Daydream
Prologue
Author's Note:
I have recently changed the way I am writing this fic. The start has changed quite a bit and I believe for the better. While I have not changed any of my characters history or revealed information it may be worth reading again (for those that have already read it). I am also going to be re-editing the fic slightly in the coming days before posting the next chapter.
Summary:
A woman is catapulted into the Mass Effect universe: all alone and with no combat skills to speak of. However, she is determined to help Shepard however she can and fortunately she soon discovers a rather unique skill. Will she be able to utilise this new skill and help defeat the Reapers once and for all, or the burden of it be her and the galaxies undoing? Femslash f/f LiaraxFem!Shepard F!OCxF!Unknown
(I am still undecided about who my female OC will romance and am rather waiting to see who would best fit as her character develops and I get to know her when writing her)
00
They say that human beings spend half of their waking lives daydreaming, and that during a person's contact with reality is blurred, becoming partially substituted by a visionary fantasy. I do not know if this is true but when you are sitting in the back seat of a car on 21st century Earth at one moment, and in the next you are sitting in a space shuttle passing huge skyscrapers backed by a swirling purple nebula, the phrase "blurred reality" doesn't seem to do the experience any justice.
It takes me quite a few moments to actually notice that the scenery has changed as I am not really paying too much attention to what is passing by, rather looking at the reflecting staring back at me and realising that I am no longer a little girl. I am no longer the shy, little, nerdy Catherine Moneta that always sat at the back of the class, had few friends and spent little time under the sun's rays. Now I am a woman at the start of my second decade of life, in my last year of university. I still haven't gotten used to seeing myself in the mirror, the mature version of myself, instead I still expect to see a ten year-old girl with pigtails. The blonde hair that I inherited from my mother has gotten slightly darker while the rest of my features have become more and more similar to hers every day. Unfortunately neither of my parents passed on their height genes as I stand at only 5 feet 3 inches.
Living these past few years away from my home in London has made me grow up a great deal. While I am still the same bookworm that enjoys tinkering with old cars now and again meanwhile playing the occasional video game, I now look after and care for my body a great deal more than I did before leaving home. While my mother had called my teenage chubbiness as "Russian winter fat", so that I could survive the cold back in her home city of Moscow, I knew that it was really caused by the little to no exercise I did. Despite the fact that I believe that the only muscle I've been exercising well the entire of my twenty years is my brain it seems that it must have broken, or perhaps been overstrained.
I close my eyes, forcefully blink numerous time, just to make sure what I am seeing is actually what my brain believes is actually there. However nothing I try or do seems to have any affect and it takes me only a few moments to realise what I am seeing: the Citadel from the Mass Effect universe.
There it is right in front of me in all of its mechanical glory. It is no longer restricted by any kind of graphics card, simply how well my eyes can perceive it, and I must admit that the games simply don't do this place justice. The five long limbs of the wards seem to stretch on forever, as if grasping for the stars that lie beyond. However, before I have a chance to take it all in I seem to arrive at my destination, wherever that may be. As the shuttle makes its descent I realise that I must be inside some kind of space taxi as there looks to be the equivalent of a fare-meter counting up in the front. Before I have time to think more the door opens allowing me access to the biggest space station in the universe. As I step out I hear a female voice from the cab saying in a flat tone: "Thank you for choosing Citadel Fast Transit: we hope you have a pleasant day" before hearing a 'ping' sound from my wrist and I noticing a small light flashing there.
I look at the thing for a moment before I realise what it must be. Pressing the light a translucent orange screen appears from thin air, forming into my own personal omni-tool. In English I see a small message flash across the display saying that the funds for the taxi ride have been transferred successfully. Well, at least I must have some kind of bank account with money to use here.
I begin to fiddle with the small contraption, finding the touch-screen extremely strange to touch. It doesn't feel like anything I've ever touched before. It feels neither solid nor liquid as the 'buttons' seem to bend and compress as I press them. The thing is relatively easy to use and I soon use the omni-tool to discover that I'm in Zakera Ward. However, I seem to be in a very quiet area of the space station of this particular Ward as I have yet to see a single other person: human or otherwise. Although I realise that's probably for the best as I wouldn't want my own 'first contact' to consist of me staring gobsmacked at an alien and fainting not remembering to breath.
As I look down at the omni-tool, taking a closer look at the screen, I realise that it does look like the thing would be difficult to get used to. Yet I seem to be getting the hang of its controls quite quickly. Before long I'm surfing the extranet searching for any kind of helpful information that may be of use to me: including the current date. After flicking through a few useless search results, including one for a group of Hanar cultists who supposedly worship seaweed, I find Earth's current date and time: 24th August 2183. If my memory is correct that makes it the same year as the Normandy's shakedown run and the events of Mass Effect 1 which, I'm pretty sure, means that as it is almost the end of August, Shepard's fight against the Reapers is well underway. This also means that it's probably too late for me to get onto the Normandy SR-1 to help and I'll probably need to wait until after the end of the events of the game before I do get on-board.
Although, I really have no idea why I'm even thinking about being on-board the Normandy when I don't even know how or why I ended up here in the first place. I'm not going to be able to just waltz onto the ship without any kind of opposition. I mean I don't even have any skills that would be of any use in this current time or situation. I'm certainly going to be no good in a fire fight considering I've never even held a gun before; and while I believe I'm quite clever, after all I am at Cambridge University, everything I've been taught in Physics and other subjects is probably over a century out of date. While I would love to learn all this new information I can only imagine how long it would take me to re-learn everything I've come to accept as scientific fact.
I close down my Omni-tool and take a seat, an old crate of some kind, and look out over the Citadel. I know that if I am truly stuck here for the long run then I am going to try to help Shepard defeat the Reapers, and defeat them with as little death and destruction as possible. How many people have dreamed of being zapped into a fantasy world that they've read in a book, watched in a film or played in a video game? And for me it has actually happened. I am not going to waste the opportunity that I have been given.
First I need to figure out just how I will be able to help and get onto the ship itself. While I'm sure that the knowledge I have will be incredibly valuable to the war effort I know that it will not be enough. I'm going to need something more, some skills that will allow me to be singled out as a potential resource for both Shepard and the war effort and that will get me noticed by either Shepard; the Alliance or even the Illusive Man.
Perhaps if I...
My mind suddenly goes blank as, appearing through the nebula surrounding the station, a massive ship charges through flanked by hundreds of smaller ships of varying sizes. While, from this distance, I cannot make out any details I can deduce that a massive space battle is taking place between these ships and the Citadel's own fleet. After watching in stunned silence for a few moments I gasp in shock as I see the main ship smashing its way through the Citadel's defences towards the station itself as the Ward arms begin to close in upon themselves. I soon realise what is happening: I haven't only been transported into the middle of the events of Mass Effect 1 but during the Battle of the Citadel and Sovereign's attack, completely alone.
00