Chapter 7: On the Outside

Atlek-5

Ripley's Hope General Hospital

12:50 Standard Galactic Time

"Julia, we've got another Riker's here!" A nurse shouted as she entered the room, wheeling in a patient on a stretcher as she did. The man was convulsing violently, screaming in pain with each uncontrollable motion as the nurses attempted to restrain him for his own safety. Julia Reynolds wasted no time in walking up to the man and checking his eye for dilation, which there was. This signaled to her that he was progressing through the later stages of the disease that was plaguing the colony and that she needed to act fast.

"Quick," she ordered, "get me 20 CC's of hydrosome, and somebody hold his arm steady!" The nurses did as she said and several arms grabbed hold of his right arm and pressed down, locking it in place, while the rest of him continued to shake.

"Make it stop! IT HURTS!" The man shouted, the pain clouding his perceptions of the outside world. One of the nurses filled an injection gun with the ordered amount of the drug while another used her omni-tool to scan the man's vital signs, which were spiking dangerously. The nurse with the syringe didn't hesitate as he pressed the injection gun to the man's restrained arm and pressed the trigger, the short hiss letting him know the injection was in. After a few seconds, nothing happened, the man's violent convulsions didn't falter.

"No effect!" The nurse shouted, looking to Julia for his next instruction.

"He's worse than anticipated. Give him another injection, 25 CC's this time." The nurse did as he was told and changed the needle in the gun before filling it with more liquid and injecting it into the patient's arm again. Again, the drug did nothing to hamper the man's spasm's.

"Still nothing!" The nurse began sweating, getting nervous from the man's horrific display of pain.

"One more time, another 25 CC injection, but no more." Again, the nurse did as he was told and filled the gun again and injected the man one more time. This time, the man began settling down, the shaking started slow until he lay limp on the stretcher for the first time since entering the emergency room. The nurses let go of his arm, breathing a sigh of relief. "Don't celebrate yet," Julia interrupted, "we may have stopped the convulsions, but that's only a temporary fix, we need to do a complete decontamination to get the virus out of his system. Take him over to the decon chamber in ward 5 and tell Dr. Morris to set it to protocol 3." The nurses nodded and quickly wheeled the man out of the room and towards their destination, Julia wiping the sweat that had been forming on her brow.

She'd been dealing with this disease since it starting popping up almost 2 weeks prior, and yet she still couldn't truly get used to the horrific display the patients put on while under its influence. Luckily, she had managed to save most of the patients after she started volunteering at the colony's hospital, but they still had a long road to recovery, since the virus heavily damages the nervous system of its victims, if it doesn't kill them first. Julia returned to her desk, picking up a datapad lying on it while sitting down. She sorted through the list of patients she'd treated, as well as a list of patients still recovering from the disease, before catching glimpse of a picture she had framed on her desk.

The picture was of a young Mike, leaning on a fishing pole with a strange looking fish dangling from the line, next to his father, Joseph, who had his hand on his son's shoulder. Her hand reached out and picked up the picture, slowly bringing it closer to her. A smile formed on her face as she remembered all the times the two of them would go fishing at the lake a couple of miles from their colony and bring back the strangest looking fish, Mike asking his father, "What kind of fish is this?", and his father answering, "Who knows, son. The important thing is, does it taste good?", before having a good laugh. She cherished those times dearly, the times where the two of them still talked to one another, the times where Joseph was...still alive. Then, for what felt like the hundredth time to her, Julia's eyes began to moisten, a couple of tears running down her face as the grief hit her again. The fact that the love of her life was gone was bad enough, but what really tore her apart was that Mike and his father never had a chance to make amends so they could be a family again.

Julia shook her head and wiped the tears from her face, remembering that she still had work to do. She decided to head to the cafeteria for a cup of tea to calm herself, taking her datapad with her as she set the picture back down next to her computer. As she walked the halls to the cafeteria, Julia saw her fellow doctor, Marie Adams, a woman 20 years her senior, checking on a small child on a chair next to her mother. By the looks of it, it appeared the child had simply broken her wrist, as it was in a cast, so Adams was simply adjusting it to be more comfortable. "Okay now," she said, her calming, elderly voice, "just make sure not to move your arm too much and you should be fine in a few weeks. And be sure to be mindful of ledges, even a fall of a few feet can hurt you if you're not careful." She finished her instructions with a smile before shaking the girl's mother's hand, sending them off.

"Hello Marie." Julia greeted, walking up to her.

"Julia, dear. Good to see you're still here. Most other doctors I know would have quit after seeing what you have." Marie answered, truly speaking from experience.

"Someone needs to help these people Marie, it might as well be me. So at least I know they're being treated properly." She allowed a small chuckle to escape her throat upon finishing, admitting she needed it.

"True." Marie said, now seeming to notice Julia's distress, and correctly guessing the cause. "How are you holding up, dear? I know Joseph's passing has hit you hard."

"Oh, I'm going a day at a time. You can probably tell I had another relapse a second ago, but just a small one. I'm fine now." Though she smiled after saying that, Marie wasn't entirely convinced.

"I see. So how's your son doing? I can imagine he has...different feelings on what happened."

"Mike? He's fine. He's on vacation on Earth right now. He used the money I gave him that his father had saved up for years to take us there one day."

Marie could always tell when someone was really upset or uncertain about something, and Julia was ringing those bells loudly to her. "So why are you so upset about it? C'mon dear, holding these things in is much more damaging than letting them be known."

At first, Julia didn't answer, but she soon motioned for Marie to walk with her as she headed for the cafeteria. "I can tell he didn't want to go." She answered, a twinge of despair evident in her voice. "You should have seen him, Marie. The entire time throughout the funeral, he looked as though he didn't care that his father was gone. Every time someone said something positive about him, I could almost hear his teeth clenching even tighter and his fist clenching. The idea that he genuinely hates his father is just...I can't..." Julia began to tear up again as Marie placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Julia, let me tell you something. I've known your son since he was just a tot, before he could even walk. I remember that day in middle school when that mean child knocked him down and nearly broke his arm, and yet a few weeks later he'd forgiven him and the two became friends. And I've also had children of my own, one of which didn't care for his father either. So believe me, your son may be angry at Joseph for one reason or another, but I truly believe he is incapable of really hating someone. Give him time, one day he'll realize how he truly feels for his father, just wait."

Julia smiled as she wiped another tear from her face. "Thanks Marie, where would I be without you?" She half joked.

"Oh, I'm sure you would be in the same place you are now Julia, you'd just have one less old woman to annoy you." Marie's matronly smile helped ease Julia's mind as they entered the cafeteria, where they saw everyone huddled around the holoscreen, frantically looking over each other to see what was on it. Julia and Marie looked at each other quizzically before they both walked up behind the group, one of the nurses noticing them coming.

"Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Adams, you've got to see this!" Was all he could say, a panicked look encompassing his face.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Julia asked.

"It...they...you've just got to see it for yourself." He then pointed to the screen, motioning for several other to move to the side so the two doctors could see the news broadcast. When she caught sight of the headline, her eyes widened in panic.

Earth Under Attack by Unidentified Warships

Casualties Predicted High, Evacuations Halted by Blockade

The screen showed pictures of several different places on Earth being destroyed by giant, squid-like machines, one vid even showing a building in Tokyo collapsing as one of the machines slammed one of its arms into it. Then, a truly panicking sight nearly caused her to faint, a vid showing a large building with the words Buckingham Terrace on the side, with part of the building on the top collapsed in on itself while the rest of the building seemed heavily damaged.

All eyes shot back to her as the sound of a datapad crashing to the floor rang out through the cafeteria. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe, she could barely think, the only thought she could form in her mind was one word, Mike.., before she collapsed into a chair, tears forming in her eyes again.

The Migrant Fleet

The Ictomy

1:03 PM Standard Galactic Time

Palana'Koran paced back and forth in her room, rubbing her arms nervously. Though she'd prepared herself for months for the day her daughter would leave on her pilgrimage, she still wasn't quite prepared for her to leave, especially since she left without telling her where she was going and refused to answer her calls. Shortly after discovering that she'd left, Haal angrily sent word to any and all quarians to be on the lookout for her, and even sent word to any merchants or mercenaries that he'd pay handsomely for any good information on where she was. For a quarian to leave on pilgrimage in this fashion was not just embarrassing, it was unheard of, a first in quarian history. Palana didn't care about embarrassment though, she just wanted to know her daughter was safe. Then, a hiss shattered the silence as the door opened to reveal Haal, looking as angry as he had for the past several days. "Any word yet?" Was all she could say, wanting to hear his answer quickly.

"No." He answered simply, trying to keep as calm as possible considering the mood he was in. With his hands behind his back, he walked up to the window in their room, staring out at the many hundreds of quarian ships ahead of them, though not truly acknowledging them in his mind.

"Haal, don't be too mad at her. She was just-"

"I'll tell you what she was doing! She wasn't thinking!" Haal interrupted her, his anger beginning to spill out. "What is she trying to prove? That she could break tradition? That she was capable of leaving whenever she wanted? Or does she simply want to embarrass me?"

"Haal, don't even think of blaming her for this!" Palana's voice rose to meet his tone.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean! If you hadn't so blatantly rejected her gift the other day-"

"Palana, I told you two then and I'm telling you now that it was for her own good! She can't contribute anything to the fleet by painting! She needs to focus on her more practical skills, not smacking paste on a slab of paper or watching those ridiculous films of hers!"

"She loves her art Haal, you know she does! You can't change that, especially not by being so...cruel!"

"CRUEL? I'm looking out for her future! I don't want my daughter living the life of an artist! Constantly isolated from everything else, producing those paintings of hers for no reason, giving no one incentive to accept her onto their ship!"

"Well, she may never get that chance now. Because of you she could be dead right now!"

Silence fell across the room, neither person saying anything, simply staring at one another. Then, the sound of the door hissing open again caught their attention as another quarian entered the room, standing at attention. "Yes? What is it?" Haal asked.

"Sir, we've just gotten word that a merchant reported having a quarian passenger fitting Alaia's description."

"Are you sure it was her?" Palana asked, frantically.

"Yes ma'am, we even got a confirmed match on the designs on her suit."

"Excellent, make ready a team to head to that world and bring her back. If she's going to go on pilgrimage, she is going to follow tradition first. Now, where is she?"

"...Earth, sir."

Both Haal and Palana gave each other a confused look before Haal said, "What? Earth? Is she out of her mind?" He then began losing his patience again, pacing through the room. Though humans didn't have any open hostilities with the quarians, their reputation as thieves and beggars, as well as their creation of the geth made most races not trust them, making most homeworlds particularly hostile to quarians.

Palana thought for a second, then slapped herself mentally for not realizing what she had planned sooner. "Lore!"

"What?" Haal asked, confused by her outburst.

"Alfonso Lore! He's this human artist Alaia has been a fan of for years. She told me a couple of weeks ago that he would be attending this party on Earth and that she'd try to get there to meet him. Of course I told her that wouldn't be wise considering that it was Earth...but she seemed so adamant."

"Well, now we have to get her back here. Earth is too dangerous for quarians, the humans on that planet are notoriously xenophobic. If they find even the slightest reason to suspect her, they may arrest her. Then we'll never get her back." He then picked up a blank datapad from his desk and typed something on it before handing it to the quarian deckhand. "Give these orders to lieutenant Taio and tell him to contact the human ambassador on the Citadel so he won't be hassled on the planet, understood?"

"Yes sir!" With that, the deckhand left the room. Haal turned back to his wife, who was sitting on their bed with had her head in her hands, having exhausted herself from the stress. He sat down next to her and rapped his arms around her again.

"Don't worry," he whispered to her, "I'll never let anything happen to our daughter. I'll die first." Palana laid her head on his chest, but said nothing, only acknowledging him through a nod. "And...I'll try to find some way to make up to her for the painting, I promise." Finally, she looked up at Haal, a smile on her face, though one couldn't tell, and wrapped her own arms around him.

"Captain, this is Taio, do you read?"

Haal lifted his head up, looking at his omni-tool. "Yes Taio, are you ready to retrieve Alaia?" Silence fell on the other end, something Haal didn't expect, his lieutenant usually answered him immediately. "Lieutenant, I asked you a question!"

"I know sir, it's just...a situation has developed."

Both Palana and Haal grew concerned expressions from his apprehensive remark. "What kind of 'situation'?" He asked.

"Something has happened on Earth sir. An attack of some kind. Large-scale...heavy casualties reported."

At that point, Haal shot up, his eys wide. Palana simply froze in place, her body unable to respond to any commands, not that any were currently going through her mind, she was simply numb with fear. "An attack?...By who?"

"If the reports are accurate sir...Reapers."

Haal's mind went blank, thoughts were now unable to form in his head, the reality of what he'd just heard hit him like a comet. Palana was no better, tears began rolling down her face as she got up from the bed and ran out of the room, not even sure where she was going. Haal just stood there, not moving, barely breathing.

"Sir...what do you want us to do?...Sir?...SIR?"

His legs failed him and he collapsed on the bed, his eyes staring straight up at the ceiling.

SSV Patillo

Shanxi-Theta Relay

1:00 PM Standard Galactic Time

Attention all hands, this is a code RED alert. Prepare all decks to take on evacuees. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is NOT a drill!

As Captain Welch orders barked over the intercom, the many Alliance soldiers aboard the Patillo scrambled to prepare the ship for evacuation transport. Several groups of soldiers cleared some rooms of any unneeded furniture to make room for evacuees while others manned their battle stations in case they were pursued. In the CIC, the captain was talking with other higher ranking officers in the Alliance Navy, all of them trying to make sense of what happened.

"Have we gotten any word of any other planets being attacked?" Welch asked the others in the conference call.

"No," another captain, Juarez, responded, "so far, Earth is their only target, but if what Anderson says is true, that's going to change before we know it."

"Anderson doesn't know what he's talking about!" An older captain, Makasani, barked out. "He's spewing nonsense about ancient sentient machines and the destruction of all galactic civilization. It's obvious that the aliens are out to get rid of us!"

"With all due respect," Welch countered, "we have absolutely no intel to suggest that any of the other races are behind this attack. According to the reports from the planet, the kind of tech these things are using is far too advanced to be anything belonging to any known species."

Makasani's face was growing redder by the second. "How do you know? It's not like the turians or the salarians have been completely forthcoming about their military projects! For all we know they're in bed with the geth!"

Why did they give this maniac a command? I don't have time for this. Welch thought as he put his hand to the bridge of his nose. "Captain, at the moment, we have nothing to justify your claims, so if you're honestly suggesting we attack our allies while we clearly need their assistance, then I'm sorry to say that you may be losing your mind."

"HOW DARE YOU? I don't care if you have the same rank as me maggot, you will show me some respect!"

"ENOUGH!" The captains were snapped out of their argument by the image of Admiral Steven Hackett, who had entered the call a few seconds earlier. All the captains instinctively stood at attention and saluted the scarred Admiral. "I assume you each have a good reason to be squabbling at a time like this?"

"Sorry sir, we just had a disagreement as to the origins of the attack on Earth." Welch answered, still saluting.

Makasani put his hand down and slammed it on the panel in front of him, "Sir, we need to get some answers from the other races! Someone needs to pay for-"

"Henry! Now is not the time to start pointing fingers, especially since it's obvious none of the other races are behind this. We need to focus on saving as many people as we can and forming a strategy to fight back these invaders. Understood?"

The old captain growled under his breath, but acknowledged his superior's orders. "Yes...sir."

"Good. So far we've confirmed that around 300 million civilians have made it off Earth, with most of the transports being directed out to our colonies in the Argos Rho and Hades Gamma clusters, but those colonies have been filled to capacity, so around 500 thousand are headed your way. More ships will be there to meet you soon to help with the transport, but for now, you are to get as many civilians as you can onto your ships. Welch, your ship is going to be the first to receive groups of civilians. As soon as you hit capacity, head for Epyrum nearby, the turian's there have volunteered to give them shelter."

"Sir,-" Makasani nearly had his objection out when Hackett stopped him.

"Before you say another word Henry, I have no intention of turning down their help. Their colony is closer than Shanxi and has more space for our survivors. End of discussion. Juarez, your ship is in charge of security. Watch the relay and signal if you see anything come through. Our recon hasn't picked up any signs that those things are headed here, but we're not taking chances. Understood?"

"Yes sir. My men are ready for anything." Juarez acknowledged, saluting once again.

Hackett cleared his throat, obviously dreading assigning the next man anything. "Henry, your ship will stand by until the Patillo is done loading civilians, then you're going to take over for them. Understood?"

"Yes sir. I still don't like it though." Makasani said the last part under his breath. Hackett still caught it, but decided to leave it.

"Good. Once the transport's been completed and all civilians are safely on Epyrum, you will report to the Citadel to join up with the rest of the fleets ASAP. We clear?"

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

"Yes sir!"

"Good luck gentlemen. God knows we're gonna need it." Hackett then cut his transmission, followed by Makasani, who looked less than pleased with the situation.

"He's gonna be a problem, Bill." Juarez stated after Makasani was out of earshot.

"He's a soldier like all the rest of us Andy. He may not like where we're going, but he knows better than to disobey orders, especially from Hackett." Welch replied.

"I hope you're right, you know how he feels about turians."

"Believe me, I'm more than aware. He'll follow his orders though, don't worry."

"We'll see I guess. This whole situation has me completely off base. I mean, I know Captain Anderson used to talk about this stuff a couple of years ago after the geth attacked the Citadel, but to find out it's all true..."

"We'll get through it, Andy. Besides, you know Anderson's secret weapon will find some crack in their armor."

"I thought Shepard was put on trial for what happened to all those batarians."

"That's true, but the attack put the trial on hold. Right now, I'm guessing Shepard's going to be put in charge of a good chunk of the fleet we'll be building."

"You really think Shepard can get all these races to cooperate so easily? I'm not so sure."

"We can only hope, Andy. I'll let you get back to your duties."

"Alright Bill, good luck with the civies. I'm sure they'll be restless."

"Just worry about covering our asses, I'll worry about the civies. Stay safe out there. Welch out."

The holographic image of Juarez stopped, leaving Welch alone with his thoughts. He put on a brave face for the people under his command, but inside, he was less than assured of victory. How the hell are we gonna pull this off?

Down in the cargo hold, the first transport had hooked up to the ship and was now ready to offload civilians. Several soldiers were standing by to lead them to their quarters and to prevent a stampede. The second the doors connecting the Patillo to the transport opened, the civilians began funneling out and into the cargo hold. The soldiers quickly established order and began directing them to the stairs up to the mess hall. One of the last people out of the transport was a woman with mid-length red hair wearing an engineer's suit.

"Miss," a soldier called out, "follow me please. We're going to take you up to the mess hall, you'll have a nice place to rest until we get you to terra firma."

Samantha hurried up to the soldier and blurted out, "You've got to send someone for them!"

"Ma'am, we're aware that there are a lot of people still on Earth, but right now we can't do anything about it."

"No, you don't understand! My friend Nepturus is with them, they saved my life, all of our lives! You can't just leave them there!"

"I want to help you, but right now Earth is under blockade by those machines, we couldn't get a team down there even if we had the resources. But don't worry, I'll let the captain know that we have survivors at that location."

Sam wanted to insist they do more, but she knew that would be about as good as they could do at the time, so she relented. Sam walked to the stairs, joining the rest of the survivors from the hotel, and began ascending them. As she did, she heard one of the soldiers say, "Okay, careful with this guy, he's wounded.", before carrying the injured guard on the stretcher out of the transport.

Before she knew it, Sam was up in the mess hall, staring out at the vast array of sleeping bags laid out on the floor, as well as the line of cups filled with coffee and assorted quick-prepare foods. Sam didn't feel like eating as the only thought that went through her mind was Nepturus and the constant twinge in her stomach whenever the possibility that he was dead popped in her head. She picked a bag near the corner of the room, noting to herself how thin the fabric was, and laid down on top of it, wanting to sleep, but knowing she wouldn't be able to. As she laid there, her arms crossed and her eyes starting to water slightly for the first time since she'd left the planet, she whispered, "Please hang in there Nep...don't you dare die on me."