A/N: I've updated the chapters, hopefully they're more readable and enjoyable, please leave any feedback to help improve it, thank you.

SSV Einstein

Chase Jarrett

Ooohhh my god, for one day I would like to wake up and my head not be on fire. Alas, that day is not today. I slowly open my eyes and can't help but see nothing clear, it's all a blur.

"Ah, someone's finally conscious"

Was whispered to my left, I look over and see a figure clad in white, oh good, a doctor.

"I'm Dr. Singh, how are you feeling?"

Visions slowly but surely coming back to normal.

"Well, besides a killer headache, and a weird ass dream, I'm feeling like I can take on a mountain, you must have given me the good stuff." I deadpanned, gesturing to my head.

"Well the headache isn't surprising, given your head injury, and should go away on its, and the gunshot wound will be fully healed in about 12 hours. However, I'm interested in this dream of yours, given that I gave you pain medicine that specifically stops you from dreaming." He replied, all the while taking scans with this tablet.

At this moment my vision comes back clear. I see the doctor, wearing some odd but for some reason recognizable doctors outfit. I look around and quickly realize that I didn't have a dream. I'm surrounded by gray metallic walls, with a blue stipe going horizontally around the entire room. The room consists of six beds, and a bunch of devices for which I'm not going even to try and guess their functions for. I see to my right, in a chair next to my bed, is Cassandra sitting down, and passed out. She looks very peaceful, and very tired.

"Forget what I said doc, it wasn't a dream"

He nodded in understanding what I meant, and told me everything that has happened so far. So, it's been 12 hours since they found us, and we're still in orbit around Mindor, and that we'll be leaving for Arcturus station in about 3 hours. Apparently, we're the only survivors that they found so far, but they just started so they're still hopeful. About an hour after waking up some officer came and got me, and brought me to some office. It was a very small office, and we barely fit in it, though this is a warship, so I shouldn't be too surprised about that.

"So, Mr. Jarrett, I'm here to get more information about you, because as it stands, you don't exist in our records." the officer said while pointing to the small terminal in front of me.

I look at it and it asks for my Alliance I.D. or citizen number, well I'm skipping that part. It then asks for my name and date of birth. Okay, so it's 2170, and I'm 20, so let's go with 2150. Next, birth place, well shit. I haven't even thought about this, I'm too old to be born on Mindor, and they would have records if I was born on earth, and I don't know enough about the other colonies to say I was born on one of them. I'll just put I was born on a ship, that should give me some leeway on my story. As I finish the form the officer just looks at me with a blank face.

"So what ship where you born on? And how did you get to Mindor, and how long were you there for?" He shot at me like a machine gun.

Alright, this is go time.

"Well officer….",

"Jacobs" he replied,

"Jacobs, I'm not sure what ship I was born on. As I was told by my father, he and my mom worked on a freighter and I was born on it and lived on it till I was four, then we moved to the newly founded colony of Mindor, and I've lived there ever since, I've never dealt with Alliance officials, and I've never had a need for I.D. there, so I just assumed that my parents filled out the forms and let the Alliance know. They like to live alone from people, so I was homeschooled, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I don't technically exist to you. So, how big of a problem is this? I'd really like to get on with my life".

The officer put his hands up in a surrendering manner, and slightly waved at me.

"It's not an issue, I just needed the full story for the report I have to right up to get your paperwork through. You'd be surprised how common it is for people to not let us know that they have children, especially on colonies. Just give me a minute and I should have everything straightened out."

It's been about 15 minutes since he's been writing on that omnitool of his, damn I want one.

"Well congratulations! Your officially an Alliance citizen, I also have all of you birth documents set up as well, I'll just send them to your omnitool and…."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I don't have an omnitool".

He just scoffed and gave me made me feel like I was a fish out of water, which technically I was.

"I'm sure our requisitions officer can spare one I suppose, follow me and I'll help get you set up."

On the way to the requisition officer I couldn't help but want to play 20 questions.

"So how long until we reach Arcturus station? Also, where is all my stuff. I had a pistol and a rifle, as well as all my clothes." I fired at him.

"Well the weapons are with the quarter master, no civilians are allowed to be armed, even if the guns in questions are antiques. As for your clothes, you'll have to talk with Major Singh, your doctor, he probably had them cleaned because of all the dirt and blood on them."

I nodded in understanding, and thanked him. When we reached the quarter master I was very excited, he handed me an omnitool and told me the basics on how to use it, it's not as good as a military grade model, but it's about mid-range for a civilian model. After that he took what looked like a silver gun, it was small, smaller than my own pistol, and placed it on the top of my neck and pulled the trigger. He apparently placed some microchip that can sense my thought for when I want to use my omnitool, he tried to explain it, but it went sailing over my head. I'm just going to call this space science! Anyways, I finally got all my paperwork, and everything is settled. I even just performed my first call on my omnitool, it was Dr. Singh, he wanted me to come to his office, right off the med bay. Fortunately, the omnitool has a map, so I thanked Jacobs and the quartermaster, and made my way to the office. I walk into the med bay, and it's eerily quiet and empty, except for Shepard, who's still asleep. I make my way to the doc's office and he motions me to sit down.

"So, Mr…."

I place my hand up, interrupting him "please call me Chase, Doc".

"Okay Chase, there's a few things we need to go over. One, it's like you just walked out a damned time capsule, you have almost no vaccines, I'm not even sure how you made it this far." I just shrugged

"My parents were the type that wanted to be all natural?"

He just nodded in disappointment. "Well while you're in my care I'm giving you these shots, and I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Okay, not like I'm in any position to argue" I whispered under my breath. That earned me a small grin from the doc.

"Also, and equally important, we would like to know the extent of your relationship with Ms. Shepard. Except for telling us her name and allowing us to treat her, she won't talk to anyone about what happened, or even talk about anything for that matter. On top of that, she refused to leave your bedside, even threatening one of our marines if we tried to remove her. I had to give her a sedative when she fell asleep by your side, just so she can get a good night's rest, she hasn't slept since coming on board."

All I could was give the Doctor a dumbfounded look. I didn't expect that. At that point I explained to the doctor what happened on Mindor, how I was in the woods lost, and I found her house, but she was the only one to survive, and how we escaped to the woods.

"Now it all makes sense, you rescued her and kept her safe, while injured no less, and brushed it off like it was another Tuesday. She probably sees you as a hero, explaining why she won't leave your side. HHmmm, this might be a problem for trying to get her to recover from this, but I won't know more till later, given that fact that everyone one recovers form things like this slightly differently, I won't know more until I can do a better analysis on her mental state." I nodded.

"So doc, what's going to happen when we get to Arcturus?" I asked.

"Well good timing, I just received an update on that. The alliance is going to give you an apartment on Arcturus, payed for 3 months, until you can get an idea of what you want to do and move on. As well as some credits to get by. As for Ms. Shepard, she'll be placed in a foster care facility on Arcturus, and will be there until we have found a family to take her in."

Make sense I suppose. "How does that process work, the alliance finding her a new home I mean." I inquired.

"Well ultimately, it's her choice, we won't force her to live anywhere or with anyone she doesn't want to, but I have no doubt that there is a lot of families that'd be willing to take her in."

After the conversation with the doc, I decided to walk around the ship, and it's fucking huge. I've seen aircraft carriers up close, and they have nothing on this behemoth. If I didn't have an omnitool with a map, I'd be so lost it's not even funny. The ship has a lounge with a viewing port, like the SR2, just without the booze. I know, I wanted to cry. But it is a sight to behold to look at the stars up-close, also gave me some time to think, and I think my only good course of action is to join the alliance, at least until I come up with a plan to save the universe, no pressure. And, I've got no useful skills besides knowing how to handle a gun, maybe I can help Shepard in the future if I'm a soldier.

After about two hours of wandering and getting some food, which wasn't bad, it reminded me of school lunch, nothing special, but I've had worse. I get a message from Dr. Singh, telling me that Shepard would be waking up soon, and that It'd be a good idea if I was around when she wakes up. I eventually made my way back to the med bay and took a seat on my bed and waited for Shepard to wake up. After about five minutes she looked like she was about to wake up. The second she did she scanned the room, like she was looking for something.

"Morning sleepyhead" I whispered.

That interrupted her little scan, her eyes dart over to me and the second she sees me she smiles and jumps at me, hugging in a tight embrace. Well that was a bit unexpected.

I grab her shoulders and look her in the eyes, "Listen Shep, I think we need to talk."