Mass Effect: The Human Quarian, Continued

by P4-34-M0

During a search for resources a group of Quarian marines come across a lab where they were trying to create a perfect sleeper agents. They succeeded. Watch as this young boy grows up in the Migrant Fleet were he goes from a simple Quarian on his Pilgrimage to serving with the first Human Specter. THE FIRST ONE: /s/8993151/10/Mass-Effect-The-Human-Quarian

1. Chapter 1: Freewheeling Fistfights

If you're reading this, it means I got the Go Ahead from Disciple of Revan to continue this awesome story. In the future, I'll be working closely with him to keep this story alive and kicking.

It's going to work a little like The heart knows, in that it mostly follows the spaces between missions. I will do most full missions, but beware, I have NEVER played Mass Effect. I watched a Play-though, and I've read the Wiki extensively (NOT!) so please correct me if I get something wrong.

Disclaimer: It's true, I haven't touched a Mass Effect game... yet…

oo00O00oo

General POV:

Mia'toon sat, staring blankly at the glass wall that separated her from her boy. He was tucked into a bed in one of the best hospitals on the Citadel, nothing less would Shepherd settle for. Wires of all kinds were hooked to his exo-suit, feeding vital information to the monitors around him. Jay hadn't moved two hours, the combination of tranquilizer, mild anaphylactic shock from said tranquilizer, and Biotic strain had knocked him out cold.

'I mean, really,' Mia fumed to herself, 'What kind of idiot shoots a Dextro full of Levo drugs?!'

Granted, Jay was inherently Levo, but an absence of them in his everyday life had rendered him allergic to them. Not life threateningly, but still dangerously.

Shepard was inside the room, talking with one of the doctors at the moment. From the red color of the commander's face, it was clear to see that that the Asari doctor didn't quite understand just what 'Half-breed' meant. They had run into this problem hundreds of times in the past few hours since everyone felt they needed to help disillusion the Quarian mother as to her son's species.

"Keelah," She muttered, "I could have him patched up by now."

The door flew open, and Shepard stomped out, Jay throws unceremoniously over one shoulder. Tali, who had curled up on the bench with her head in Mia's lap, shot upright, peppering Shepherd with questions.

"He's fine." Shepard waved the flustered Quarian off, setting Jay on his feet, "Just a little groggy at the moment. I got them to patch his suit up and shot him full of antibiotics. Let's head out and get him some food."

Jay swayed for a second when Shepard's hands left his shoulders, then fell forward into Tali. The girl yelped, catching him before he hit the floor.

"Tali?" He groaned, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Tali scolded, "You just tried to imitate the Mako."

"Yeah," Jay winced, his speech clearing up a little, "In hindsight, it was a bad idea to throw myself out into open space while traveling at high speeds, I'll make a note."

As the group checked out at the front door a pair of human eyes followed them, or more specifically, Jay.

"Operative Lawson." The owners of the eyes spoke into his omni-tool, "I've located Subject 020. Apprehend?"

"NO!" The voice of his commander chilled his bones, "You do that and we're all dead."

"What should I do?"

"Follow them. We're moving to Plan Theta."

The Cerberus agent grinned, he loved this one, "Moving to follow."

oo00O00oo

Jay's POV;

If I'm completely honest with myself, I was a little putout when I woke up. This was, what, the second time I'd kicked butt and passed out in as many days? Hearing about it later was cool and all, but I had to get the whole, go out with a bang, thing under control. And now here I was, heavily disoriented, and just a tad concerned, as Tali dragged me through the thoroughfares of the Citadel following in Mom's wake. It's funny how such a short woman can command the amount of danger she does. The only being I've ever met with a more dangerous air was-

COMMANDER SHEPARD!

My brain and feet ground to a screeching halt, frantically trying to divine where the hell the Commander was, and if I could escape into the nearby pond before she materialized out of thin air and-

Shepard grabbed the hard-point tether clip between my shoulder-blades, "Keep walking."

The hard-point tether clip was designed as a safety precaution for Quarians working on the outside of the Fleet. It functioned with an old-fashion rope tied off to the hard-point to keep engineers from floating away if their Mag-boots failed. It also, as was being demonstrated now, worked to keep troublesome younglings in line.

So here I was, trapped between the girl I wanted to spend my life with but didn't deserve, and the woman I never wanted to see again, but couldn't get away from. I think the human term was 'Just Peachy'. Not really sure why, but it fit.

Mom turned off the main street and ushered us inside a well-kept diner. The sign in the window cheerily informed us that they catered to both Levo and Dextro.

Shepard frog marched me to a table near the back and sat me down HARD. If I can't sit down again for a while, blame Shepard. Mom ordered protein shakes for herself, me and Tali. Shepard got ground meat between two slices of bread. After the Turian waitress delivered our food Shepard got right to business.

"What the hell were you thinking?!"

I pulled the pipette I had been using to eat out of my filter port and hinged my vocalization module, the pretty white light that flashes hypnotically when we talk, back into place, "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? What do you mean?! I saw the security camera footage while you were knocked out. Did you actually thinking suicide would solve your problems?!"

"MY PROBLEMS?!" I shouldn't be yelling at my commanding officer, but at this point, I didn't care, "You're the one with a freak for a nephew!" I pointed at Tali, who flinched away, "And She's the one who's bonding to a MONSTER!"

I slammed my hands down on the table, Biotics glowing around them, "I'm sorry it ended up this way, but it can't go on. Tali deserves so much more than I can ever offer, and you don't need another reason for people to criticize you."

The noise level in the diner had dropped from comfortable chatter to still silence.

"Tali," I croaked, forcing the words out through my tears. In an offhanded way I wondered, as I took her three-fingered hands in mine, can real Quarians cry? "Tali, I'm your friend. Always have been, always will be. But you need a real Quarian, not the watered down version I am."

Tali ripped her hands away from mine, and for one miserably happy second, I thought she had rejected me. Then her fist collided with my face plate.

"You fucking bosh'tet!" She screamed, following me down as I tipped out of my chair. "I don't deserve ANYTHING!" She straddled my stomach, raining blows on my head and shoulders as I threw my hands up to protect my face plate, "I don't NEED a real Quarian!" Her punches weakened till she was just bracing herself on my shoulders, hers shaking violently as she struggled to draw breath.

"I-I need," A little spot appeared on the inside of her face plate, then another, and another. Tears. "I need y-you, Jay."

Her face plate was so close to mine, I imagined for a second that I could see her smiling.

"I'm so sorry," She whimpered, "So sorry."

And she was beautiful. Even if we had never met face-to-face, deep down I knew she was. We laughed, and cried, and then laughed some more. I pulled her down and hugged her, crushing her to me in my relief. I wanted this moment to last forever. The patrons of the diner had been more than fair holding their peace for as long as they had, so I kept my death threats to myself as Tali and I scrambled up off the floor, our hands still clasped.

"Friends?" I asked tentatively.

"Always."

The moment ended abruptly as a pair of C-sec officers burst through the door, pistols aimed squarely at Tali and me.

"FREEZE!" The Salarian shouted, his Asari partner quickly sweeping the bar for hostiles. Having been trained for combat, I could see that these two were fresh out of the academy, well skilled but green as hell. I decided to humor them for the sake of not getting shot and put my hands behind my head.

oo00O00oo

Two and a half hours later:

I shifted in my chair as the officer seated across from me, Armando-Owen Bailey, rubbed his temples for the umpteenth time.

"Look, kid." He sighed, "You already gave your statement. This would be a lot quicker if you just answered the questions correctly."

He shuffled the tabs on his terminal, "Okay. Name?"

"Jay'toon nar Rayya."

"Occupation?"

"Engineer and Marine for the Specter vessel Normandy."

"Race."

"Quarain."

Bailey slammed his head down on his desk. I had never been happier to have my face hidden then right then because my grin was too wide it MUST have been criminal. As far as I knew, it was illegal to harass officers of the law, but I had been in here for TWO FREAKING HOURS, I figured I was entitled to a little guilty pleasure.

Not that I felt guilty at all about this, quite the opposite in fact.

"Officer Bailey?" A Turian Officer stuck her head in the door, "The genetic analysis you wanted just came back from the lab."

"Thank you." Bailey turned to me, "There, I can now PROVE that you're a human." He fired up the data on his terminal with a triumphant smirk, which fell only seconds later.

"Letha!" He shouted.

The Turin stuck her head back in the door, "What's up?"

Bailey turned his screen to face her, "Explain this to me."

The Turian studied the screen, then me, then started to turn back to the screen before whipping back to me. She glanced at Bailey.

"We, uh, we ran all seven test you ordered."

"Then why is this computer telling me that a Human is a Quarian? Explain that to me."

"It can't have been a malfunction, not if all the tests say the same thing. So that leaves tampering, which is the most likely since he's a suit ra-"

Bailey cut the Officer off, "I will not tolerate prejudice in this investigation. I asked for an explanation that would hold up under pressure, not half-baked scheme based on what your last conquest told you."

The Turian's sub-harmonics rumbled in indignation before she stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Well'p," Bailey leaned back in his chair, "Looks like you were telling the truth. You really are a Quarian." He tapped away for a moment, then sighed, "Now that we've established your race, you're free to go."

Before he was even done talking, I was off like a dirty shirt.

oo00O00oo

General POV:

Tali drummed her hands nervously on the arm of her chair. Beside her, Shepard tapped away on her omni-tool, coordinating the resupply of the Normandy.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Quarian safe cuisine outside the Migrant Fleet?"

Tali groaned, "You really don't need to go to all this trouble, Shepard. We can just run Dextro rations through the blender."

"The blender that needs to be labeled so none of the other crew uses it."

Jay huffed and crossed his arms, trotting up to the bench his captain, mother, and friend occupied, "The 'Kaidan vs. Red Blender' indecent was NOT my fault."

Shepard grimaced, remembering the horrific scene that had sprawled across the mess hall. The blender had literally exploded, throwing all manner of everything to kingdom come. Kaidan had not been happy.

Tali giggled, "You really should have labeled that button better."

Jay sat down next to his friend with a huff, "I will never understand humanity's obsession with pushing big red buttons. What about a red button doesn't scream danger?"

Mia leaned around Shepard, "Care to explain what happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened," Garrus chuckled as he and Kaidan walked up, "Jay decided it would be a good idea to weaponize the mess hall's Dextro blender."

Jay shot Garrus a look, "Weaponized is a strong word."

"Keep telling yourself that," Kaidan grumbled as Garrus continued.

"Day before yesterday, Tali was bemoaning the fact that the Dextro blender was only strong enough to mulch ration bars instead of just pasting them. Jay starts tinkering with the blender and when he's done there's this big red button right in the middle of the console. So Kaidan and I decided to figure out what it did. I wanted to take it apart, but Kaidan decided to load it up with everything he could find and turn it on."

Mia finished for the Turian, giggling, "And it exploded."

Kaidan glared at Jay, who seemed torn over whether he should hide in embarrassment or laugh with the others, "I still haven't figured out where the blades went."

Shepard's omni-tool pinged and she glanced at it, "All right guys, shore leaves over and we have our next assignment."

Garrus leaned toward her, "Where are we headed?"

"Feros."

oo00O00oo

JUST what is awaiting the crew on Feros?

WILL the Normandy crew ever find a way to get their two favorite Quarain couple to kiss?

CAN Quarains kiss?!

AND where the heck did the blender-blades go?!

Find out on the next exciting installment of: Fleet and Flotilla; the Musical.