"This makes no sense whatsoever," Miranda mumbled as she paced the Communications Room briskly. "How does someone just pop into someone else's body? Was she alive when it happened? Dead? And how is it that the scar from her implant is just gone?" She stopped to glare at me once again. I restrained the sigh that threatened to bubble up and shook my head.
"One more time," I replied, keeping that even tone from earlier, "I have no idea, I was a volunteer." I raked my hand through my hair, trying to remember any details that may get Miranda off my back but coming up empty. "Bottom line, I am here, she is not and I need to get back to Earth."
"That's not possible at the moment," John interjected as he typed something into the console in front of him. A holographic image appeared in thin air over it and John used his hand to whip the image around, pointing to what appeared to be a planet... kind of. "We need to set a heading to here, hopefully to pick up a little back up. You're not afraid of aliens, are you?" My gut wrenched. Not only was I in a different time but now I was going to confront aliens? FUCK, what did I get myself into?
"Commander," the man named Jacob spoke up, glancing at me, "maybe we leave the rookie behind? This may not be up her alley." I gave him an appreciative smile and he nodded back. John turned to look at me, almost appraisingly.
"Just how long ago were you involved in this project?" he asked, leveling his gaze at me. Ok, here it goes.
"I can't tell you," I replied. Knowing that wouldn't be good enough, I held a hand up to stop the rebuttal he was opening his mouth to express. "I am under strict orders not to divulge certain details, that being one of them." John rested his hands on the console in front of him, leaning slightly toward me with an annoyed huff.
"Fine, then let's get this out of the way now," he said with a hint of sarcasm, "What exactly are your orders?" I stood at attention, lifted my chin and stared straight ahead.
"I cannot divulge my affiliation, name, or rank.
"I cannot divulge any of my personal details including the date of my birth, nor any people or places I have come into contact with prior to the experiment.
"I cannot divulge the date of the experiment itself nor any details I may be privy to about said experiment.
"I cannot divulge personal details about any of those involved in the experiment.
"I can discuss what has happened since awakening until I report in and have been cleared by a senior officer."
I nodded to confirm I was done and looked back at John. He was standing up straight, looking at me again with those blue eyes, appraising and apparently approving of some part of what I said or maybe how I said it, who knew.
He returned the nod and sighed.
"Alright," he breathed out, "now that's out of the way let's get to the important part. What to do with you until we can get you back to Earth." He looked at Miranda who huffed disapprovingly.
"I say we lock her up, she's an unknown and a liability." Jacob laughed out loud at that.
"Miranda, seriously, chill," he replied, folding his arms across his chest. "I heard what she did in the med bay, if she wanted to she could have snapped your neck right then. Obviously that is not a part of her agenda, if she even has one." He looked at me for a few moments, as if trying to read me. I held back my grin at that, I trained for too long to let something so simple get through but I had to give him something.
"My only agenda, if you could call it that, would be to return to Earth. That's it," I said. Unsure of where to go next, I sighed then threw a hand up. "What do your protocols dictate?" I looked to John as I was not about to take Miranda's word on anything at that point.
"If this were the Alliance you would be detained in a cell somewhere at our next stop then dealt with later," he said simply, "but this isn't the Alliance so I guess it's my call." He rubbed his forehead for a few moments then looked back at me. "Can you tell me what kind of training you have?" He knew I couldn't tell him much but I could see he was trying. Then a thought occurred to me.
"I can't tell you," I said, a sly smile crossing my face, "but I can show you."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"I can't believe you talked me into this," John almost whimpered from the floor mat. I'd pinned him down, again, with my forearm across his neck, one arm under my knee and the other secured by my free hand. His lower body held in place with mine, we were a tangle of limbs, our faces not even an inch apart. Jacob laughed, slapping his leg as Miranda looked on, shaking her head with a small smile creeping in.
"I must say Shepard," she said, "She took you down pretty easily. I think you've lost your touch." John laughed as I released him, standing up and offering him a hand.
"I blame you since you were the one who was supposed to put me back together," he said with a wink as he took my hand, pulling himself up and walking past her to get to the water bottles. Tossing me one he opened his and downed it as the elevator door opened.
"Well, guess I missed everything," a male voice said from the opened door. I turned to face him and nodded, he smiled. "I love seeing Shepard getting his ass kicked, just makes my day!" He stopped short of entering the room and sent a salute to the Commander. John shook his head.
"Sorry to disappoint, Joker," he replied as he tossed the empty bottle into a receptacle and walked over to the man, shaking his hand. "Are we in orbit around Omega?"
"Yes sir, ready to go," Joker confirmed, turning around and getting back into the elevator. John turned to face me, the gears grinding behind his blue eyes.
"Ok, I don't think you're quite ready for Omega," he conceded, "but I definitely think you will be useful in a fight. I'll have Kelly put together a dossier on the different species we encounter, you up for some reading?" I nodded. "Good, go see her in the CIC when you're cleaned up."
He turned to face Jacob and Miranda. "You two get ready, we're heading out." Both nodded and grabbed weapons, heading for the shuttle.
I picked up on a little something in his tone, almost as if going to Omega was not his idea and he wasn't happy about it. I tucked that little bit of info away for later.
I was beginning to think John and these others were not exactly on the same side…