Chapter 3 : A White Lie
"History is a set of lies agreed upon" - Napoleon Bonaparte
Frank's POV:
Fire.
Chaos.
Death.
Agony.
What's that! Oh hey! A pony! Come here, now who's the good pony~ who's th-
DESTRUCTION..
THE CYCLE..
….REAPERS.
I wake up with a jolt. Beads of sweat still pouring from my neck. My head is throbbing. I notice that I am now lying in a bed, somewhere. My whole body seems to ache in exhaustion. Holy Sean Connery's fluffy beard, what did I just witness.
Opening my eyes, I can see that the ceiling doesn't seem to be recognizable, only that it's metal and grey. The blueish hue from an attached lamp gives a touch of coldness to it. My eyes quickly adjust to the room. I notice there's a woman in a lab coat of some-sort, standing next to me.
Oh God, my head, it hurts so much. Feels like an elephant sat on it , a great big grey mother of elephant hangover. Hope there isn't any tiger in the bathroom, or a baby in the closet.
Feeling that my mouth and tongue is still there, I proceed to test run it,"Wha….where am I?", the words slur out of my mouth, "Eden Prime….Will….The bacon….."
The woman notices my abrupt awakening. She turns her head and pulls up a pen(?) from her labcoat. With the pen, she shines a light at my eyes,moves it away, then shines it again. She then mutters, "Okay, pupil reaction is good, which means you're stable". She then addresses me, " I'm Dr. Chakwas, chief medical officer, or the only medical officer for that matter. You are onboard the SSV Normandy."
Normandy...The name does ring a bell...Ah, who am I kidding...IT'S THE FREAKING SSV NORMANDY! The pinnacle of human engineering, not to mention it's a formal (but classified) sign of human and turian friendship! AND I AM INSIDE IT! It's like on my "top ten things to do before I die if everything is possible or if I have Q-like powers but not his obnoxious yet interesting personality" list!
She plays with her data-pad a bit before asking me a simple question, "How are you feeling? That experience must've been quite hard for you. You were out for nearly four hours, " I just grimace and nod slightly, still holding back the migraines.
Sitting up, my memories of recent events starts to come back, causing more pain in the process. Eden Prime, The Prothean Beacon, The Vision all came rushing back to me.
The vision..of course! That's what happened to Shepard in the game , but now if it's me that got the vision, I've already changed the timeline…. What sort of time-travel/ multi-dimensional/Inception-ish mess have I got myself into now? Oh boy, I'm gonna get 1.21 jigawatts of rant from for sure.
I blink a couple of times, recalling the doctor's question. "To answer your question doc, not great, but good enough. I need to go, I need to find my friend," I mutter while trying to get up. Apparently Dr. Chakwas thinks otherwise and puts me down again before I was able to stand up. "No, you're not going anywhere yet, not with that kind of headache you're not, I still have to do some te-"
The familiar sound of the door opening (the beep-boop-whoosh sound) interrupts , and from it, two people enters. There's the redheaded Shepard, but the other person, the man, he seems familiar and I feel I should know him somehow. The dark skinned man has a somewhat regal posture and stoical nature in his walk towards me.
Who is he…...Can it be… I think he is…. MORGAN FREEMAN! but wait he also looks like…...LAURENCE FISHBURNE! or maybe he is….Forest Whittaker?…...I KNOW! HE'S MORGAN FISHTAKER, THE MASHUP OF ALL THREE! BEST. NON-CAUCASIAN. ACTOR. EVER !
"Captain Anderson, Systems Alliance, pleasure to meet you." says a deep baritone voice as the owner extends his handshake is strong and firm, shaking my hand vigorously. Aw shucks, he's not Morgan Fishtaker afterall.
Letting my hand go at last, he returns to his militaristic pose. "Nice to see you up and running again. I see doesn't disappoint yet again."
steps forward and crosses her arms."To be fair Captain, I'd like to run some more test of him. He's just underwent a terrible trauma and he's still not feeling well."
"Doctor, I don't think now is the best time to do that. This young men here needs to explain what exactly happened in Eden Prime," Captain Fishtaker answers. "I'm sorry if I push you too hard on this, but the top brass have been howling at me every hour, demanding answers." He pats my shoulder in a friendly way.
Before I can do anything Shepard raises her hand and says, "Captain, I'd say that he needs rest and some time alone. Going through that must've been a life-scarring experience for him. You know that I've been in his shoes once in Akuze. It's not a pretty sight." She ends that last word with a certain falter in her voice. Oh, so she has the "Oh my God, my n00b squad got pwned by giant space caterpillars" background. I'd never actually picked that background before, this will be interesting.
Captain Anderson pinches his forehead in frustration then says, "Well I got to report something to the Alliance Command, and all I have now is just bad and hazy news, so he really needs to clear things up."
Then all of them begins to argue, altogether. The chirping of three Normandy officers fills my ears. Ugh...I'd always hated this kind of thing. Reminds me too much of family meetings in Christmas. Well, sooner or later I have to speak too, ah what the hell, let's just get this over with.
I muster my self to stand upright then say, "Begging your pardon, but..errrr… I can speak for myself you know, not mute or anything. Oh and also, I had this kind of prophetic vision, just wanted you guys to know that." Bam! Congratulations, you've just won the totally unexpected "vision of doom" package for three! To redeem your prize, please make a confused face.
All of a sudden everybody in the room stops talking. A sudden anticipation rises in the atmosphere. Their ever probing eyeballs suddenly gazes at me.
Oh dearie me, now everybody's attention is at me, this is awkward. I've always avoided this kind of situation my whole life, to be in the spotlight and such.
I remember the last time I was in a situation like this, it ended pretty badly, like one year of Junior Highschool without a conversation with girls kind of bad. Brrrr, no more reminiscing that dark moment of my life….
"Hello? You're still there?" the Captain says in a stern voice as he waves his hand infront of me. Snapping back to reality, I can see the three Normandy officers has not lifted their gaze at me. They look confused now rather than intrigued as before. "Ah...sorry about that, I got distracted sometimes," I sheepishly say.
Anderson crosses his arms and sighed. Wow, he does that a lot, doesn't he? "You said you'd seen a vision?"
I stroke my chin, trying to somehow recall the horrid scenes, "Well it's kind of vague, it's just figments and pieces all muddled up in one giant cesspool. Like a big 'ol pot of politicians."
"Would you care to explain?" Dr. Chakwas interjects. Beside her, I could see Shepard's in her thinking mode again.
"Well there's death in it, many death," I start to explain in a dramatic fashion, "A whole civilization disappearing in a blink of an eye. Women and children crying in the streets while their mangled family lies around them. Cities that once scratched the heavens now nothing more than dust in the winds. An archive of history turned into nothing more than myths and old wives-tale pass on from mouth to mouth."
Everybody in the room stares at me blankly in shock of disbelief, either by the sheer weight of information I'd just passed on, or because suddenly I became Nostradamus with Hamlet-esque personality.
I stop to take a breath before giving the climax. "But there's more, the destruction was by the hands of massive squid-like spaceship, with tentacles that shoots beams of death that decimated an entire fleet within minutes! " Whoa, that didn't came out as well as I'd expected. That last part came out so wrong, didn't it? It's more like one of those freaky japanese eroge moments rather than the gruesome vision I'd just seen.
A rather eerie silence fills the room as everybody is perplexed (or disturbed) in trying to discern what I had just blurted out. Captain Anderson is doing the crossed hands pose again, while Shepard is scratching her chin in deep thought.
"Well that was enlightening...to say the least…" Captain Morgan Fishtaker finally breaks the silence. "But now we got more questions than answers. The top brass is not going to like this at all," he said gravely, then turns to me and says, "Thank you anyways, you've been a great help. I'll be in the bridge if you need me."
As the captain approaches the door, a shout came from Dr. Chakwas, stopping him in his track.
"Captain, wait up, I've got something important to tell you," Dr. Chakwas grabs the captain's arm to get his attention. She mouths the words "Not here. Somewhere private."
"Alright Doctor, in my ready room then. Commander, please stay with our guest here and keep an eye on him." the captain replies. Wait did he just say...no it can't be, right? Did he just really say he had a ready room? Where in the game is that? The Normandy in the game is like, very small, even a Defiant class starship is not that small
The two of them walks out of the med-bay, leaving me with the Commander. Shepard who has been mute all this time finally steps forward and gives me an remorseful look. Her face seems to be filled with guilt.
"Ummm, Frank is it?" She lets out a lungful of air, "Look, I'm sorry for what happened to you in Eden Prime. No one should experience that, especially young people like you. It's my fault that I didn't seen it coming sooner. And now you're in this galactic scale mess, and it's all because of me. I'm really sorry" She turns her head down, not wanting to see my face. Well this is awkward. The galaxy's greatest hero is naively asking for my apology. This doesn't seem to be the mature Shepard I know from the games, I wonder….
"Commander," I start, "It's not your fault you know. I mean, au contraire to popular belief, shit happens. It just so happen this shit choose me to be it's toilet. Also I'm cool with it and nobody got hurt in the end either, so don't dwell in it Commander." I finish with a sympathetic smile and a thumbs up.
Shepard finally builds up the courage to look at me, "Thank you, it's just I…I've seen some terrible things too, and I know how it feels, to be alone and afraid." Wait, is she opening up to me? A total stranger to her? Okay something is really off here, since when does Shepard becomes Kelly?
I can feel her burden has lifted up from her shoulders, as she takes to a more relaxed posture. A smile of relief slowly creeps her face as she muddles with her omnitool. Okay I think now's the time to ask her…..
I gulped down my anxiety and ask, "Commander?"
"Hmm..yes?" She shuts down the omnitool.
"Can I ask you something?" She replies with a nod. Oh God, how to put it politely. "Errr, just how old are you?" Okay, keep it together now, so far so good.
"Oh...errr.. I'm 22 this June, why do you ask?" Ah! so that's why she's more sunshine and daisies. The canon Shepard is around 29-ish, this Shepard is only 22, still quite young and naive I'd reckon, but an able commander nonetheless. We've already seen that in Eden Prime.
Returning back from wonderland, I answer, "Just plain curious. Sorry if that bothered you, but it's not everyday you find a young woman in the army. Young jarheaded man many, but you are a curious find Commander- uhh- no offense."
"None taken, Frank. It's always been a family business to be in the army," she replies calmly. "While we're in the subject, I might as well tell everything. You see, the tradition originally came down from our ancestor, Isaac Shepard who fought in the American Civil War. His sons then participated in Spanish-American War, in turn their sons fought in the WW1, and so on and so on. That's how the Shepard dynasty came to be this day. You get the idea right?" She asks with a gleaming proud tone. I reply with a simple nod.
She then continues the whole lecture about her family and with every sentence she tells it with a tone of pride and honor. She tells me about how her grandfather fought in the First Contact War beside Jon Grissom himself and how her mother became the XO of SSV Kilimanjaro. Wow I guess family do matter to her. Who'd have known this kind of family background? Bioware surely didn't put it in. Nice work Bioware insert a sarcastic tone here.
She then (at last) finishes, "-now the legacy has come down to my generation, that is me and my two older brothers. Michael, the oldest, is the personal attaché of General Hackett and Joseph, the second one, is in the newly made Task Force 141 if I'm not mistaken. " Now weit jist a second laddie! Did ye jist say Task Force 141? An' wa am I thinkin' in scottish accent? Damn it brain!
"Task Force 141? Wha' did ye me- sorry,ehem - What did you mean by that?"
"I don't know much about that too, but from what I've heard from Joe, it's a branch of C-Sec which acts kinda like the Internal Affairs of Spectres. They hunt down those who had gone rouge or did very, very bad things. Joe is working there as an analyst or something." Shepard explains.
Hmmm, it could be a coincidence, the name I mean, but then again, what are the odds for coincidences? I got to tell Will about this…... oh yeah, where's Will anyways?
"Commander, the Captain is waiting for you in his ready room. He says it's urgent." The familiar voice of Joker blares in the room.
"Well that's my cue," she walks briskly to the door then stops and shouts, "Nice talking to you Frank! Next time you got to tell me about your family! And umm.. sorry if I've bored you to death, about my family and such, but it was good talk, see you later!" I don't know why but I've just imagined her frolicking with bunnies and rainbows. Cut the weird stuff damn it brain!
She then walks out the room, but before the doors closes, a familiar person walk through it. A smirking face of one Will ******** greeted me.
"Will, you kurwa, where have you been? I'm fine if you're wondering" I say.
He replies with a hearty laughter. "Well, while you were having your beauty sleep, I was actually doing some work surfing the internet."
"Surfing in the internet doesn't count as work, Will. It's called procrastination." I object.
Will throws his hands upwards in dismissal. "Yada-yada, you say procrastination, I say progress. Let's just say there has been interesting things in the internet. Here's one, did you know that there's an entire website dedicated to asari and hanar po-"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa, too much information dude, waaay to much. And seriously, the first thing you search is that? You sick little puppy."
"Well it's not the first thing I searched! I'm not that sick, yet. Although, truth be told, it was the second thing that I searched….."
I reply sarcastically, "Nice Will. By the way, did you find anything that's actually useful?"
"If you include loads of turian/volus meme as things that are useful, then yeah, sure."
I reply with the sound of my palm making contact with considerable force to my sinciput. Seriously, how can anyone be such a carefree like Will here in this kind of situation. Either he's jumping-jacks with flowers on a fence post loony or he's..umm..just plain Will.
I sigh then say, "Okay, changing the topic. So what actually happened after I was out?"
"Let's see," Will starts to scratch his chin, " The beacon blew up, a lot of swearing. You were carried back to the Normandy by Alenko and me, more swearing. Dr. Chakwas snatched you immediately to be taken to the med-bay and I was not allowed to go in by Anderson, so he puts me in his quarters instead. I swear at him I think. " He stops to take a breath.
"I got bored and started to tinker with his laptop. I guess he forgot to lock it. Finally I found it, the holy grail! That is the one and only, Internet ! (or extranet if you would). From there on well let's just say it was a rule 34 fest. Probably should have deleted that browser history when I had the chance though. It's gonna be real awkward if the Captain finds out about it." Will says that last sentence with a certain regret to it.
"Anyways, hours passed there's still no news of you, and weirdly enough, nobody seems to check in on me, until the Captain comes in with Dr. Chakwas that is. They told me you were awake and probably wanted to see me. So, without any delay, I came down and here I am now."
I give him my questionable doubt face, "Soo, let me get this straight again, of all the things you can do while I was out, like maybe talk to Shepard or Anderson, you had chosen to watch some..ummm..copulation videos instead?"
"Yup," Will replies nonchalantly.
"And inside that laptop, which could be the most classified thing in the Normandy, you found nothing in particular that could be useful?"
"Well…..useful is such an subjective wor-"
"Okay then, congrats! You've just won the Internet, moron."
"Thank you, now it's your turn, tell me why when Shepard walks out of the room before, she is looking flustered?" He ask me with a sly tone.
"She is? Really? Well we had a long talk for sure, about her family and such, but nothing embarrassing or personal at all, I mean I'm not making a move on her if that's what you're implying," I reply quickly while hiding my blush.
"Hmm.. yeah sure, just call me when you need a wedding planner," Will replies with a mischievous grin. I responded by giving him the finger.
The med-bay door, for the third time today, opens and from it comes forth Dr. Chakwas, still holding her beloved datapad. "The Captain wants to see you both. He's still in the ready room."
"Uh...yeah...but where's the ready room to be exact?" I ask.
"Come, I'll show you both the way, it's not that far." she says as she gestures us to follow her.
We went out the med-bay into the heart of the ship. The ship's main deck is almost deserted, with the exceptions of some crewmember sitting in the center table, chatting away. There is also Alenko, typing vigorously in front of a monitor. I suspect he's calibrating something. I say hi and thank him for before and he replies quite warmly, saying he's glad that I'm okay.
I give him a soldier's salute before walking off to join Will and Chakwas, who in their best interest has left me quite lost. I spun around in a panicked fashion for a while to see where they are, but didn't find anything.
Okay..okay calm down...let's think this through. Okay the ready room basically is the office for the Captain. In Star Trek, it's situated near the bridge or ops center so that the Captain can go there immediately. So...I think now we need to go to the brid-
Suddenly a hand grabs my shoulder. I flinch at the touch and spun around to greet the owner. It was Will. I breathe a sigh of relief. "Damn it Will, you almost gave me a heart attack there. I was half expecting a disembodied Samuel. L. Jackson's hand there."
He said nothing as he dragged me back to course. He leads me up the stairs toward the CIC and towards a door on the left of the galaxy map. Dr Chakwas is already waiting impatiently for us in front of it. The two of us cross the threshold and walk into the room.
Inside we were greeted by the sight of Captain Anderson, who's sitting in his armchair, with his hand clasped together and elbows resting on the table. He gives us an inscrutable face. Uh-oh we're in deep excrements aren't we? Well either that or we're gonna get a medal.
Shepard was also in the room, sitting in the chair opposite of where Anderson is. Her face though, is more pleasant-going than Anderson's but I can sense trouble in her eyes.
"We need to talk," Anderson say, "It's about you both" he gestures at me and Will. Oh boy, here we go.
"What is it Captain?" Will asks in a faltering voice. I anxiously bit my tongue.
"It's about your…..questionable origins. You both don't have any record at all in our systems and our records are thorough, very thorough." Blistering barnacles! He's onto us. And we haven't prepared at all!
Will and I look at each other, not knowing what to do or say. The conflict of telling the truth and making things up takes a hold of me.
If I tell the truth, then I'll be interfering more with this universe's timeline. Most of the time that doesn't help at all, if anything it'll just make it worst. We've already established that in the Terminator and Back to the Future and to top it off we got the Prime Directive to follow!
But on the other hand, we've actually got a chance to save lives of people, real, breathing, and having emotions one, not just a batch of ones and zeros in a program that this world was once to us. We could be the hero that this galaxy deserves, even though we're not needed.
How to overcome this dilemma…. Ah I know! How bout we do both?
I came back from my train of thought with the newfound resolution, that I will try to save the lives of everybody here, and it starts by saying….half-a-lie. Looking at Will, I can sense that he's thinking the same as me too. Okay brain, just be calm and don"t slip up anything revealing, just tell them you're from 2014 and play the dumb time-traveler game.
"Captain," I start and try to make my voice a grave one "Are you sure you want to know?" He nods.
"We…..ummm how to put this right.." I bite my lip in frustration. "We're what you call…..time travellers. We came from the year 2014 and before you ask, no, we don't know how, why or what got us here."
Even though they speak no sound, I can tell from their change in expression that they're definitely not ready for that. Their faces sort of glitched between confused and surprised mode. Jumping Jack Sparrows! I'd just realized this is the second time I had dropped a boatload of information to them. No wonder their brain processors suddenly turn into a Pentium I.
Will, in all his wisdom, decides to speak, "Look we don't expect you to believe us. No one in their right mind would-"
The Captain rises from his chair. "Are you taking me as a joke, young man? Do you think all of this is funny?" Oh mother of excrements! We're dead meat now.
Will stammered to respond, "Uh…no sir bu-"
"Good. Congratulations, you both have just been inducted into the Alliance." That's it we're done. He's gonna lock us away some-...wait, what did he just say?
"Wait wha-" Will mutters.
"You heard me right soldier. You are now enlisted to the army." He takes Will's hand then shakes it, and then done the same to mine. We both stood there looking like we've just shat bricks.
"Captain, you sure you know what you're doing?" Dr. Chakwas ask.
The Captain let out a grunt, "You got any other suggestions Doctor? Our only other option is to dump them off at a colony somewhere-"
"And we lost our lead on the Eden Prime incident," continue the Commander while looking at me.
The Captain looks pleased at his second in command. "I see we're on the same page Commander, that's why I'm going to make you their trainer, as you once joined the Alliance around their age. They'll need all the tips and tricks to be a fast learner as you."
Oh goodie! We get to spend quality time with such a beautifu- NO BRAIN! I'M NOT FALLING FOR HER! but she's so pre- NO BRAIN! JUST NO!...Oh Sweet Holy Grail of Jesus H. Christ, I'm debating with myself….Way to lose your mojo Frank….
Will was the first from us that regained the ability of speech. "Captain, thank you for giving us this chance. For a second there I thought you were going to dump us out."
"For a second there, I thought I was too. Now if you'll excuse me, I got one heck of a report to write." The Captain sits down in his chair and opening his laptop.
We take the cue and left the room. Outside the four of us (Me, Will, Chakwas and Shepard) breath a sigh of relief. Whew, glad that was over, and it's gone better than I'd expected..so YAY!
Dr. Chakwas was the first to say something, "I still need to run some physical tests on you both gentleman." I open my mouth to reject, but she shuts it quickly with a remark. "Before you say no, I have to say that it is mandatory, so follow me to the med-bay now" I guess no more running from my greatest nemesis. Physical Health….*dumdumdummm
Both Will and I comply (much to our irritation) to the good doctor's request and head towards the med-bay. Inside, we both are asked to lay down in a bed. She begins to punch a series of holographic projections of buttons and voila! A tube-MRI-like machine suddenly pops out from the wall behind our beds. The tube now obscuring our vision of the celling.
The voice of Dr. Chakwas rang from outside the tube. "Just relax and try to breath slowly. This machine is a fully automated medical check-up. It's perfectly harmless and safe."
The machine slowly hums and produces a tentacle-like suckers and wrap it around both of my arm. A helmet like object envelops my head and probes my ear canals. From what I can see, the tentacle-like suckers are slowly taking my blood sample. Weird, this doesn't hurt at all. Back at home, you have to practically drag me to the doctor just because of my phobia of needles. I could get used to this.
The machine let's go of my arm and head and then the humming stops. The tube then retracts back to the wall from whence it came.
Dr. Chakwas has already glued her eyes to the laptop monitor, looking at the stream of porn it is providing. "Okay, the scans shows that both of you are in overall prime condition. I also took the liberty of installing a universal translator to the both of you, figuring you both are going to meet aliens soon. "
"Wow, thanks doc." Will says in awe.
"Anytime. Oh and I've sent your recommended training schedule to the Commander." she finishes.
We both went out to the main deck. Shepard has already waited for us outside. She gestures us to go to her. We comply without hesitation.
"So I guess I'll be your… erm, what do you call it? Jedi Padawan?" Shepard says in a chirping tone. Will and I both look at each other and laughed. Ohohoho… she needs Frank and Will's Geek 101 crash course for sure.
"Close Commander, but Padawan is the student, A Master is the teacher." I correct her. "But nice try though, most people just say Yoda, even though he's a character not a title."
Shepard smiles and says, "Well, come then Padawans, you'll want to settle down in your cabin first. Take a shower or two. I already have one of the guys send Alliance space kit and uniform there." She leads us down the corridor to a door at the far-side of the deck.
"Well here it is." She opens the door and within is was a medium sized room with a bunk bed and two work tables opposite of eachother. On the top of each table was a laptop. The room monochromatic color gives a bit dull mood to me, but aside from that, it's lovely.
"Dibs on the upper bed!" Will shouted as he climb to the top.
"Yeah sure, I was going to use the bottom one anyways." I reply. I turn to the Shepard and smile, "And Commander, thank you." There seems to be a lot of giving thanks this day by us both.
"You're welcome Frank. Your training both starts at 0500 tomorrow, which gives you plenty of time to adjust and rest here." She gives a salute and we reply in the same way. She then walks away out of the room.
"So Will, nice room huh?" I start a banter.
"Nicer than the one that's in your house anyways." he replies jokingly.
"How can you tell? You can't even tell the difference between a hotel room and an alley for sleeping," I made a sly remark. We both share a laugh after that. Feels already like home..well minus my parents and my brother... I wonder how they're doing.
"Well anyways I'm going to take a nice long shower. Then I'll go to dreamland." I say to Will.
"Fine by me. I'll just be here, tinkering with this fella" he gestures toward the laptop.
I give him a jeering look. "Well try not to make a mess, use a tissue."
"Fuck off Frank, I'm not doing that." Will responded with an annoyed tone.
I had the last laugh that day as I walk to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Postscript:
Hah! Betcha didn't see that plot twist coming now did you? Anyways thanks for reading/favoriting/following this story! Hope to see you guys still in the next chapter.
Oh the next week chapter will be written by Will (hopefully) and for all of those who sent a get-well soon card to Will's laptop, here's the reply, "01010100011010000110000101101110011010110010000001111001011011110111010100100001" (sorry we didn't translate it, as it was the computer's wishes)
This has been BlueMist125, signing out. Adios!
