I am extremely sorry for this chapter taking so long. Life just didn't want to leave me alone... But you can thank my sister for constantly nagging me to get it finished and for the inspiration for the last bit of this chapter, and to Commander Ray for being a speedy beta and getting it back to me within hours. A massive thanks to those of you that are still reading this, it keeps me going knowing that others are enjoying what goes on in my head sometimes. Also, part of this chapter is inspired by the song Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park; which became the title.
Here's to hoping that the next chapter will come sooner. Enjoy and rate/review so I know I'm still on track. Cheers =^^=
The dreams came, what felt to her as soon, after the warmth left her hand, but they were different this time. They felt more real, like she was actually there, living them instead of just dreaming them. Feeling the loss of unknown family and friends being killed right in front of her; monstrosities of mangled and grotesque corpses of races she didn't know, twisted by Reaper tech, overrunning everything in their path. Seeing as tech is forced into flesh, melding and moulding with it, the screams of a million pained voices at once; the stench of death, decay and burned flesh hanging heavily in whatever air she is breathing in memory. In between was flashes of what she now realises as the Citadel. Then a location on a planet flashes before her and she knows she was never there before, and it's the same location that kept appearing in her dreams. She gets the feeling that this location is very important and that the Reapers should be kept away from there. Her senses seem to fizzle out along with the remnants of the dream as blackness overtakes her once more. She relaxes and prepares for hopefully blissful, dreamless sleep for once; only to be thrust into another, completely new one as soon as she relaxes.
*She was unable to move, once more strapped down to some kind of lab table, by the feel of restraints around her wrists, ankles, knees, neck and waist; and a cold metal surface beneath her. Her eyes slowly open to look up to some grey roof. She rolls her head around to get a better look at the stark and empty room otherwise, with what appears to be an observation, one-way window at her 9 o'clock, and a small empty metal table the height of the lab table, to her 3 o'clock. Not even the seam of a door was visible in the small 5m by 5m room. Before she has time to contemplate anything else, she hears the voices from the two aliens she has come to know as her captors, come from beyond the window, but they sounded different, younger perhaps. The first to speak was the scientist, sounding like he was mumbling to himself.
"Grandfather's work seems to have taken hold on the specimen, it's flexible and adaptive DNA is quite remarkable. When the right amino-bonding agent is used, it absorbs any DNA that it is exposed to. Although this is fascinating, ... what is the point of it? It doesn't change anything of the original specimen. None of the other specimens that we captured had this ability and were more primitive." a sigh follows. "Maybe I should have stayed with the research team developing our own Mass Relays-.." his monologue is cut short by a door hissing open. "General? What brings you to this research base?"
"Things have changed, we have a new and terrifying enemy that has caught our people by surprise. You have new orders." A chair is heard moving, and something is put down on a desk.
"What are my orders, General?"
"We can no longer afford to waste the potential of this specimen. Your family had enough time, passing it from one to the next to see what makes it so different from the other specimens on Earth. This new foe, these Reapers, are more powerful than any enemy we have ever faced before. We need a new weapon and the Emperor believes your father's report that this thing can be turned into such a weapon, and from that we can enhance our own warriors and defeat them."
The one with the deep voice, the head researcher, answers with what sounds like a scowl "I believe in my father's work, General; but why is he not here to deliver the message and begin the task himself?"
"Because,…" the general sighed "we have been ordered away from any and all research on the primitive's home world's. Your facility is the last and will be moved quickly to an asteroid facility in the Sute'Mek cluster, for secrecy and your safety." There is a pause before he continues in a quieter tone. "Also, your father's transport was attacked before he could escape Feros. None survived. You are now the new Chief Overseer of this research project into a new weapon and anything regarding these Reapers, by Imperial decree."
Another silence followed for some time before the researcher replied in a ragged voice "O-Of course General. I understand, and I shall endeavour to do my best to deliver results as soon as possible. I have one request though, why are we not instead moving the research to Ilos? The facility is intact and no records of it exists for the Reapers to find it?"
"That facility is our last option, we cannot afford to attract attention to it by moving all of this equipment, Kshad! And we need to be closer to the front lines in order to test the weapon, get reports on the latest developments so we can develop countermeasures for them. Ilos is where we will make our last stand. Many colonies are already preparing to put their civilian populous into stasis in underground bunkers if worst came to bare."
"I-I…Understand General. Excuse me while I prepare the lab for relocation." She hears a few footsteps and some shuffling on a desk, before they come to an abrupt halt with the beep from some computer. "The specimen is awake! It should still be under sedation….. This is the first time it is awake since my great-grandfather found it! It must have adapted to the sedative…" he trailed off excitedly, but the General's tone was less than optimistic, angry even.
"Kshad Ishan! Now is not the time to be distracted! Sedate that thing again with a larger dose and get it to the transports along with the rest of your equipment and men!"
"Sorry, General…..Uncle, it is just that this is the first time it has done such a thing, it may have implications to its abilities and an effect on what we are planning to do with it-"
The general cut him off "I swear by our ancestors, if you were not my own flesh and blood, I would have shot you by now! But we cannot waist your intellect like that, the Empire needs you… We don't have time for this! Now pack up! You can fantasise the possibilities on the transport, and test whatever theories you come up with once we are there!" she hears an exasperated sigh "Unfortunately you are now our expert on this subject nephew, you must do away with this youthful abandon and focus on what must be done. Both I and your father are to blame for this though, we left you here in charge of this facility watching their home world, doing experiments as the inspiration grabs you; without the pressures of the Empire bearing down on you for results. Your father was a master at directing your mind to the work while he placated the politicians…" he gave a soft chuckle and there was silence as they probably exchanged some sort of non-verbal communication.
"Understood General, the order has been sent to my staff to begin packing up, I just need some readings as I sedate the specimen in order to determine the extent of the adaption and formulate the new needed sedative…." His voice fades away as the supposed sedative floods her system again, and darkness claims her once more.*
Shepard was doing his daily rounds. Things seem to have gone back to normal, except for the gaping, empty hole he refuses to look at in the cargo hold by the weapons bench. They would be in range of the Relay network by tomorrow and drop off the Salarian STG team on the nearest colony with transport directly to the Citadel, while they resupply. Then it was off to take care of some Cerberus facilities sent to them from Admiral Kahoku; find a missing probe that was gathering intel on the Geth; find another, but older, probe that has gone way off its intended course and carries a nuclear bomb that could go off at any second, and find out why some biotic extremists have kidnapped a politician. He sure had enough to keep him busy and his mind occupied while the Council decides what they want to do regarding Ilos, since they still refuse to send the Normandy there, or any ship for that matter. Something to do with explosions seeming to follow in his wake, but he can't help it if things keep going FUBAR from a lack of intel. There is always something that goes wrong or they discover something new and have to adapt on the fly. He just hoped they will make it in time to stop Saren from finding this Conduit on Ilos. How was he to 'deal with the threat' if he wasn't allowed close to it?
He sighs to himself as he turns to the Medbay from the elevator, to first have a talk with Liara, and then find out from Chakwas how Christine is doing today, since she apparently woke up early in the morning when she was supposed to still be in an induced coma. The things that woman does keeps amazing and surprising everyone. He had already talked to Kaidan in the CIC, where he was discussing supplies with Presley, covered every topic of day to day operations with the lieutenants in charge there, talked to Joker about his planned rout for the next few days, and covered everyone down in engineering and the cargo hold. But for now he was looking forward to his chat with Liara. They have started to…. understand each other better since the last mind meld. He greets Chakwas with a smile and a nod as he enters the Medbay once she looks up from her terminal. She, returning the greeting, already knowing his new routine of first heading to Liara before he came for the daily report, and seeing her smile, he knew that things were going alright enough that she didn't want to see him first. A quick glance at Christine's bed confirms that she is asleep again and looks better than the day they first brought her back on board. With the smile still on his face and a jump in his step, he knocks on the door to Liara's office and room, missing the twitch of Christine's hand.
Christine had peaceful sleep for a while, for how long she wasn't sure, before another new memory surfaced at a sudden sound from beyond her land of dreams and endless floating. They no longer appeared to be in some sort of order as before, this one seeming to come from probably the last few experiments before she was sealed away in a stasis pod, the researcher's voice sounding much older, tiered and more haggard than before, as she came to from the darkness once more, feeling herself strapped horizontally and securely into a pod with an orange glass top, staring at a non-descript roof. Once again, everything feeling like she is living it for the first time.
*"Log: 43 cycles since the Reapers started their assault to the day. The Empire is in shambles and the few remaining hideouts of our people are systematically being wiped out. Our main fleets being too scattered and unable to communicate properly after the initial assault. What is left of our military has resorted to sacrificing colonies in order to keep the Reapers occupied while they regroup and bolster the defences of the next outpost. It is only a matter of time before they find and exterminate us all. Those that remain of our leaders will not listen to my reason that it is already too late for that tactic, that we should gather all we can and hide out in bunkers in stasis until the Reapers return to dark space. At least they do not know of Ilos, their clearance was not high enough before they were thrust into their positions. The Conduit has been shut down, no need to let the Reapers know where we are with a direct link in the relay network. I and the other researches have decided to keep it a secret, as the risk of an indoctrinated agent finding out it's location is too great, we may still be able to use it to help prevent this from happening again."
A sigh is heard off in the distance "I have long since stopped trying to finish this weapon for our people, although there are rumours of a larger weapon that could defeat even their largest ships. Whether this is true or not, I do not know; and cannot waste my minimal resources on finding out. I shall join my fellows in stasis there after I finish what I can of this project and hide it for future races to discover. We cannot risk it being discovered as well, if the Reapers manage to find us. I will be hiding it on one of the planets that have long since been whipped clean of our presence. Hopefully the warning I will instil within it will help prepare the next cycle. The project,…. heh, I have named it Amadia, our Redemption for our mistakes, to save the younger races from the evil that will return, and our wrath to destroy our enemies like it was made to do." A silence follows "It is awake…. It is becoming extremely resistant to most sedatives. I am resorting to mixing sedatives meant for different species, what little I have left. Being alone on a floating vessel does not help my situation. I will just have to install the tech nodes without any aids other than the nanites. They seem to be the only thing it's system is not adapting to reject. It cannot reject the grafts, but has also not completely accepted it, along with the biotic nodes and armour. We learned that it is far different to give humans biotics than it was to genetically infuse it with the Asari. Maybe, with time, it's system will adapt to accept it all. The armour is still untested, and I doubt it will be using it anytime soon, nor will there be time to test it. The command module will also be deactivated, as I will most likely not be around to give it orders. All this means is that it will take time for Amadia to learn to use its abilities by its own will, but it will adapt, it always does."
"The biotics were a mistake. Its system draws too much power from it for the graft interfaces and neural network. No time to change that now, I can only hope the tech nodes will balance out the unstable energy surges, and facilitate an interface with external tech to the nervous system grafts. It is the closest I could get to giving it our means of communication. The Reapers cannot interface with it, luckily. I programed it to violently expel any foreign attempt to access it after I am done with the installation. This also holds true for indoctrination, it took some time but I was able to identify the Reaper's indoctrination signal both being transmitted and from it's agents; and devised a mental block to any such frequencies, as well as the ability to pick up it's agents at close range. Unfortunately I am not certain of how long it could last under a stronger signal if it were to end up on an actual Reaper, where the signal would be strongest. It will cause a headache at the very least. Unfortunately this was only a recent discovery, although we can now detect their agents, only those with the equipment can do so. Getting any working equipment anywhere in this blasted galaxy is a miracle." He sighed again "It gets so lonely out here…. I have resorted to talking to myself just so I could hear a voice other than Amadia's infrequent screams. It seems to even adapt to the pain from the surgeries without an anaesthetic, seeming to just accept it. I have long since run out of those, and will probably have to resort to keeping it in stasis otherwise, once I run out of sedatives. The problem with that is that it cannot heal from the surgeries while in stasis. But enough ramblings to myself, time to begin the last set of surgeries. The sooner it gets done, the less I have to struggle with my dwindling supplies. Vigil, shut down the rest of the ship and run silent, and alert me the moment Reaper forces enter the system."
A different, softer but still distinctly male voice replies merely with an "Acknowledged."
The orange glass cover of the pod opens again to admit the overhanging machine with the multiple arms of scalpels, tweezers and a new one with a container with small floating, little metallic looking dots, with a needle at the end. Once again the device starts at her left hand, but focuses on the fingertips itself, cutting them into even smaller ribbons than before, and the tweezers laying them out in a spread out fashion around the bone of her hands, like some sick form of art. Her screams echo in the small room, even though she has grown more accustomed to the pain over time, as her grafted nerve endings are exposed to the light and the container coming over the exposed nerves to inject small quantities of the metallic dots from the nerves to where it would be located just under her skin, concentrating them in her palm and fingertips; before moving on into the rest of her skin with a wider dispersed amount of placements, it is still severely painful. It is excruciatingly slow placing it throughout her body, blood being continually recycled back into her from her other arm.
While the machine works, she is already starting to heal up, only to have one of the scalpels cut her open again until the placement is finished, all the while she can only helplessly watch the procedure. The pain is so great and constant, she even completely bit off her tongue this time, and accidentally swallows it. She wants to wretch it back up but is so hampered by the pain still burning in her hand, she can't get her body to cooperate. As the machine pauses to let her hand finally start to heal itself, she can also feel her tongue start to grow back, just before the machine starts to cut open her arm from the wrist up, but this time in less threads with less placements taking place. She flares her biotics weakly in a last ditch attempt to escape the restraints, but to no avail.*
It has been almost an hour since Shepard had gone in to talk to Liara, with Chakwas waiting patiently with her report on the table, all the while she kept to her duties and planning a new step in Christine's recovery now that her system has enough energy to apply the regeneration units to critical points, she is even showing signs of increasing her fat and muscle mass once more. It is while she is planning, that her monitoring equipment start to whine and beep to the elevated stats of her patient. She rushes over but can find no cause to the emergency, and even upping the dose of the sedative has no effect. Christine starts to toss and turn, whimpering and mumbling in her sleep. It is then that Chakwas sees her biotics starting to flare, creating a singularity in and on herself. She can feel a panic start deep down, but stamps it out under years of training and professionalism, replacing it with a cool head and thinks on her feet. Only one way to stop a dream so intense it forces the person to react in the real world, is to wake them up. She quickly shuts off the sedative and tries to restrain her patient before she hurts herself. But she alone does not seem to be enough, especially when equipment start to float around her and her own feet are having trouble to stay on the ground, so she calls out in a stern and not panicked voice. "Shepard, Liara! I need your help to restrain Christine!" while she hooks a foot around one of the bed's legs to anchor herself.
The two come bursting out of Liara's office to almost utter chaos, and take a few seconds to take in the surroundings and figure out what is going on, before they rush over to help the doctor. "What the hell is going on doc?!" Shepard asks while trying to move through the floating debris.
"I think she is having another vivid dream. Now help me hold her down and wake her!" Chakwas replies with a scowl. Shepard finally makes it to the doctors side and holds Christine down, even if he has to hold on to the bed as well, just to keep them both from floating, luckily the bed is bolted to the floor; while Liara tries to counteract the singularity without causing an explosion. Chakwas moves over to Christine's face and gently tries to shake her awake. "Christine! Christine, wake up! You're safe, you're in the Meadbay!"
Her eyes shoot open but she is still thrashing around, no hint of recognition in her hollow and glazed-over orbs, her flaring biotics stinging and burning all that touch her. Chakwas grimaces at the pain but does not let go, the same with Shepard. After a few more seconds of yelling to no avail, she does the last thing she thinks could help, and slaps her through the face. Instantaneously, Christine stops thrashing around and her purple-green biotics die, dropping everything that has been floating around them, a second later and realisation seems to cross her face. Panting lightly, Dr. Chakwas looks at her patient with concern before asking "Christine, are you all right?"
She looks around her, panting and sweat drenched, seeing Shepard letting go of her tentatively, and Liara dropping her own biotics, before she answered in a hoarse and whispered voice, bringing her hands to her face and running one over her bandaged head "Baddream, baddream, justabaddream, justabaddream, just a bad dream… What did I do Doc?" she looks up with scared and pleading eyes, hoping she didn't do serious harm to anyone.
Letting go of her gentle hold of Christine's face, Chakwas gets out her Omni-tool to scan her for any lingering effects, and because the monitoring equipment is now strewn across the floor and either off or damaged. "You must have been having another bad dream, so bad in fact that your biotics flared and you even managed to create a singularity around yourself. I stopped your sedative and we needed to wake you before you hurt yourself or anyone else around you." When she looks up, Christine looks contemplative and concerned, eyes still wide and a little unfocused to anything beyond her immediate area. When Christine looks up at her and meets her eyes, there is a silent desperation to them.
"Please don't make me go back to sleep again…." She pleaded in a cracked voice "The…. There are new dreams and they're getting more and more intense…. Every dream now feels like I'm living that moment…. that I'm the one experiencing the people, their relatives, getting shot or turned into machine monsters….. And the experiments,….. gods the experiments just keep getting worse….. they cut my hand open and splayed out the thin ribbons around the bone like some macabre artwork…. a second time…. I bit off my tongue and swallowed it….. they put more tech in me…. I don't know why…. none of it makes sense anymore…" she rambles off and by the end of it starts to sob before Chakwas cuts her off with a gentle hug, sitting the both of them up on the bed. Both Shepard and Liara looking at her with sympathetic and disturbed looks but not really knowing if they can help.
"Shhhh, shhhh, It's ok. It's ok. It's over now and you're safe here. No one is going to touch you without having to go through the crew first and you know it." Chakwas tries to soothe her, holding her tight and rubbing her back with one hand, while the other grips her tightly over her shoulders, sitting next to her. She was still very thin and looked sickly with her bruises starting to turn green and yellow from the blue and purple it was before. Her grip was weak but unwavering, and that gave Chakwas enough encouragement that she was getting stronger and will be walking around in no time.
Just as she was starting to calm down, a light green Salarian with dark red and grey eyes, and fully armoured, walks into the Medbay; followed by another with a grey skin black and light grey eyes, which was limping. Christine stiffened when she saw them, but didn't move otherwise, Chakwas tightened her grip on her slightly in response. The green one spoke in a smooth and commanding voice, not too fast and not as high pitched as she has heard from other Salarians that she met before. "Pardon the intrusion doctor, but you did state that you wanted to see Rentola before we ship out tomorrow. I would like to have him cleared for light duty so he can at least board the transport with his kit unaided. We are already having to carry Ramious and do not have the men to spare. I also do not wish to commandeer more of the Commander's time and men just so we can get to the shuttle, if necessary." He seems to take the state of the Medbay in his stride, but with a critical eye.
Chakwas keeps a hold of Christine, rubbing her back reassuringly, when she answers calmly "Yes I did ask to do a check-up, but I would prefer to do it to all of those that were injured for good measure, Captain Kirrahe. But one at a time please, my Medbay is not that large and my other patient is a little uncomfortable around aliens at this point in time. Commander Rentola, you may have a seat on the other Medbay bed while I finish up here." Rentola nods and hobbles over to the closest bed and sits with a relieved sigh.
Kirrahe glanced at Christine before replying "Ah, yes. The human female your team rescued? The Commander's reports did state that some of my men were indoctrinated and working in Saren's labs, yes? I presume this is the reason for her discomfort?"
This time Shepard answered "Yes, it is, but is not the only reason. She is still healing from a long term psychological trauma. Also, it wouldn't take any more of my time to assist your team if needs be; we need to restock and refuel when we stop in any case, Captain." He says with a shrug and a smile. Liara stands beside him with a shy smile and nods to the statement.
Christine starts to relax a bit as the others discuss the possible proceedings for the next day, knowing that she is not in any form of danger, until Kirrahe decides to make a comment about her "So I believe she is the reason for the state of the equipment? Biotic, I presume?"
To everyone's surprise, Christine answers for herself, albeit in a shaky voice, and tensed in Chakwas's arms once more "K-kinda…. I-I don't know how to control it yet, a-and I-I'm not that strong… S-sorry, I-I don't h-hate aliens; I-I just d-don't trust st-strangers."
He nods in acceptance of the fact "Understandable. I will take my leave now; Commander, Doctors. I will send the next of my team up when Rentola returns." He dismisses himself by turning around and promptly leaving, leaving behind an awkward silence, until Shepard speaks up.
"So,…. I guess I'll just grab your report and we can discuss it around lunch, doc; you seem to be busy at the moment. I'll talk to you later Liara."
"Off course, Commander." Was Liara's reply before she left for her room.
Chakwas just gave him a look that said 'There is much to be discussed' but didn't vocalise it. Instead she just nodded at him and he took his leave after picking up the fallen report, trying to escape before he gets roped into cleaning duty.
"Christine, please tell me how you are feeling now. I need to handle my other patients as well." Never stopping the soothing circles she was rubbing on her back.
"Everything hurts, and I'm hungry, but I don't want to go back to sleep, please doc. Just give me some pain meds and a book and I'll be fine." She tried to joke, although the smile didn't reach her eyes.
Chakwas sighed, before she carefully helped to lay her down on the bed again, then setting it to a more upright position. "Very well, you have made good progress with your healing. But you are restricted to bed rest here until you improve a significant amount, alright?"
This time her smile was more genuine. "Thanks Karin. Just give me something to read and I'm fine, I promise."
Chakwas chuckled at her, bringing over a basic datapad that she loads a few manuals and good books on quickly, before handing it to her. "There you go, that should last you a while. Now I need to clean this place a bit, then I'm going to start you on a series of short, focused regen unit therapy sessions. I'll be right with you Commander Rentola."
Christine immediately feels bad about the mess she made and the damage to the equipment, but knew if she tried to apologise for it that Chakwas would give her a motherly scolding for it. She can't help what happened any more than she can help feeling guilty for being the cause of it. She eyed the Salarian wearily, that sat patiently waiting for the doctor to bring some semblance of order to her Medbay. After the big equipment was moved out of the way, Chakwas gave her an injection of painkillers, and left a glass of water beside her bed, before putting one of the regen units around the back of her head and then picking up the last small items and placing them where they belonged, replacing her drip with a new bag and turning to her other patient. Christine tunes out her surroundings, settling in and buries herself in a good book. The slight fogginess of strong pain meds helping in this fact. Never read The Hobbit before…. Anything not to dream again. She tells herself, before being enveloped in the world of fantasy, her heart rate slowly starting to ease up after her nightmare, and the tight and panicked feeling in her chest lessening. Odd really, that she would choose to escape a world of horror and futuristic science-fiction, with that of medieval fantasy.
The next few hours seem to pass by unnoticed, except for copious amounts of food at some point, but she felt a light buzz in her hands. Soon she realised that she wasn't reading from the datapad anymore, but the words were scrolling before her eyes faster that anyone could read, and her brain seemed to just comprehend whatever was scrolling by. Although it didn't feel like she remembered anything of what she 'read', when she thought about a specific topic she went over, the information was right at hand like she knew it all along. This intrigued her, remembering what happened the first time she touched a computer from this time, down to what happened on Saren's base. She decided to go with it and try and control the direction she was going through the data and she quickly finished the story books and began on the basic manuals that were loaded. These went from modern mining equipment and maintenance, techniques; to a history of all the Mass Effect weapons development, uses and maintenance. By the time she was done with these, Chakwas had left for lunch and she was alone in the Medbay. She sighed and wondered what she could do with herself that wasn't sleeping. Then it hit her like a surprise blow to the gut, she was able to interface with the computers in Saren's Lab as well as go through available data! Sure, all she remembered from that was a map of the facility for if she was ever able to break out, but she did it. Maybe she could hack her way into the Normandy's databanks for some more manuals and books to go through. It was harmless enough, not wanting to go through the Alliance's secret files or anything; and doesn't involve her moving from the bed, she could connect via the datapad. At the very least it would keep her busy, she mused to herself.
The next hour was used to first get used to the interface, then hack her way past firewalls into the databanks via her pre-established connection. It was exhilarating to use her knowledge that both Tali, Garrus and Kaidan had taught her about programming, hacking, encoding and encryption. Once she managed this, she was flooded with data to the point of it being overwhelming. She quickly blocked all information, searching instead specifically for reading books and manuals. A pretty long list presented itself, that she copied over to the datapad. Hehe. Even found a manual on the Tantalus drive core. Maybe now I'll be able to keep up with what Tali is talking about. To anyone looking at her, it would just look like she was reading the datapad, peacefully.
Her reading continued for about another hour before her internal humour and data mining was cut short by the Medbay door opening, and Garrus and Tali entering. Speak of the devil. She gave them a genuine smile and waved slightly, her limbs still being sore from both disuse, atrophied muscles and who knew what experiments, despite the pain medication. "Hey" she called out to them, and it looked like they were going to fall over from surprise.
"Keelah, Christine! You're awake! You're awake!" Tali squealed, rushing over to her and giving her a tight hug, but quickly letting go when she grunted and whimpered from the force and pain, despite trying to hide it. "I'm so, so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you! I was just so happy to see you up and awake I got carried away a little…. " she steps back and wrings her hands over each other with her head down in what looked like a shameful expression. Luckily, the only reply she gets is the rumbling laugh from Garrus, and a chuckle from Christine and Chakwas.
"Don't worry too much Tali, I might still hurt even with pain meds, but it's just too good to see the both of you again to care right now." She cheered back at her friend. Tali looked like she still felt sorry for her overreaction, she had gotten better at reading her body language and interpreting her eyes through the mask, but she decided she didn't want to spend their reunion arguing over how hard she hugged her.
So in retaliation, she grabbed Tali and gave her the hardest hug she could muster with her sore limbs, pulling a surprised yelp from her "Ok, ok! I get it, you're feeling better! No need to try and break my ribs as well." She said while wriggling from her grasp before Christine let go and lay back down on the bed. Garrus just laughs in the background at their antics, the two of them acting like sisters that hadn't seen each other for more than a cycle, while bringing over two chairs for them. Tali automatically taking the chair closest to Christine, while Garrus sat at the foot-end of the bed.
"Well, looks like you're doing much better than yesterday when you woke up, except for still being bedridden off course." He quipped in his 2 credits worth, trying for levity before he will inevitably get drowned out by the girls babbling on. He wouldn't mind though, she was awake and alive and even just listening to her talking with Tali was enough to set him at ease. It made all their efforts against Saren feel like they made more of a tangible difference, like they were getting somewhere and had set back his plans considerably. And coming here with Tali kept him from feeling awkward, even though Christine probably didn't remember his attempts to calm her down that day, or the meaning of it, and then when she woke up with his hand holding hers, he would just constantly remember that and not be very good at conversation. Even if it meant nothing but friendship, he didn't want to explain what that would have been seen as in Turian culture. He felt their friendship was too fresh and unstable that even that accident could ruin it.
Christine's features hardened a little, feeling lightly insulted. Logically she knew he didn't mean it that way, but couldn't help how it made her a bit angry. "Oh? I'd like to see you recover so quickly from the same injuries and starvation." she threw back at him, defensively. She saw him stiffen and realise what he just said was taken the wrong way. A touch of fear spread over his features, but before he could reply to either fix the situation or apologise, Tali gave him a scathing reply, but also breaking the tension that was building with each moment of silence.
"You Bosh'tet! You should stop taking lessons from Joker on what is supposedly Human humour! That's not even funny no matter what species you are! I have a better idea, how about you just sit there and be quiet for a bit, while we talk?"
Garrus looked properly chastised and almost like someone kicked his puppy, slumping in his chair, looking at the floor by his feet. Christine took pity on him. She didn't mean to sound so affronted at his haphazard attempt at humour, and now Tali was on his case about it. Garrus tried to at least apologise to both women. "I-I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I didn't mean to-..." he sighed "I just wanted to make you smile and forget about it for a little while. I'm obviously no good at it." If it was possible for a Turian to look utterly dejected, Garrus would be the dictionary description of it.
Christine sighed, letting the last of her anger flow out with the exhale. "It's ok, I know you didn't mean it that way. Let's not talk about me being stuck in bed, and maybe what you lot have been up to until recently?" Both Tali and Garrus relaxed at her words and were glad for the subject change. Honestly, she didn't have the energy to argue with her few friends she has left in this galaxy over a stupid misunderstanding. She pushed those thoughts from her mind as Tali jumped in to explain all that happened while they were tracking her and Saren down. Garrus added a few details here and there, or things that happened when Tali wasn't present.
But when Garrus mentioned that Tali didn't even drag him into a conversation about the drive core, Christine perked up. "Oh, speaking of which. Tali, I read about the drive core and how it's the first of its kind, not just in design, but putting such a large powerhouse into such a small ship. How did they manage that and why wasn't it done before?" remembering everything she read about in the manual. Unfortunately, it didn't cover any of the other systems or how they interacted so she was curious. Especially now that she seemed to learn at the speed of data transfer. Well,... almost. Theory at least. She wasn't going to mention this tidbit for fear of becoming another experiment for the Council when she would be released from the Normandy's care. She didn't know how they ran things out in this galaxy and would only mention things that one could read up on the extranet. After all, she would be working back whatever she owed the Council for this anyway.
Tali's voice modulator and face lit up like a Christmas tree, as she animatedly started to explain the drive core dynamics and interconnecting systems that makes it all happen. She did notice though, that no one mentioned what happened at the labs, and started to get a growing, dark pit forming at the bottom of her stomach, like they were deliberately not mentioning something to her. Eventually, when Tali ended off with propulsion physics and heat exchange, Christine had gathered up the courage to ask "So... what happened at Sarens lab? Did we all make it out ok?"
Silence and stunned faces surrounded her, you could even hear a pin drop, but that was Chakwas dropping whatever instrument she was busy with. That pit of fear just grew larger and was starting to envelop all of her like a black hole. She was looking anxiously between everyone in the room, waiting for someone to tell her. Finally, Garrus broke the silence with a cough at first to clear his throat, then in a sombre voice, barely above a whisper and she had to strain to hear him. "Well,... uh... you see the thing is... we blew up the research facility on Vermire with an improvised nuke. Saren was cloning Krogan for an army, but was also studying indoctrination there and apparently you were his main source of research data." he cleared his throat again "Aaanda ...uh... yah, that's it." he sat forwards in his chair, leaning his elbows on his knees, not looking her in the eyes as he spoke.
Something was off, they wouldn't react that badly if it was just not telling her that she was the centre of yet another experiment. She already knew that. Then a thought started nagging at the back of her head. Through all her dreams and unconscious listening, not once had she heard Ashley come to visit her, and no one mentioned how she handled it when Christine was gone. The black pit started to envelop her throat, but she managed to say "Where is Ashley?"
If she thought it was silent before, now it was painful to her ears. Garrus looked away from her, a mixture of shame, sorrow and anger mixing in his features. Chakwas looked sad and almost depressed, but didn't say a word, holding back tears. Tali was the one that finally spoke up after a minute or so. "She... She made sure the bomb went off..." a sniff is heard from under the helmet "Once you were safely on the Normandy, Shepard took Wrex and me to go help Alenko. Garrus and Liara were sent to the Medbay with you. Alenko and the Salarian STG unit that were originally investigating the facility, were pinned down by Geth at the AA towers. The Normany took off from the bomb site to go to the rendezvous point, leaving a few marines to guard the bomb, while Ashley prepped it. Just as we were almost to Alenko's position, a Geth Dropship landed a lot of troops at the bombsite. Ashley activated the bomb to make sure it would go off and destroy the facility and any research Saren had. Shepard didn't have time to go after both of them, so he chose Kaidan and the STG team. We rescued them in time, but Saren attacked Shepard. He nearly killed him when the bomb alert went off; allowing Shepard to escape, but also for Saren to get away. There wasn't enough time left to go pick up Ashley... We... we left her there until the bomb went off..."
No one looked each other in the eye now. Christine just stared at the wall, trying desperately to hold back the tide of emotions. Chakwas was at her side in a few seconds, comforting her as best she can. She knew that Christine had barely enough energy for what she was doing now, and to add emotional strain would not help her at all, but it had to have come out at some point; she just wished it wasn't so soon in her recovery. Before she could send her visitors out to leave her to rest again, Christine spoke up. "Th-Thank you for telling me..." sniff "Can you... can you please... give me some time alone?" she managed to choke out.
Chakwas turned to Tali and Garrus. "Yes, please leave her to rest. You're visiting time is up and you can come again tomorrow if you want; but for now visiting times are over. Vakarian, please inform everyone that there will be no further visitations for the day."
Christine just turns on her side away from everyone, still staring at the wall, while she curls up on herself. Screw the physical pain, she has literally lived through worse. All she wanted to do now was silently cry for yet another friend that she has lost. She didn't hear them leave, she didn't hear Chakwas say comforting words to her, just felt her rubbing her back in circles and eventually removing the regen units from her. She did hear that she should get some sleep. Inwardly she screamed at the idea, she didn't want to go back to sleep, back to the nightmares; even if the real world was currently just as painful. She needed to sear Ash's memory into her brain, to remember her for who she was; and giving her the respect that she was due for what she did for all of them, for her. Silent tears ran down her cheeks into her pillow. She noticed only now that Chakwas must have lowered the bed again so she could lay down flat. The tears kept coming unbidden, but she didn't make a sound. The grieving took all of her remaining energy, and she reluctantly fell asleep again, feeling more empty and lost than she had since waking up the first time on this ship.
She was strangely having no dreams for a while, but it never lasted. As with every other time, the dreams started with what everyone else labelled the Beacon Vision, only hers was more real to her. Always the screams, the smells of burning flesh, smoke, ozone and overheated weapons, the feeling of loss and sorrow and despair, always ending in the zoom in on that world that was so important but she didn't know the name or location of, before ending. A short while of blissful blackness follows, before she is jarred back into the dreams of her first experiments, all of them in disarray with no order and even jumping between dreams at various points. What awoke her was the flashes of her seeing herself being cut open to place various things inside of her, seeing her hand cut to ribbons, then her torso, her feet, every part of her that she could see being cut into ribbons and then slowly allowed to grow back when the machine was done. And then she saw Ashley's face, all smiling and teasing; like when she wouldn't be able to hit a target with the sniper rifle; before it burst into flames, boiling and melting away her flesh from the bones.
She shot upright from her bed like a coiled spring, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Oddly, she hadn't been screaming for a change. When she became more aware of her surroundings, she relaxed slightly and slumped back into her bed. Even as her heart rate fell and her breathing stabilised, she couldn't get her mind to calm down. The images of the Visions, her experiments and Ashley's melting face kept flashing before her eyes every time she would close them. Eventually she gave up and just stood on her weak legs, not even thinking of how she was able to move without pain all of a sudden. She pulled out her IV and shambled over to the locker, closing her privacy curtains behind her again, where Chakwas used to keep her clothes while she stayed in the Medbay. Only now did she notice that there was no one in there with her. The nurse or Chakwas must have gone out for a minute.
Christine found some loose fitting clothes, and pulled on an overly large shirt and some shorts that looked like they were meant for sleeping in anyway. After a few minutes of thought, she decided she just needed to get out of the Medbay. Being alone, with the flashing memories and confined space was getting to her in a way that was probably like having claustrophobia. Almost on autopilot, she slipped into the maintenance tunnels again, hoping the space and possible company in the cargo hold would help her get over her nightmares.
Wrex woke up at his usual time at about 0300 ship time. After finishing his shower while no one was awake, and taking a few ration bars and some of the Human coffee they seem to be so fond of, he returned down to his little hole behind some crates. No, he didn't particularly like coffee that much, but it was better than those stupid tea's and it was pretty much the only warm drink available to him on this ship otherwise. He always went to sleep earlier than most, and got up early so he could almost have the ship to himself. The Salarians found some open bunks in the crew quarters to sleep in, and would spend the night cycle up in the mess hall when they weren't sleeping. Thank the ancestors for that. Wouldn't want to have to share this space with those pyjaks snoring up the place. They would be dropping them off later today at some colony, and then be off on another mission for the Alliance somewhere chasing some Geth or something. As long as he got to shoot something at some point during it all, he would be content.
Hearing Garrus snore from behind the Mako reminded him to silently return to his corner when he got off the lift. He was about to get comfortable with a datapad when he caught the scent of something else in the air. Silently putting down his mug and ration bar on his makeshift table, he followed the scent. As it became more defined he realised it was more a someone than a something. Let's see... Lots of medi-gel, sweaty, definitely human. Hhmmm... a bit of fear, lots of anxiety,... and female. There was only one human on this ship that currently fit that description; along with a few faint hints of personal scent: Christine. Smiling to himself, he rumbles softly so as not to wake the Turian, but was standing close enough to the source so he knew she would hear him. "Come on out Christine, I can smell you're here."
A hatch opens in the floor grating close to the weapons bench, before she clambers out of the maintenance tunnels. His smile is still on his face when she looks up at him sheepishly. "Hi Wrex..." She says softly, also probably hearing the Turian snoring softly in the background.
"Hey kid, what you doing out of the Medbay?" he asks in return. She did look a lot better than when he rushed her on board a week ago. She had gained some weight and almost half of her bandages were off, still sickly and weak looking, but better. As she hesitated to answer he walked up to her and gently put an arm around her shoulders, guiding her to his improvised seating area. "Come on, I got some snacks back here for us and you can tell old Wrex what's bothering you."
She looked up at him in surprise, but silently followed him, sitting across from him on a his modified bunk of two pushed together human beds with an extra crate at the end for his added length, while he sits on his crate table, picking up his coffee and handing her one of the ration bars. He waits patiently while she almost breathes the bar in, chuckling softly to himself at the scene. When she was done, he finally asks again "So what wakes and brings you here to my hold, kid. And I know it's something bothering you 'coz you reek of anxiety."
Christine's eyes go as wide saucers, before she looks down at the wrapper in her hands shyly, starting to straighten it and then folds it up slowly as she answers. "I-I had a bad dream again... Only this time it was everything at once..." She still didn't look up at him. Wrex eyed her while taking a sip of his coffee.
"Come on, kid. No need to be ashamed of your nightmares. You've seen things done to you that would leave half the Krogan I know weeping like babies in their beds, yet here you stand. Tell Uncle Wrex about it, maybe I can help you." He offers gently. Sure, crying and waking from nightmares is normally looked down upon as weakness by any adult Krogans. But Christine was not Krogan and, from what he's heard from Shepard and the Turian talking about her dreams, has lived through things that could have killed a normal Krogan or left any species in a jabbering, insane mess. She was stronger than she thought she was.
Christine looked up at Wrex with unbelieving eyes. "Uncle Wrex?" she asks with a hint of amusement. He barks a quick laugh, before quieting down again, he wasn't thinking of how she would take that. He heard a Human male use it on a scared child once to help calm them and get them talking, and thought it would work here as well. Maybe he had the wrong context?
"You can use it if you want, but don't go spreading it around. I have a reputation to uphold, after all." His smile betrays his serious tone, and she smiles in return.
"Ok, Uncle Wrex." She giggled at him, his smile just kept climbing up his face. Wrex never thought he would be called that; not by family anyway. He either would never know about any nieces or nephews, or would die in battle before he met them. Being called that had a swell of warmth bloom in his chest. To think that this skinny, shy Human girl could make him go all soft and let her call him 'uncle'. Of all the names and titles he's been called over the many cycles, this one was one of those he most yearned for, next to 'father'. He quickly stopped that train of thought and focused on his little pyjak in front of him. He took his mug and walked over to sit next to her on his bed, draping his other arm gently over her too skinny shoulders.
Surprising him, she flung her arms around his thick neck, hugging him, burying her face on his shoulder and letting out a few silent sobs that shook her body. Unsure of what to do, he awkwardly patted her on the back a little before a muffled 'thank you' escaped her. "What are you thanking me for, pyjack? I haven't even done anything yet?" He said with no heat to his words, but still puzzled at her reaction.
She moved to curl up by his side, her legs pulled up to her chest, sniffing once to banish the few tears that escaped her before answering "Thank you for just being there, for being the closest thing to family I have left in this screwed up galaxy. You and this crew are all I know and the only ones I can trust." He can only smile back at her. Family. Something he hasn't put much meaning or feelings in for a long time. But time to get to the reason she is here.
"So come on, spill it. What brought you down to Uncle Wrex for a chat?" he asks again and then takes another sip of his coffee. She sighs next to him and begins to tell him everything about her dreams from the beginning right down to her latest, mixed up dream ending in Ashley's melting face. Internally he is horrified and angry at the experiments that were done to her and now understand why she would wake up screaming almost every night. Few would come out sane after surviving experiences like that.
They talk it out a bit more before he realised that she was slowly drifting off to sleep. He keeps talking until he is sure she is asleep, before he leans back against the wall, cradling her small form in his lap, her head resting on his chest, dwarfing her. As he looked down on her, he couldn't help but feel protective of her. How could he not? She was so small, fragile, skinny and soft; especially compared to him. And she was female. He was amazed that she would feel safe enough with him to fall asleep next to him, when so many others wouldn't even turn their backs on him just because he is a Krogan. Once again he smiled to himself, that he could gain her trust like this in such a short time. He decided that he would take another snooze himself, since he didn't want to wake her by moving too much or putting her down on his bed. As he drifted off to doze, he idly thought to himself that this is what it must feel like to be a father, getting a child to sleep on his arms.
He was woken up by the sound of the elevator moving and opening. The Turian was awake and heading for the showers like he did every morning before the rest of the crew got up. That meant that Chakwas would come looking for Christine soon. He didn't want his little Human to be moved when she was sleeping so peacefully in his arms. And from the fact that she hadn't stirred or even made a peep, told him she was truly sleeping deeply for once. He told himself that he would not let anyone, anyone, wake her until she woke up on her own. She deserved the rest. The doctor would agree with him when she found them, and that would lead to probably the whole cargo bay being left to himself and her sleeping. He liked that idea.
The elevator door opened and he heard chattering voices, voices he knew and despised... The Salarians. How was he going to get them to quiet down without waking Christine... She twitched and groaned in his arms and anger flared in him. A violent "SSHHHHHHHT!" escaped him that luckily didn't wake his charge. The mumbling chatter stopped, and a few seconds later their Captain poked his head around Wrex's crate wall. He glared at him with his most menacing look, making it obvious that they better stay quiet to let her sleep, or else!. The Salarian eyed him suspiciously, then examined him thoroughly, noting the sleeping form at his side and his protective hold on her; before he nodded in return and left. He could hear all the Salarians shuffling about, gathering their things before returning to the elevator. He sighed in relief, watching as Christine's features went back to what seemed like contentedness.
A few more minutes pass, and then the Turian returns, humming a disgustingly happy tune. He lets out a low growl that he knew that Humans won't hear, but that a Turian would pick up and understand. It was a warning. The humming stopped and he got a confused trill in reply from his sub-harmonics. He growled again to get the point across. Christine mumbled something and her expression turned to a more pained one. He stilled just before the Turian peaked around the corner. He would have laughed if he could at the shocked and stunned expression he received. Eventually the Vakarian fledgling mouthed 'What the fuck?!', making him want to laugh even more. But in return he just very quietly told him to "Shut up and piss off, she's sleeping." in a harsh whisper, adding his best glare to get the point across yet again. He was starting to wonder how many times he would have to repeat himself, did the people on this ship not understand him? Could they not inform others before they got here?
Vakarian was still stunned but nodded his assent and retreated back to the Mako, gathering some things before he went back up the lift. A short while later, he heard it come back down, and heard some harsh whispers between the Doctor and Commander. "Winslow thought she was asleep behind the privacy curtain, no one saw her get out." He let out a more audible growl and the whispers stopped, before both came around the corner. Shepard looked stunned stupid while the doctor had a smile on her face.
Finally, the Commander found words to come out of his mouth, at least in a whisper "Wrex? What the hell?" Articulate, wasn't he? Both Wrex and Chakwas glared at him in response. He looked between the two, the raised his hands, palms up and mouthed a 'What?' with his most innocent face he could pull. Wrex just snorted at him and Chakwas shook her head, before walking up to Wrex, opening her omni-tool and scanning Christine. He eyed her while she went over the readouts, before nodding at him.
"Everything looks good. And she is finally sleeping peacefully. Can I ask you to keep her here until she wakes? I don't want to disturb her. She refuses to sleep until she is utterly exhausted and it is not helping her healing." She whispers at him. He only nods in acknowledgement as he had been planning on doing so since the beginning. The doctor smiles in return "Please bring her back to the Medbay when she wakes." He nods again and then she turns around to leave, grabbing Shepard by the arm on her way out and dragging him along. On their way out he hears her whisper harshly to him "I don't want anyone to disturb her while she sleeps! I don't care if you have to put restrictions on movement to the cargo bay but get it done Commander! She has never looked this peaceful while she slept before and her healing has started back up, so I intend that she gets all the rest she needs." in a voice that brokered no argument. He doesn't hear the rest as the lift doors close. He chuckles softly to himself, getting comfortable once more, thinking that Chakwas would have made a great Krogan mother. She was definitely born to the wrong species. Similar to the pyjak in his arms.