Hi everyone, I would like you to read this chapter but you CAN skip this chapter as it is mostly filler and explanation of what happened to Diamond before she met Shepard. It may be a little OOC. This chapter isn't great but it was fun to write her so terrified.

I woke up on a hard table. There were unfamiliar machines around me and the ceiling was bright white and had a strange too-clean smell.

My wrist and nose felt funny. Also my shoulder stung a bit. My rib felt like it was being crushed and I had a pounding headache. I turned my head and saw a bright white wall beside me.

I turned the other way to find out where I was and there was a large group of aliens, staring at me. I sat up and scrambled backwards until I hit the wall. My shoulder and rib hurt more from the activity and something pulled at my wrist and nose.

I looked down and saw a tube sticking out of my skin. My skin crawled. A liquid moved through the tube, was it that poison that made it feel as if your blood was on fire? I could feel a ghost pain rushing up my arm but it wasn't the real thing. It wasn't a bad liquid as far as I could tell but I had never had a good experience with tubes in my arm so I ripped it out.

I glanced back up at my spectators. They were all chattering to each other. The crowd was parted as it was pushed aside and one I recognized came into view. Mordin.

"What's going on? Where is this? Who are all these aliens?" I asked quickly, before realizing he wouldn't understand. Still, for some reason I felt comfortable around him. As if he were a friend. All of the observers went silent when I spoke.

Mordin said something to them and then turned back to me.

"Mordin?" I asked quietly, I was terrified, as one would be if they woke up in a strange room surrounded by scary aliens.

"Diamond." He replied, holding out his hand. My diamond was sitting on it. "Why was it taken from me! It's my name. I need it. Thank you for returning it Mordin." I chattered. I knew he couldn't understand me but I pretended that he could.

He turned and spoke quickly to the others in the room. The words slipped past my uncomprehending ears.

Mordin held out a needle and I scrambled away.

"No! Please! I beg you." I cried out in distress. He came towards me despite my cries and stabbed it into my arm. Injecting me with whatever was inside. after a few moments of waiting wide-eyed I began to feel drowsy and my eyes started to cloud over. My last thought before blissful unconsciousness was, why did he sedate me? I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I woke up to the same bright white but I was alone, tubes were once again in my arm so I ripped them out. My rib and shoulder felt better so I stood and walked to the door.

The door was weird though as there was a green rectangle with an image of a circle on it but no handle. I reached out and cautiously touched the circle. It began rotating which scared me so I backed up and crouched in front of my bed, unsure of what was happening.

The circle stopped moving and the door opened. I watched it for a moment before standing up straight and walking towards it. The door closed again before I reached it so I continued towards it to open it again but before I could, an alien came through.

Upon seeing me awake and standing it rushed out and came back a few minutes later with Mordin. He started to talk but I couldn't tell what he was saying. He might not have even been talking to me but I shook my head and raised my arms to show I had no idea what he was talking about anyway. He nodded and guided me back to the bed. Table. Thing.

I cooperated because I had come to see if there was intelligent life elsewhere and now that I found it I intended to find out about it but I couldn't until I learned their language so for now, I just had to do what they wanted me to and hope that they didn't perceive me as a threat.

A few weeks later I was up and walking with Mordin, I had to be escorted around but at least I was allowed to walk around.

"It... good to... walk." I said. I had been trying to speak their language for while and I liked to use every chance I got. I knew that the sentence was probably seen as pathetic by him but I was proud of it. Mordin smiled at me. He seemed to always like to see my progress. It seemed to me that he saw it as a bit of an accomplishment for himself. Or maybe he was happy for me. I wasn't sure, it was hard to tell how aliens felt.

"Are there... more... not-Salarians? Um... other..." I struggled to think of the word. I wasn't sure if that made sense to him I and I knew I was mispronouncing half the words but I was curious if there were other, different aliens here.

"Other races?" He asked. I nodded to confirm, I assumed it was what I meant. I wasn't familiar with the word. "Yes. Many." He answered, talking slow for my benefit. I was sure that it was annoying for him. It would have been annoying for me to talk slow in my language. "Are there others that you know?" He asked.

"No. I came... look for... races. Find you." I explained.

"Did you know about us?" He asked. I shook my head.

"We look. Don't think... we will find... but do. They do not know... you. I crash... no time to... tell." I said. The language barrier was frustrating but I was working around it. Learning was slow going but I was starting to get it. I was working on talking like Salarians too. They sounded different, it wasn't just the language. I wanted to sound like them so maybe I didn't standout that much. It wasn't going too well though, they had weird voices and they always talked fast.

"You were looking for other races?" He asked. I nodded.

"We want to find... to know. We... not want to be find by other. We want to find." I said. This language hurt my throat. It had so much more sound then I was used to.

"You didn't want to be found before you found the other races?" Mordin asked. I paused for a few seconds to go over that sentence in my mind.

"Yes."

"How did you know there were others out there?" He asked.

"We did not. We want to look... To see. We not know." I said. He had looked like he was about to respond but some other Salarian came up and talked to him, ending our conversation.

For the next month I was Mordin's shadow. Following him around, learning from him. I learned a lot of their language in that time too, Mordin was a reasonable teacher and I was a pretty fast learner. I was reasonably happy here, learning stuff. It seemed like Mordin was bored though. Eventually he talked to me about it.

"I'm going to leave Sur'Kesh soon. Go somewhere else. Need challenge. Omega maybe." He said.

"I'm coming with you then. What's Omega?" I asked.

"Omega space station. Too dangerous for you. Also, you might not be allowed to leave this planet." He said. I didn't think it would be too dangerous. I could handle myself. Usually.

"I can fight." I said. "And you are the only person I really feel comfortable around here so I want to go with you."

"Maybe. We'll see. Wouldn't mind company but don't want to have to watch out for you. Also, still don't know if you can leave." He said.

"If I am told I can not then I will sneak off this planet with you." I said. I really wanted to go with him.

"Maybe. Possibility of being caught is moderate. Punishment, also moderate. Would be willing to take my chances." He said. I grinned.

"And I might not have to sneak." I said. After a short pause I continued the conversation. "What would we be doing on Omega?" I asked. "Omega full of sickness. Also corruption. Open a clinic. Maybe get lucky and find a plague." He said. I sighed. Going to Omega sounded so romantic.

I was very exited.

Next chapter will be set in the time of mass effect 2. I promise. And it has a (tiny) bit about Shepard.

~Lindsay