The Q Effect
Written by J.C. Vascardi
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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to Star Trek are the property of CBS Studios, Inc. and/or Paramount Pictures, while all featured characters and places that that related to the game Star Trek Online are the property of Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment, and finally all featured characters and places that relate to Mass Effect are the property of Bioware/EA. I'm not profiting on this story and it is not my intent to infringe on anyone's copyright or trademark. The only things about this story that I own are the characters and storylines not featured in the shows, games, books, or other media.
Main Pairings: Rhys Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, Finn Shepard/Toran Ren
Secondary Pairings: Kyle Hawke-Derikson/Nathan Derikson, Logan Parker/Syrran Parker, Lucas Parker/Serron Parker, William Bristol-Drake/Bryan Drake, and the possibility of others in the future.
Warnings: Alternate Universe, Slash, Language, Violence, M/M Sex, Threesome, Foursome, Original Characters (others may get added as the story progresses)
Crossover: Mass Effect/Star Trek Online
Summary: Two vastly different universes collide when Q decides to send a pair of Federation vessels, along with a Klingon ship and a Romulan ship, into another reality, on a mission that could very well determine the fate of both universes.
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Chapter Two
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A couple of hours later, Toran was in his ready room after he'd made a ship-wide announcement of the situation. Between the ship unexpectedly dropping out of warp, the computer being unable to triangulate where they were, the senior staff meeting and relieving the night watch early, and then Toran clearing the bridge of all but the senior staff, he knew he had to address the situation. So, address it he did and for the most part, everyone took it in stride. There were some people who were clearly on edge about the whole not knowing where they were and if they could get back issue, but then again, they were a Starfleet crew. And above all else, Starfleet was about exploration and this situation definitely gave them the chance to do that.
Lost in thought about the situation, Toran almost didn't hear the door chime signaling that someone was outside waiting to see him. Shaking his head, he called out, "Enter."
As the doors slid open, Cassandra entered the room, and Toran was once again struck by the fact that even though she was in her early seventies, she really didn't look it. Whether it was due to her Betazoid heritage or just down to her taking extremely good care of herself, Toran wasn't entirely sure. Of course, then again Toran knew a thing or two about looking younger than you technically were since he was a Joined Trill. Joining with the Ren symbiont hadn't actually affected his physical age, but he did still have access to many more memories than a person his age should have. "Counselor, what can I do for you?"
"I wanted to report on the general mood of the crew following your announcement."
"I welcome your insights."
"Some are definitely scared," Cassandra revealed. "Although I'd say that the majority are excited. There is some concern over the fact that we have a Klingon ship and a Klingon-allied Romulan ship with us in this reality, although your relation to the Klingon captain has set a few minds at ease."
"Well, I can't say that I blame anyone for being concerned," Toran said. "The armistice that ended the war is only about a week old, so honestly I think I'd be more concerned if nobody else was concerned about the fact that we're now in a two against one situation with our enemy of the last five years."
Cassandra nodded. "Yes, as I said, there are some who are concerned, but also those that are hopeful that your relationship with Captain Dex will help to alleviate any potential issues."
"Well, Joran and I always were close as children. I suppose sharing both a womb and a bedroom will do that. There's definitely a bond that I don't think anything will break at this point, because it already survived a five-year war and the inevitable changes to our personalities that went along with both of us being joined."
"Indeed," Cassandra said, before she smiled and asked, "So, your encounter with Q happened while you were bathing?"
Toran closed his eyes at this and sighed. He was also sure that he was blushing. "You picked up on that, huh?"
"Well, I am Betazoid, my dear, so yes," Cassandra said. Due partially to her position as Ship's Counselor and because of her motherly personality, several people on the ship, Toran included, privately thought of Cassandra as a sort of surrogate mother. Of course, being Betazoid she knew this and thus, from time to time, she not only gave motherly advice, but also called people dear as if she was speaking to her child.
It wasn't perhaps the most professional way to act, especially with your commanding officer, but Toran had never complained or told her to stop because honestly a part of him kind of liked it since he barely remembered his own mother, since she'd died when he and Joran were only three.
"This is so embarrassing," Toran said after a moment, as he opened his eyes but looked over at the fish tank that occupied a section of his wall instead of looking at Cassandra.
"Oh, nonsense. There's no reason to be embarrassed, Toran. Trust me when I say that as a telepath I've seen things that make your encounter with Q seem tame by comparison. To be honest, I've also personally experienced things far more embarrassing."
Shaking his head, Toran said, "I don't want to know."
"Well that's good since I wasn't volunteering to share," Cassandra said. "I was merely attempting to give you a little peace of mind."
Before Toran could say anything, Melissa's voice came over the comm system. "Captain, the Incepteris and the Var'mang are back."
"I'll be right out, Number One," Toran said as he stood up. Looking briefly at Cassandra, he said, "Thank you, Cassandra." And after a moment, "And please don't tell anyone else about Q and my bathtub."
Cassandra smiled as she stood and prepared to leave the ready room behind Toran. "Of course, not, sir. I'm a professional and as Ship's Counselor anything you say to me in private is bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, so you needn't worry. Your secret is safe as I won't tell anyone."
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"The source of the energy we detected earlier is a massive construct," Joran revealed. "It consists of a pair of two fifteen-kilometer long curved metal arms surrounding a set of revolving gyroscopic rings five kilometers across. Inside the rings is a massive core of some kind of blue, glowing energy that our computers couldn't identify, but whatever it is, it's definitely powerful."
"Indeed, and seemingly well beyond the technological levels of the ships that we scanned while we were in the area," Valdren revealed. "All of the ships appear to have power readings similar to the construct, but put out far less power and none of the ships have designs that are anywhere near similar to that of the construct, suggesting that it wasn't built by the same people who built the ships."
Toran nodded. "Okay and do you have any indication as to what this construct is for?"
"Yes, we do," Joran answered. "It appears to be some form of transportation device, as we watched two ships approach the construct, at which point a column of energy from the core enveloped the ship and then shot it forward and out of sight at speeds that exceeded Warp 10. If I had to compare it to our technology, I'd say that it most closely resembles a transwarp conduit, although definitely a very different design from what we use."
With a nod, Valdren said, "From the sensor readings it appears that when the ship is enveloped in the column of energy, the mass of the ship itself is reduced to being nearly non-existent, before it's propelled forward. Long-range scans, however, couldn't figure out where the two ships we saw use it ended up, so wherever they went it was beyond our sensor's range."
"Very interesting indeed," Toran said. "Anything you can tell me about the ships?"
Joran grunted. "Tactical analysis isn't good. For them, that is. The ships seem to use mostly railguns supported by lasers. Both of which our shields could easily block. They do seem to possess a form of kinetic barrier which I assume would work well in protecting them against weapons similar to their own, but our weapons would punch through them like they weren't even there."
"Indeed, I'd have to agree with that assessment," Valdren said. "If we fired on those ships, I doubt their barriers would last more than a second or two. I also doubt their hull could handle a sustained blast from any of our weapons. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if we could one-shot kill some of the weaker, smaller ships. Larger ships might take a few more hits, but would still go down quickly."
"That's interesting to know as a point of reference," Toran said. "Of course, we aren't going to be firing on them unless they give us cause to do so. And if their systems really are as weak as you suggest, hopefully they won't do that."
"While I don't subscribe to the Federation's philosophy on several things," Joran said, "in this case, I actually agree with you, brother. From a warrior's standpoint, fighting those ships would be like joining a group of nine armored warriors wielding bat'leths in order to fight a lone, unarmed and unarmored combatant. It wouldn't be a fair fight and in my opinion, there'd be no honor to be gained from it."
Of the expressions Toran could see on the faces of Joran's bridge crew, it looked like they agreed with their captain, but then they were his handpicked senior officers. Toran couldn't help but wonder, however, if all of the Var'mang's crew would agree with Joran on that statement. Somehow, he doubted it, but chose not to bring it up. He also wondered how the rest of the Klingon crew felt about cooperating with a Federation captain, even if it was their captain's twin brother, and couldn't help but worry that Joran's life could be in danger. Seeing as how on Klingon ships it was possible to challenge the captain to a duel to the death for the captaincy. Something which Toran always feared could be more likely considering that Joran was a Trill, rather than Klingon.
"Captain, there's a ship decloaking to port," Kyle said, as his hands flew over the keys of his console. After a moment, he looked more than a little surprised as he looked up and said, "It's a Federation ship and registering as the USS Ganymede, under the command of Captain William Bristol-Drake."
"The Ganymede?" Toran asked, clearly confused. "That's an Intrepid-class and I've never known that class to be equipped with a cloaking device."
Following the Hobus supernova which destroyed the Romulan planets of Romulus and Remus, the Treaty of Algeron which barred the Federation from developing or using cloaking technology was declared null and void. However, only a very small handful of ships since that time had been equipped with cloaking devices and to the best of the Toran's knowledge, there had never been an Intrepid-class ship that was so equipped.
"Be that as it may, the Ganymede has one," Kyle said, "and according to the power signatures, it's a Romulan cloaking device." Toran looked ready to respond to that, but before he could, Kyle added, "Captain, they'll hailing us."
"Onscreen," Toran said.
The main view screen stopped showing the bridges of the Incepteris and Var'mang at this point and instead switched over to the bridge of Ganymede, where Toran could see William sitting front and center. They did know each other, as Toran and William had more than once been assigned to the same battlegroup during the war. There was, however, a further connection between the two crews in that the Anteros's Chief Engineer, Logan Parker, and Chief Science Officer, Syrran Parker, both had identical twin siblings serving aboard the Ganymede, which had led to the two crews socializing with each other and becoming friendly.
"Well, Will, this is an unexpected surprise," Toran said. "I take it you also had a visit from Q?"
William nodded. "Indeed I did, Toran. However, unlike you and the others he sent first, he deigned to give me and Bryan a few additional details about just why he's sent us all here."
"I'm all ears," Toran said.
"Explanations can wait until we're all face to face," a feminine voice said from off-screen, before a woman that Toran immediately recognized walked into the frame.
"Admiral Janeway? I wasn't expecting to see you," Toran said.
Kathryn Janeway smiled and said, "Yes, well, Admiral Quinn wanted to send Jean-Luc initially, but he didn't wish to come out of retirement. Not that I blame him, seeing as how he is 105 years old. I think he more than deserves the rest that his retirement in France affords him. So, he sent me instead, figuring that my experience operating in unknown regions with no contact with Starfleet Command would be useful here."
"I can definitely see how that would be useful," Toran said. "And I agree that Ambassador Picard has more than earned his retirement."
Kathryn nodded and said, "Indeed. Now, Captain Ren, I invite you to transport over to the Ganymede. You may bring your First Officer and one other person of your choice. Then we can all meet and Captain Bristol-Drake and I can explain what's going on from here forward."
"Of course, Admiral, I'll be right over," Toran said, before the viewscreen went dark. Turning around, Toran added, "Commander Flores, Lt. Cmdr. Hawke, you're with me. Commander Elbrey, you have the bridge while I'm gone."
Cassandra nodded and said, "Yes, Captain."
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A few minutes later, Toran and his two officers materialized in the Transporter Room aboard the Ganymede, where there was an officer standing by to escort them to the Conference Room. Upon arriving, they could see that they were the first ones to arrive, as there were only five other people in the room.
"Welcome, Captain Ren," Kathryn said. "I think you know Captain Bristol-Drake and his first officer?"
"Indeed, I do," Toran said with a smile as he nodded at William and Bryan and said, "Hello Will, Bryan." Both nodded in response as Toran turned to Commander Barin Troi, the Ganymede's Counselor, who was the half-Betazoid/half-Tavnian son of famed Betazoid Ambassador Lwaxana Troi and thus the half-brother of Deanna Riker. "Hello Barin, nice to see you again."
"You as well, Toran," Barin said with a smile. He normally would have called Toran by his rank and surname, but since the two crews had socialized with each other while off-duty they were friends. Of course, Barin and Toran were also ex-boyfriends, as they'd dated for about six months three and a half years ago, thus making Barin the last person that Toran had slept with, since as Q had said, he hadn't gotten laid in over three years.
Turning his eyes on the last occupant of the room, Toran smiled and said, "Lt. Paris, nice to see you again. I didn't realize you'd been stationed on the Ganymede. Last I heard you were Chief of Security on the Kirk."
"You as well, Captain," Lt. Miral Paris said. "The transfer to the Ganymede was very recent, as Admiral Quinn felt that their belief in me as the Kuvah'Magh might help smooth things over a little with the Klingon crew."
"That's likely enough to be true," Toran said, as he quickly introduced his officers to Janeway before the three of them took their seats to wait for the Romulan and Klingon delegations.
It wasn't long before the doors opened and Commander Valdren Lareth walked into the room, along with two other male Romulans: his First Officer, Subcommander Tovan Khev, and his Chief Tactical Officer and Chief of Security, Centurion T'varen Mendak. Just as they'd taken their seats after another round of introductions were made, the doors opened again to admit Captain Joran Dex, along with two Klingon males: his First Officer, Commander K'Gan, and his Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander T'Proth.
Once everyone was seated, Kathryn said, "Alright, now that we're all here, as I previously said when I contacted all of you to invite you here, Admiral Quinn has sent me here to lead the Federation delegation." Turning to Joran and Valdren, she added, "And while you technically aren't under any obligation to do so, Proconsul D'Tan, Chancellor J'mpok and Emperor Kahless II request that you follow my lead for as long as we remain here in this reality. Because we are now completely cut off from contact with our governments, barring Q allowing us the occasional brief window of communication. He seemed to indicate he might allow that, but as his godmother, I know his expressions well enough to know that he was mainly saying that to appease everyone involved and probably has no intention of actually doing it."
Joran and Valdren nodded, but remained silent, as Kathryn continued, "Now, before we do anything else, however, Lt. Paris has a message to read from Chancellor J'mpok for you, Captain Dex."
Joran looked intrigued, as Miral stood and grabbed the PADD that was resting on the table in front of her. "Captain Joran Dex, in recognition of your services to the Empire, I have decided with the support of Emperor Kahless II and a majority of the High Council to bestow upon you the right to found the Great House of Joran, in addition to making you the High Council's official ambassador to the other reality. You will henceforth be the Council's representative in that reality and given your record, I am confident that you will represent both the Empire and the Council with honor. Qapla'!"
"I'm sure you're surprised, Captain Dex," Will said, as Joran nodded, his expression indicating that he clearly was. "From what Chancellor J'mpok said he wanted the Council to have a pair of trusted eyes and ears here. The council decided that only a member of a Great House should represent them. However, nobody on the High Council or any of the existing Great Houses were keen on sending someone here. So, since you were already here, Ambassador Worf and Lady Sirella of House Martok suggested granting you the right to form your own house. There was a great deal of resistance at first, considering that you're not a Klingon by blood, but much of the resistance disappeared after Emperor Kahless vouched for you and recounted some of your achievements, including braving Gre'thor and fighting Fek'Ihr himself to put a stop to the Fek'Ihri invasion."
"Of course there were some who doubted that you actually did go to Gre'thor," Bryan added. "As some believe that the whole experience was a fabrication of Hur'q technology and the whole invasion by the Fek'Ihri Horde was perhaps retribution for the loss of the Sword of Kahless. But, enough people on the High Council believe they were the true Fek'Ihri of legend that when combined with your other achievements, including your help in defending Qo'noS during the Undine invasion, that you deserved the honor."
Kathryn nodded. "Commander Lareth, you should know that Proconsul D'Tan has also decided to make you the Romulan Republic's ambassador to this reality and thus he's granted you the diplomatic title of Romulan Legatus." Valdren nodded his head in understanding, before Kathryn continued. "Anyway, if you'll all have a look at the PADDs that Lt. Paris is handing out, you'll see a summary of what was said earlier in the meeting between Q, his father, Captain Bristol-Drake, Commander Drake, Admiral Quinn, D'Tan, and the Chancellor. After you've read that information, I have some further information to share."
"Q actually turned J'mpok into an Oprelian amoeba?" Toran asked, prompting Will to nod. Shaking his head, he said, "Oh I would have liked to see that. I don't bear any ill will towards the Chancellor, but it probably isn't using one's best judgement to do something you were specifically told not to do by an omnipotent being with unlimited control over matter, space, and time."
"True," Joran agreed, as even his officers indicated that it probably was a mistake on the Chancellor's part. They also took offense to Q's sniveling baby comment, but they liked to think that they wouldn't be dumb enough to anger a being who could literally wipe them from existence with a snap of his fingers. "At any rate, these Reapers sound terrible." Looking at his crew, he added, "I sense several glorious additions to the Var'mang's Record of Battle coming soon."
"Aye, it will be glorious," K'Gan agreed.
"Indeed it seems you will get the chance in time," Kathryn said. "Since I'm his godmother, after the meeting with the government officials ended, Q was nice enough to give me a little more information, including a partial star chart of the area that he says you explored before the Ganymede's arrival." Pushing a button on the table, a 3D holographic image of a planet soon hovered over the table, as she said, "The planet you found earlier is called Terra Nova and it's one of this reality's first human colonies outside of the Sol System."
"Did Q tell you anything about the strange construct in the neighboring star system?" Kyle asked.
"Indeed, he did. It's called a mass relay. Apparently there's two different kinds, primary relays and secondary relays. A primary relay connects to only one other primary relay but can cover a much larger distance. A secondary relay connects to multiple other secondary relays, but the distance they can cover is much shorter. However, thanks to the relay network, the inhabitants of this reality theoretically can travel anywhere in the entire galaxy in a matter of a few minutes."
"Theoretically?" Valdren asked.
"Most of the relay network is actually offline," Will explained, since he'd been with Admiral Janeway when Q decided to share this information. "There's a form of supranational government here called the Citadel Council which has passed a number of laws known as the Citadel Conventions. One of those conventions is that no member or associate race of the Council will activate a relay without knowing the location of the corresponding relay. Apparently, there was a time when they indiscriminately activated every relay they found, but doing so eventually led to their encounter of the Rachni… a highly territorial and aggressive insectoid race who nearly wiped out all other life in the galaxy in the following Rachni Wars, which lasted for over 290 years before the Rachni were declared extinct following a mass extermination effort by the other races of the galaxy."
"It's sad that they had to be exterminated," Toran said. "Was there no other way?"
"The Rachni are similar to the Borg in that they have a hive mind," Kathryn said. "They're fully organic, however, and they don't assimilate others. However, for most of the Rachni Wars, communication with the Rachni Queens who guided the various hives was impossible, since they tended to live in tunnels deep below ground which were filled with toxic gas that was lethal to all of the Council races. So the Rachni won almost every engagement because of their sheer numbers and after over 200 years of war, the races of the galaxy were not feeling particularly diplomatic."
"So how were the Rachni defeated?" Barin asked.
Bryan explained. "The Salarians, a Council member race of amphibious bipeds, technologically uplifted a race called the Krogan, whose bodies contain a number of secondary organs and thus they're immune to most toxins. So the Krogan troops went in and systemically destroyed every Rachni they could find, which put an end to the war. However, after the war there were then issues with the Krogan who were able now to explore the stars and were reproducing at alarming rates, much faster than any other race in the galaxy. The Krogan also had a tendency to begin settling on planets and claiming them as their own, regardless of whether or not the planet had already been colonized and claimed by another race."
"I can't imagine that went over well," Syrran stated.
"Indeed it didn't," Kathryn said. "So in 700 CE, the Krogan Rebellions began and lasted for several decades. With the Krogan ability to reproduce so much more than any other race, the other races couldn't compete and were basically facing a repeat of the Rachni Wars. So the Salarians developed a bio-weapon known as the Genophage which was then deployed by another Council member race known as the Turians."
Bryan took over at this point and said, "The Genophage didn't exterminate the Krogan, as there was some remorse over the extermination of the Rachni, but it did greatly curtail the Krogan ability to reproduce, making only one in every one thousand pregnancies viable. The Genophage is also genetic, so every new Krogan born is infected with it from birth. Due to their warlike nature, they're now a dying race, although there's still plenty of them around, especially considering that they have an extremely long lifespan. In fact, even though it's now 2183 CE, there's still living Krogan who fought in the Krogan Rebellions."
"Well that's impressive," T'Proth said, as K'Gan nodded in agreement.
"Anyway, as to the makeup of the Council," Kathryn continued, "there's only three races that have a seat on the Council. The aforementioned Turians and Salarians, and another race called the Asari. Most of the other races of the galaxy, including humanity, are associate members of the Council, meaning they are required to obey the Citadel Conventions and are allowed to maintain an embassy on the Citadel—a massive space station that's the heart of the Citadel government—but have no authority or say in the Council's decisions."
"The human Systems Alliance," Will said, "which is essentially this universe's version of Starfleet has been pushing for a council seat, however, they thus far haven't gotten one. And a few of the other associate races have begun to resent humanity for what they view as the human's arrogant belief that they should be granted a seat on the Council after so short a period of time, as apparently humanity has only been able to explore beyond the Sol System since 2149 CE and have only had an embassy on the Citadel since 2165. The Council, however, was founded in 500 BCE by the Asari and Salarians and some of the associate members of the Council have been waiting for over a thousand years for a seat, so humanity pushing so hard for one after only being an associate member for less than 20 years doesn't endear them to the others."
"Why have some of the races been waiting so long?" Toran asked.
Kathryn smiled. "It's a good question and at least partly because being a member race requires having a large enough economy and a large enough fleet to be able to help defend Citadel space and many of the races simply don't meet that requirement. Humanity argues that they do, but thus far the Council hasn't given them a seat, probably because they fear that it would cause issues with the other races if the newcomers were given seats before they were."
"Anyway, on the subject of the mass relays," Bryan said, "they're powered by what's known as Element Zero or Eezo for short. According to Q, the races of the galaxy believe that they were built by the Protheans, a race who lived 50,000 years ago and had a galaxy-spanning empire. However, he rather cryptically stated that we should quantum date the relays and even the Citadel. He didn't specifically say why, but I get the feeling that the relays and the Citadel are a lot older than the races of this reality think they are."
Will nodded. "Indeed, I could be wrong, but given the information at hand, I think the relays and the Citadel were actually built by the Reapers millions of years ago and that they're part of their means to control the races of the galaxy. The races here use what they believe to be reverse-engineered Prothean technology for almost everything and don't develop anything new, thus ensuring that the Reapers will always win."
"An interesting thought," Tovan said. "Definitely worth investigating. We took several sensor readings earlier, although we didn't think to quantum date it. Of course, we were cloaked when we took what readings we did and quantum dating would require more power to the sensors than we can devote while remaining cloaked."
"While we're on the subject of cloaking technology," Kathryn said, "I'm sure you all noticed that the Ganymede is now in possession of a cloaking device." There were several nods, before she continued. "You may also have noticed that it's a Romulan cloaking device, which was loaned to us for installation on the Ganymede by the Romulan Republic. We've also brought one for the Anteros, as it was agreed that having all of our ships here be able to cloak would be advantageous."
"Another upgrade that was performed on the Ganymede before we left," Will said, "was the installation of an ablative armor generator that's basically a copy of the one that was originally provided to Voyager by Admiral Janeway's future self. The races of this reality use mostly railguns and while our shields will probably block the majority of their weapons, it was believed that a second line of defense would be a good idea and thus the Anteros will also be upgraded with the ablative generator. And Admiral Quinn has given his permission for the Var'mang and the Incepteris to receive the upgrade as well."
"The Ganymede has also received a weapons upgrade courtesy of the Klingon Empire," Bryan revealed. "It seems they've been working on a way to expand the firing arc of their beam weaponry from the standard 250 degrees to a full 360. Which they've now managed to do, but have also created a system which will allow us to change the energy type of our weapons with the push of a button. So the Ganymede now has the standard phaser arrays, but can also switch over to antiproton beams. Additionally, we have the standard photon and quantum torpedoes, plus antiproton torpedo launchers which were developed in part with the energy of a defeated Crystalline Entity, making them much more effective."
"I questioned why this upgrade was necessary," Will said. "Since during the meeting with the government officials, Q made it seem like our technology would be vastly superior to that of the Reapers. Q wasn't very forthcoming but suggested that we primarily use the standard weapons such as phasers and keep the antiproton weaponry in reserve as a nasty surprise. The Anteros will also be upgraded as the Ganymede was, while the Var'mang and Incepteris will get a similar system."
"Does this mean we're going to have switch over to beam weaponry?" Valdren asked. "I'm not sure I want to give up my cannons."
Joran nodded and indicated that he would prefer to keep his cannons as well, as which point Kathryn said, "No you won't be using beam weaponry, as both D'Tan and J'mpok had a feeling you wouldn't want to. So you'll be using a similar system that will allow the Var'mang to use its currently outfitted dual heavy disruptor cannons or switch over to dual heavy antiproton cannons. The firing range, however, has been improved to now be 90 degrees instead of only 45 degrees. And you'll receive the same torpedo upgrade that the Ganymede and Anteros will."
"The Incepteris, meanwhile, will be able to continue using its currently outfitted Romulan plasma weaponry," Bryan stated, "with the ability to switch over to the antiproton weaponry at the push of a button."
"Okay then, I can deal with that," Joran said, as Valdren nodded. "So, how do we proceed from here? Are we supposed to make contact with the races of this reality?"
"For the time being, we're going to focus only on installing the upgrades previously outlined," Kathryn answered. "Once we've done that, we'll make contact with the Systems Alliance and through them the Citadel Council. As for why first contact will be with the Systems Alliance it's because we're in their space at the moment, since Terra Nova and the planet of Eden Prime, which is in the same system as the mass relay, is their territory. Although that is disputed."
"Who disputes it?" Toran asked.
"The Batarian Hegemony," Will revealed. "Much like our own version of the galaxy, this one is also sectioned, only instead of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Quadrants, here it's Council Space, the Attican Traverse, the Terminus Systems, and Geth Space. Those sections are sometimes further subdivided into additional sections and we're currently in the area known as the Skyllian Verge in the Attican Traverse. After the Systems Alliance began colonizing here, the Batarians petitioned to have the Verge deemed a Zone of Batarian Interest which was only open to Batarian colonization, thus all the humans would have to leave. The Council denied the request, however, stating that all unsettled worlds in the Verge were open to human colonization or any other race who had the means and desire to colonize them."
"The Batarians didn't like that," Bryan added. "And have since become a rogue state, as they've shutdown their embassy on the Citadel and cut off all diplomatic communication. They've turned to piracy to try to convince humanity to leave and to makes matters worse, they also engage in the slave trade."
"Ultimately the hostility between the two led to the Skyllian Blitz of 2176," Kathryn revealed, "which was an attack on a human planet called Elysium by Batarian-funded pirates and slavers. Unfortunately, for them the attack was repulsed and the Alliance later in 2178 attacked the Batarian moon of Torfan, which they used as a staging ground for their attacks. The attack there was devastating enough that the Batarians retreated to their own systems and have rarely been seen in Council space since. Q was nice enough to provide this historical information, but said he would let us discover everything else moving forward. We'll upload copies of all of this to your computers' databanks, so you'll have access to all of it to go over at your leisure."
Toran nodded and said, "Well, that's good, but for the time being, unless there's anything else, I suppose we should get busy installing our new upgrades."
"Indeed, we should," Kathryn agreed. "And there's nothing else for the moment."
-o-0-o-
Meanwhile, several light years away on Earth, Lieutenant Commander Rhys Shepard was lying flat on his back in the Chicago apartment that he shared with his twin brother, Lieutenant Commander Finn Shepard. Rhys's right leg was bent at the knee with his foot planted on the bed as he ran the fingers of his right hand through his black hair. The fingers of his left hand, however, were currently wrapped tightly around Finn's penis, as he moved his hand up and done the length of it. Finn was in a similar position, with his left leg bent at the knee and the corresponding foot on the bed. Instead of running his fingers through his hair, however, Finn was currently using his left hand to play with his left nipple, as he used his right to jerk off Rhys.
There were probably people who would initially find it very strange that a pair of twin brothers would jerk each other off, but Rhys and Finn were very close and had been for the entirety of their lives. They had shared every single intimate moment that either of them had ever experienced and had stopped jerking themselves off in favor of doing each other when they were sixteen. The reason for this was partly due to them being twins, but more so to do with the fact that they shared a liver and a leg.
Their parents, Tristan and Hannah Shepard, had decided not to have their twin sons separated when they were born due to their shared leg. If they'd both had two legs and it was just the liver connecting their sons, they may have consented to separation. However, since separation would have resulted in Finn only having one leg, they opted to leave the decision up to Rhys and Finn, since they would be the ones most affected by it. While the Shepard brothers had, like any other pair of brothers, had disagreements and fights with one another as they grew up, they'd still always been very close and worked well together as a team. As such, Tristan and Hannah were not surprised when their sons told them when they were only twelve that they weren't interested in being separated, although they did secretly wonder if that decision would change as they got older. Obviously since Rhys and Finn were now twenty-nine and still joined, it never did.
By the 22nd century, manipulation of the human genome had become commonplace, with many rich people genetically engineering custom-built fetuses to grow into stronger, smarter, and more attractive adults. There was also screening and treatments available which could be performed on embryos still in the womb which would eliminate everything from cystic fibrosis to nearsightedness. Tristan and Hannah, however, were career Alliance Navy officers and couldn't afford some of the more expensive treatments and even if they could, the ship they were stationed on didn't have the necessary facilities to begin with.
Additionally, while the various treatments had pretty much allowed for the eradication of most diseases, conjoined twins, which wasn't a disease, were still something that happened from time to time, although they were now usually born in ways that would not be life threatening to either twin if they remained joined. And cases of parasitic twins were almost unheard of. There were some doctors and scientists who'd been experimenting with ways to completely eliminate conjoined twins, but by the time Hannah became pregnant in 2153 and gave birth to Rhys and Finn in April of 2154 the results of those experiments had not progressed to a point where Tristan and Hannah were comfortable allowing any of the related treatments to be used on their children, as many of them still carried potentially negative side-effects.
The late Tristan Shepard also had a very personal reason for refusing any treatments related to trying to separate his sons while they were still in the womb and that was that when he was seven, his mother had gotten pregnant with a pair of conjoined twins. Tristan's parents consented to the treatments to try and manipulate their unborn sons' genomes to eradicate their conjoined status. Since the treatments were still experimental however, while the treatment succeeded in the goal of separating them while they were still in the womb, they were born blind and deaf, and both had a severe heart condition.
It was later determined that all of those problems had been directly caused by the treatments they'd undergone in utero in order to separate them and the doctors involved had been so elated about the successful separation that they neglected to check if their treatments had caused other problems. Unfortunately, by the time Tristan's brothers were born, the damage to their systems was too extensive to fix and they died from massive heart attacks before they were two. Needless to say Tristan was dead set against any such in utero treatments being done on Rhys and Finn and Hannah agreed with him.
"Oh, I'm gonna…" Rhys moaned as Finn moaned, "So am I…" moments before they both shot their loads all over their stomachs and each other's hands.
Lying still for a few moments, as they caught their breath, Rhys and Finn finally turned to one another and gave each other a quick peck on the lips—a habit that had been born from both their closeness and from years of watching their parents do it—before Finn reached over and grabbed a towel to clean themselves up with.
After a moment of silence, Rhys asked, "What do you say we go to a club tonight? Handjobs are fine and all, but I'd really like to get properly laid."
Finn laughed and said, "Yeah, same here, although I'm getting sick of one-night stands."
"So am I, but until we find our Mr. Rights, we don't really have much of a choice unless we want to remain celibate and I know I sure as hell don't."
"True and I don't want to be celibate any more than you do, bro," Finn agreed, as he couldn't help but think once again how happy he was that he and Rhys were both gay, as he was sure it would have been pretty awkward if one of them was gay and the other had been straight. Not as awkward as it could have been if they'd shared sex organs, which they didn't but still awkward. Finn still remembered how he'd agonized for months about telling Rhys that he liked guys instead of girls, only to find out when he'd finally worked up the courage to say something that Rhys had been agonizing about the same thing. Finding out that they'd both worried that the other was straight and that coming out would cause problems between them had made them both have a good laugh, before they then celebrated by jerking each other off for the first time.
Any further conversation between them, however, was cut short when a beeping noise indicated that they had an incoming call. Sighing, they stood up and hurriedly pulled on a pair of black sweatpants, grey t-shirts, and their black N7 hoodies, before heading over to the computer panel and opening the call.
The caller turned out to be a dark-skinned, middle-aged man with graying hair that Rhys and Finn didn't recognize. "Rhys and Finn Shepard, I assume?" the man asked.
Rhys nodded. "Yes and you are?"
"Donnel Udina," the man answered. "Systems Alliance Ambassador to the Citadel."
"What can we do for you, Mr. Ambassador?" Finn asked, as he wondered why humanity's ambassador on the Citadel was calling them, as he was pretty much the last person he expected to be hearing from.
"Are you aware of the fact that for several months now, the Alliance has been working with the Turian Hierarchy to build a new state-of-the-art stealth reconnaissance ship?"
Rhys nodded. "Yes, we'd seen mentions of it in a few of our N7 briefs. Why?"
"Well, the ship is finished and has been placed under the command of Captain David Anderson," Udina stated. "I just spoke with him and Admiral Hackett and they both suggested that we offer the two of you the position of Co-Executive Officers aboard the new ship, dubbed the Normandy."
Rhys and Finn were silent for a moment as they digested this information. They'd finished their last mission about a month ago and had been on Earth ever since, wondering when their next assignment would come up. Neither of them, however, had thought that their next assignment would be as the Co-Executive Officers of a new state-of-the-art ship.
"We're flattered to be considered, of course," Finn said.
"Admiral Hackett and Captain Anderson both raved about you," Udina said. "I'm actually the one who first mentioned you as a possibility, although at the time I was unaware of your condition." Rhys and Finn easily picked up on the obvious note of distaste in his tone as he said the word condition. "The Admiral and Captain Anderson are both of the mind, however, that your condition will have no effect on your ability to perform well."
"I appreciate that Captain Anderson and Admiral Hackett have so much faith in us," Finn said, as Rhys asked, "Ambassador, do you have a problem with Finn's and my condition, as you put it? You've said it twice now and your tone suggests that you do."
Udina looked a bit angry to be put on the spot, but finally said, "To be perfectly honest, if I'd known about it beforehand, I wouldn't have suggested you. However, what's done is done and the Captain and the Admiral both think you're the best men for the job, so I'm conceding to their point of view." After a moment of silence, he said, more to himself, but loud enough that Finn and Rhys still heard it, "I just hope I don't come to regret that."
Knowing that Rhys was about to say something that he probably shouldn't, Finn placed a hand on his arm to stop him and then said, "We'll do our very best not to disappoint you, Ambassador. When do we need to report?"
"There's a supply ship scheduled to leave Chicago tomorrow for Arcturus Station," Udina said. "As the Normandy is currently there and due to leave for its shakedown cruise in two days' time, I suggest that you be on that supply ship."
"Of course, Ambassador," Finn said, before the call ended.
"That son of a bitch," Rhys said. "I'm sure that if he suggested us that he must have looked at our service records beforehand. How could he not know that we're conjoined? And I resent the implication that we wouldn't be up to the task because of it. We're N7's for pity sake and we've both been awarded the bloody Star of Terra. That wouldn't have happened if we weren't competent."
Finn sighed. "You should be used to people doubting our abilities by now. We've only been dealing with it our entire lives."
"That doesn't make it right."
Holding up his hands in a placating gesture, Finn said, "Hey you're preaching to the choir here, bro. Still, we've dealt with people like Udina before. People who thought that the two of us being conjoined meant that we couldn't possibly perform as well as others and we've proven them all wrong. We'll do the same with Udina."
Rhys sighed and took a deep breath, before saying, "I know. It just gets annoying when we keep getting people who continue to think that we can't possibly be competent because we're connected to each other. If it wasn't for us martialing a defense until reinforcements arrived, hundreds if not thousands would have died on Elysium during the Blitz. We were both awarded with the Star of Terra because of our actions there, which in the eyes of many makes us heroes."
"I know, Rhys," Finn said. "I agree it's annoying, but I think as long as there's people in this world, it's something we're just going to have to deal with. Now, since we have to be on that supply ship tomorrow, we should probably start packing and make any other necessary arrangements, as I somehow doubt we'll be back here anytime soon."
"You're right," Rhys said. "We should probably also call Mom. You know she'll be furious if we don't call and tell her about our new posting."
"True," Finn said, before they moved into the bedroom and began gathering up their belongings.
-o-0-o-
To be continued.
And there's Chapter Two of 'The Q Effect'. Now, I'm sure some are probably wondering why I've made Rhys and Finn Shepard conjoined twins. The reason is because I played through the trilogy with both characters and due to the limitations of the character creator, they both ended up looking the same when I created my non-default male Shepards. I liked both characters and couldn't decide which one of them to use in this story, so I figured I'd turn them into an inseparable team as that would also explain why they were both assigned to the Normandy in the same position.
I've also never seen it done before in any of the Mass Effect stories that I've read, so I figured it would add an extra layer of originality to the story. Of course, those of you who read my works in other fandoms (namely Harry Potter) will know that it's a theme I've used in my other works as well and I figured what the hell?
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? I love hearing from my readers, so feel free to contact me in a review, by email, my Yahoo group, or on Twitter JVascardi. Alternatively, you can also try to contact me via Skype (text messaging only) at .
