Chapter One
Pragia - 2170
Dr. Stephen Kim sat at his desk and stared off into space, his chin resting on his hand. He had been toiling away at Cerberus' Teltin facility on Pragia for a little over two years, most of which he had found unbearable. Endless days of theorising how to improve biotic abilities in humans, coming up with ideas and testing countless possibilities on their child subjects only to have most of them fail entirely, and those that didn't fail succeeded only barely. While it was true that Subject Zero was making promising progress, Stephen had seen long before his colleagues that it would ultimately be a dead end. Subject Zero was the result of fourteen procedures so far, most of which cost a small fortune to perform and had disappointingly small results. When added together the effects were more significant, and if they continued to make progress she would undoubtedly become a very powerful biotic, perhaps even the most powerful among humans. However, these techniques would never be realistic for widespread use. It just made no sense to spend the cost of a frigate on a few painful procedures to improve a single biotic's strength by only a couple of percentage points. He had well and truly lost hope, only remaining in his position for the money (and, of course, because Cerberus was not the kind of organisation one simply quit) when Lucius arrived.
Lucius, a seven year old biotic, came to be on Pragia the same way all of the children did: unconscious, in an unmarked shuttle. Some were taken from their families by Cerberus doctors, who told them that their child had died in varying circumstances, while in some cases children were simply taken off the streets on the way to school. Even in this 'enlightened' era children still just vanished occasionally, and as long as they didn't take too many that way no one would connect the disappearances. The simplest method by far, though, was just to take orphans. With Cerberus' connections and resources all it took was a few bribes and a falsified death certificate and a biotic orphan could be transferred to their custody with no fuss and no paper trail. No one would ever come looking for these children, no one would even notice their absence. Few noticed that they had ever existed to begin with. Lucius was one of these children. A routine medical scan at his orphanage at the age of two had revealed the presence of eezo nodules in his body, which would allow him the use of biotic abilities. True, there weren't all that many nodules; he would never be a particularly useful biotic, but enough for the purposes of their experiments. Cerberus spyware in Alliance systems immediately flagged him as a potential candidate and five years later he was taken to Pragia.
Dr. Kim had been the one to greet the unconscious child, doing a quick physical check and, as procedure dictated, doing another medical scan to confirm his abilities. Stephen was just going through the motions, barely paying attention, when the scan showed something very strange. Lucius had far more nodules than the original scan had identified, almost three times as many. Still not as many as several of the children at the facility, but this kind of growth just didn't happen. Eezo nodules grew in the womb, as a rare result of the pregnant mother being exposed to dust-form element zero. When the child was carried to term the number of nodes that had developed would be the number of nodes the child would have throughout their lives. Everyone knew that. Every scan and every test had confirmed it, not only those done by Cerberus but all through the Systems Alliance. Hell, all through the galaxy. Every species had confirmed that exposing a foetus to eezo sometimes resulted in these nodules, but that post-birth exposure only resulted in illness or death. No one had ever successfully grown new nodules in any species, ever.
At first Stephen didn't believe it, so he repeated the scan a second time, then a third time only to get the same result. What could have caused this? Obviously the child couldn't have actually grown more nodules, could he? It had to have been the original scan five years ago that was wrong. But when he compared the two scans he saw that the newer nodules were roughly the same size and in the same locations as the original nodules, so how could even the basic scanner at the orphanage have picked up some while missing other identical ones all around it? There must have been a mix-up with the records… but no other child at that orphanage had been flagged as biotic so there was no one that Lucius could have had his scan accidentally switched with. Stephen's mind raced with the possibilities, but he did nothing for now.
The biotic strength of an individual was the result of three factors: the number of eezo nodules in the body, the ability to control those nodules, and the assistance of technology. The technological aspect, namely the neural implants and amplifiers which all biotics used, were widely studied and were gradually being improved by labs all throughout the galaxy. Without these most human biotics could barely throw a ball across a room, let alone a person. Secondly, the ability to control one's eezo nodules was a skill that improved with age and could be improved further with practise and training. On Pragia they were researching various pharmaceutical, neurological and surgical ways of improving this control further. They were one of only a few facilities doing this kind of research, as it required the kind of experimentation on sentients that was illegal in most jurisdictions. Dr. Kim was under no illusions that the work he was doing would get him anywhere other than an Alliance prison cell if it came to light. Finally, no serious researcher was trying to increase the number of nodules, everyone knew it was impossible, and yet…
One month after Lucius' arrival Dr. Kim repeated the scan. He was in a high enough position at the facility that he had been successful in keeping the boy out of the other experiments without attracting too much attention. He didn't want anything getting in the way in what could be a revolutionary discovery. The machine beeped to signal the scan's completion and Stephen eagerly viewed the results and began grinning ecstatically. A redo of the scan confirmed it: the body of this child had somehow spontaneously grown more eezo nodules. Not many more, after all it had only been a month, but the growth of even one was unheard of. Dr. Kim immediately thought to bring this to the attention of the facility's head researcher, but stopped himself. He hated that woman, and knew she would probably steal all credit he was due. This was his opportunity to get out of this place and finally do some work which could actually be useful. No, he would take this straight to The Illusive Man himself.
Horizon - 2170
Three months later Dr. Kim and a small team of researchers were setting up a lab on Horizon, a new human colony perfect for their purposes. In some ways he was surprised it had taken this long to get started; after his first message to The Illusive Man the response had been… skeptical. In fact, he had seemed rather disbelieving, and annoyed to have been bothered by something so ridiculous by a relatively junior scientist. But of course it had been too tempting not to look into it further, and after a few months the other staff at Pragia had confirmed it. Lucius was somehow continuously growing more eezo nodules in his body.
After that things moved very quickly. The decision was made to move Lucius to another facility, smaller than Pragia but solely dedicated to unlocking the mysteries he contained, and Dr. Kim had managed to talk his way into leading the team responsible. Located on the outskirts of Horizon's main colony, the lab was registered under a chain of shell corporations. While the facility on Pragia was hidden from sight on an unpopulated and lawless planet, this lab was using the 'hiding in plain sight' strategy. Unlike the Pragia lab, they didn't need regular shipments of human subjects and so wouldn't attract too much attention.
Dr. Kim now had three scientists working directly under him, one of whom he knew from Pragia, while the other two were new to him. Perhaps they worked in other Cerberus labs or perhaps they were new to the organisation, he hadn't asked. In addition to the researchers there were two orderlies to assist them with the more mundane aspects of taking care of the child, and three security officers, with a small assortment of security mechs on hand if they needed them. Ostensibly they were there to protect the lab from outside interference, but half their time would really be spent making sure the other staff members kept to their confidentiality agreements. All in all it was a quite a small team, but there was always the option of expanding it as the need arose. And besides, a small team was that much easier to hide. If news of their discovery ever got out every biotic researcher in the galaxy would be looking for them, probably every government and military as well.
While the orderlies finished preparing what would become Lucius' quarters when he arrived in an hour, the scientists were setting up the final few pieces of lab equipment and excitedly discussing the task set before them. "I mean, this could be huge. This is huge," said Dr. Boucher, who had followed Stephen from Pragia, "if the subject keeps growing nodules at this pace he could end up giving some asari matriarchs a run for their money."
"If," said Dr. Alawi. "This growth could stop at puberty, or just after puberty, or it could even stop tomorrow. We don't know a damn thing about what's causing it. The obvious candidate is some novel genetic mutation, but initial DNA screening hasn't shown anything strange in the expected places, which means we probably need to start trawling through unexpected places in his genome. Then of course there's potential environmental interactions, which means looking at every substance he ever came into contact with. Or his mother came into contact with during the pregnancy. Or even before the pregnancy? Maybe even his father if we can ever track him down…"
"Yes, yes, we're all aware of the enormity of the task ahead of us," interrupted Dr. Kim. "But that's why we're here, isn't it? Half the fun is in the searching, and the answer will be so much more rewarding if we've really had to work for it." He hadn't felt this young in years, all the frustration and hopelessness of Pragia seemed a distant memory.
"My question is, who is going to train the boy?" asked Dr. Michaels, the youngest and so far the quietest of the researchers. "I mean obviously we're all experts in biotic biology, but do any of us have any experience in training one to actually use their abilities?"
"Why would we bother training him?" answered Dr. Kim. "I think you're missing the point. Sure, if this growth continues the subject could become very powerful, but it's not actually his power we're concerned with. Once we figure out what is causing this miraculous growth in him, we can start the real work of getting it to work in others. Imagine the implications of being able to grow more nodules in other biotics, or maybe even in people who weren't biotic to begin with. One biotic, no matter how powerful, can only do so much. But a whole army of super-charged biotics? That could really put humanity at the forefront of galactic power. Maybe we'll need to teach him a few basics eventually, but I'm sure we can handle it. If not I'm sure The Illusive Man will send someone. He knows how important this project is."
"And if it's our safety you're concerned with," added Dr. Boucher, "we'll keep his amplifier switched off remotely until we need him to use his abilities, if we ever do. That's what we did to the kids at…" Stephen stopped her with a sharp look. Cerberus kept its cells seperate, with knowledge of other facilities and operations on a need-to-know basis. This was something the higher-ups, and the security officers patrolling nearby, took very seriously. "…my previous place of employment," she finished. The other two knew enough not to inquire further. They knew that Dr. Kim and Dr. Boucher had come together from another Cerberus biotic research lab, but the details of that work and especially its location was irrelevant to their current task and potentially dangerous for them to know.
The awkward silence was broken by the sound of a shuttle landing nearby. "Oh, they must be early!" Dr. Kim said gleefully while walking briskly out the door in the direction of the landing pad. By the time he arrived he found one of the orderlies leading the boy inside as the shuttle took off again. "Welcome Lucius, welcome! Come, let me show you to where you'll be staying," he said as he turned and walked back into the building.
They soon came to a small room, simply furnished. There was a small bed in one corner, a few cupboards against a wall, a child-sized chair and desk with a small vid-screen, and finally a toilet and sink, but no mirror, in another corner. Everything the boy would need. "Here you go Lucius, this is your new home. I'll leave you to get settled. If you need anything just push this button by the door and one of the orderlies will come to check on you." Dr. Kim then left the room to return to his colleagues, locking the door behind him.
Much later that night Dr. Kim was finally ready to turn in for the night, though with all his excitement he knew sleep would be hard to come by. Most of the others had already gone to bed, only one of the orderlies, on the night shift, remained nearby watching some trashy movie with his earphones in, while one of the security officers was presumably still at a desk near the front entrance keeping half an eye on some security screens. Stephen didn't bother saying goodnight to either of them. He walked past Lucius' quarters on the way to his own when he thought he heard some faint crying. He opened the door to see Lucius lying on his side on the bed curled into a ball, his eyes red and puffy.
"What's wrong Lucius?"
"I'm c-cold," he sniffed, "and I m-miss my f-friends."
"Oh. Well here, there are some extra blankets in this cupboard here." He pulled a folded blanket out of one of the cupboards and placed it on the bed next to Lucius. "Now try and get some sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow. A big and exciting day." He left the room, rubbing his hands together eagerly as he proceeded to his own bed. 'Where should we start tomorrow?' he thought, 'I think a CSF sample would be best, surely there's something interesting to see there.' Neither the researcher nor his subject would fall asleep for several hours.
Author's Note
This story does start a little slow, so I plan on updating once every two days until we meet up with Shepard around chapter 5, then I'll go to weekly updates. Hopefully I'll continue all the way through the trilogy. I'll be sticking fairly close to canon, but with my OC character (Lucius) to mix things up a bit and eventually the small changes might add up to bigger changes. These early chapters are essentially Lucius' backstory, and while I'm not super happy with all of them I did really want to get to the main plot. I may come back and rewrite some at a later date. This is pretty much the first thing I've ever written so constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.