-Chapter 5-

Fish Out of Water

A sudden wet dampness appeared on Jared's forehead. Slowly, his eyes opened revealing nothing but a blurry mess. All he could see were the different colors from his surroundings melding and meshing together to create a haze of shades. Slowly, through the jumble, he could see the figure of a woman leaning over him. Hurriedly, the figure danced across his vision, busily working on what he presumed to be himself.

"Hello?" The noise came from the figure, Jared could barely make out the words from the sensory overload he was experiencing. "Can you hear me?"

Jared tried to nod his head in agreement but was only met with searing pain. It cracked across his skull and seeped into his brain as if it was being torn apart, piece by piece. His body tried to writhe in pain, but could not as his central nervous system was encumbered by the feeling.

The figure, once again started scattering across his vision. "I am administering a pain killer, hopefully this will help."

The majority of the pain went away almost immediately, even with some throbbing still there, Jared felt he could become cognizant of the world around him. Along with the pain, the blurry mess that was his vision started to become more clear. Slowly, but surely, the figure that was leaning over him came into view. Before him was a stunning, red-headed woman who was still examining him to make sure the pain killer was administered correctly. She wore her hair in a bob that was split toward the left side of her face. Her eyes were a light shade of green and her features were delicate, yet sharp and refined. The woman wore a whitye lab coat with red accents around her neck and chest, the coat arched upward near the abdomen, exposing the black slacks she wore underneath. Jared became slightly confused, he felt he had seen this woman before, but, with the throbbing still in the back of his head, could not place her in his mind.

His surroundings were also somewhat familiar, the room was sleek, pristine and had a sterilized feel to it. The floor was a smooth white that reflected the rest of the room almost perfectly. The walls were the same except having black lines that ran around and bounced onto each wall. The ceiling was the same color, however, it seemed to lack the reflective nature of the walls and floor. Above him were two, thin blue lights that stretched across the ceiling, and what seemed to be supports that connected the room to the rest of the building Jared was laying on a hospital bed, although it was very different from any bed he had seen before. It was perfectly square with sharp edges, and it felt firm and cold rather than warm and inviting, much like the room itself. Hovering inches above his face was a device of some sort, it looked similar to an extending desk lamp except this had no light emanating from it, it actually seemed to be monitoring him in some way.

The women, noticing that Jared was coming to, walked over to the edge of the bed. Holding a device in her hand, she pressed a button that caused the monitoring device to slowly descend back to the edge of the bed, right above his feet.

"I'm glad you're awake." The woman spoke. Her voice had a french accent to it, but it seemed overtime it had lost some of its prominence. "You have been out for several days now." she began walking out towards the right wall, Jared tried following her with his head but was quickly dissuaded from the dizzying feeling it gave him.

"I was starting to think you wouldn't wake up until the EEG monitor caught that you were awaking." She walked back over to the bottom of the bed, this time, holding a pad with a blue screen on it. It was odd, the blue screen was seen on both sides as the back was not covered by a case or anything.

"Would you mind telling me who you are?" She asked, gesturing at the pad. "I could not find any identification on you when you were brought in."

"Uh, um, yeah, my name is Jared Knight." Jared groggily spoke.

"Jared Knight." The woman repeated as she began to type on the pad, from what Jared could see, the pad itself was displaying information alarmyling fast, he couldn't even begin to understand what it was displaying. "Hmm, no public records of you, at least in Citadel space. Are you perhaps visiting from the Terminus system?"

After hearing this, Jared's heart sank. All of these words, they meant something to him, they all rang bells somewhere in his mind. Yet, not matter how hard he searched, they seemed to be clouded by the throbbing that still plagued most of his mind. He only knew that these words made him feel uneasy.

"I'm not sure where that is." Jared began to speak with more clarity. "Can you tell me where I am?" He slowly sat up as he said this, feeling his brain shift as he moved upwards. The room looked even more familiar now. He looked toward the right wall to see that the doctor had been using a wall mounted screen of some sort. What was on the screen, he could not decipher, it looked like a jumbled mess to him. There were lines of text, small files, maybe even images plastered all over. He couldn't understand how anyone could read it, let alone understand it.

"You're in my clinic, and I am Dr. Chloe Michel." Dr. Michel said with a polite nod "In terms of a bigger picture, you are on the Citadel, the hub of the galaxy." Dr. Michel said somewhat sarcastically, as if this has been said many different times by many different people.

It hit like a pile of bricks. Everything that had happened came flooding back, as if the pain was a dam, keeping those memories and realizations away from the inner self. The abduction, the conversation with the aliens, he felt insane as it all came back into his regular knowledge, especially since he now knew where he was and who he was talking to.

Jared quickly jumped out of bed and got closer to Dr. Michel, who instinctively backed away in surprise. "The year." Jared now spoke with focus. "What is the year?"

Dr. Michel was now worried, she took a few steps back and put her hand behind her back, readying something Jared couldn't see. "It's 2183, listen I do not want any trouble, especially since I just had some not too long ago."

As soon as he heard the year, he ran towards the back wall, which housed a door. The door was held together in two different parts and had a green operating panel on the right side of it. Jared looked at the operating panel, he had never seen how it was done, he just knew that he could open the door with it. After several seconds of fiddling, Jared managed to open the door by placing his palm flat on the large green light. The door opened from its two different parts with a slight "boo woo" sound. As he raced out the door, his head was alight with thoughts, thoughts of what had happened, where he was, and most importantly how he was going to get back. It's 2183 and I am definitely on the Citadel, and Dr. Michel had mentioned trouble that happened recently, with all of that together, then I might still have time. If I am going to get out of here and get back home, then there's only one person who can help me.

Commander Shepard.