Miranda was confused. As much so as was the Commander. Never mind this mech's seemingly innate navigational skills and apparent lack of worry of the artificial intelligence, she was confused why he proceeded to pull these coordinates out of his ass. And even more so when he started looking at a freakin' different galaxy. 'The bloody hell...' was her thought process. 'Shepard this thing has no idea what its doing...' she almost said aloud, but stopped herself.
And then the coordinates pulled something up. A system obviously, with a number of small orbs, right smack dab where the coordinates were. The chances of that were pretty slim. Even if the coordinates were a degree off, that would translate to a couple light years away. This was exact. That meant…. Her eyes widened. Oh shit. She took a tentative step forward. She could feel the others next to her, thinking the same things. The Master Chief, or so he was called, was frozen in place. A solid, unmoving rock.
But it spoke English! Whatever it was…. Could it be a translation program? Like the omnitool? No… that still required them to know each other's language. She shook her head. What was going on. There was absolutely no way. There was no way that this… thing, was extra-galactic. No way. The galaxy was so astronomically big, so vast, that no one had even dared of thinking of travel outside of it. What was the point? That this big, green, giant had come all this way in a suit of armor was almost laughable. It had to be yanking their chain. One thing stopped her from berating it for the obvious bullshit. The green armor seemed as confused as she was. It stood their, unmoving, for almost a minute. Steadier than the most immovable rock.
Shepard seemed to be the first to regain his words. "Umm… I think we should just sit down for a second and talk about this. I think we have a lot to discuss. EDI… Set course for Earth." Miranda and Samara looked at him. He shushed them with a hand gesture. "Master Chief… Chief, could you join us in a conference room?" Nothing. No acknowledgment. Shepard waited, not sure what to say – his mouth opened after what felt like too long an awkward silence, when the giant nodded, turned, and marched to him. The mouth closed.
Miranda looked to him, then seemed to gain her bearings, and led them, the Commander included, away from the CIC and into the conference room through the ships corridors, a million questions on her mind.
OOOO
There was a million questions on his mind. His head was spinning, his world turned upside down. This was…. Unexpected. For the first time in his life, John felt the sudden urge to just sit down and process his thoughts and feelings. His mind was racing, faster than it had probably ever done. But not with analyzation. For the first time in 30 years, definitely the first time ever aboard an unknown alien ship, he didn't log the possible choke points in the corridors, the intersections where more fighters could join an engagement, the nooks and crannies that would provide cover. No… for the first time in his life, he felt numb. He was slightly dizzy.
He was led into a room with a small conference table in the center, chairs lining its outside. The Commander closed the door behind him. It seemed that they were just as confused as he was.
He watched as the human soldier took a deep breath, ran his fingers through his hair, and started to speak. "I know…. This is probably a lot of new. For all of us. I'm not sure what to make of this, and I'm not sure what to do, to be honest. You've been reasonable with us… and I would like to be reasonable with you. I don't know where you came from or even what- who you are, but I feel some explanation is in order, on both our parts. I suppose we treat this like a first-contact scenario - before we jump to any assumptions. That okay?"
The others seemed to agree with this. The words had shaken the Chief from his revelrie, and his attention snapped to the speaker.
"I can start… The Systems Alliance is, well, the localized governing body of humanity. We are part of a larger organization, what we call the Citadel Council. We are a peaceful community, and we would be willing to enter into peaceful negotiations with your… species. You seem familiar with Earth, and yet not our Earth… I'm going to assume there is some kind of translation malfunction, and Earth is being interpreted as 'home-world'. I cannot speak for my people… but we would be willing to help you return to yours."
Miranda's head snapped to the Commander. "Shepard, I don't think-"
"Now's not the time for that Miranda, we can talk later, but this is bigger than Cerberus, bigger than the Normandy, and certainly bigger than the Illusive Man." The woman paused, fists and teeth clenched, clearly frustrated, but wouldn't override. The Commander spoke again, still slow, deliberate with enough pauses to let him know he was searching for words as he spoke. "Would you… would you be willing to introduce your… species?" He gestured to the Chief, who was still skeptical, his doubts coming into play. This could just be an elaborate scheme to get him to divulge classified information. But he would play along. He was confident in his ability to keep sensitive information to himself. Until he could find out what was really going on.
So he spoke. "The United Nations Space Command is the militant arm of the United Earth Government." He watched as eyes narrowed suspiciously at the mention of earth again. General knowledge was all it would be. It didn't seem like Commander Shepard was sharing anything deemed 'top secret' either. "Commissioned in 2163, it is the UNSC's responsibility to safeguard the interests and expansion of…. Humanity." He watched as jaws dropped at the mention of humanity.
The blue woman was the one that addressed him. "So you, you're species. You're human." She said, not a question. He nodded.
"Well, shit." was the other woman's response.
"Might I ask how? If you're from…. Another galaxy," the Commander seemed to almost choke on the words, the disbelief apparent, "how did you get here? Hell, if you're human, how did you get there?"
The Chief was good at reading body language. It was a skill he had developed over years of analytical warfare. He could tell when people were lying. These people were just as confused as he was, and just as ready to get to the bottom of this. He could be honest, at least for now. If it came down to it, he could always kill them later. "I was brought to my previous location by a slip space portal that was presumably affected by the detonation of a nearby nuclear weapon. I have no other explanation of my arrival."
They all blinked. Then spoke as one. "Slipspace Portal?" (at least from the women) "A nuke brought you here?" The last was courtesy of the disbelieving voice of the Commander. The Chief just nodded.
They all stared at him again. "Ohkkayy… first of all, what the hell is a slip space portal?"
That was slightly confusing. How did they not know of slip space? It was possible they just used different vernacular. Different galaxy, after all.
"Standard form of intergalactic Faster-than-Light travel. A heavily specialized engine opens an 11-dimensional portal which is then traversed by properly sized vessels." Again, standard knowledge, nothing classified
It was then that the suited woman spoke, breaking the silence that had plagued the little alien. He supposed it- she was nervous. "You mean… no Mass Relays?" He shook his head. What was a mass relay? It was the second time he heard it. So he asked. "Mass Relay?"
They stared back at him. That was getting old. He was used to stares, but it seemed like every sentence, every question he ventured forth was like a sock in the face, rocking them back on their conversational heels.
"It's… well… its our own form of FTL travel. The Protheans built them around 50,000 years ago – they span the known galaxy."
"Protheans?"
Tali looked at the others, before hesitantly speaking. She was about to make a fool of herself. She took a deep breath. "Anancientraceofextremelyadvancedaliensthatwerewipedout50milleniaago." She looked sheepishly at the large giant, who nodded, seeming oddly satisfied with what she thought most would accept as an old wives tale.
Shepard spoke then, voicing Tali's thoughts to the T. "You're taking that… surprisingly well."
The giant shrugged. "I've been around."
Shepard chuckled, "It would seem so."
"So, Commander… what's the plan? We taking the Master Chief here to earth…? Or…." Was Miranda's thoughts, her intonation displaying that she obviously thought that was a bad idea
He pondered for a moment, before looking at the Chief, who seemed to read his thoughts. "I believe that to be the best course of current action."
The Commander nodded. "This seems like a big enough deal to warrant a… drift from the usual protocol. We'll stay out of your way, if you stay out of ours. Earth is out of the way a bit, and we've got business in this area of space. We can drop you off at the nearest port I suppose…" he pondered for a moment, than shook his head. No, that wouldn't do. "Actually, I don't think that's a good idea. I think it would be better firsthand if we were to take you there. There might be a bit of an immigration issue if you were to get there another way. Plus, I think this option is the safest. As long as you're good if we make a stop or two along the way?"
Another nod from the giant. Shepard chuckled again. "You don't talk much do ya?" A shrug. "Fair enough. I think its time for a bit of a conversation with the rest of the crew."
