Chapter 3

"Naomi!" She faintly heard the female voice calling her. She found herself in a large, hilly field of golden wheat with the sun setting on the horizon, hues of purple and orange thrown across the terrain. It all seemed so familiar to her. . "Naomi!" The voice called again. "Mama? Mama where are you?" She cried out in a young and frightened voice, recognizing her mother's voice. She looked desperately about the sea of wheat and spotted a figure in the distance, she squinted and widened her eyes, spotting the figure of her mother and ran desperately to her. "Mama! Mama don't leave me again!" The harder she ran, the farther apart she grew from her mother. Tripping on a stone she tumbled downward in to a pit that appeared from nowhere. She tried to scream but no sound escaped her lips as she fell endlessly in the darkness.

Naomi's eyes snapped opened, waking her from sleep. "Mama! Come back!" she tried to call out, only spouting bubbles from her mouth. She gasped, breathing in the green liquid she found herself suspended in. 'Where am I?!' She thought to herself in a panic. 'Okay, calm down. .' She reassured herself as she gathered her bearings. She slowly inhaled, feeling the liquid course through her lungs. 'Liquid oxygen?' Slowly, with only her eyes, she looked through the tube's glass watching the two blurry images of people beyond it. She heard muffled voices through the thick glass, "Good we got em' when we did. That one's 'special order', gotta put a blocker on her." One of the men said as he made a vague gesture to Naomi's tube.

"Yeah, good thing we got em' in time."

The lifeless female voice of the computer sounded, "Cryogenic thawing complete." Naomi looked to see several other tubes with figures suspended in them. 'What happened?' She thought as she looked down to see herself wearing only the wires attached to various pulse points on her body. The next thing she knew, the tube was drained, which left her exhausted, and she was being walked down a long corridor, escorted by guards clad in marine power armor.

Naomi, being a powerful ghost, even with the neural inhibiters embedded her skull by the Confederacy, had a very strong psi-inhibiter put on her head like a vice, preventing her from using any of her psionic abilities. The device was worn on her head like a halo, its metal cylinders suspending the ring in place, digging into her temples. She had been dressed in the prison uniform consisting of orange pants and long sleeve shirt. Heavy, powered bracers were put on her wrists and she was taken to a special cell, designed for powerful psionics. She stared down at the energy arcing between the bracers as she walked, dazed from the constant, mild sedation from the collar around her neck, its needles in her flesh. The walls of her cell were lined with circuitry that prevented any form of psi energy.

She spent the next four weeks in the prison; having little contact with humans, save from the ones who brought her meals. Over time, Naomi had been gradually building her strength, although the psi-inhibiter delivered an intense pain to her head like a laser being drilled into her skull whenever she tried to use her psionic abilities. She managed to lift the tray from her meals a small amount as well as hear the whisper of the guard's mind before receiving the searing amount of pain to her head.

Naomi had been freed by Raynor's Raiders along with the rest of the people the Dominion had captured.

Naomi found herself in the laboratory of the Hyperion, Raynor's Battle cruiser, still dazed from sedation. The scientist there successfully removed the sedation collar and then tried to remove the psi-inhibiter. After many tries later, he finally managed to succeed in removing the vice-like device from her head.

The moment it was removed, it was like a dam had been breached, she was assaulted with a massive flood of thoughts and reeled in shock and tried to recover, remembering her training on Ursa, where she was trained as a Ghost. She could hear everything, the mind of the scientist, the people in the Cantina- 'No! Concentrate!' She thought to herself heatedly as she pulled away mentally from the minds, slowly dimming their thoughts.

She hadn't noticed the young man nearby, was verbally trying to get her attention, "Miss? ... Ma'am?" Her eyes whipped to the young man, a nearby beaker exploded, spraying glass and liquid everywhere.

'-Whoa! Is she okay? Aww, that was my good one-' The thoughts seemed to slap on her mind. 'Damnit, concentrate, pull back . . .' She thought to herself as she pulled her mind away again.

She stepped down from the table she was sitting on and drew herself up, the sedative wearing off, "I am Ghost agent X54938N, former agent of the Confederacy." She said to the young man she now knew as Egon Stetmann. His green eyes widened as he wiped his large, yellow-colored glasses on a cloth, seeming to pull himself together before nodding, "The Commander wants to see you, can you walk?" He gestured to an armed marine, "He'll take you up." She nodded before being escorted to the bridge.

Keeping her expression neutral and ignoring the stares and thoughts of crew members as she walked through the corridor, she made her way to the bridge. When they reached the bridge the marine, whose name she knew as (_), "Sir, the Ghost from New Folsom." The three men turned their attention to her, "Thanks (_), I got it from here.", said one of the men. Her eyes flicked to each of the three men standing around a holographic map displaying a planet of some sort. The first man was hard-bitten looking, with brown eyes, dark hair and a sparse beard, dressed in what looked like rugged civilian clothing. He bore tattoos on each arm and she sensed his mind that he seemed rather weary but put up a strong front for those around him. She skimmed his mind to find that he was James Raynor, 34 years old, leader of Raynor's Raiders, formal Marshal and a man the public only knew as a terrorist.

The second man she looked to was young with a clean shaven face, short dark hair, and smartly dressed in a formal military uniform of some kind. Matthew Horner, 25 years old, second in command and captain of the Hyperion.

Looking to the third man, she realized as she narrowed her eyes slightly, that she couldn't read him as with the others, she could only sense vague emotions. The massive man stood six and a half feet tall, with broad shoulders, square features, as well as striking light brown, almost gold eyes, his face marred by various scars. He was encased in scratched and dented cobalt blue marine combat armor and smoking a large cigar. She read from Raynor's mind the two men were good friends and name was Tychus Findlay, 40 years old, ex-convict.

Naomi straightened and clasped her hands behind her back respectfully, "I understand that you wanted to see me."

"Yeah, we found- well busted out of prison on New Folsom, what was someone like you doin' on there?"

"Same as the others, I was in the Confederacy and was captured because of it. I suppose I'm considered a rogue of the Dominion now." She replied, her voice slightly irritated at the idea.

Naomi tried to ignore the glances she received from the crew passing through and the thoughts sailing toward her from them. "Well, we're alike then, the Dominion wants both of us dead now." Raynor told her with a knowing expression. Horner spoke up, "We had to take off that psi-inhibiter, it had a Dominion tracking device on it, and could only be deactivated when we took it off."

"Stetmann also found that your neural inhibiter is malfunctioning, you might be a little more free from the Confederacy and Dominion's grip now." Raynor added. She dipped her head slightly and replied respectfully "Thank you."

"Now, I had our Chief Scientist do some digging, 'Our only scientist. . .'and he told me that you have a psi-index of around twelve, which makes you about as strong as they come. We also found that you have some family who survived the glassing of Chau Sara, your father and your brother. Now, I'm going to give you the same choice I gave everyone else, you're not being forced to stay her, but. ." He trailed off, his voice solemn. A flicker of shock came over her face, 'Daddy... Evan..' She thought to herself as the buried images of her remaining family surfaced in a rush. She bit back the sadness before it could surface to her face.

"How long was I frozen?" She asked, changing the subject rather abruptly. Horner turned to her, "The records indicate that you were in cryostasis for three and a half years for the space travel from Chau to New Folsom." Naomi inwardly sighed and turned back to Raynor, "Where did they take them?" She asked, changing the subject again. "They weren't on New Folsom, they were taken to a military prison on Korhal, you were only in New Folsom because of your status as a Ghost." Horner told her, she could feel a pang of sympathy in his words. Another mental sigh rippled in her mind she mulled this over.

She turned back to Raynor, "I. . .I would like to stay." Her eyes flicked back to the man in the combat suit, who had been silently listening and puffing on his cigar, he caught her glance and unexpectedly winked at her, causing her shudder inwardly and avert her eyes and her face to redden, earning a low, quiet chuckle from the man. "I was hoping you'd say that. Glad you have you aboard." Raynor said with a grin, not seeming to notice his friend's actions. "Matt here will show you to your quarters." Horner smiled politely and nodded, gesturing her to follow him, "You can have the spare compartment, number twelve." She nodded politely, rather surprised at being accepted so quickly as she followed him.