Hello again. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. This and the next are transition chapters into the real fanfic. The first 3 chapters are mostly explanation. If this stuff bores you, you can skip chapter 3 as it isn't necessary and it's not that great. You can skip this one too but I wouldn't recommend it as you will be confused if you just skip to 4. Chapter 4 is better, I promise.

I awoke to the acrid smell of smoke. I opened my eyes and saw blue sky and weird looking trees. I sat up slowly and groaned; my whole body ached and I had a splitting headache. Suddenly I remembered where I was and what had happened, I looked around. I was lying a couple of feet away away from my ship, or, what was left of it. It was a smoking wreck now but it was mostly intact.

Something moved in my peripheral, a person.

No.

An alien.

"He-hello. Who... who are you? What are you?" I asked.

It said something that I didn't understand.

"What?" I gasped.

It said something else.

I tried to get up but I couldn't stand. I had to get to my ship. The alien started to come over but I didn't want its help. I rolled over and pushed myself onto my hands and knees. My vision blurred and I almost blacked out in pain. I pushed myself through the pain and started to crawl towards the ship. It wasn't very dignified but I didn't care right then.

It said something else but I couldn't understand it. I finally made it to the twisted wreck of my ship. A few tears leaked out of my eyes.

My name was in there.

I put my hand in my pocket to check just in case and I touched something. I smiled, I actually had not lost my name. We always kept a small physical representation of our name on our person. My people were always named after physical things and the names had meaning represented by the object. I wasn't just named Diamond, I was Diamond.

I crawled back to the alien who crouched beside me when I reached him.

I pointed to myself and said my name, Diamond, and pointed at the diamond in my hand. He looked confused, or I assumed it was confusion.

He asked me something but I didn't understand. I pointed at myself again.

"Diamond." I pointed at the gem. "Diamond." He nodded as if he understood. He pointed to himself.

"Mordin." He said. I pointed at him.

"Mordin." He nodded. The word felt weird in my mouth, it was too soft, not enough clicks. He pointed at me

"Diamond." He said in my language. I looked at the gem in my hand and pointed at it and then pointed at him. He shook his head and said something. I found this so confusing, it was making my head hurt more.

My vision started to go black around the edges but I didn't want to faint in front of this alien. I started to pitch forward. I desperately tried to stay awake but sleep wrapped its fuzzy arms around me and I lost consciousness.

And we meet Mordin! In case anyone is wondering why he is randomly out in the forest, he saw the ship crash and went to investigate. In earlier versions of this chapter Diamond was fully aware and mostly fine after the crash. Her conversation with Mordin was a lot longer and after it she got up and walked away with Mordin supporting her. That was ridiculous because she had just crashed into a planet so I had her collapse instead. I thought this way was better. Let me know your thoughts.

~Lindsay