dreadnought. You saw it before you heard it due to the distance. When the sound finally caught up with the video, a bone shattering BOOM! completely ignored the audio limiter and clipped the microphone. I winced as the towering construct was reduced to rubble at faster-than-freefall speed. The camera shook along with the tremors pulsating through the ground. The grinding of steel on foreign metal and the horrifying screams of thousands filled the room as the two remaining ships struck the ground.
"Holy shit!" I gasp in awe.
The next thing that happened was something out of H. G. Wells' worst nightmare. The two ships still suspended in the air suddenly erupted with a brilliant white light. Beams of energy flashed from the tentacles of the ships, cutting through buildings as though they were paper. The heat rays made no noise, but the resulting devastation was confirmation enough of their effectiveness.
I shut my eyes after only three seconds of the energy beam onslaught. The resounding symphony of screams was more than I could bear.
"Arthur, turn it off." I said finally. The video disappeared immediately. "What the hell was that?" My heart continued to pound away relentlessly.
"Those ships are called Reapers."
"Reapers…" I repeat, "There's a fitting name."
"They're sentient machines from the empty space outside this galaxy. That's what the legends say about them anyway." More images pop up and replace the video; recordings of ruins with crude depictions of the reapers carved into them, an animated model of one of the ships slowly rotating also fades into view.
"We didn't spend as much time as we would have liked investigating this, but from the recon missions we performed in your history, the Reapers work in cycles. They return every fifty thousand years and cull the advanced races of the galaxy. Why, we don't know."
"So, there are other races in our galaxy?" I notice the chair parked under the console for the first time and pull it out to sit down.
"Yeah, they're hundreds of species, but there are a few dominant ones," Several pictures of different alien races replace the recordings of ruins. "There's Asari, Krogan, Salarian, Quarian, Turian, and the occasional Yarq. Trust me; you don't want to run into those guys!"
"Good grief…" I'm rubbing my temples again, elbows propped up on the console, "But we haven't made contact with any of these races yet, right?" I swipe my hand over what looks like a human interface device and see a cursor react on the screen accordingly. The input system is surprisingly intuitive, probably perfected after hundreds of years of revision. The beauty of the Asari race catches my eye and I enlarge the photo Arthur supplied.
"No, but I bet you'd like to contact that one, wouldn't you?" The helmet with eyes nudges the picture of the Asari teasingly.
"Hey! I'm not ashamed of admiring beauty!" I swipe through additional photos of the race in question, "Looks like all you got were female examples…" I smile.
"They're a mono gender race, you dingbat!"
"Suuure…" I chuckle, switching to pictures of the Krogan race, "What about these guys? Are they mono gender, too?"
"You'd think so, but not exactly. From what we've learned about them, they seem to be afflicted by some kind of sterility disease that limits reproduction significantly. About one in a thousand Krogan survive birth."
"That's unfortunate…"
"Seeing a Krogan female is rare because they're traditionally sheltered in female-only clans on the Krogan homeworld."
"They probably go through quite a few hoops to protect their women then. From the pictures you've got here, looks like they're a wicked violent race, too." They're almost reptilian looking but more humanoid; very muscular and hunchbacked. Every Krogan seems to be equipped with some kind of armor.
"Oh yeah!" Arthur audibly shivers, "You haven't seen carnage until you meet a Krogan."
"Huh…" I continue to aimlessly sift through the pictures, "Looks like you've seen a lot of our galaxy."
"Yours was the first we visited when we discovered parallel displacement jumping." He immediately addresses the confused look on my face, "That is, the ability to move between different parallel universes."
"So, is that why all this is here in New England then? This is a research outpost?"
"You catch on quick! This little hideaway was set up only a week ago, in fact." The screen suddenly goes dark and the three circles of the TSA logo fade into view.
"What the hell…" I try swiping away at the control interface to no avail. "Why'd you shut it off?"
"Time to get suited up!" A sound to my right causes me to jump and I look over just in time to see a glowing platform slide out from the wall. "I know you were having fun looking at the Asari and all, but it's going to be a lot easier to explain what's going on from inside the suit."
"Hold on a sec…you want me to put on that suit?" I scratch my beard uncertainly. Man, I've gotta trim more often!
"Okay, here's the deal." The cute helmet with blinking eyes pops back onto the screen, "I really, REALLY need your help, Jason. Let's get you suited up and I'll explain everything once you're inside." The blinking helmet shrinks away and the entire console goes dark.
"That's still pretty vague...but I can't turn down trying this thing out." I mumble as I approach the suit; still captivated by its brilliant design. It looks like something a tech oriented comic book hero would wear.
"Okay, first things first," A muffled voice resonates from inside the bug-like helmet. Three of the horizontal scales of the helmet slide back. "There we go!" A dull amber glow appears behind the suit. I peak around and see some kind of electroluminescent lighting seeping through the posterior scale plates.
"Okay," Arthur continues, "I've downloaded myself back into the suit. Now we've just gotta download your inconvenient bag of bones in here as well."
"Consisting entirely of computer code must have its perks." I chuckle, not at all offended by the non-organic's jest.
"If only women could see it as a perk." The helmet replied, the voice losing some enthusiasm.
"Ah…" My gaze drops slightly. I'd never pondered how an artificial life form would feel about love. From what I'd gathered thus far, Arthur seemed no different from any other human personality. Why should he be passed over just because he didn't have a physical body to associate with? "I'm sure there's someone out there for you, Arthur." I reply in a hopeful tone.
"You're assuming there isn't already. Let's not go making assumptions, Jason…"
"So you've met someone then?" I perk up a bit at that.
"Yeah….no. It's just me and you for now!"
"Ah, well, I'm more attracted to those of the female persuasion, good sir."
The helmet sighs, "Looks like we're the same, in that sense. For some reason I'm always getting paired up with guys like you and Gage! I think both our universes have it out for me."
The platform begins to glow a bit brighter.
"Alright, enough about that! We should get going." A low pitched humming noise gradually increases in volume, "Step up onto the platform and we'll get the essential base suite on."
I step up and turn around to face the still open helmet of the suit. "How's this going to work?" I look around uncertainly.
"Like this…hold still!"
Thus began the strangest experience with clothes I've ever had. Starting with my heavy canvas boots, I watched them seemingly melt away from my feet and reappear on the floor in front of the raised platform. Instead of leaving my feet bare, a new pair of boots materialized in place of the old ones as if by magic.
"Tingly…" I scrunch up my toes inside the new boots. The same creepy crawly sensation continued up my legs, and stopped just below my neck. I was now dressed in a tastefully textured all-black outfit that fit me surprisingly well! It wasn't super tight or form fitting like I expected it to be. All the clothing I was wearing previously is stacked in a neat pile on the floor; my thick lens glasses at the very top.
"Not bad, Arthur, not bad. I feel like I could get away with wearing this all the time." I brush my right hand over the sleeve of the shirt. It resembles a traditional long-sleeve t-shirt from our time period; very no-nonsense. The pants and boots follow a similar no-frills approach to styling while being coarser in their materials; quite a bit more durable, I guessed.
"The suit was designed to interface and become air-tight with traditional clothes of the time period I'm from. What you're wearing now would pass for casual wear on any metropolis."
"Glad to see taste hasn't gone the Gene Rodenberry route in the future." I smirk.
"You'd be surprised at how much WORSE it can get than Star Trek with some of the fashion taste in the future. This type of garb is pretty low-key by comparison."
"Well, I'm VERY grateful for that!"
"Heh, I figured you would; mister dark, short and mysterious! Alright, let's go over how to put on the main suit components…"