It was around six in the morning when the crew of the SSV Normandy awoke from their sleep pods, sleepy from battle and in need of more rest. They where greeted by the insane, frantic ramblings of private Nick Tomkinson, who was standing over them spewing forth scrambled garbage involving the words 'we', 'all' 'doomed' and 'are'. The disgruntled private was pointing at the command console in the crew quarters and shouting at everyone to get out of their bunks and onto the bridge. Apparently, there was an emergency.
The whole crew was half asleep, and very groggy. Most had only just managed to get some sleep at around four in the morning, two hours ago, after Commander John Shepard deemed the colony of Feros safe. They were then sent in to clean up the commander's mess and, ultimately, restore peace in the colony. This took a particularly long time, due to the fact that several of the locals had a hard time trusting them. Apparently, Shepard had shot a good eight of the crazed colonists, when supposedly he was meant to throw a grenade containing a sleeping agent at them. He killed them when he could have saved them. So, to say they where somewhat hostile was a slight understatement with regards to their time spent on the former Prothean metropolis.
It was two hours since the Normandy had departed for the Citadel when 'it' hit. It crashed right into the lower decks, into the hangar, destroying the M35 Mako and badly injuring the turian Garrus Vakarian, who was sleeping in a make shit bed right next to it. It hit with enough force that it caused the catwalk above the galaxy map to snap right down the middle and fall forwards into the holographic projection, and sent almost half the occupants in the engine room into the engine itself, three of them tumbling straight into the Tantalus drive, which in turn fried them to death.
Chief engineer Adams got away with a badly burned right arm. He had the quarian, Tali Zorah'nar Rayya, to thank or this. She had quickly grabbed on to the bars separating the command consoles from the Tantalus itself, and hung on for dear life. While holding onto the bar with one hand, she was able to reach out with her other and grab the screaming chief engineer as he was nearly sent to a potentially painful (and bright) death.
In the hangar, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was busy performing maintenance work on the pile of unequipped assault rifles at her desk when it happened. She, possessing quick reflexes and the intelligent ability to quickly judge and assess practically ANY given situation, immediately ran towards the engine room and leaped into the entrance hallway for temporary safety.
The krogan, Urdnot Wrex, it seemed, wasn't quite as noble as Tali, and headed straight for the elevator, heading to the safety of the upper decks of the Normandy, without even so much as a casual check on the well-being of either Garrus or Ashley, who where still in the hangar when the 'thing' crashed through the wall.
Commander Shepard was in the cockpit at the time, lecturing the ships pilot, Jeff 'Joker' Moreau, for 'needlessly showing off' when taking off from Feros. Apparently, the Normandy had performed a number of 'loops' when heading for the atmospheric barrier. Three, to be precise. Why? Even Joker didn't know. Sometimes he liked to rebel. It gave him a rush of self esteem. But the force of the hit had interrupted the argument and caused the commander to fly forwards into the view screen in front of Jokers special control chair, smashing it beyond all recognition.
Roughly ten seconds after the initial hit, private Tomkinson, who was near the galaxy map when it was destroyed, sounded the alarm. The lights throughout the Normandy dimmed and where all replaced by the blinking red ones triggered by the alarm system. In between the blinking of the red lights, it became pitch black, which made things even worse. The atmosphere on the Normandy, for the first time ever for most of the crew, was extremely foreboding. Something was definitely wrong.
Williams rescued the turian, Garrus. After the thing hit, and the vacuum of deep space began sucking all the inhabiting objects of the hangar out into the dark emptiness of the Attican Beta cluster, the Gunnery chief had dived into the connecting hallway leading to the engine room, only to return after the initial chaos, seconds later to see Wrex, clutching his arm which for some reason was bleeding. He was escaping via the elevator.
'Damn you, Wrex!' she shouted, but had done little to hurt the stubborn krogan's feelings.
She was holding on to the rail along the wall of the hangar for dear life as contents of the hangar – including all of those machine guns she had so tirelessly cleaned – where sucked out into deep space. Following them shortly was the Alliance requisitions officer, and all of his equipment. He had tried to grab onto the trashed planetary terrain vehicle that was the Mako, but was smashed in the skull by a Phoenix IV (krogan class) suit of armour, sending the part-time merchant cart wheeling into the blackness of space. It was then that she saw the crushed remains of the Mako, blocking the huge hole in the side of the ship. At the side of the hole, holding on to a huge shard of whatever the 'thing' was, was Garrus. A huge chunk of the afore-mentioned 'thing' was embedded in his leg and sticking into the wall behind him. This was, incidentally, the only factor that was stopping him from flying out into space to join the requisitions officer. He was, essentially, fastened to the wall.
Williams slowly and carefully edged over to him, calling out 'Garrus!? Can you hear me!? Stay calm! I'm coming over!'
But the former C-Sec officer was out cold, and didn't hear a thing. Ashley picked up the pace, and in roughly twenty seconds, was within two feet of the turian. She could now feel the force of the vacuum. Another few minutes and she would lose all her strength and be sucked out with the rest of the hangar. She had to be quick. Improvising slightly, she unclipped her belt and slowly and carefully extended it towards Garrus.
'Grab this!' she shouted, and then realized he was unconscious. She briefly worried that she would have to leave him there. But that idea ceased when she heard the unmistakable hum of the elevator. She looked over to it, and with a sigh of relief, realized it was on its way down.
Williams backed up and grabbed hold of a bar connected to one of the lockers for extra safety. She watched the elevator, cursing the damn thing for being too slow. Eventually the door opened, and a fully suited Commander John Shepard stepped out, his anti-grav boots activated. Lt. Kaiden Alenko followed him, also garbed in his space suit. They calmly and quite leisurely strolled over to Ashley, Garrus and the Wreckage of the Mako.
On top of the vehicle, crushing it with its sheer size and weight was a mass of what looked like semi-transparent, red rock. It had hit the ship with the force of an elcor punching a volus, and had pierced a hole the size of a small house into the wall just behind where the Mako used to stand. The commander didn't have time to wonder where it came from, however.
'Get Ashley!' he shouted at Kaiden, who moved over to the Gunnery chief and put his arm around her, carefully guiding her away from the hole. Together, they moved back to the elevator.
Shepard was pulling the huge piece of whatever it was from Garrus's leg. Turian blood floated everywhere in zero gravity when it became loose.
'What the hell…?' Shepard murmured to himself as he studied the large 'thing', a mass of what looked a little like red, razor-sharp jelly, but hard as rock.
With Vakarian free, Shepard put his arms around him and moved back to the Elevator. He was about to press the 'UP' switch before he heard 'Shepard! Wait!'
All of a sudden, from around the corner, stumbled Tali. Engineer Adams was clutching onto her arm, half of his right arm missing, his face as pale as a baby salarian. They reached the elevator, and Tali collapsed on the floor, exhausted. Adams huddled into the corner, nursing his wound. The elevator door slammed shut and the relieving feeling of gravitational stability returned. They headed back up to the upper deck, and to safety.
As soon as the elevator door opened, four soldiers carrying a stretcher poured into the room, and carted the squirming Adams off to the med bay, lead by Dr Chakwas, who was holding a breathing apparatus over the chief engineers face and shouting to her staff 'Hurry! Where gonna lose him!'
Shepard and Kaiden both carried Garrus to the table in the mess hall, just around the corner from the elevator, where Williams began patching up the gaping wound in his leg. Shepard administered morphine to the turian, and ordered Kaiden to run to the med bay and gather necessary equipment. In the med bay, Tali was shaking, pacing back and forth beside the injured Adams, and blaming herself for his injury.
'I could have stopped him from falling into the engine' she said, quietly.
'If I had gotten to him sooner he would still have his arm'.
'Don't blame yourself, Tali', Chakwas replied 'you saved his life. If you hadn't acted at all he would have lost more than just his arm'.
The quarian left the room and headed into the mess hall, her head down. Shepard, confident Garrus would be okay, gave the thumbs up to Kaiden and Williams to move him into the med bay with Adams.
'Let's get these two put under heavy sedation until we reach the Citadel' he ordered.
'Er… captain, that might be a bit of a problem' sounded Joker over the speaker.
'What's wrong?' Shepard demanded.
'We've lost hull integrity due to that thing, and the ships controls are completely destroyed due to you… falling into them. Sir'
Shepard closed his eyes. This wasn't good. Adams would surely die if he didn't receive the correct medical attention that the Normandy was lacking.
'The most expensive and high-tech ship ever created in Citadel Space and we don't even have the means to help a man who has just lost his goddamn arm!' he shouted to nobody in particular.
'Shepard… I am very sorry' came Tali's voice, softly spoken as ever, from behind him.
'Don't blame yourself, Tali. He immediately retorted. 'You saved his life'.
'But he might die. Like you said, we cannot help him unless we reach the Citadel'.
'We have the means to keep the wound from getting worse, and now he is under a lot of anaesthetic. If we make sure that anaesthetic doesn't run out, we can at least keep him in a stable condition until we figure out how to get home'.
'This… might not be such a good thing to tell my people when I return home' she said, her tone quieter than normal.
Shepard put his hands on the quarian's shoulders.
'He'll be okay. WE'LL be okay. I promise. Go get some rest, Tali. You're in shock, you need to rest'
Tali nodded, reluctantly, and sat down at the mess hall table.
Shepard turned and headed into the communications room. His only option was to attempt to inform the alliance of their current plight.
'Joker!' he announced, 'try and patch us through to admiral Hackett'.
'I can't, sir, the ships communications are down. That thing… it really took a swipe at us, commander'.
'Dammit!' he shouted and sat down on one of the chairs.
Dr. Liara T'soni walked in, a look of both horror, worry and confusion across her face.
'Shepard, please tell me what is happening?'
'We've been hit by… a meteor, or something. Nothing like anything I've ever seen before. Adams is critically injured, so is Garrus. Our communications are down, we can't call for help, and the engine is badly damaged. We can't even GET to the engine room without getting sucked into Citadel Space.'
'So… we are in very grave trouble'.
'I'm sorry, Liara. So much for thinking you'd be safe here'.
'It is okay, Shepard. It is not you're fault. There has to be a way to call for help. A distress call, maybe?'
'Joker's up there looking for a solution. Until then… go and help Dr. Chakwas in the med bay, she could use you're expertise' Shepard instructed the asari.
She nodded, still slightly confused, but nonetheless headed around the corner and over to the stairway leading down to the medical room.
'Not my fault…' he repeated to himself, 'you wouldn't be saying that if you saw me flying into those cockpit controls…'
Dr. Chakwas' voice was heard over the speaker. She sounded extremely worried.
'Commander Shepard! We have a situation in the med bay'.
'On my way!' Shepard sounded back, and ran through the doors of the communications room, around the corner and down the stairs to the med bay, rushing past Liara and nearly sending the asari head over heels.
Dr. Chakwas was wrestling with a pair of arms that where trying to grab her head, Shepard immediately saw as he entered. But because of the crowd of crewmates surrounding the struggling doctor, he couldn't see whom they belonged to. He pushed through the crowd, moving towards the doctor, and looked down in horror as he saw Garrus Vakarian, now wide awake, thrashing about in the bed, growling and snarling at the doctor. His eyes where pale, almost entirely white, and his skin was turning into an ugly green/grey. Boils all over his face and head where moving uncontrollably, a few even popping and spewing dark purple gunk. He was looking at the doctor in a murderous way. Shepard was worried.
'By the goddess Shepard, what is wrong with him!?' Liara screamed, suddenly joining the commander.
'Stick him with a sedative!' he shouted.
One soldier grabbed hold of Garrus' arms whilst Chakwas turned to the desk beside her to retrieve two syringes filled with bright blue liquid. However, while her back was turned, the turian, now shouting and screaming wildly, wrestled free of the soldiers' grip and dived onto the doctor. Chakwas threw the syringes into the air as she fell back with the considerably larger turian on top of her. The soldiers raced about, trying to wrestle Vakarian off of the doctor, and eventually succeeded, but not before he sank his teeth deep into the doctors neck and ripped out a huge chunk of her flesh. A deafening gunshot sound filled the room, and the entire crew looked up immediately to see Shepard stood over the crazed turian, pistol in hand, pointing the smoking instrument of death at the twitching corpse. He fired again, this one hitting Garrus directly in the forehead. The body stopped twitching. Shepard holstered his gun and turned immediately to the doctor. She was squirming and thrashing about, a pleading look for help across her face as she looked desperately up at the commander.
'Dammit, someone patch her up!' he shouted. But there were no doctors. At least none qualified to tend to a wound like this. Blood squirted and poured from her neck, which was now half of what it was. Her skin went pale, and before anyone could even fathom what to do, the doctor died right there on the med bay floor.
It was a good few minutes before anyone could muster up an inkling of the appropriate thing to say. Shepard was sat on the floor beside Chakwas, holding her head in his arms, a look on his face as though he wanted to apologize, but for what he wasn't quite sure.
Williams, Alenko and Tali entered. Ashley put her hands to her mouth and tried to scream, but only a strange, breathy sound came out. Kaiden put his hands over his eyes and murmured 'god in heaven'. Tali slowly walked forwards, surveying the carnage that was the med bay. Blood was everywhere, crewmembers where sat on the floor looking suicidal, a dead Garrus was spread across the floor with most of the top of his head blown away and the bloodied corpse of Dr. Chakwas was in Shepard's arms. Shepard's face and most of his body was covered in both her blood and Garrus'.
He looked up at Tali, tearful.
'I couldn't help her… I couldn't…' he trailed off as he looked down at the blank expression on Chakwas' face. Tali knelt beside him and put her hand on his shoulder, then moved slightly and embraced the commander, who was now weeping.
'My god Shepard…' Ashley said in disbelief, 'what the hell happened?'
Kaiden walked over to Garrus and looked down at him, wondering what the hell happened to the turian.
Shepard looked up at the Gunnery Chief.
'He bit the doctor' he said, having now controlled himself and retained his composure, 'he… he turned. Just… started trying to attack everyone. His face… those eyes… I don't know what happened to him. He killed the doctor in cold blood. So I shot him'.
Kaiden walked over to Shepard.
'Commander, we need to start thinking about what we're gonna do now. I mean is there no way we can reach ANYONE back home?'
Shepard looked up towards the ceiling.
'Joker, Any luck?'
Joker buzzed back again after a short pause.
'Afraid not, captain. Still nothing'
Shepard looked back at Ashley.
'Well, first things first team. Let's get these bodies moved somewhere secure. Williams, Alenko, get to it'.
'Aye aye skipper' Williams replied and she and Kaiden set about dragging the bodies into the back office connected to the med bay, which had previously been reserved as Liara's room.
'Crew, head upstairs and help Pressly and Tomkinson repair that damn galaxy map'.
All hands that had helped in the med bay left the room, all of them perfectly happy to do so. The med bay had turned into a harrowing room of death. None of them would ever look at it in the same way ever again.
'Liara, go to the cockpit and see if Joker needs any help'.
Liara nodded, again in that innocent fashion, and departed for the front of the ship. The commander looked at Tali, who was studying the dark purple puss Garrus' face boils had left behind.
'Shepard, I think from this… stuff, we can determine what was wrong with Garrus. We just need an expert in biology'.
'She just had her neck ripped off' Shepard replied, with some slight sarcasm in his tone that had become characteristic of the commander.
'Oh… well, I think myself and Liara might be able to study this stuff with some hope'.
'Do what you have to, Tali, but… wait… where is Wrex?
Tali looked around the med bay.
'I haven't seen him for a while', she replied, 'not since well before that thing crashed into us'.
Shepard got to his feet and left the med bay. He ran up the stairs and glanced up towards the cockpit. Joker and Liara where talking while studying the barely-functional controls. He looked around him, glanced at the now-destroyed galaxy map. Navigator Pressly was with private Tomkinson, trying to repair it.
'Pressly, you seen Wrex?' the commander inquired.
The navigator looked up at the commander.
'I haven't, sir. Dr T'soni told me about what happened in the med bay, by the way. Goddamn turian bastard. I'm glad you put one in that son of a bitch'.
Shepard knew this would only turn into a misguided rant about how untrustworthy aliens where, and so the commander simply nodded and told Pressly to carry on. He turned and proceeded through the doors behind him and headed down to the lower section of the ship, back towards the med bay.
He wandered the entire perimeter of the upper deck of the Normandy, but found no sign of Wrex. Ashley and Kaiden wandered up to him, a tired expression on their faces.
'Shepard, the bodies are laid to rest in the office'.
'Good work, guys. Anyone else down there? I want the entire lower section cordoned off until we know what's going on. Until then, everyone stays up here'.
'Good call, skipper'.
'You seen Wrex, Ash?'
'Yeah, the bastard went up the elevator when the hangar got hit. He left me and Garrus down there, didn't even help us. Asshole, I should have known… he had some sort of wound in his arm as well. I think when that thing hit, pieces of it where kind of shot all over the hangar'
'Ash, this is very important. I need to find him'.
'You checked you're room?'
'Why would he be there?'
'I don't know, but Wrex has been acting kinda odd lately, even before… this'.
Shepard considered her words.
'I'll go check' he replied after a brief moment of thought. He walked past her and proceeded down the stairs to the lower decks, and on to his room. He entered the door, and sure enough, Urdnot Wrex was sat at Shepard's desk, nursing a wound in his arm.
'Wrex' began Shepard 'where have you been? We could have used you're help back in there!'
There was no reply from the krogan. He just sat there, looking at his arm, breathing heavily.
'What's wrong with you're arm?' inquired the commander.
Still no answer.
'Damn it Wrex, I don't need this crap right now, certainly not off you' he announced, walking over to the krogan with the express intention of punching his lights out.
As he got closer to Wrex, he sensed something wasn't right. When he was within a foot of him, his fears where confirmed. The krogan turned to face him, his eyes as pale and lifeless as Garrus', his skin that awful green/grey, boils all over his face. He leapt on top of Shepard before the commander had time to pull out his gun.
Back in the communications room upstairs, Tali and Liara where toying with the strange puss from Garrus Vakarian at a makeshift study desk they had acquired from the med bay. The asari was looking at it under a microscope.
'Incredible' she murmured.
'What have you found?' Tali asked.
'The cells found in this substance are breaking down and separating into smaller cells… at an alarming rate'.
'You mean… like mitosis?' the quarian enquired.
'Yes, only much faster' she replied.
Tali sat there at the table, deep in thought. Suddenly she stood up, her eyes behind her visor wide with the excitement at the prospect of a plausible idea.
'That thing that crashed into the ship! A piece of it stuck into Garrus' leg! He wasn't the same after that'.
'You're right' Liara replied 'and I did have my suspicions before. It must be some sort of alien organism that drifts through space, consuming hosts when it can get them'.
'We need to check the entire crew, see if any of them have come into contact with it, whatever it is!' Tali announced. The quarian rushed off, leaving Dr. T'soni to her studies.
Tali rushed through the doors to the stairway leading to the lower section. As she descended the stairs, she slowed her pace, realizing she could hear a strange, guttural sound from around the corner. She slowly pulled out her handgun and edged further down the stairs, her back firmly against the wall. She was sweating inside her helmet. She hadn't felt this much fear since encountering an agent of the shadow broker outside of Chora's Den on the Citadel.
As she neared the bottom of the stairway, the guttural breathing turned into growling. She slowly turned her neck around the corner and recoiled in horror, hiding her head again and trying hard not to scream. She composed herself, and slowly looked again.
Spread out on the floor like some sort of hellish feast was the dismembered body of Dr. Chakwas, the chewed up remains of Engineer Adams and the headless corpse of Garrus Vakarian. At either side of the pile of corpses, chewing and slurping away at thick slabs of bloody flesh was Urdnot Wrex and Commander Shepard. Both of them where feasting away, a blank but malevolent look on their faces. Their eyes where pale and lifeless, their skin-
Tali slipped on a step and tumbled down the stairs, yelling in pain as she did. She hit the bottom face-first, cracking her protective visor. Immediately she staggered to her feet, her sight blinded temporarily by the impact of the fall. She immediately began panicking, as she saw that the horrific, mangled corpses were now alone. Shepard and Wrex where nowhere to be seen.
She staggered back, her entire body trembling with fear. She had broken her gun in the fall as well, and was now defenceless. As her sight came back slowly, she saw the unmistakable line across her vision. Every quarians fear. A damaged helmet.
'Keelah' she said slowly. She turned, with the intention to race back up the stairs and find a replacement, only to face Shepard, who let out an almighty guttural roar and began clawing at the quarian. She yelped and fell backwards. Shepard fell also, and began scrambling over to her, a murderous look on his face, snarling and biting, his face and mouth covered in blood that wasn't his.
She turned onto her front and crawled away from him at speed, only to stop all of a sudden when she reached a huge, clawed foot. She looked up. It was Wrex. The krogan was now also infected with whatever it was that had gotten Shepard and Garrus. He picked the quarian up with one hand and held her proportionately tiny body in front of him, the same, ravenous look across his face that was on Shepard's. She tried to scream, but the krogan was holding her by her neck. Just as the he was about to devour her in one huge mouthful, Kaiden Alenko and Ashley Williams opened fire on him, sending numerous beams of high-powered energy straight through his head, almost taking it clean off.
His lifeless body fell to the floor.
'Tali! Come on, we gotta get outta here!' Kaiden shouted, and as he did, Shepard leapt seemingly from out of nowhere, slashing the lieutenant across the throat with his nails. Kaiden spun, blood spurting from his neck, and fired his gun, shooting Ashley several times in the stomach. She fell, screaming in pain, while Shepard gorged on Alenko. Tali had scrambled over to the table and was hiding under it, a mixture of worry at her visor letting in potentially harmful toxins and the horrific events that where unfolding before her very eyes.
Williams scrambled for her gun and pointed it at Shepard, but before she had a chance to fire it, Alenko climbed on top of her, knocking the gun from her arms, that same dead look on his face. She screamed as he sank his teeth into her neck and began chewing. Tali closed her eyes, unable to scream because of the sheer shock of the moment.
The lieutenant fed. Then Shepard joined in. Together they fed on her skull, picking out pieces of brain and chewing them like beef jerky.
Then Pressly entered the room.
He stood before them, at the bottom of the stairs, frozen in terror.
'Um… commander?' he hazarded.
'Pressly, run!' screamed Tali from underneath the table. Immediately, the monsters that where formerly Shepard and Alenko leapt to their feet and both dived on the navigator. His screams only lasted a few seconds before they where replaced with gargling and choking as his own blood suffocated him. And soon enough, Ashley Williams, now also infected, joined in. The three of them fed, that horrible snarling, slurping sound emanating from their general direction as they did so. They had become monstrosities.
After they had their fill, Shepard and Alenko turned towards the mess hall to see where the screaming the quarian made had come from. It was almost as though they had just remembered. They hadn't lost ALL brainpower, Tali wondered, ever the silent observer. Plus, there seemed to be an inhibitor in their consciousness that stopped them from attacking others that where infected by the alien organism.
These where just passing thoughts, however. Her immediate goal was to escape from the mess hall and make it back up to the bridge. She had to warn Liara and Joker, and the rest of the crew. The 'things' where now on their feet, and moving around the room, moaning and groaning in a way that would suggest they were completely brain dead.
She needed to think fast. She didn't even want to imagine how much contaminated air had infiltrated her visor. Quickly, she grabbed her omni tool from her belt and threw it from under the table, towards Shepard's equipment locker. It clanged against it, making a reasonably loud noise.
At that moment, the infected Shepard, Kaiden and Ashley turned immediately to look at the locker. They groaned with curiosity and ambled over to it, bumping into each other and inanimate objects along the way.
Tali wasted no time; she crawled through the chairs and was out from under the table in a matter of seconds. Retrieving her omni tool (a small risk that she felt would be necessary) she then raced up the stairs as fast as her legs would allow her. She flew through the doors, only to be greeted by Liara, hysterically screaming about how the two of them were going to die. Tali held her close, and the asari wept into her shoulder.
'Liara, listen to me… Shepard and Wrex… now Ashley… and Kaiden… and… Pressly…'
Liara looked at her, her face flush from crying.
'So has Tomkinson…'
'Tomkinson…?'
'He had a piece of the meteor from Garrus' leg, but didn't tell anyone. It cut him… the thing is alive! The thing that crashed into us, it wants this! It's how it works! It is a living thing! DON'T YOU SEE!? WE AREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT OUT OF THIS! IT WON'T ALLOW US!'
'Dammit, calm down Liara!' Tali shouted and slapped the asari across the face.
'Pull yourself together! This isn't going to help us! Wait… where is Tomkinson now?'
'He's over there…'
Tearfully, she pointed at the cockpit. Tali slowly moved over to it, stopping suddenly.
'Oh… my…'
Tomkinson and Joker where both feeding on the last few crewmembers of the Normandy. They where huddled in the ships entrance, next to the bridge, a huge pile of bodies surrounding them. There was blood everywhere. She stepped back, moving back over to Liara, who was sat behind the wreckage of the galaxy map.
'I think if we stay quite, they might not attack us' she suggested.
'Of course they will - they are obviously driven by an urge to feed. When they see us, they will try and to the same thing to us' Tali told her.
'How do you know so much about this infection?' Liara asked.
'I… watched as it happened to Ashley and Kaiden… and then watched Kaiden and Shepard attack Pressly. It is obvious what is happening. They died, but... somehow, the alien organism re-animated them. Turned them into ravenous monsters'.
'By the goddess… I am so scared, Tali' Liara began trembling.
All of a sudden, the doors leading to the stairway slid open and the infected Shepard, Ashley, Kaiden and Pressly stumbled through the door, moaning and groaning, their arms thrust out in front of them, as if they where trying to grab the air. The commotion they caused alerted the infected Joker and Tomkinson, and a few others who had just become re-animated, and immediately both groups of infected began making their way to the galaxy map.
'They have seen us!' Liara shouted and stood up.
'No, Liara, stay with me!' Tali ordered, but it was too late. Liara ran for the doorway to the staircase, but was grabbed by the infected Ashley. Liara screamed and tried to wrestle free of her demonic grip, shouting 'No! Not me! Please!' but it wasn't long before the gang of monstrosities where chowing down on her innards. And soon after, Joker and Tomkinson and co arrived to join in.
Tali couldn't believe what she was seeing. There where so many of them, and all of them where behaving like hungry animals. All brain power that they did have before was now replaced by a singular group consciousness with one intention: to feed.
Tali slowly got to her feet, and moved over to the wall separating the galaxy map from the entrance to the communications room. She slid around the corner and entered it, shutting the door immediately. She looked about desperately for a possible way to lock the door, and then remembered she still had her omni tool. Manipulating the security system, thanks in no small part to her extensive knowledge of such, she was able to use the omni tool to seal the door shut from the inside.
She then stepped back and turned to the communications console. It had been well and truly fried. Joker was right. There really was no way of crying for help. She fell to her knees, touching the crack in her helmet, slowly realizing the hopelessness of the situation, and her dire hope of survival.
She sat there and cried. All pre-conceived thoughts of how her pilgrimage would go now completely destroyed. She sat deep in thought, wondering what her family where doing right at that minute, her self-important father and the conclave, her mother she didn't get a chance to get to know…
Loud, chaotic banging on the metal door interrupted this. The infected outside where clawing and screaming at the door in unison, knowing full well the quarian had escaped into here. She closed her eyes and hoped she would wake up soon…
One hour later, a huge rumble that caused the entire ship to shake violently woke Tali from a very brief sleep. The alarm sounded and the red blinking lights once again where activated by the onboard security system, and then suddenly the shaking turned into a violent crash, sending the quarian flying across the communications room. It went quiet, but only for a short while.
Then suddenly, the sounds of shouting and gunfire erupted from outside the communications room. The moaning and snarling of the infected where heard again, only this time very briefly before being silenced. She listened as soldiers outside cleared each room, firing when attacked, then putting down their foes with precision shots to the head.
She slowly got to her feet as a very bright laser beam split the door in two. Smoke poured into the room, followed by a dozen soldiers. Tali put her hands up, and got down to her knees, so that they would know she wasn't infected. One soldier moved closer and studied her, then called back to out to the bridge.
'Hey, captain Anderson! This one is okay!'
Tali watched as the former captain of the Normandy entered the room. He walked over to her cautiously.
'Miss... Zorah'nar Rayya?'
'Hello again' she said awkwardly, exhausted and relieved.
She looked past the captain, at the pile of bodies blocking the doorway.
'They are dead, don't worry' he assured her.
'Shepard... I had to shoot Shepard. One of my greatest allies... one of my dearest friends'.
'He was beyond help, sir' the quarian replied.
'I don't know what has happened on this ship, but I'm sure a thorough search and you're co-operation will help us'.
Tali was confused as to how they boarded the ship.
'Am I… am I on the Citadel?'
'Yep' replied one of the C-Sec officers who had just entered 'crashed right on top of Chora's Den. It's a goddamn miracle you survived'.
'We saw the ship coming down, but when we couldn't get through to you, we knew something was wrong' Anderson told her.
Another C-Sec officer approached.
'Captain Anderson, Ambassador Udina's outside. He wants to know what happened to the Normandy'.
Anderson helped Tali to her feet and they slowly moved out of the room.
'You've been through a lot, Tali', Anderson reminded her 'if there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask me'.
She glanced up at him.
'A new helmet might be a start'.
THE END