Major and Commander
Chapter 1: Once More Unto the Breach
"That's not a whole lot of good options, Shepard." Garrus said.
"I know Garrus." Shepard coughed. Her whole body felt like she had gone twelve rounds with a Krogan then been hit by a Vorcha flame thrower.
Garrus looked over at his mate as she struggled to stay standing. His heart had stopped when he saw her get hit by Harbinger's beam weapon. Only to have it start beating again when he picked her up and she cried out in pain. He had dragged her to the beam and up to the Citadel. After finally dealing with the Illusive Man they were now trying to find a way to fire the Crucible. Which had led them to here.
Three impossible choices.
Shepard was silent but her mind was racing. She didn't have a whole lot of options, and she didn't have a whole lot of time. While she waited Admiral Hackett and the fleets were being wiped out. She knew there was really only one choice she could make. She wouldn't doom the Geth after having come so far and she certainly wouldn't try and control the Reapers, for fear that she would become just another tyrant. That left only one choice.
"What do you say Garrus? One more ride?" She asked.
Garrus stared at her with those deep cobalt blue eyes, "I thought you'd never ask Shepard."
Together they stumbled their way to the energy matrix. Before they took the plunge Shepard stopped. She mustered her strength and pulled Garrus' head down. "I couldn't have done this without you Garrus."
"Sure you could have, maybe not as flashy but. . ." Garrus smiled. "Shepard I-" Shepard reached up and kissed him.
"I know Garrus." She said softly. "Come on, we got a bar to get to."
Garrus, smiled. He wrapped his arms around her and together they fell into the energy matrix.
"Rodney what's going on?" Weir shouted.
"We've got an incoming wormhole!" The Canadian shouted.
"Close the shield!"
"I've already tried, there's some kind of energy surge coming through the gate it's locked us out of the controls!"
Elizabeth looked over at Major Sheppard and nodded.
"I need security teams one and two to the gate room now!" Sheppard called out over the comms.
Elizabeth and the rest of the gate room personal watched as the gate dialed up and the wormhole established.
"If this is a Wraith attack we aren't ready." Rodney said.
"I know McKay. We'll just have to handle the situation."
Everyone in the gate room watched as a series of pulses ran through the gate. A low hum accompanied each energy pulse. The energy continued to build and soon bolts of electricity jumped from the gate. One struck the wall right in front of Sheppard and he flinched at the brilliant light and sound.
"It's getting too hot here, everyone fall back!" John yelled. Suddenly the gate began to roar and all the sudden someone came flying through.
They slammed into to stairs that lead up to the stargate command center. He winced at the crunching sound the person made when they hit the stairs. With a flash the stargate shut down. Sheppard sprinted out from cover and ran over to whoever had come out of the gate.
He stopped when he got a good look at her. In a word she looked like hell. She was wearing some form of body armor, it might have been functional at some point but now it looked like pieces of blackened charcoal. What little part of her skin he could see was burnt and blistered and she was having trouble breathing. Despite all the bruises he could tell the woman was a looker.
"I need a medical team to the gate room now!" John yelled.
"Alright Dr. Becket, what have you got on our latest guest."
"In a word Commander, she's bloody weird."
Dr. Weir raised her eyebrow at her doctor. "What do you mean?"
"When we brought her in she was in bad shape, but she's healing at an accelerated rate. I took a blood sample and well . . ." He trailed off.
"What is it doctor?"
"It's like her body's in the middle of a complete genetic re-write. Her cells show both organic and synthetic properties and it's spreading. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before."
"Is she contagious?" Dr. Weir asked in alarm.
"I don't believe so, but I've placed her in isolation just to be sure, but that's not even half of what I found. I did a full body scan these are the results." Dr. Becket handed over a folder full of images. "Even before what ever happened to her, this woman had a number of cybernetic implants like nothing I've ever seen. I estimate fifty percent of her body's functions were regulated by these implants, but she shows no signs of rejection."
"That's incredible." Dr. Weir said. While her degree had nothing to do with medicine even she could see how advanced these implants were. Whoever this woman was their medical technology was far superior to anything she had ever seen.
"I'm more interested in the weapons she had on her." John said.
Dr. Weir, nodded and looked at Rodney, "McKay, what have you learned."
"Honestly not much." Rodney admitted. "I managed to get her pistol unfolded and Major Shepard test fired a few rounds from it."
"The thing packs a punch." John added.
"Yes, anything that fires a round at a good percentage of light speed would indeed pack a punch." Rodney deadpanned.
"Wait," Dr. Weir interrupted in shock, "what exactly constitutes a sizable percent of light speed."
"1.12%" Rodney rattled off.
Dr. Weir's eye's widened, "That's impressive. How is that possible?"
"As far as I can tell there is some sort of unidentified element at generates a Dark Energy field. I think that might be the power source for the weapon. I don't want to go opening it up until I know more." Rodney admitted.
"That's not like you Rodney. Normally I have to try and convince you to not go poking around alien technology we don't understand yet, what's changed?" Dr. Weir asked.
"The last time I tried out a new technology without understanding it I nearly starved to death. Besides Dark Energy isn't nearly as understood as I'd like it to be. As far as we can tell this is the same energy field that helps hold the universe together, but somehow her people have managed to turn it into a weapon."
"Dr. Becket, your patient is waking up." Someone called over the radio.
"Bloody hell, I didn't think she'd wake up that fast."
Weir looked over at her chief medical officer in concern, "Dismissed everyone, let's go meet our guest Dr. Becket."
Shepard slowly became aware of her surroundings. At first all she could feel were the agonizing protests in her body as she subtly shifted her weight in an effort to get comfortable. Soon enough she realized that wasn't going to work and she slowly opened her eyes. She gasped as brilliant white light pierced her eyes forcing her to shut her eyelids again.
She jerked when she felt a hand press on her shoulder.
"Please don't try to move ma'am. Dr. Becket's on his way." A voice said calmly.
"Where am I?" Shepard tried to demand, but her voice came out more like a harsh croak.
"You're safe. Please be patient Dr. Becket is on his way." The voice said soothingly.
Shepard tried opening her eye's again but she could only make out a vaguely human shape before the light became too much for her and she closed them again.
Suddenly she heard another group of voices another group of voices. She could only assume that whoever Dr. Becket was must have arrived.
"Ma'am can you hear me?" a light brogue accented voice asked her.
"I can hear fine, but there's something wrong with my eyes. Everything's too bright." Shepard answered.
She heard rustling and Dr. Becket say, "Turn down the lights as far as you can please she might be photosensitive right now." Shepard assumed he was talking to his nurse.
"Ma'am I'd like you to try opening your eye's now." She heard Dr. Becket say.
Shepard did so slowly and took in her surroundings. It was obviously much darker than before but she still had to squint in order to see much of anything. She was lying on her back in what had to be the strangest medical ward she had ever seen. Instead of sterile white walls like she was used to, the walls here were made of stone, granite or something similar, and were lightly embossed with strange hieroglyphics.
The man standing before her wore a white lab coat similar to what a doctor would wear in the early 21st century. To his right stood a woman she was wearing some kind of formal uniform that she didn't recognize. There was another man with a round face that was in similar attire, but what caught her attention was the third man. He was wearing a set of BDU's and while he only had a side arm his easy posture was one that she recognized. Shepard had no doubt that if the man wanted he could have his side arm up and pointed at her in less than a second.
"Where am I?" Shepard asked slowly.
"You're in my medical facility here on Atlantis." The man in the lab coat said. "I'm Dr. Becket, this is Dr. Weir."
"Hello." The woman said.
"Dr. McKay." The round faced man waved.
"And Major Sheppard." The military man nodded at her.
Kaya Shepard stared at all of them for a moment before she opened her mouth, "My name is Commander Shepard, Earth Systems Alliance. Where the hell is Atlantis?"
A/N: I just wanted to write this down and see where this goes. Haven been able to write a hole lot lately so here it is.