Chapter 1: The Misadventure Begins!
\/\/\/\/\/ A/N \/\/\/\/\/
Hello everyone!
This is a new story idea I was working with on the side
while writing up The Terran Gambit.
Set within the Mass Effect AU of the Terran Gambit,
this side story follows the new found friendship and adventures of
Kal'Reegar and Jacob Taylor
from their childhood and the wake of First Contact,
to the fight against the Reapers.
I wrote this up as a way to clear my mind as I continued my main fic
and also write up the first part of my next major project, The Synthetic Storm.
So I hope you all enjoy this (for now) lighthearted story
of the misadventure of a Human and a Quarian,
and all the mischief that comes with it!
If you would like to get a sense of the background,
please check out my main fic, The Terran Gambit.
Chapter 8 if you like the exact place where I got the idea.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
FSS Homestead
June 2, 2167
The shuttle slowly entered the energy force field of the shuttle bay of the Homestead. Its mass effect field began to weaken, lowering the shuttle to the platform as the thrusters lessened and the artificial gravity of the ship took hold of the aging shuttle. The Quarian shuttle finally touched down, a Terran officer waited along with a Quarian officer outside to greet the next work crew being sent to retrieve supplies.
The doors opened, a work crew of ten waited inside, accompanied by a research team. The work crew was here to retrieve supplies the Terrans had agreed to give them as aid. The research team was there to overlook the transfer of vital scientific equipment; scarce and valuable to the Quarians, but overstocked and cheap to the Terrans, as long as the taxpayers didn't know. The passengers on board turned to the Quarian officer. She signaled to them it was safe to leave. They got off, taking their first steps onto an alien ship. The Terran officer stepped forward.
"Greetings. My name is Lieutenant Commander Goldston, Chief Engineer of this fine vessel."
The leader of the detail stepped forward. "I am Rael'Zorah Vas Rayya, the head researcher for my people. We request permission to come aboard."
"Permission granted. Welcome aboard the Federation Starship Homestead, the finest ship in the Fourth Fleet! I believe Commander Sacco here will be briefing you on your assignment."
"Professor Zorah. If you please follow me, the humans have allocated the raw materials your lab needed…"
She directed towards the bay doors, discussing with him the details. Within the shuttle, a small head poked out, peering out at the shuttle bay.
"Mission update. I have successfully stowed away and entered the alien ship. Beginning infiltration phase," the young boy said to the omni-tool on his arm.
He quickly jumped out of the shuttle and onto the metal platform, almost tripping as he landed. He quickly looked around, in a fighting stance as he advanced, before he dove for cover behind a crate, poking his helmeted head out to coast the area.
Unaware he was still in plain view of almost everyone, Goldston looked at the kid, tilting his head in confusion. He turned to one of the Quarians, another professor.
"So what's with the kid?" He asked.
"Oh, that's Kal'Reegar, one of our young. He apparently stowed away on the shuttle," the Quarian replied. He chuckled a bit. "He thinks he's a spy. We asked him to stay on the shuttle, though."
Goldston laughed, amused by the alien kid's overactive imagination. "Ah, no worries. We have children ourselves on the ship. Most of the easily accessible areas are open for them anyway. Anything important is blocked off with automatic security. The rest we have monitors in place. Let the kid have some fun playing 'secret agent'."
"I don't want him to be a bother, though."
"He most likely won't. But just to be safe." He activated his watch. "Lieutenant Monroe!"
"Yes, Chief?" she replied over the comm.
"We have a little 'spy' on board." He stated. From the context of being able to see and hear what was going on in the bay, she knew what he really meant. "Could you please… help him on his mission?"
"Of course, sir. I'll keep an eye on the alien tike."
The Quarian turned to him. "It seems too much to divert one of your officers for one kid."
"Monroe is one of our AIs," Goldston pointed out. "It'd be of virtually no extra processing power for her to watch him."
The professor was intrigued, if a bit startled as well. "Your artificial intelligence programs have identifiable gender schisms? How fascinating. Could we possibly have a chat about them? Professor Zorah and Admiral Koris were most interested in your development of them."
"I've heard most Quarians are far from fond of AIs," said Goldson. "Are you comfortable with discussing our own?"
"Zorah has debriefed us with the situation. Not all of us are so paranoid. Leaning about yours may offer insight into our own."
"Then in that case, I'd be delighted! I hope you don't mind one watching the kid."
The professor grunted. "Better than the Geth, right?"
As they walked out of the bay to rejoin the others, Kal quickly ran for the door as it began to close. He made a jump and into the hallway, rolling into a wall. He quickly recovered and looked around, before running down the hallway.
"Grandpa!"
Getting off the connection tube from a hospital ship, Jacob ran out towards his grandfather, Captain Taylor. The Captain knelt and opened his arms, embracing his grandchild and lifting him up for a moment before placing him back down.
"Jacob! How good it is to see you. First, tell me why you're here."
He looked up at him. "I heard you made First Contact with actual aliens! So, I asked Dad if I could go visit and he let me board a hospital ship that was heading over."
Captain Taylor groaned. "That boy. Letting his own son run off to the other side of the galaxy alone. What in good Terra was he thinking?"
"He said you'd be okay with it…" He looked at him with puppy eyes.
Taylor sighed and looked down at his grandson. He couldn't refuse him.
"Well, you're already here, boy. So… you can stay."
"Thank you, Grandpa!"
"But I want you on your best behavior. There are important Quarians aboard this ship working with us. I want you to a model Terran, understood?"
Jacob saluted him. "Yes, sir!"
"Good, now then…" He looked down the hallway, noticing a class of children walking by. "Go join that class."
Jacob looked at him, surprised. "But I thought I was going to meet the aliens with you?"
"They are called 'Quarians', like we are humans. And you will get to meet one. But I still have to do important work–"
"Captain work?" he asked, having always been fascinated with what his grandfather did in the Navy.
He smiled. "Yes, important captain work to do. We'll meet later for dinner in my quarters, okay?"
"Okay! Thanks, Grandpa!"
The young boy quickly ran off down the hallway, joining the class that was touring the ship. Taylor looked on, smiling as his grandson ran off. He was happy to see his grandson. His entire career was spent exploring the stars and he had missed out on raising his son, Ronald. There was a bit of the same tragedy happening with his son and Jacob. He hoped his grandson would not be raised in the same manner.
Taylor looked down at the ground, noticing that Jacob had left his luggage on the ground.
"Damn it, that boy… well, I was heading back to my quarters to change anyway."
Maybe he could do better for Jacob.
Homestead Science Lab #7
Kal continued stealthily down the hallway, hiding behind every corner as he continued deeper into the ship. The thin-carpeted floor muffled the boots of his suit. He looked around the hallway and at the architecture of the Terran ship. On the Rayya, the hallways were old, cramped, metallic and rusting. Everything was always being fixed, the halls dark and cramped, full of cargo to make use of every space possible. Each room was makeshift in built, full to the brim with entire families and quarters.
Here he saw something that reminded him of images of Asari ships that returning Pilgrims would show him from their time in the galaxy. The humans had beautiful, spacious ships. The hallways were bright, wide and finished with something he never saw before in person, clean drywall and marble edges. The floors were solid and soft, unlike the metallic and creaky floors of his home. In rooms, momentarily left open by their sliding doors as people walked in and out, he saw large wide quarters housing a few crewmembers, when the same size would be divided to house a dozen families or a cargo of supplies.
"These aliens must truly care for their luxuries…" He was jealous for a moment, now seeing firsthand the comparison between the two standards of living. But he shook the mesmerized feeling off and renewed his conviction. "Bah, it makes them weak like those girly Asari! They must be no match for someone with a rugged upbringing like me!"
At each corner and hallway shaft, there was a camera and sensor pod tracking him as Monroe, her main holo-projection in engineering, watched his every move. Kal rounded a corner into an empty hallway, now confused and lost.
"Oh the secrets this ship could hold. Weapons, medicine, technology…" Kal hid behind a corner when a crewmember and an accompanying flying hover holo-drone, like two spinning gyros, came down the hall. He wasn't sure what the drone as for, but he watched as they approached another group of workers. A human-like figure materialized around the drone, looking just like the others. They all talked for a bit, and then parted ways. The human dematerialized and the drone hurried off, flying through the hallway at running speed.
"That must be…" His realization scared him. "The hologram, a platform! An AI!" He thought for a moment, knocking his helmet with his hand, before coming to a conclusion. "These alien AIs could be used against us! It's up to me to save the Fleet! Now, where do I find their, uhm… servers, that's it!"
He walked over to one of the many wall panels and looked up at it.
"An access console! I could get information from their computers! Just need to turn on my omni-tool here."
Kal raised his left arm up and jumped up to reach the wall console, waving it as he tried to get his omni-tool to engage and interface. What he didn't know was that his didn't have any way of interfacing with the Terran computer; it was a child's version used for learning, built from spare parts the Fleet recovered. Though even a regular omni-tool couldn't do what he thought it could.
Deciding to keep this amusing charade going, Monroe accessed his omni-tool instead and gave him access to a program of her design, mimicking Terran user interface.
"I'm in! Now I just need to…"
He stopped when he heard a noise. He turned, hearing it come from down the hall. Kal panicked worried he was about to be discovered. Looking around, he saw what looked like a small air vent. It was one of the entrances to the ship's utility hallways and tubes that lined the ship for maintenance and emergency passageways. He hurried to it and used his omni-tool to open it. Monroe opened it for him, sealing the immediate section so he couldn't go any further.
He quickly got in and closed the vent, looking out the air slots as the group of people came.
Jacob joined the class of children, walking with them down the hall of the ship. They were returning to their classroom after lunch. Many of them were dressed in their play costumes, getting ready for their big performance in the ship's auditorium about the signing of the Terran Constitution for Unification Day. The play was canceled yesterday for the room's use in hosting the aliens Admiral Ghirn and Admiral Vali. Jacob kept his distance. He had a hard time making friends or fitting in. The teacher himself didn't notice him join the group.
"This is so lame."
Approaching one of the labs for the ship's science crew, the class of about a dozen children stopped when their teacher, an ensign, noticed Goldston and Rael approaching the lab.
"Excuse me, Chief?" he called to them.
"Yes, Ensign?"
"Chief, sir. I notice you are accompanying a… Quarian?"
"Yes, Ensign. I see you are accompanying these children." It was as good a time as any to introduce the children to the alien in a more casual and comforting manner. "This is Professor Rael Zorah"
Rael nodded to him. "Greetings. I see you are being accompanied by a group of your race's children. You are an instructor?"
"Yes, Professor. Ensign Levine's the name. I'm the teacher for the third to fifth graders on the Homestead. They are the preadolescent group." He turned to his class. "Class, say hello to our ship's guest."
The group of children looked, mesmerized by the alien in some space suit. Jacob stood in the back, not as impressed.
"An actual alien!"
"Cool!"
"Why can it speak Terran?"
"It's called a translator, dummy!"
"Why is it still in a space suit?"
"Mr. Levine just said the alien is a he, stupid! My mommy said that life could be in other forms not like us. And she's a scientist!"
"He has arms and legs. Hey Mr. Alien. Do you breathe oxygen?"
Amused, Rael replied, "My species, the Quarians, does breathe the same air type as you do. But as you see, my kind must keep ourselves in these environmentally sealed suits."
Goldston continued, "You see children, Quarians have a weak immune system. They must keep themselves clean and sanitary at all times. You should be thankful you only have to take a bath once a day."
"Once a day? Oops…"
"You boys are so gross!"
As the children continued talking, Jacob, at the back of the group, heard a shuttering noise behind him in the hallway. He turned back, noticing an air vent hatch slowly closing. He walked to the hatch, curious as to why it was open for a brief moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow at the corner of the hallway a few meters from him.
"What the…"
He heard more noise, of someone running on the carpeted floor from him.
"Something's wrong here."
Looking back at the group, he decided they bored him, and that this might be more important. He left, off on his own adventure.
"Does your race have children?" asked a little girl.
"Why yes, little girl. We do. In fact, I have a daughter myself. Without her suit, she has a similar hairstyle to yours. You're both very pretty."
"Really? Oh, I want to see her! Could she come over?"
"Maybe in the near future."
"Ah! All girls are gross. Doesn't matter the race!"
"Shut up!"
"You shut up, you cootie covered girl!"
"Touch!"
"Oh God! Oh God!"
They all watched as the boy cringed and fell on the ground, rolling a bit before stopping, lying still on the ground, pretending he was dead.
"Great job Jenny, you killed Lawrence!"
"He was asking for it!"
"His acting skills are getting better. That's why we casted him as Founder Lin for the play," said Levine.
"Agreed," replied Goldston.
"Is he okay?" asked Rael when he noticed them casually staring at the kid.
"He's just acting." Levine nudged the kid with his shoe, the kid grunting in annoyance. He then noticed something and turned to his class. "Hmmm." He did a head count. "Hey… Jenny, where's Jeff?"
"He told me his Admiral Donnelly costume wasn't right, so he went back to his quarters to fix it."
"I think there was another kid here, though…"
Rael turned to Levine. "Uh, what is this 'cootie' disease that the children speak of?"
Homestead Classroom #4
Kal ran down the hall. Inside his suit, he was hyperventilating. He was almost discovered by a group of Terran children. He felt utterly embarrassed by the thought. He finally stopped and looked behind him.
"Keelah, that was close. Thank the ancestors these alien children are stupid. Not like me, the finest the Fleet has ever produced!"
He continued down the hall, before coming upon a door decorated with crayon artwork. He looked at the sign that said, 'Room: 1345. Classroom #4'. Not sure what the alien words said, he nonetheless approached the door.
The doors slid open, startling him. He looked in, noticing small furniture more suitable for his size. He walked in, the doors closing behind him as he entered the classroom. The lights were still dim, but he could see all of the desks and tables with artwork and notebooks.
Back in the hallway, from around the corner, Jacob ran in, looking around. He could have sworn he heard a noise from this area. A few officers and crewmen passed by; everything seemed normal.
"Not here. What could it have been? Maybe…" He snapped his fingers. "Oh my God, a spy! These damn aliens have a spy on board!"
He reached for his wrist, noticing he had forgotten his watch, which he had stored in his suitcase for the trip here. He ran up to a wall console and jumped, swatting it and getting the computer to acknowledge his presence. Just as well, Monroe watched.
"Computer! Connect me to Captain Taylor! It's an emergency!"
"Opening hail…"
In a moment, Taylor responded, "This is the Captain. Speak."
"Grandpa, Grandpa!"
"What, Jacob?" He sighed, the sound of him switching his comm from an open speaker to his private earpiece going through. "Jacob, I'm in a meeting with the Fleet Admiral! I need you off the comm. Speak to you later."
"But—!"
The comm went dead then the console deactivated and turned black like all the others that lined the wall.
Jacob took several deep breaths, worrying before he could think it through.
"No help… God… it's up to me?" Exasperated, he shook his head with newfound conviction. "I must stop the spy. I must save the ship. For Terra!"
Renewed with purpose, he continued down the hall, trying to track the 'spy' on board. As he left the area, Monroe continued to monitor Kal, now adding Jacob.
Back in main engineering, on the other side of the ship in the rear, was Monroe's main holoavatar. She was working on diagnostics for the Hyperdrive Manifold, giggling to herself as she watched the two kids scurry about the ship on some self-appointed mission. A crewmember noticed and walked by as he activated the control console next to her.
"Now what's so funny?" he asked.
"Oh, the Chief asked me to watch this alien kid that not so secretly snuck on board. Now, apparently, the Captain's grandson is chasing him, trying to stop the alien 'spy'."
He chuckled as he checked the pressure output of the nearby fusion reactor. "Kids these days. I guess they're all the same, no matter the race."
"Yah… I wonder."
"What?"
She snapped her holo fingers. "I've got a plan to get the most fun out of this."
"Really?"
"Yah. Yansey, you've got control of deck thirteen's upper computer commands, right?"
"I was about run a tachyon cleaning on the quantum computer for that deck," he responded.
She gave a somewhat sinister smile as she completed her diagnostics. It was a normal sight to humans, but would scare even the bravest of Quarians. "Connect my server to the holosuite for that deck. I've got a plan!"
He could tell this 'plan' was going to be good. "Connect your visual feed to my console, and you've got a deal!"
"This room. Seems suited for smaller people." Kal finally figured it out as he wondered around the room. "It's a classroom! Must be for those alien children I passed by."
He approached a desk, looking at the drawings on it.
"Pictures? These aliens must have dumb offspring to just be drawing at their age." He kept looking, examining their drawing utensils like crayons and drawing pencils. He picked one up and grabbed a piece of paper nearby. Kal drew some lines, and looked at what he drew. It was a very crude series triangle, put together to look like an explosion. But he found some amusement in seeing it. "Keelah, I wish I could draw stuff in class, though. Calculus is so boring."
He continued looking around when something grabbed his attention from across the room on a table. It was a model, made of balsa wood and poorly painted, of a tower with a wide curving width. It was somewhat tall, with a large dome building at its base, and hundreds of small flags of different colors and patterns. On the main tower were the letters 'UE'. It was the United Earth building in New York, home to Congress.
On the rest of the table were other famous human buildings that Kal didn't know about. There was one for the Palace of Versailles where the President lived. There was the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, home to the Supreme Court post-Revival, and the Peace Palace in the Hugue, pre-Revival. There were other places of interest, including the Kremlin, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Brandenburg Gates, Christ the Redeemer, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza, the Forbidden Palace, the Sydney Opera House, and the Great Wall of Canada.
As he looked at them, he moved his gloved hand close to touch them. In the instant he touched the top of one of the Pyramids, it suddenly collapsed, falling to pieces in a surprisingly spectacular burst, which then caused a chain reaction. One by one, each model monument collapsed, one after the other, until the only thing left was the Wall, which was simply two grey bricks glued together with a Canadian flag on it. It simply fell over on its side.
"Uh… oops."
He slowly backed away and continued exploring the room.
"There must be a computer I can access."
Kal looked around and found a desk with an unlocked computer that was connected to a small holodisc. Attempting to interface it directly, he accidentally activated the program on it. The holodisc turned on, displaying three human figures on it. It was a video of the final signing of the Terran Constitution. The one on the right was a female human of bright European complexion in a black suit dress. The one on the left was a male human in a grey suit, a vest instead of a coat, with a more tinted, Asian complexion. And the last one in the middle was male human of a much darker complexion in a dark blue suit.
"Shall the human race be forever united!"
"Shall the Terran People have common resolve and eternal wisdom!"
"And shall we always know that, on this day, on the First of June, 2125, that a new nation was born, to forever protect Terra! Shall that new nation, the United Terran Federation, and her people, the Terrans, safeguard Life, Liberty, and Equality! For as long as God and his beloved creation so will it, shall it last forever!
"God save the Federation!"
The video ended, Kal now more interested in what he saw. He quickly reasoned he just saw a video of the moment the humans united. He just as well concluded that the computer he found had information of their government, which could be useful to the Conclave and his Uncle Xen.
As he tried to access its database with his omni-tool, a map of the deck he was on appeared. He kept using his omni-tool, thinking he was translating the screen. In a moment, the words translated to Keelish, indicating that Main Engineering was only a few dozen meters down the hall. He read what seemed like a notice for all crewmembers, indicating that the compartment was to be empty for 'automated maintenance'.
"This is it! I'll access this room and I'll have control of everything on this ship! I could bring this ship to the Admiralty… I'd be as big a hero as Grandfather!"
He 'downloaded' the map and memorized the layout. As he finished, the doors slid open. Kal quickly turned around, seeing a figure of his own size at the door. It was a human with the same skin tone as the Terran from the video.
"Spy!" yelled Jacob at the top of his lungs.
Jacob quickly reached for a meter stick and unsheathed it from the storage tube like a sword. He charged at him in full force, wielding his ruler with both hands. Kal quickly dodged, Jacob smashing the console. Kal rolled across the floor and quickly jumped up as his enemy recovered. He looked around and grabbed another meter ruler as well.
"Don't bother, human! You're no match for me! The finest Quarian Marine!"
Jacob got into a fighting position.
"No bubble head alien will get past me! For Terra!"
"For the Fleet!"
They charged at each other and the fight began, their rulers clashing as they fought across the classroom. With each hit of their rulers, a small spark lit the room up as the metal side made contact. Moving about the room, they began to wreck up the place, knocking down books and other class materials to the ground. Jacob lifted his sword high up and hammered down. Kal dodged and Jacob struck a wall full of drawings, dozens of paper drawings swatted to the ground. Kal countered with a one handed jab, hitting a flat screen and stabbing it through when Jacob blocked and directed his sword's blow. Kal recovered and swung wildly in a full circle, hitting Jacob with power and pushing him against a table.
"You can't match superior Quarian physique!" Kal said as he held him at sword-ruler point.
Jacob looked up. "Oh yah?"
Jacob swung his ruler and knocked Kal's away. He then kicked him back, giving space between them. With the little time he had, Jacob charged up his kinetic abilities and unleashed a kinetic blast at Kal. He looked up, only a second to panic at what he saw before the blast hit him and slammed him against the wall.
He fell to the floor and groaned in pain.
"Aw damn. A biotic…"
As Jacob walked over and held his ruler at him, the doors opened once more. The teacher and the class had returned. Instantly, they were horrified at the sight of their classroom, completely messed up.
"My classroom!"
"Our drawings!"
"Our computers!"
"My Wall!"
Jacob readied to explain himself, since it wasn't the first time he had gotten in trouble for completely destroying a classroom for an entirely 'reasonable' reason. Kal took advantage of the fact no one noticed him. He looked around, noticing a bottle that had white powder coming from it. It was a bottle of baby powder for the makeup of some of the play actors for Unification Day.
Kal quickly grabbed it and sprang into action. He took aim and squeezed the bottle, blinding Jacob and shrouding them in a white smoke screen. As the class took notice, Kal ran out, ruler and bottle in hand, towards the door. He threw the powder at the foot of the class of children. The bottle burst open, covering them with a spray of white smoke as he shoved his way through the door and into the hallway. Kal was unfazed, thanks to his suit.
"Must get to engineering and take control of this ship!"
As they were all coughing from the powder, Jacob ran through, determined to stop Kal.
"Move, move! I'm trying to save the Federation!"
He emerged out of the hallway, wiping baby powder off his face as he looked around. At the end of the hallway, he saw the young Quarian tike rounding the corner. Jacob gave chase as the teacher yelled at them to come back.
Homestead "Main Engineering"
Kal got to the main hatch of what the map told him was main engineering. He jumped up at a control panel and hit it, opening the doors. As he heard Jacob yelling at him, he rushed into the room to try and close it behind him. But the moment he walked through, he was mesmerized.
Inside was the design of the main engineering section of a Terran Navy ship larger than a light cruiser. From as far left as he could to see, to as far right as he could see, there were large fusion reactors lining the walls of the long rectangular section. Above him, there were numerous walkways spanning the length of the engineering section and across the main level. As he slowly entered in full, he noticed a central console hub, which divided up the area in half.
He walked over, noticing what was in front of him and the console was what looked like smaller reactors. They were the thousands of micro antimatter reactors, where thousands of molecules of anti-deuterium were mixed and annihilated at once to get the most matter to energy ratio in order to power the Hyperdrive Engine. When he looked behind him, spanning from the center of the engineering section to the back of the ship was the Hyperdrive manifold, which enabled Hyperdrive travel.
"Keelah. This makes the engineering section of the Rayya look like a toy motor! These aliens are even more advanced than I thought. They could have hundreds, even thousands more ships with this powerful of an engine… imagine the weapons they must have…"
As he finally snapped out and began to access the central control panel, Jacob jumped through the closing door, and into the room, on a railing level just a few steps below Kal's.
"Give up, alien! This is the end of the line!" he said as he held his ruler out, pointed at Kal.
Kal grabbed his ruler off the console and moved in. "I will fulfill my mission. With this technology, we'll have Rannoch in days, not centuries."
"I will defend Terra and her fleet! En garde!"
They ran up and fought, their meter rulers clashing as they moved about the main center platform. Jacob moved forward to close the space between them, using his kinetics to try and deliver a quick ending blow to Kal. Kal fought back, using all the training and movie vids knowledge he had of battling biotics to dodge and counter Jacob's attacks. Kal landed the first blow, a whack to the stomach and Jacob's left arm, scratching his arm with the metal end. Jacob attempted to counter, he thrust forward and Kal dodged, but Jacob quickly swung left and hit him. He then followed up with two more whacks from his ruler on his suit before he swiped down and smacked Kal on his helmet, almost unhooking his head wires in the process.
Kal backed up, retreating off the central platform to the other side. That last swing could have killed him, opening his helmet to the air. He looked at his human opponent who held the high ground, knowing he must be careful. Kal moved in close, Jacob trying to hold him at a distance.
They both now figured it was a match to the death. The fate of everyone rested on who controlled the engineering room and the raw power the ship could produce. He advanced forward and swung at him, but Kal blocked and grabbed the wooden ruler, pulling it out of Jacob's hand. Seeing him disarmed of his external weapon, he knew he must act quickly against his biotic weapons as well. Kal then elbowed the kid and began his targeting to remove his biotic ability.
He dropped his own ruler and attacked, channeling his attack to the tips of his fingers as he began stinging Jacob with unparalleled speed, aiming for numerous key parts of the human body. Momentarily paralyzed, Jacob froze, not quick enough to stop Kal from spinning him around and getting behind him, hitting several key points of his body. He continued, going around him unchallenged.
Jacob finally regained control, and with a simple swing, shoved Kal out of the way.
Suddenly feeling the pain from those stings, he looked at the Quarian, angry.
"This is over!"
Jacob charged up and punched at Kal's direction for a killer kinetic blast. But nothing happened. Jacob looked at himself, noticing he was not glowing blue.
"What?"
"Ha ha!" said Kal as he laughed, his mouthpiece flashing intensely. "An old trick for dealing with Asari commandos. Since you humans look the so similar, I reasoned right that the same technique would work also!"
Jacob realized what he did and gasped. "You bubble head… you chi blocked me!"
"Call it whatever you like," Kal said, a smirk behind his facemask. "The advantage goes to me."
Jacob countered, "You think."
"What do you mea–"
Jacob quickly jumped forward and lunging at him. He landed a solid punch to the gut. Kal collapsed and Jacob threw a roundhouse kick, propelling him onto and across the main platform. Behind him was the main control console. He crashed into it, activating several random prompts. Kal then collapsed onto the ground, dazed.
"Keelah…"
"I did it!" Jacob jumped in the air, his arms raised up. "I saved the Homestead!"
"Code Black is now in effect! Code Black is now in effect!"
Kal got back up, "Uh, what's that?"
"Oh crap!"
Jacob rushed to the console, shoving Kal out of the way as he checked the console.
"You bubble head! You activated the self-destruct sequence!"
"M-Me!? You kicked me into the screen panel! It's your fault!"
"Oh, shut up!" Jacob tried to activate some overrides he remembered seeing, to no effect. "Use your alien watch and stop this!"
Kal rushed over and turned on his omni-tool. But his device couldn't interface with the panel. He kept trying every hacking technique he learned, but his omni-tool did nothing.
"Self-destruct in fifteen seconds… Fourteen… Thirteen…"
"We're gonna die!"
"So this is how it ends." He took a deep breath and held his head up as he sniffed. "I give my life for the Fleet!"
Jacob turned to Kal. "Was it worth it?"
"Uh, actually… no! Keelah, we're actually going to die!
Jaocb moaned. "Grandpa is going to be so angry."
Kal turned to the human. "I-I'm sorry about trying to infiltrate your ship."
Jacob nodded. "I'm sorry for beating you up."
"Hey, I was winning right before this!"
"Three!"
They both hugged each other, closed their eyes, shaking as the last seconds drew closer.
"Two… one!"
"Ahhhh!"
"Meep!"
They both screamed out loud, the last action of the supposed last second of their lives. They then noticed that they were still alive, or something like that. They looked around, now in a different room than before, much smaller. It had bright neon walls and structural antennas all around. They pushed each other away.
"This… we're… we're in a holosuite?"
"A what?"
They then noticed something else. Laughter was coming from behind them. They turned, Monroe pointing and laughing at them. The comms were apparently open as well, as more laughter was coming from the stationed crew in the actual engineering section.
"Oh man, that was just hilarious!"
Kal asked, "Who are you?"
She kept laughing, signaling them to wait before finally settling down.
"Lieutenant Francine Monroe, Synthetic Engineering Division."
"A what?"
"I'm an AI, yah alien tike." She smiled as she shook her head, "Everyone saw you enter the ship, so Chief Goldston asked me to watch you."
"Wait… you knew what he was doing?" asked Jacob, surprised.
"Well of course. Not like he could have actually done anything that would compromise the ship's security. He's a kid!"
Kal sighed, disappointed and embarrassed. "Oh man. I'm a horrible spy."
"Well, I had fun." chuckled Monroe, "I didn't expect the grandson of the captain to find and try to stop you. But when you were on Kal's trail, I just knew how this was going to end. Making you two fight!"
"You made us fight each other and think we blew up the ship!?" argued Jacob.
"It's not like you could really injure yourselves. Besides, you both were so driven in your parts I couldn't just stop you. It was too funny. Much better than that lame play the other kids were doing."
Kal was confused. "But those maps…"
"Fake! You didn't think your toy watch could hack our computers, or that we'd let anyone simply enter an empty engineering room? Come on now! We have dozens of AI monitoring this ship by default."
"It seemed so easy."
Jacob snapped his fingers. "Oh wait… aren't we in the forward part of the ship?"
"Took you long enough. All you did destroy was a classroom."
Kal turned to Jacob. "Do your AIs always do this to you? Use their creators for cheap entertainment?"
Jacob sighed, "Yah."
"I guess it's better than being killed by them."
Monroe giggled as she walked up to them and rubbed them both on the head. "Aw! See, it all worked out! You both have a new playmate!"
They both grumbled a bit at the thought.
"Well then. I'd better be off. You two play nice now."
"Wait, Lieutenant!" yelled Jacob. "Where is Captain Taylor?"
"Oh, he's in cargo bay two. Now then, you two run along. I'll be watching."
Her hologram disappeared, the holosuite doors opened. The two boys turned to each other, not sure what to do now.
"That was… weird," commented Kal.
"Uh, yah…" Jacob scratched the back of his head, not sure what to say next. He then spoke, chuckling a bit. "Man, I can't believe you thought you were a spy."
"Hey, you thought I was one too!"
"But they knew you were here the moment you entered the ship!"
Kal sighed and lowered his head. "Auntie Miri makes it look so easy…"
After a short awkward silence, both just standing in front of one another in the holosuite, Jacob held his hand out. He was all the while nervous, uncomfortable enough with other human kids, let alone an alien one.
"Uh… my name is Jacob Taylor, by the way. What's yours?"
"Oh?" Kal was surprised by his introduction. He looked at Jacob's hand, unsure of what he was supposed to do. "My name is Kal. Kal'Reegar Nar Rayya." He extended his hand out to match what Jacob was doing. Jacob grabbed it and gave a firm shake.
"Kal Reegar… Uh, what's a 'Nar Rayya'?"
"That's how we refer to the ship we were born on."
They let go of each other's hand.
"Oh, hmm. I wasn't born on a ship."
"It could also refer to where you are from."
"Okay then. I guess that makes me Jacob Taylor 'Nar Earth'!"
"Earth? Auntie Miri mentioned that. Is that your home world?"
Jacob nodded, smiling. "Yah, that's where we humans are from. If you like, I think I can get Grandpa, I mean, Captain Taylor to take you there to visit."
Kal looked at him, surprised. He had viewed this new, seemingly advanced race with suspicion. He had tried to infiltrate their ship and steal from them. He had even fought against their own. But to hear this young man invite him, this stranger, a mischievous child of an outcast race, to their own home world. Behind his mask, he felt tears in his eyes.
"I-I… I would love to."
"Awesome! You'll love it. They recently fixed up all the damage from the Revival, even filled up most of the giant craters."
"Uh, so. What now?" asked Kal.
"We should head to the captain…" he stared at Kal for a moment. Then he gave him a light push on the shoulder before running off. "Tag! You're It!"
Jacob ran off towards the doors. Confused, Kal ran after him. "What do you mean I'm 'It'?"
As they both left, running through the hallway, yelling and laughing at each other, it marked a new beginning. The first true Terran-Alien friendship in the galaxy, the start of a long-lasting friendship between a Human and Quarian boy, something unheard of until First Contact. Many more things lay in wait for them. An adventure through life, or really, a lifelong misadventure for two boys the galaxy was simply not ready, or in the mood, for. Here it begins; The Misadventures of Kal and Jacob!
\/\/\/\/\/ A/N \/\/\/\/\/
I hope you all enjoyed!
Please feel free to review and comment.
I would appreciate it very much!
And of course,
My special thanks to MoonSword1994!
Thank you for all your beta-reading work,
I couldn't have done it without you!
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Posted on April 1, 2017 - Beta-read by MoonSword1994