Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or any of it's characters. I had a few ideas rattling in my brain and this is it. Until recently I simply didn't have time to write but now that I am unemployed here is Chapter 1. Please give me your opinions.
EDIT. After deciding to take a look at what I have written previously I was silently horrified at the grammar mistakes, mistypes and just general stylistic mistakes. I am working on continuing the story but I also can't leave this mess behind.
The being of light in front of me swayed gently as the four large wings of fire behind it wafted back and forth slowly.
"You have a choice." It said in a voice that seemed to penetrate right through me.
"What choice?" I thought
"To move on or try again." It said the light from it's eyes obscuring it's features.
Moving on seemed final. It felt like kindness but something in me rebelled against that. I couldn't remember anything but I felt that I had to do something.
"I want to try again." I said
The being lifted it's arm and extended a finger touching my chest.
"We shall help you." it said and I felt heat pierce me as if molten metal was poured into my chest. The pain took over and I felt my mind fading.
"You must stop it." The being said it's voice somehow sounding gentle.
I was never fond of mornings and waking up, especially early in the morning and this felt like a very early morning after a particularly late night. The pain in my head was only rivaled by the pain in my chest. A hollow cough escaped from my throat. I coughed a few more times before it settled down. As I felt my lungs settle down I looked around the room and to say I was surprised was to say nothing. I was in a cell. Even if you haven't been inside one before you know what it is immediately. Just barely long enough to fit in the cot I was sleeping on and just wide enough to squeeze another one in. The door was solid enough. Metal with no visible lock or handle. I was in a cell with white plastic covered walls no window and a single strip of light running across the ceiling. Standing up I half expected to feel light headed but I felt fine. In fact I felt the best I have ever felt even that cough no longer bothered me. Three steps to the left and three steps to the right. I saw a panel that was almost flush with the wall. Pressing on it I saw a toilet extend out of the wall.
Before I could do anything else the door slid away and two people walked in. A man and a woman both dressed in uniform. I couldn't recognize the markings but they seemed somehow familiar. Both of them were quite tall and both had rather tan skin.
"Hi." I said trying to put on a friendly face which in my case wasn't much friendlier than my normal face.
The two soldiers seemed to be taken aback by the greeting.
"Hi" the woman replied.
"I am sergeant Mills this is corporal Kato. Can you tell us your name?" she asked
"Sam Knight. Nice to meet you." I answered
"How do you feel?" she continued
"I had a painful dream. Something about pouring metal in my chest. I even coughed when I woke up but I feel totally fine now." I said and stretching and rotating my shoulders
"Sam. I think you need to talk to our XO." she said motioning for me to walk outside the cell
"Can I ask a few questions while we walk?" I asked as we walked off.
It turned out that I was on a ship, heading away from a planet and the lab where they found me a day ago. This was a routine anti-slaver mission by an Alliance fleet centered around SSV Einstein, they were just clearing up a pirate outpost that was rumored to be a temporary staging ground for slavers. It turned out to be a kind of laboratory that Nazis and Japanese back in WW2 had, bodies stacked high, highly illegal and immoral experiments performed on unwilling subjects. I was one of three that were still alive. The other two were currently in the medbay, one in medical cryo and the other one in a medically induced coma. I was the only one that seemed intact enough to not require medical help.
Before Sergeant Mills could say anything else we stopped in front of another hatch and Corporal Kato walked through, Sergeant Mills gestured me forward and followed me through it.
The XO was a woman that seemed to be in her late forties with a sharp facial features and the confidence in her eyes that seemed to radiate outwards. I knew subconsciously that trying to lie to her was futile. But then again I didn't need to lie, just keep a few details back. After all if I started saying that I come from a universe where Mass Effect is a fictional universe they would quite quickly find me a nice padded room with no visiting hours.
The woman stood up and offered me her hand which I shook firmly.
"I am Commander Hannah Shepard, I am glad to see you up. You got a strong grip there." she said smiling and released my hand
"Sam Knight. Thanks for rescuing me." I replied doing my best to hide my reaction at hearing her name.
"Please sit. I know you have a lot of questions but I would also like to ask some. So let's make a deal, question for a question?" she said and sat down opposite me. Corporal Kato and Sergeant Mills stood behind me right by the hatch.
"Ok, you start." I said and tried to make myself comfortable in the seat.
"What can you tell me about the facility you were in?"
"Absolutely nothing. I don't remember anything before waking up here. Last memory I have is visiting a museum in London. It was July 3rd. Which brings me to my question, what date is today?" I said omitting the fact that was also 2017 and not 218X or whatever the current date actually was.
"February 12th. You really remember nothing?"
"Well, I had a dream where a being with wings of fire poured metal into my chest but that's about it. What year is it?"
"2173. What can you tell me about the visit to the museum?"
"It was July, a bit warmer than I liked especially in London. I had been to the British museum before but I wanted to take my time to walk through it properly. I think I was near the entrance when I heard a loud bang and then I had the dream and then I woke up here. That is all." I said
"Let me check something." Hannah Shepard said and turned on her omni-tool. They looked far cooler in reality. I couldn't wait to get my hands on one.
"By our records British Museum was the site of bombing by a radical ancient astronaut group on July 3rd 2172. Six victims. Sam Knight is listed as dead on arrival to hospital. It seems whoever this group was that ran the lab they kidnapped you to perform experiments." she said reading from the report
"If everyone thinks you are dead no one will look for you. Clever." I said
"You don't sound angry or resentful." she noted curiously
"Well, I don't have any memories of their experiments and I am alive and intact." I stated
"That is true. But there is the issue of what they did to you. While you were asleep we tried to scan you but there doesn't seem to be anything out place, tried taking samples but whatever they did to you we can't penetrate the second layer of your skin. A millimeter in and you are as tough as battle steel." she said her eyes studying me.
"Hmm, well I can't say I like the fact that they messed around with my body. Can I try something?" I said
"Sure." she said puzzled
"Stand back please." I said and stood up, Hannah Shepard also stood up and took a few steps back.
Focusing inside, I felt the way through my body and when nothing felt out of place or wrong I swung my fist at the table. It wasn't a very strong swing, I after all wasn't planning on breaking my hand, just testing if the layer of the skin protected me against blunt force too. The results however surprised everyone. Instead of hitting the table and making me wince from pain my fist sunk into the table a few inches. A solid metal table. Lifting my arm I saw an impression of my fist.
"Well that was unexpected" I said and examined my fist. The others in the room of course were surprised but they didn't possess all the information, they didn't know that I hadn't swung with all my strength or that the pain was minuscule. There was a slight cut on my knuckles and they oozed transparent liquid. In moments I saw the cuts close.
"You could say that. Can you not do any more tests, our quartermaster will not be very happy if more tables end up like this." Hannah said only half joking
"Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry for the table. I didn't expect that." I said sheepishly and sat down.
"Maybe we shall move to the medbay? We can do a few less intense tests there." Hannah suggested.
Two hours later there were a couple more things I knew about my new self. The how of it however only presented questions. The chief medical officer Major Ray Shepard was not amused. After getting over the surprise of meeting both Shepards alive and well I wondered why only Hannah was mentioned. This must be the version of Shepard with spacer Shepard then. The question was it a universe with Jane or John or possibly both.
"You Mr Knight are a mystery I can't seem to solve. Even attempts to do so end up in failure." he said unhappily typing into a terminal
"What can you tell us anyway." Hannah said putting a hand on her husbands shoulder and giving it a squeeze
"Well the obvious things first. Mr Knight here is 6ft 3inches tall, or 189cm if you prefer. He weighs 134 kilograms which is on the high side but you can see for yourself that none of it is fat." Ray said and waved his hand at the mostly naked me standing on a treadmill. Until a few moments ago I was running on it. At 25 miles per hour. Without straining myself too much.
"His physical condition is comparable to the top athletes, including the genetically modified Alliance soldiers. He runs faster, hits harder, his reaction time is verging on super-human. He also has a second eyelid, transparent crystal considering the slight difference in refraction. Probably bulletproof or something. And his vitals after running for ten minutes at the speed of 40 km/h is steady as if he was taking a light jog. You can get off there now." Ray said and hit a key.
"So what am I?" I said not sure how to react to those words
"Superhuman. I read through the reports by the soldiers that were down there and looked at the footage recorded. From what I can gather the lab was trying to build a super-soldier. Since no records could be recovered we can only guess why and for whom they were doing it. The result however speaks for itself, or in your case yourself." he said
"Supersoldier?" Hannah prompted
"Basically? Yes. To all scans you appear as human as me but you seem to be made of stronger stuff. You even bleed if that's what you want to call it supercharged lymph liquid. It has traces of both medigel and omnigel in it. Your bones are denser, your muscles too. That is why you weigh so much." Ray continued
"So what now?" I asked dressing myself
"You are an Alliance citizen but you are also legally dead. You are in a legal loophole. Let's go see what the captain says." Hannah replied
"Considering the process required I doubt that Alliance will try to research it, I saw what was down there, it was trial and error. You were incredibly lucky, the other two not so." Ray said and gestured towards the other side of the medbay where the other two survivors were. Looking at them I didn't doubt that I was lucky, inhuman didn't even begin to describe what was done to them.
As we walked through the ship I decided to ask a few questions. After all I was incredibly curious who Shepard was in this version.
"So you and Ray are married?" I said casually
"Yes, for Twenty years now. Alliance brought us together." she replied
"Any children?" I asked
"We have a daughter. Kate. She is 18. She joined the Alliance marines last year. She is the best of both of us." Hannah said and smiled, I could tell that she felt proud of her.
"She must be one formidable person then judging by her parents." I said
"She is. Captain Wu is waiting inside" Hannah said and signaled the marine by a hatch leading to what I guessed was a captains cabin.
Captain Wu was a tall, bald old man. He moved with the kind of precision that shows that despite his age he was still in total control of his body.
"Captain, may I present Mr Sam Knight." Hannah said
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Knight." Captain said and offered me his hand
"Please call me Sam, I am not old enough to be called Mr Knight." I said shaking his hand
"Of course. Sam. Now Hannah, what can you tell me about our guest here?" John Wu said turning his attention at his XO
Hannah Shepard summarized what she and her husband discovered about me In less than two minutes also presenting a datapad with the records. Captain Wu was in deep thought for another couple of minutes.
"Well, Sam. You present an interesting case. I think I know how we can help each other." he said putting down the datapad and looking right into my eyes. His brown eyes seemed to shine with a mischievous light.
"Yes sir?" I said not really knowing what to expect
"Hannah please leave us." he said and Hannah saluted and left the compartment
"Your file says you were born in 2150 August 11 in Baltic District 2. Your parents took a chance and went to Elysium but a shuttle accident in 2165 left you to fend for yourself. Graduated from school with above average record and then there is just a string of odd jobs." Captain Wu said
"I did what I could sir." I said and wondered how close is my real history to the one here. Thankfully back in my own timeline my parents were alive and well.
"Don't you have a dream? Something you want to do?" He asked
"Well, I wouldn't mind exploring space. Owning your own ship also seems appealing" I said
"Why didn't you join Alliance?"
"Just didn't seem to be the right fit at the time. I was never much a people person." I answered
"Well, here is my proposal to you. Alliance has a unit that has people with backgrounds similar to yours. Independent operators, highly trained, highly skilled. With your abilities you could be invaluable. I won't lie to you it's dangerous work but the pay is good and you can do a lot of good there. Serve as the shield and sword of the Alliance. Very appropriate considering your surname. What do you say?" Captain Wu said and offered me his hand
I knew that he was trying to recruit me into some kind of black ops program. If I had been my former self I would have declined. But here, knowing what I know, having this new body I knew that to stop the Reapers, to help Shepard stop them I must have more than iron skin. I must have skills. I must have connections. If in my previous life I was nobody then here I must be somebody. Maybe I can be that pebble that pushes the scales over and the galaxy doesn't go up in flames.
"Well...It's not like I have anything better to do. I accept." I said grasping firmly his hand.