I love that people actually read this! I'll do my best to make something you'll enjoy. Worth mentioning though that I'm not up on my biology, pretty much everything to do with turian anatomy and their dextro amino acids will probably be made up.

Dalarus grinned at her from across the hold, his fists raised in a casual fighting stance, a mockery of the stiff defensive posture she currently held. Her brother had always been reckless, but he accused her of being too serious. Perhaps between them they struck a balance. Their personalities showed as they sparred, him taunting her and trying to lure her into an opening, keeping his distance, and her never taking her gaze away, keeping her block held, waiting for the perfect strike. Eventually, as always, he grew bored. With a frustrated grunt, he aimed a swing at her head, Reading the intentions in his body like a book, she sidestepped jut enough to make the swing brush by her left shoulder, allowing her to grab his arm and haul him to the ground.

He clicked in dismay and stared up at her, showing her a defeated smile. "Alright sis, you got me. Help me up?" He reached a hand up hopefully. At last smiling herself, Korra nodded, reached down- only to find herself sprawled on the floor as he pinned her in a neck hold. A cry of laughter went up throughout the hold, the handful of off-duty soldiers watching clapping on her brother, here and there a few shaking their heads slightly.

Dalarus jumped back several feet as he let go, arms raised in a peaceful gesture "I concede! You beat me! Just making sure I have some honour left." Korra just shook her head at her elder brother, eventually rolling her eyes and moving to give him a hug, spurred on by the crew.

Flash forward a few years and she was dragging him out of a burning wreckage. His left arm was mangled beyond repair, his body badly burned. He had always been reckless.

Korra moaned softly as she began to come around, the dream reluctant to fade away. The memory of her brother's scars seemed to linger in her mind even as she opened her eyes in an attempt to clear it. Her lids made a barely audible click in the near silent room. Slowly, she became aware that the pain was not quite as bad as it had been when she passed out. Passed out? When did...

The alien! She had seen it, standing right at the door! It was unlike any of the Council races, though it did perhaps bare a passing similarity to the Asari...far too pink to be one though, and it had the strangest red fur stuck to it's head. She had been delirious with pain when she saw it, it was entirely possible she was imagining thing. She had managed to give a strangle cry for help before hitting the ground.

A new thought suddenly chilled her. Could this be one of the aliens she had been sent to investigate? It seemed highly likely, she would have hit herself for not thinking of it sooner had she not been through enough trauma already. If it were true, then she was in enemy hands; the first prisoner of war. They might even want to dissect her or-

that particular train of thought was(gratefully) interrupted by a clattering out of her view. It was followed by an unintelligible murmur, and then a blur of colour as something passed over her. She instinctively closed her eyes, waiting a moment before opening them again, hoping that this time they would adjust. Something swam into vision above her head, a muddy pink colour against the grey of the shuttle interior. She could hear mumble words, some she couldn't understand but the soft sound of the voice soothed her.

"you...wake...no...need to rest...lost...help you.."

She wondered if she had been drugged. That would explain why her head felt so heavy. Unable to make sense of her current situation she chose to take the voice's advice and drifted back into a troubled sleep.

Sara breathed a small sigh of relief as the creature's eyes snapped shut once more. Those eyes had scared and fascinated her...they looked like a reptiles, and yet she could see the intelligence in them. The pain and confusion as they searched the room. They were oddly beautiful, an almost opalescent blue with golden flecks. Part of her was sad to see them closed.

She pulled the rough military issue blanket over the alien's nude, bandaged form and sat back on her heels, chewing her thumb in worry. The last couple of hours had been something of a blur; after seeing the creature collapse, a switch inside her seemed to have been pressed and she had jumped into action, fear forgotten. Whatever this was undoubtedly wasn't human but it was clearly alive, intelligent, and in need of her assistance. She had been forced to drag the unconscious being back into the ruined shuttle as it was far too heavy for her to carry back to her medical lab. A brief look over had been enough to tell her that she would need more equipment to treat it properly, but there was no question of trying to move it. Eventually, she had ran back to her lab on the edge of the colony and thrown some equipment into the back of her buggy. Luckily, almost everyone had been asleep and she had gone unseen. She wasn't expected back until the following morning anyway, she could afford to be away for a while.

Removing the creature's armor had proven surprisingly easy- for all the difference in design it was essentially similar to human hardsuits, plates strapped over a light undersuit. Examining the injuries proved to be more difficult. While humanoid, the creature was something altogether different anatomically. It's body was covered in deep green plates, similar to scales but heavier, almost metalic. The skin beneath and around them was tough and leathery, a slightly lighter olive green colour. Her face (she was fairly certain it was female, from her examinations) was fascinating...almost as though she was wearing a mask, but she had seen it twitch as she slept. There were dark blue lines beneath her eyes and running down her mouth, though Sara couldn't be sure if they were natural or artificial. A quick scan from her omni-tool confirmed that her biology was fundamentally different at a core amino level. Though she suspected there would be food and other supplies suited to the creature stored in the shuttle, she didn't trust herself to identify it correctly without help.

Fortunately, medi-gel and a handful of other drugs were still safe. It was obvious that the alien had internal injuries, a punctured lung and several broken ribs if the initial scan was anything to go by. The rest seemed to be largely superficial, though it was difficult to tell how much effect all that armor plating had. She hoped she hadn't made too much of a mess of things...the creature really needed surgery but there was no way to do that in the shuttle. She would need to wait until she woke again, and hope that she wasn't hostile.

When Korra finally awoke again, a thin stream of orange light was filtering in through the viewport. She felt somewhat more rested than before, but still as though she had been run over by a group of angry krogan. This time, she made a point of staying quiet, grimacing at the sharp ache in her chest as she slowly sat up. Looking down, she was surprised to find her armor remove and her chest tightly bound. Broken ribs then. Thought as much.

Opposite her, the strange alien was hunched up in a ball, apparently also asleep. Korra took a moment to study it, since it's species was likely responsible for her landing here. It had those same peculiar chest bumps that asari had, leading her to guess that it was a female. It- or rather, she, did not seem to possess any particular natural defenses. No armor, no claws, certainly no evidence of any particular strength. It's body looked soft and fleshy, easily damaged. Really, the only distinguishing feature seemed to be the unusual skin colour and that long red fur on the top of her head.

Still, she knew better than to underestimate her. She had worked with enough Salarians to know that small and squishy did not mean defenseless. She kept one eye on the sleeping woman as she located her suit, pulling it over her legs. It hurt too much to move her shoulders so she let the top half hand around her waist for the moment. As she grabbed her omni-tool and slipped it over her hand, the tiny machine beeped and apparently startled the alien. Korra instantly tensed, hissing partly out out of pain, partly for intimiation.

"You...y-you're awake..."

Korra blinked, surprised that she could understand. "What are you? What are you speaking? I don't recognise it."

The small creature shrunk away slightly, eyes wide. "I...I don't understand you...you're speaking aren't you? You're intelligent..."

Korra fowned, eyeing the woman for a moment. She slowly raised her left arm, trying to make the movement as non-threatening as possible, and checked her omni-tool. As she had suspected, the beep had been to confirm that the tools translation software had managed to put together a working dictionary based on the radio signals she had left it scanning. It must have uploaded it directly to her biotic implant. I can understand you. But you only hear grunts. None of the turian native languages were known for their eloquent sound- there was a reason her species had such rasping voices. She was going to have to do this the hard way, learn the language based on the translation.

"Aah...waake..." She croaked, struggling a little with the unfamiliar speech. The girl understood though, she saw it in her eyes. She lowered herself to sit on the bench that had been her makeshift cot, trying to ignore the pain and remember the guidelines for first contact. It had been a long time since they had been needed, she couldn't remember the details. She would have to fall back on instinct. Raising her hand, she tapped her forehead and said "Korra." She then pointed one hooked talon at the woman. "Y...yoo?"

Sara's eyes widened in shock. It...she was speaking to her! "You...you understand me?" The creature nodded once, a sharp, birdlike motion. "Korra? Is that your name?" Another nod. The strange mandibles next to her mouth twitched, though she wasn't sure what that meant. "My name is Sara! I'm a human...do you know where you are?"

Korra shook her head, frustrated. How could she explain what had happened without a knowledge of the language? It would take her days to study what her translator had learned in mere hours. Still, she was communicating. It was a start. The human seemed just as clueless about the situation as she did, but at least she seemed friendly. "Sara?"

The girl nodded curiously, their eyes locked. She couldn't believe what was happening to her. The turian gestured to the bandages across her chest, then tilted her head questioningly. "Oh! Of course...I...you were injured. From the crash, I mean. Your body is so strange...I think you have some internal injuries though. I can't treat them here, but I couldn't carry you back to the med-lab...I gave you some painkillers that I thought would work, but..." she trailed off for a moment, swallowed, then gathered her thoughts. "You nee surgery, Korra. I think I can do it, but I don't know for sure. I'd need you to come back with me. I don't know how the others would react to you though..." She winced. She knew exactly how Corporal Daniels would react. Claim it for the Alliance, interrogate, probably have her do the autopsy afterwards...

There was a long pause. At last, Korra gave a rattling sigh and nodded. She couldn't stay in this shuttle if she wanted to survive. She would have to trust this strange, shy human.