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. 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 decide to go over the chapters posted so far to tie them in better. I will rework some of the events so far for the better. Or at least to make it seem more logical.
Edited 28/05/2021 for stylistic, grammatical and logic errors. Expanded some scenes and added a codex entry.
The being of light of vaguely humanoid shape 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 that it was made of 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 nagging feeling at the back of your mind that told you that it was clearly something important.
"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, the pain overwhelming the senses.
"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 turned to my side and coughed a few more times before it settled down, the hollow feeling in my chest vanishing. As I felt my lungs settle down I sat up looked around the room and to say I was surprised was to say nothing at all. 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 to alleviate any doubts that this was a prison. Metal with no visible lock or handle. I was in a prison 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 were in the doorway. A man and a woman both dressed in uniform. I couldn't recognize the markings but the uniform seemed somehow familiar. Both of them were quite tall and both had rather tan skin with a slight asian cast to the man's features.
"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 politely, without knowing the situation I decided that being polite would be the best option unless I was given a reason not to be.
"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. as you seem fine 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 following her
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. So I was in Mass Effect universe. That somehow was not a surprise. That dream and the feeling of having forgotten something important flashed into my mind but I remained calm. I knew I should not be this calm about the situation.
Before Sergeant Mills could say anything else we stopped in front of another hatch. Corporal Kato put his hand to the glowing green button and the door slid open revealing a nondescript compartment with a table in the middle and two chairs on the opposite sides of it.
"Ma'am" Corporal Kato saluted and walked through, Sergeant Mills gestured me forward and followed me through the door.
The XO was a woman that seemed to be in her mid to late forties with sharp facial features and a look of well-earned confidence in her eyes that seemed to create an aura around her. I knew subconsciously that trying to lie to her would be futile. But then I didn't need to lie, just keep a few details back. After all if I started saying that I come from a different universe where Mass Effect is a work of fiction 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. A firm handshake and eye contact, that was the recommendation for the job interviews and I thought that this was a similar enough situation. Clearly this was an interview to see if I was a danger to anyone including myself.
"I am Staff Commander Hannah Shepard, I am glad to see you up. You had us worried. 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 as well. 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. I had not noticed if they had been armed but even without weapons they both would have omni-tools and in the game Overload worked on organic enemies quite well.
"That's ok with me, you start." I said and tried to make myself comfortable in the seat. This would likely last a while.
"What can you tell me about the facility you were in?" Hannah Shepard asked
"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. Shepard's mother was XO of a dreadnought in the first game, since she was second in command of the carrier right now it must be close enough date wise.
"February 12th. You really remember nothing?" she asked and I could understand her not believing me straight away. Who would believe that after you got rescued from an illegal laboratory where someone had been experimenting on you for who knows how long that you could not remember any of it.
"Well, I had a dream where a being with wings of fire poured metal into my chest but that's about it. What is the full date please?" I said hoping to sound as sincere as possible
"February 12th 2173. What can you tell me about the visit to the museum?" Hannah asked, if she had been surprised by me repeating the same question she did not show it. Ten years until the start of the events of the first game. At least now I had a precise reference point.
"It was ordinary day in 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 keeping the details as generic as possible.
"Let me check something." Hannah Shepard said and turned on her omni-tool. They looked far cooler in reality. Hard light holographic constructs were impossible as far as the laws of physics that I knew were concerned. But there it was in front of me. 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 millimetre 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. But I don't feel anything out of place. Can I try something?" I said after a quick mental exam of my body. Everything seemed to be fine. Better than fine. My energy was up, higher than I have felt it in years. I felt strong. I felt solid.
"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 my way through my body, felt the power within welling up as I prepared and then 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 Shepard's parents alive and well I wondered why only Hannah was mentioned in the game. 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 reassuring squeeze
"Well the obvious things first. Mr Knight here is 6 feet 3 inches tall, or 190.5 centimetres if you prefer metric. 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.
"His physical condition is comparable to the top 0.1% of 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. 72 beats per minute. You can get off there now." Ray said and hit a key frowning as he did at whatever the computer was telling him
"So what am I?" I said not sure how to react to those words, it's one thing to feel the strength and it's another when you are given numbers. A feeling is subjective, you could be average in all respects and feel great. Numbers are dispassionate, they are there no matter how you feel about them.
"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 looking up over the screen at me but it was clear that he was thinking about something as his eyes had not focused on me but on a point behind my back as if seeing through me.
"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 when your skin is cut, 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. You can lift like champion weight lifters, run as fast as Olympic sprinters and I would bet you could actually run a full length marathon without any issues. " Ray continued
"So what now?" I asked dressing myself
"You are an Alliance citizen but you are also legally dead. You have been modified in a way that breaks Alliance law even if it was done without your consent. The way it was done is unknown which also complicates the issue. Currently you are in a legal loophole. Alliance law isn't lenient in cases of illegal modification, mandatory monitoring by law enforcement and frequent medical checks. Limits on what areas you can work in and travel restrictions. But as we are currently outside of Alliance space the captain will be the one to decide. He will see you now." Hannah replied. She had been typing into her omni-tool every so often while the examination was going on so I was not surprised that captain has been kept informed.
"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. There is no easy answers here but 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 summarising my history in this universe. A history I didn't actually know about.
"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, that was my real dream. From the previous universe as well. A dream that I knew could not have been fulfilled. Now it was a different matter.
"Why didn't you join Alliance?" he asked, it was one of the more popular choices for humans without much credits to their name and a wish to see the galaxy.
"Just didn't seem to be the right fit at the time. I was never much a people person." I answered truthfully. It was the same in my universe. I had thought about joining the military but apart from the physical requirements I also knew that I would not care for having so many people in such close proximity to me.
"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. Go places few humans do. 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 firmly shaking his hand.
Secondary Codex Entry/Alliance Navy/Carriers/SSV Einstein
SSV Einstein is a currently serving command ship in the Alliance 5th fleet. Originally constructed as a Hermes-class carrier in 2158 it was named SSV James Cook and it formed the core of the 17th Rapid Response Group until 2166 when an accident during landing damaged it's main flight deck. Instead of a costly repair that was required to rebuild the main flight deck Alliance Ship Procurement Bureau proposed to turn it into a command ship. With the new Independence-class carriers coming into service the plan was approved and in 2167 with the reconstruction finished the ship was renamed SSV Einstein.
SSV Einstein retains it's secondary flight deck giving it ability to launch and recover fighters and shuttles more easily than other non-carrier ships but the space that used to be the main flight deck has been repurposed to extend the ship's capabilities at command and control, medical and relief efforts as well as survey of unexplored star systems. The success of the ship lead to the reconstruction of the second Hermes-class carrier into SSV Hawking. Even with a lesser emphasis on direct combat strength SSV Einstein has been part of numerous combat missions, it's additional functions granting it superior capability when dealing with the turbulent Attican Traverse. More command ships are being constructed as new carriers are entering service.
SSV Einstein and it's sistership SSV Hawking are still referred to as carriers by both the public and the crews serving on them despite it being a misnomer and the clearly non-military naming of the ships. Their storied service history has made them widely known and has lead to many incorrectly assuming that Alliance carriers are named after important scientific figures in human history.
