Chapter 7- A New Beginning
2182, Forscher.
Day 2
Despite knowing that I should have gotten some shut eye, I just couldn't bring myself to jump into the sleeping pod. There was a throbbing nagging in the back of my head that I wouldn't wake up or I would either wake up another hundred years in the future. It was an irrational fear but I couldn't shake the horrible feeling something bad would happen. The idea it could happen again was less than wanted, it sent an icy chill down the back of my spine.
When I twisted my neck away from the stars to look over at the sleeping pod, there was a small pooling of dread that churned in my gut. I clenched my sleeves around my knuckles and released a heavy sigh.
"Entering atmosphere. Hey kid, if you want a view, feel free to come up here."
At the sound of Kylie's voice, I fidgeted nervously in my spot against the giant glass plane and forced my eyes to turn to the outside once more. It still kinda scared me to look out the window but I also found it absolutely breath-taking and incredible.
Keep calm. You can do this.
I stretched my body out with a yawn and turned around, swinging my legs off the seat and putting my feet on the floor. When I looked down at the ground, my hair fell in my face. I felt my insides coil uneasily and crossed my arms across my torso. With a heavy sigh I pushed myself to walk out of the room and head towards the helm.
With caution, I approached behind her and gripped the back of her chair for support, eyes searching outside for the said view. When I did, my stomach did backflips, my eyes widened to the size of plates and my heart catapulted into oblivion. Holy shit.
The first thing I noticed was seven cone shaped leviathan sized towers that seemed to reach up to the cloud, below them a sprawling metropolis that surrounded them. White skyscrapers with near sapphire blue windows shined in the distance, easily putting any of the ones back home to shame, with heavy air traffic between them. Beyond that, rolling fields of greenery, verdant hills and a massive lake in the far distance.
Smaller settlements dotted the surface, alongside clear roads and river crossings. A few vehicles, land vehicles, not the flying ones in the distance could be seen. Some large and lumbering offroad, others, much smaller, never straying from it.
A massive spacecraft, around thrice the size of the one I'm in, advance from the distance at great speeds. For a moment, I stiffen, worried and wondering if we were going to collide, my my fears soon proved to be unfounded, as it passed us on the right with around a quarter of a mile between us.
Still, it looked damn close.
"Beautiful, right?" Kylie's voice broke me out of my trance. "Eden Prime is one of the first human colonies. It's said to be a peaceful paradise."
The hair on the back of my neck rose.
Wait.
Did she just say Eden Prime?
Well, spank Saren and call him Shirley.
I gawked for probably a good five minutes and could feel panic engulfing me before I recalled that the Geth attack on Eden Prime was in 2183, not 2182. I was safe.
For now.
Thank God.
She momentarily lifted her hand, quickly pointing out the buildings. "Those towers in the distance are archaeologies. I don't think it ever got close to being implemented in your era, merely some drawing on an artist's board. Now? Just look at that."
"It's amazing." I meant it too. Seeing all these futuristic designs and inventions brought to life in front of me called to the sci-fi fangirl giddily hyperventilating inside me. It really was like a dream. Everything around me was so surreal and just so epic.
In the game, it really didn't do it justice. Everything was false, everything was pixels. A mere idealistic concept of what could be if humanity found a way to branch out in the universe and possibly meet other species.
A pounding suddenly started to throb in my skull until the point it passed the 'irritating' stage into the 'pain' stage. I doubled over slightly and gripped the sides of my head with gritted teeth. A groan slipped out of my throat when nausea hit me like a sledgehammer. I back pedalled, tripping over my feet, then I fell to the ground on my back. Everything around me span, blurring.
A hazy fog clouded my eyes and there was suddenly a face, then a body, then a memory.
I was sitting on a swing. My fingers loosely wrapped around the cold, curved chains keeping me up. My feet slightly rolled on the pavement, gently pushing me forward and pulling me back. There was a soft, cool breeze ghosting over my cheeks. My nose was tinged pink from the autumn weather, goosebumps spiking on my skin.
The area was covered in meshes of brown, yellow and red as amber leaves fell to the pile below on the grass, pooling around the tall, arching tree. Their roof, which only held hints of faint green was dying. Birds whistled to match their tune with the whispering of bushes, which danced in the breeze.
A large, spacious plane of grass surrounded the park, which was engaged in a rusty yellow railing. The gate occasionally squeaked, opening and closing as it gently swayed. I spotted a bystander walking their dalmatian. The spotted dog sniffed the ground and cocked up a leg, deciding to prey on that particular tree.
"You have to admit, it would be awesome." I glanced to the side at my friend, who was standing against the old red frame of the swings. "If Aliens existed."
"Think about it Nate. If we're on their diet, then it wouldn't be so 'awesome'." I threw back with air quotes, scuffing the tip of my boot against the concrete. I leaned back on the swing boredly, holding the chains to support me.
He shook his head, thick black hair glinting brown eyes drifting to the side. The corners of his mouth twitched into a small smile. "Such a pessimist."
I grinned and poked out my tongue teasingly in his direction. Nate rolled his eyes, then opened his mouth to speak. But it wasn't his voice.
"Kid?" A hand waved in front of my face. Nate's face sizzled into the background, fading into more feminine features. The black locks framing his square-ish face melted to red, his jaw transforming to a heart-shape. Her brow furrowed, mouth turning down into a concerned frown as she knelt beside me. "Are you alright?"
"53960, reduce speed 210, then descend and maintain 6000."
My pulse reverberated in my ears, heart hammering heavily against my ribs. Distantly, I heard Kylie snap off a quick reply to whoever's that's on the other side. I blinked several times to adjust my eyes to the light and let out a groan, pressing the surface of my palms into my sockets. "Y-yeah, I think so."
"Are you sure?" Kylie moved forward, wrapping her arm around my back to help me sit up. My back whined in protest when I moved it, having bruised myself from the harsh metal floor. She tilted her head, peering down at me with a worried glint in her eyes. "You fell and spaced out there for a second."
"I…" My skull throbbed. Nate's dark eyes burned an imprint in my mind. My gut squeezed. "I remembered something… someone."
"What?" She perked up, doing a double take at first before giving me a grin. "That's wonderful! What was it?"
"I, uh… a… I think he was a friend of mine." Sharply inhaling, I reached up a hand to my temple. A grimace pinched in my features. "His name was Nate."
"What was the memory?"
"We were… we were in the park," I recalled, squinting in concentration. "We were talking about something… what it would be like for aliens to exist? I think."
"Hmm, interesting…" she pressed her lips together then shook her head. "Come on, kid. Upsy Daisy." The red headed woman went behind me, put her hands under my armpits and helped me get back on my feet. She let me lean on her. "If that's the case, then it may be possible your memories can be triggered by certain sights and smells."
"Civilian vessel registry CSV-53960, be advised that this spaceport does not support autodocking. Switch to manual or go around."
Kylie wrapped her arm around my waist, leading me to a chair. I sighed in relief when I sat down, she took her place at the pilot's seat and I assumed she took the ship off autopilot before glancing over at me with a comforting smile.
"I'm sure the rest of your memories will follow suit." She offered reassuringly.
Hopefully.
"Constant Spaceport Ground, civilian vessel registry CSV-53960, on final."
"Copy that, you are cleared to touch on landing pad 14 Bravo."
"Right, well…" Kyle turned to smile at me. "I guess this is it. Welcome to a whole new world."
Outside, the city got closer as we neared, allowing me to see things in greater clarity. The ship turned slightly, tilted actually from what I could see from the cockpit window, but I didn't feel it. Approaching what I believed to be the spaceport, judging from the multiple ships docked or taking off there, along with five more of the massive ones that passed us earlier. She took us to one of the empty platforms, then for the first time since stepping on board, I felt the ship shake gently during the initial descend.
Then the ship stopped, Kylie tapping her few buttons before sighing and getting up.
"Welcome to Constant, Eden Prime."
"What happens now?" I was still nervous, wringing my hands anxiously as I lowered my head to stare at my shoes. Calm down. Calm down. "Are you coming with me?"
"You get taken away and dissected." Gerald answered, stepping into the cockpit as Kylie was about to reply to me, instead gritted her teeth in annoyance. She sharply narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "I've already notified the authorities before we entered atmosphere, so there should be quite a welcome party waiting for you."
"Pay him no mind." She walked towards me, putting a hand on his shoulder to push him out of her way. Kylie held out her hand. "Come on. Of course I'm going with you."
"Don't forget to suit up before you step outside, least of all someone coughs into your face and make you fatally ill." Gerald innocently looked over at Kyle when she once again glared at him. "What? It would be pointless to keep her alive only to let her die a death as pitiful as a quarian's lifestyle. I'm not that twisted."
I took her offered hand. She put her arm around me, encouraging me forward. We walked to a private room for her to help me get the suit on and make sure there were no holes or anything to risk exposure. The suit was kind of tight, with a few layers as well as a backup in case there was a tear to give me time to fix it.
This whole thing combined made me nervous. If I get a hole in my suit, there's a possibility of me catching something deadly and dying from it. I didn't really want to go outside if this was the case but knew I had to. I couldn't stay in the ship forever. People were waiting to discover what this so called living relic was, after all.
It was strange to think of myself as a living relic, but there was some truth to that.
I hoped we got my shots first, I didn't want to be introduced to them like this.
I felt kind of like a quarian.
When we approached the decontamination area, Kylie stepped forward, placing the helmet into place. It hissed, sealing the outside air away from me. I sniffed, the sound echoed slightly. If I got an itch on my face, that'll be the worst thing ever. Oh god, what if I sneeze…?
God knew how the quarian people handled that.
Do quarian even sneeze?
The airlock opened.
… I feel overdressed.
It was silly worrying over how people would see my fashion style. I had a reasonable excuse after all. But even then, it felt weird being the only one in a full body hardsuit while everyone else was in either formal or casual clothing. The former before me, four of them, two of each gender . The latter beside me.
"This her?" One of them asked in a gentle tone. "Why is she…"
"Weak immune system. For her own safety really."
Once again feeling nervous, I shifted from one foot to the other but lifted a hand and awkwardly waved with a polite smile, before realizing they can't see my face through the black tinted helmet and drop the strained expression. Nonetheless, I still remembered my manners and greeted them in a friendly manner. "Hello."
They blinked before the one in front nodded to me. "Hello to you too. Welcome to Eden Prime. I guess you can say that we are your hosts for your stay here. In a way."
"Oh… um..." I glanced uncertainly at Kylie, who gave me an encouraging smile. I turned back to them and lifted my arms, giving them a thumbs up since I couldn't express any smiles through my helmet. "Cool."
One of them stepped forward, a balding man with hazel eyes, a long nose and oblong jaw. His shoulders held back confidently, his stance seemed practiced and disciplined. "Poloko Meyers, Alliance representative. With me are Melissa Walker, Eden Prime Colonial Parliament," The said woman he gestured to had straight black hair in a tight bun and bright green eyes with intense freckles marring her pale face, mainly splattered over her slightly crooked nose. She nodded in acknowledgement.
"Erwin Svankov, he's from Arzt Hospital and he'll be overlooking all of your health concerns." The man in question straightened at his mention, strong arms stationed across his lean torso.
Erwin had olive toned skin, and looked young, in his twenties possibly. His dark hair was tousled and medium length, framing his strong jawline. There was also thin scar marking the right side of his face, curving from his eyebrow in a 'c' shape to his cheekbone before reaching to his neck.
He silently observed me with piercing grey eyes, burning his cold gaze to my helmet. Slightly uncomfortable and feeling my gut twist tightly, I looked away.
Erwin was definitely an odd match for his appearance, not the kind of name I'd associate with him at first glance. With that kind of name I would have thought it would fit with a nerdy, lanky teenager. Not some muscular, tough doctor guy with a scar on his face.
"And my secretary, Okura Ishibashi." The last one was a Japanese woman. She tucked her arms behind her back before Okura raised her chin and I saw dark chocolate eyes staring at me in curiosity. Her silky black hair was combed back into a low ponytail, clothes tidy and neat.
I didn't exactly want to introduce myself as Luna as it felt like a private video game name that one used for an MMO or something. It was just for my omni-tool to address me as. For some reason I was kind of embarrassed to introduce myself as that, so I simply licked my dry lips and cleared my throat, telling the truth.
"I would tell you my name, but…" my hand dropped to my side, I averted my eyes. Even telling them I didn't know who I was, was still embarrassing. "I don't know."
"Temporary amnesia," Kylie confirmed, bobbing her head towards Poloko. Man, that's a weird name. I'm going to have a tough time saying it with a straight face. I want to shout out Marco but I have a feeling he won't find it funny. "As I stated in the report forwarded to you."
The American man gave a curt nod. "Well then, the first order of business is to fix that immune system of yours now. Come on then, we have a vehicle waiting."
God, it's not a mako is it? Riding in those things doesn't seem fun.
He seemed to mistake my anxiety for something else. "And don't worry, we kept you on the down low, so you wouldn't be mobbed by reporters the second you step outside."
Despite that not being what I was worried about, the news still brought me some relief and partly removed the anchor pressing on my lungs. Kylie put her hand on my lower back, guiding me to follow them while walking along side me.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I was finally allowed to remove the tight suit I had to wear. A part of me felt bad for the quarians, having to wear such things for all their life while having it on for less than two hours already made me more than happy to be stripped of it. Its bloody uncomfortable, plus hearing myself breathe in that thing every second really started to rack my mind after some time.
The doctor raised his arm as he entered the room after I was done, pointing over to a chair that looked more like a bed, tilting diagonally. His faintly accented voice had a deep, husky baritone, slightly cold as he addressed me. "Lie down over there. I need to do some readings before getting started on anything."
Erwin whipped out a pair of black rimmed glasses, then slid them onto his face while moving over toward a terminal. I did as he said, lying down on what that seemed to be a futuristic MRI looking machine, watching him tap a few things into it. His eyes narrowed, eyebrows pulling together.
A second later there was a sound, then I felt the thing I'm lying on move, bringing me inside the machine.
The cramped space put me on edge, I hastily put my hand on the wall and pushed myself off. "W-wait."
His icy eyes peer over his glasses, giving me a piercing look of irritation that unsettled my stomach, setting free a cage of butterflies. "What is it?"
"Do I have to go in there?" I could hear my heart racing in my ears. I wasn't that keen on cramped spaces after being in that pod for so long. Granted, I wasn't awake but the feeling of being trapped was horrible.
He stared at me for a minute, then arched an eyebrow and sighed. "Do you want to be wearing a suit twenty four seven for the rest of your life and hooked on antibiotics?"
Well... when he puts it like that...
"...No." I reluctantly answered. He adjusted his glasses, sliding them up his nose and looked back down at his terminal.
"Then try not to move too much. That equipment is very expensive."
The interior of the machine was suddenly bathed in blue light as a bright orange laser came on over my head, washing, scanning over me as it went from one end to the other. I felt a slight prick on my right arm as something poked it, drawing a bit of blood.
"Medical disaster?" I heard him mutter on the outside. "More like a medical catastrophe."
I couldn't tell how long time had passed while inside the thing, but it definitely wasn't short. More than a couple of times, I had nearly nodded off from the boredom of being made to just lie still and being unable to do anything. Finally, after an excruciatingly long period of time, I felt myself being moved again. The stinging sensation of the ceiling lights shining into my eyes was an almost welcome relief compared to the blue and orange of earlier.
"Well, this was certainly enlightening..." I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"
Let's get this over with. "Bad news."
His eyes flickered to me. "A bit of genetic therapy may be required. Intensive ones actually, so you'll have to go under the knife."
At his words, I freeze up at look over at him in disbelief, searching his face to see if it was a bad joke. When his expression remained stoic my pulse ran faster, catapulting into space.
What? "Excuse me?"
"You'll need cybernetics to artificially boost your immune systems while the genetic therapy slowly strengthens it to be up to par with current standards." He coolly answered, lips in a thin line. "Worse case scenario, a sample of your bone marrow may be needed, but hopefully it doesn't come to that."
I felt myself pale. Bone marrow?
The orange glow illuminated his face, I could see his steel gaze darting left to right as he read some of the data.
"There is also the possibility that your body may violently reject the treatment but of course, it is highly unlikely so don't worry about that." He added offhandedly, typing something into his omni-tool. His words did nothing to calm my nerves. I supposed it was better than ignorance.
"Perfect." I muttered, letting my hands fall into my lap as his answer slowly sunk in. I swallowed. "When is this treatment going to start?"
"Under normal circumstances, the waiting time for the treatment would be three months, but since this is a direct request from the higher ups, sometime between the next one to three hours if you accept."
I didn't really have a choice. If I refused the treatment, then I'd probably catch something and die. Being a human-quarian for the rest of my life wasn't appealing, so I braced myself and met his eyes. Bats fluttered inside me at the thought of going under the knife. I had to trust he wouldn't fail, that I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the surgery and feel the pain of them cutting inside of me.
A worse scenario was imagining myself unable to move, unable to tell them I was awake, then them cutting into me without realizing the agony they were causing.
It was always a fear of mine, having surgery. You were literally putting your life into a stranger's hands. If they slipped, if they moved one inch to the right, one mistake and they could kill me.
The idea of it always sent a shiver down my spine.
I wanted to say no, I wanted to stay away from that.
However, if I wanted to live a normal- well, as relatively normal life as I could get here- then I'd have to go through it with.
Anxiously, I straightened my spine and felt my shoulders tense but gave him a sharp nod to confirm I wanted to do this.
Well, I don't want to… but I need to.
"I'll do it."
Longer chapter :D
Possibly a longer one next time. I hope you guys enjoyed it ^_^
I know this is a bit of a slow story, but I hope you guys can bare with it and stick with me and her in her adventure to the ME verse :']
Chapter 22 soon, for UM. If you haven't checked it out, it's another Self-Insert for ME, going through a different route through Omega.
~Elle
