PRISONER
XXX
SSV Cairo
00:40 GST
It was cold and dark. Droplets of rain fell onto me, yet somehow I was still dry. The sky was a deep shade of navy blue and stretched into the horizon unbroken, like a piece of tarp stretched taut. No clouds. No gradients. At the edges, it merged with the ground, which was the exact same colour. The only thing separating sky from land was the thinnest of black lines. But the floor beneath my feet shimmered like water in the sunlight, light refracting wildly and throwing shadows around. In fact, I think I was standing on water. Thick particles of white pollen were falling to the ground softly, and being as paranoid as I am, I began to breathe more carefully and with a hand over my mouth.
Where the hell am I?
And as soon as I started to think comprehensible thoughts, a horrible sound appeared. It was like static. Pure white noise. Just quietly at first, in the background. But like a dam bursting, something gave way and the noise struck me. I was brought to my knees as it rumbled through me, every fibre of my being shaken violently. Then, as soon as it had appeared, it vanished. Blood had already begun to fall onto my shirt before I realised my nose was bleeding. A dreadful feeling of déjà vu occurred too. Like… I've been here before…
I could feel one hell of a headache beginning to take form as I stood. When I looked up, a Turian was standing before me.
"Fuck!"
I fell down in shock, and unconsciously backpedalled away, even though he seemed completely oblivious to my presence. He turned to his left, revealing an assortment of laboratory equipment placed around. He reached inside a cupboard.
I stood up into a fighting stance. No alien was going to kidnap and experiment on me!
But instead of pulling out a pair of restraining equipment or whatever, he puts on a pair of goggles and starts to do something science-y. Rock analysis I think. Bits of black stones with light blue veins were being scrutinized under a microscope.
It was about 5 minutes before I mustered enough sense to say something.
"Hey. You."
Admittedly, it wasn't the best thing I could have said, but still, he completely ignores me.
No response.
"Mr Turian!"
This elicited a slight blip of static. Then slowly, the Turian turned around. His jaws moved, but no sound came out. Reminded me of an old Bruce Lee movie.
"Human."
I nearly shat my pants right there and then. The voice was in my head! Dark, foreboding, and chorused. Like a thousand entities were speaking simultaneously. And then it clicked.
"You do not belong."
I was talking to a Leviathan! Too surprised to say anything, I stood still, staring at the Turian, even as he transformed into a human male. The man walked around the small station, and I felt compelled to follow him. So I did. He stopped before another station, set up similarly. But instead of ignoring me, he turned and looked me in the eye.
"You are an abnormality. You should not exist here."
Huh. Thanks.
"You co-exist within parallel, yet misaligned timeframes. This has not been previously observed."
The hell is he saying?
"Your presence may be of benefit to us."
"I have a name."
That probably wasn't the wisest thing to say. Everything went black.
"Irrelevant. We will continue to study."
A flash of purple.
~/~
~/~
I awoke to the full force of a hammering headache, driving me to sit bolt upright. I banged my head on the bunk above me, and the combined pain almost made me faint. Sometimes being tall had its drawbacks.
But, shit! Leviathans! In my head! Was it just a dream? It certainly felt real. But before I could do anything else, the lights in the barracks came on.
Reflexively, I closed my eyes, but the bright illumination still pierced through my lids and made everything worse! I fell to the floor clutching my head.
The clack of heavy boots was much louder than the other men waking up groggily. I thanked God as a large shadow fell over me, reducing the pain somewhat.
"Good. Your reaction time is better than these lazy fuckers'. Get up!"
I got up. Just like the voice ordered me to.
"Shit, you must have hit your head or something boy."
I slowly opened my eyes, wishing for everything to just go away, and that I was back in my comfy bed back home. I didn't ask for any of this crap! But instead, Sergeant Brooks stood pointing a finger at my face. He had nicely trimmed nails.
"Wh-what?"
"Your face boy. Looks like someone's stood on it."
I looked down at my blood stained shirt. The nosebleed? So it was real?
"Just a nosebleed sir."
Seeming rather unimpressed at my nonchalance, Brooks told me to get cleaned up and walked off to make sure the others were awake. The buzzing metal rod he carried would help him on that endeavour, I guess. The weapon looked distinctly like the ones Cerberus troops were using in the third game. 'Shock Batons' I think they were called.
I heard two discharges of high voltage, and two equally anguished cries of pain behind me as I stepped into the bathroom.
I washed my face to get rid of the blood. It was relatively fresh and therefore easy to wipe off. The other men came in and prepared to shower at this point, so I decided I may as well too. It gave me an opportunity to try and recall what had happened earlier.
The Leviathans had brought me into this universe? No, they had no clue why I was here. But the transition must have caused enough fallout for them to locate me. I could only hope the rest of the galaxy was not advanced enough to catch the trail. Still, what could have caused this? I'm not particularly religious, yet not completely lacking of faith either. An agnostic, right? So I'm not ruling out anything at this point.
Outside, Sergeant Brooks was still waiting. He took us to the mess hall. It led me to wonder why he didn't have any helpers. Maybe he preferred an autocratic hands-on approach to his training, I don't know. It just seemed like a waste of resources. The man was a Staff Sergeant for God's sake. He should be…out there. Shooting Geth and stuff.
But that's not to say he wasn't brutally effective. My bacon and eggs were on the floor after the session he put us through, and I was feeling really pissed off when a female voice called my name over the gym's comm system.
"EPR Darren Hopes to Lieutenant Casper's office please. EPR Darren Hopes."
It was like being in school all over again. I just knew that she had a smile on her face when she said that. Fucking receptionists and their cheesy voices. But wait, what's an 'EPR'? And why was I one?
I didn't even know where the office was anyway! I jumped off the treadmill gladly, though, and just stood there until the stupid woman realised her mistake and instead sent someone to me. I just wasn't expecting the Lieutenant himself to come collect me.
He escorted me to his office, which was conveniently enough, really close to our barracks. It was rather bland, something I've come to expect, but he didn't even have a framed picture or indeed anything sentimental on his desk. A couple of data-pads strewn around showed he actually inhabited the room. Otherwise, it was spotless.
He motioned at a chair and I sat down in it. He walked around to the other side of the desk.
He began by placing both hands on his desk, getting himself into a position to look down at me. Immediately, I knew it wasn't good news.
"Right."
He paused, sighing.
"As you may or may not know, I have a lot of processing to do. There are 49 recruits, and databases need to be scoured for records. We don't just allow anyone onto Arcturus, the headquarters of the Alliance Navy."
I think I knew where he was going with this, but I maintained a blank look.
"I've finished all of the background checks. All of the small details have been fine combed. None of the recruits have a criminal record; in fact, I've found most are exemplary citizens."
I smiled grimly.
"Then why is it, that you don't technically even exist Mr Hopes?"
Ah shit. I thought they'd have figured it out sooner.
"I don't know."
Lieutenant Casper sighed again.
"I don't have time for this. Explain yourself. We're less than two hours away from a refuelling at the Citadel. Then it's less than a day to Arcturus. I need this sorted out."
"I obviously exist. I'm right here. Check your databases again. Sir."
I had to try and stall for time. But… he wasn't having none of it.
"Right, you're under arrest until we can bring up some proof of you. Security will take you to the brig. This is the military, you have no rights to remain silent and all that crap."
This was stupid, but it felt like an eventuality. I knew it was going to happen at some stage. I didn't resist when two armed men came and took to down to the holding cells. I didn't resist when they took some readings then left me in a cell. I didn't resist when they shut the door.
It was about half an hour later, and I was feeling peckish, the ship shuddered. Had we docked at the Citadel? It was a depressing thought. I've always wanted to see the majestic space station. It's spinning arms, the bustle of millions of aliens minding their own business, thousands of buildings tall enough to rival even the Burj Khalifa; all set in the midst of the stunning Widow Nebula. I mean, a notable thing even Shepard does at the beginning of the first game is marvel at the sight of the Citadel. But here I was stuck in tiny square room. With no windows.
Another jolt rippled through the floor. This pilot was shit. He couldn't even manage a gentle landing.
But a third shudder and the sudden blare of alarms told me we were definitely not docking anywhere. We were being attacked.
It couldn't be pirates. They would have to be utterly stupid to take on an Alliance Cruiser, or utterly outnumber us. But pirates wouldn't join forces like that. Who else? Batarians were still at war with humans, right? I still remember that asteroid mission with the terrorists very clearly. But this close to the Citadel? They don't have the balls.
My next thoughts were troubling. What if it was… Saren? I have no idea how relative time was here compared to the game. Shepard could've been to Ilos and back for all I know. Sovereign could be sitting atop his perch, and this cruiser could just be one of the irrelevant ships floating in the background. Nothing more than debris as far as lore is concerned.
Makes me feel small. Worthless.
Another jarring explosion, but this one sounded really close. No, it wasn't an explosion, more like a metallic crunch. Then there was gunfire outside. They must have begun to board us, and unlucky me, they had to pick the brig first.
Erratic bursts of automatic fire from the far right were undoubtedly the standard Avenger assault rifles, their tell-tale clatter unmistakable. The Alliance needs new weapons, seriously. The racket is joined by alternating cracks of two sniper rifles, from the origin of the crash. What idiots bring sniper rifles to a ship boarding?
5 loud reports later, the hallway falls silent.
Apparently two idiots with pinpoint accuracy.
Who the hell can it be?
I settle for the explanation that it's well armed mercenaries who have a thing to settle with the Captain of this ship, because I've got nothing else. Then I hear armoured footsteps closing in, until they stop directly outside my door.
"Breaching!"
Wait, what?!
I run to the far side of the cell and squeeze myself in between the bed and the wall. I've never moved so fast in my life.
The charges blow a neat square gap in the doors - not as much shrapnel as I thought there would be - and the attackers walk through. They're both Salarian. They're wearing completely black armour, with a few white insignias and markings. And both hold what appear to be Mantis sniper rifles, also painted black. The one in front takes a data-pad out of an armoured compartment, and seemingly compares the image on it to me.
"Target located."
He then takes a full syringe out as I open my eyes in horror.
They were after me?!
With a movement so quick I could hardly register the pain, he jabs the needle into my neck.
"Target subdued."