Chapter 7! Enjoy!
Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.
Beads of sweat ran down Nicolas' face as he bolted upright in his bed, the neck of his armour wet as the filtration system of the suit absorbed the moisture for an isotonic water supply. His omnitool had a notification icon glowing over his forearm and Hal gave an introductory crackling through Nicolas' translator to not startle the waking human.
"Had a bad dream? Aria sent a message while you slept." Hal's voice was low and carried soothing undertones designed to lower Nicolas' heartrate.
He sighed before swiping his palm over the icon, bringing the omnitool to life, displaying the message: The ship is waiting in dock 04, level 51. The password file to the airlock is attached. A crew is standing by.
Nicolas didn't need anything else to get up. With a quick groan and a couple popping joints, he got up and got a ration bar from the duffel bag that laid underneath the heating unit of his apartment. He went for the shower discarding his armour in the ten steps it took to get there and ate as he showered. Hal expected to have to remind Nicolas of all the things they would need for the trip, but the human, wordless and unhesitant, went about the apartment putting his armour on and stuffing his pouches with what they had bought from Korvos the Vorcha and attaching his weapons to the magnetic holsters on his back and thigh.
Nicolas was almost out of the apartment when a voice came from behind him, from the bathroom.
Shepard won't be there, you know?
Baker stopped. He turned around to look at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes explored his reflection and stopped at the helmet in the mirror, held magnetically onto the belt of the reflected Nicolas. The voice came again, low and gravelly.
She won't.
"Nicolas, is something wrong?" Hal asked, aware of the fact that Nicolas had turned around from the cameras on the suit.
"No… no… I just thought I heard something," the human whispered weakly before putting his helmet on and leaving the building.
…
"Oh-two-five-one, oh-three-five-one, oh-four-five-one…" Nicolas whispered to himself as he walked into dock 51. The other levels were bustling with life, but this one was eerily empty. Nicolas noticed the security cameras were all destroyed, even though it wasn't much to say as all the other levels had cameras in what one would call 'precarious' states.
He swiped his omnitool over the holo-lock on the frigate of uncertain origin (it didn't look of batarian or turian make, but it was definitely alien) and a pop-up message appeared on top of the holo-display: They don't know you're you. Put your helmet on. I instructed them to shoot you if they can tell me your name.
Nicolas raised his brows at the bluntness of the message and put his helmet on and darkened the full-face visor. Hal created a voice filter as the door opened and Nicolas walked in to find an empty but cramped on his left and a slim corridor leading to the command centre. He decided to not to call out for anyone. The more they knew about him, the more certain they could be of who he was, so he walked calmly to the crew quarters with Hal's guidance. He reached the small navigation desk when the crew emerged. A turian sneered at Nicolas as he passed by, followed by a sleepy one, an old man and a batarian. They all walked wordlessly to their posts, the turians to the cockpit and the human and batarian to the navigation centre. One of the turians spoke over the intercom:
"So we're going to the coordinates Aria gave us. That okay with you, human?"
Nicolas responded an uninterested yes as the shuttle detached from omega.
…
Nicolas had stood perfectly still behind the old man, eyeing the holo-displays he could see without moving his head. Hal had detected a slowly climbing heart-rate but decided to not distract Nicolas from being inconspicuous.
Twenty minutes had passed before he broke the bored silence of the crew, "What the fuck is taking so long?" his voice rumbled low and lightly distorted.
"We're waiting for permission to use the Relay," the batarian muttered from his post.
"We're working for Aria, aren't we? Why aren't we getting priority access?" Nicolas responded without turning his head.
A turian's voice came over the intercom with an annoyed tone, "We're not officially working for her. Just sit your ass down and wait, human."
Nicolas kicked the armchair beside him and two bolts holding it in place snapped. His legs hissed in protest but were muffled by the armour. The batarian and human were staring at Baker, and he wasn't getting less restless. Hal talked into his translator, "Go to the crew quarters, Nicolas."
"I'll fix it later. Tell me when we're there," He snapped before turning around and walking into the quarters.
The batarian turned to his console and called Aria, "He's really pissed for some reason. Can't handle the waiting line to jump."
Aria's voice was set to minimum on the display's speakers, "Interesting. Keep an eye on him."
…
Nicolas paced around the crew's quarters. He would stop for a moment whenever he felt the illusion of movement before he realized it was just that, an illusion. After what seemed like hours, he sat down on the floor and proceeded to check his guns. The mechanical disassembly and assembly of the parts helped him calm down. When he was halfway through the pistol, a turian voice came over the intercom, "Preparing for Relay jump. Brace for acceleration in 10 seconds."
Nicolas put a hand over the small pieces that were left as the tremors shook the ship until they were in the zero-mass tunnel formed between Relays. There were a few more jumps on the way and he finished putting the gun back together in between them. He stood up during one of the jumps when he heard a gravelly voice come from over his shoulder.
I'm telling you, she won't be there.
Nicolas whispered, "Shut up," behind the muted helmet.
I mean, do you think the Shadow Broker was going to give the asari bitch the info before giving it to someone else?
"Shut up."
"Nicolas, what's going on?" Hal spoke over the translator, re-reading Chakwas' medical reports from the Normandy, wracking his virtual mind for what could help Nicolas.
Trust me, man. You don't need Shepard anyway. This is just a waste of time.
Nicolas sat down and put his head in his hands, breathing deeply, trying to lower his heartrate, "I need to see it at least. Just leave me alone until this is over."
Suit yourself, dipshit. I'll be back.
Baker sat like that for what seemed like minutes before dozing off. He woke a couple of hours later when the intercom came back to life with the turian's voice, "Final jump complete. Welcome to the Amada system."
The human sat up and walked out of the quarters, heading straight for the cockpit. He stood behind the two turians, which sat glued to their respective displays. He broke the silence as the dark sea of stars twinkled outside the viewports.
"What planet are we going to?" came Nicolas' distorted voice from the speakers on the collarbone of his armour.
"Alchera. Ice planet. 0.8 standard Citadel gravity and -22°C average surface temperature. We'll be looking at gusts of around 20 knots where the distress beacon is supposed to be located, at least from the data we were given," one of the turians answered.
"Can we land there?" asked the human, wondering why the distress beacon wasn't active. He thought back to the last vidcall he had with Jane, remembering the ice that was melting off her armour.
The same turian nodded, "The terrain is fairly flat. We should be able to park the ship down, but we'll need to keep the core running to reduce mass."
"How much of what we salvage will we be able to bring back?" Nicolas asked as he turned around to stand by the airlock as Alchera turned from distant, dim star to asteroid size to planet in the viewport.
"The cargo-hold was emptied out, so I'd say around ten tonnes, as long as there is ten tonnes left for us to bring back."
…
The frigate extended thick metallic legs, which compressed and decompressed to allow for a soft landing. The rugged ice underneath cracked under the weight before the eezo-core went into assisted hovering mode and the suspension coils on the legs relaxed. A boarding ramp rolled out of the airlock, leading to the ground below. The blast-doors cycled and the crew came out, all except for the batarian, who stayed to keep the ship going and to watch out for company.
Nicolas' helmet accumulated condensation at the edges of the visor, and he could feel the cold of the planet's atmosphere permeate through the glass, chilling his nose. Hal used the on-suit radar system and the camera on his shoulder to assist navigating the snowy terrain and finding the remains of the Normandy. The mostly-destroyed ship was highlighted in Nicolas' HUD and he trudged towards it in a bee-line as the rest of the crew eyed the silent man walking into the snow.
"Where's he headed?" one of the turian's whispered.
"Almost seems like he's been here before," the other human commented as he went around the ship to get the 'wheelbarrow'.
"Oh, I see, he found the ship," the other turian muttered, "must have pretty good eyesight, and it looks like the snow isn't slowing him down."
"Who knows, he might have bionic legs or something," came an off-hand comment over the radio from the old human.
Nicolas continued walking through the thigh high snow, leaving a deep trail in it behind him. The Normandy was clearly visible through the snowy wind at this point, and the sight was not promising. The hull had multiple holes with structural beams jutting out of the surface every few meters. One of the wings was missing and the nose was nowhere to be seen.
"Life support systems are straining, Nicolas. Go somewhere where you can shield yourself from the wind," Hal spoke into the translator.
"I thought the turian said the average was -22."
"Exactly, average. It's -50 here. The rest of the crew is getting thermal blankets but you left too early."
"It's better this way. Now they can't see what I'm looking for."
…
The noise of the wind was the only sound the crew heard as they walked silently towards the Normandy's wreck. One of the turians flexed his mandibles within the helmet in irritation as the old human kept his radio channel open, broadcasting the sound of his breathing incessantly.
"You could turn your helmet mic off, human."
The old man looked at the turian as they trudged through the snow, "You could've parked the ship closer to the wreck, turian."
The other turian shook his head good-naturedly before eyeing the wreckage, twenty metres ahead. The human Aria sent was pacing between the two largest pieces of the crashed ship, looking around himself desperately, clawing and banging at the top of his helmet as he went. He wasn't transmitting over the radio and his helmet speakers seemed to be deactivated. The wind made it hard to be certain if he was saying anything anyway. The turian opened his omnitool and called Aria.
"…Yes?" came the asari's voice.
"You're gonna wanna look at this," the turian muttered as he activated his helmet's camera and sent the live feed to Aria.
…
"Where is she?!" Nicolas looked around frantically. He saw the mako embedded into a mound of ice and snow, but there was no Shepard to be seen. The wrecked galaxy map was also barren of any organic material, as well as the remains of the mess hall. Nicolas spied the cockpit of the Normandy a couple dozen meters away and sprinted towards it.
The dark, gravelly voice came back: I told you she was gone.
"She has to be here somewhere. The whole goddamn ship is here!" Nicolas protested as he reached the cockpit. Everything inside was destroyed, except the airlock, which seemed to be intact.
"She's not here, Nicolas," Hal sounded sad as he spoke into the translator but the human wasn't ready to give up yet.
"No, there has to be something left! Wait, what is that?" Nicolas stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the distinct glint of something metallic, like a coin.
"It's probably exposed electronics, Nicolas," came Hal's response.
"No... no, no, Hal. This," Nicolas murmured as he approached the object, before picking up a tungsten plate, "this is a dogtag... it's not hers though," he commented before dropping it to the ground and walking out of the cockpit, eyes locked looking down.
One of Aria's crew walked past the oblivious human into the cockpit and eyed the dog tag on the floor. He called Aria to notify her.
"Send me the names on the dog tags he ignores," Aria said from her side as the booming bass of Afterlife rang in the background.
...
The better part of an hour passed as Nicolas walked around, picking through the rubble and combing through the snow as the rest of the crew followed his steps discreetly, cutting off pieces of hull and scanning various systems for reverse engineering as they went.
Give up, dipshit. Grab something from the Mako before life support fails.
Baker had no more reasons to not listen so he trudged over to the vehicle that had no signs of damage apart from a couple of scuffs on the hull and a blown tire. The back blastdoor hissed open after he input the still remembered code to the holo-display. He walked in and kicked a panel on the inside wall absentmindedly. The panel popped off and a survival kit fell to the floor. Nicolas grabbed a thermal blanket and tied it around the collar of his armour before fastening the fabric with omnigel to his wrists, wrapping his arms.
A turian called Aria and turned off his radio, "he opened the mako without hacking the door and took out a survival kit. It looked like he knew where it was."
"So it's like he's seen all this before," Aria muttered from her side of the line, "this just keeps getting better. Has he found any more dogtags?"
"Negative."
"Alright. Send me a list of the ones he's found. Come back when you've collected whatever you think we could use."
The turian dropped his hand from his helmet and looked at the old human, returning for the fifth time with an empty wheelbarrow. His eyes wandered to the overcast sky, a dark grey background dotted by the uncountable white snowflakes whizzing by. The batarian back at the ship called him over comms.
"What's up?" asked the turian.
"There's a ship incoming. It exited FTL at the border of the system half an hour ago, and it's coming this way. ETA 45 minutes unless they enter FTL again, but I think they need to discharge first," came the batarian's response.
"Alright. We're on our way."
...
The old human approached Nicolas as one of the turians took the wheelbarrow back to the ship.
"We have to go pal, a ship's coming."
Baker snapped upright looking at the sky. Hal activated his suit speakers as he opened his mouth, "Who are they?"
The human shrugged impatiently, "Don't know, don't matter. We have to bail."
Nicolas shook his head, "They have to know something about the wreckage to come here. We have to question them."
The remaining turian butted in to the conversation, "We're leaving, human."
Baker shook his head again, "Info on the wreck could be invaluable."
The turian raised his shotgun pointing towards Nicolas' helmet and the old human followed suit without hesitation, "We're leaving, now."
With a huff, the three jogged back to the ship, which lifted off as soon as the boarding ramp had retracted into the airlock. The eezo core struggled to keep up as the frigate left the atmosphere, and Nicolas paced around the command centre as the ice melted off his thermal blanket and armour.
"Anybody been able to scan the incoming ship?" he asked.
The batarian spoke up, "I'm going through the known signatures... Chord Hislop... overcharged eezo core... they're Cerberus! Good thing we bailed in time. We can't take them with our weapons."
"What's a pro-human terrorist group doing way out here? They have to know something we don't," thought Nicolas. He paced straight for the cockpit behind the piloting turian's, grabbing the back of their seats, "turn the ship around. We sneak up on them while we're down there."
"Yeah, big fucking chance of that happening, human. We had orders from Aria to get back intact, and I'm planning on following through with that," the turian's reply seemed final, so Nicolas stormed off towards the crew quarters.
…
"We have to get to that ship, Hal. Cerberus has to know something."
"The turian is right, Nicolas. The ship doesn't have the adequate weaponry to survive a battle against a Cerberus vessel," came the AI's response.
Baker stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the door leading into the CIC, then to a viewport behind him, on the backside of the ship, "Maybe the ship doesn't need to survive. Can you intercept the Cerberus Ship and crash this one into it?"
"That would be suicide. Even If we could get past its shields, the Cerberus ship would be disabled and this one destroyed along with us."
"But if we're going at subsonic speeds, we would bypass the shield systems, right?" His eyes were wide open behind his visor, a hysterical grin forming.
"Yes, but the fact still remains that we'll be destroyed with the ship, Nicolas," Hal sounded impatient, exasperated at Nicolas' insistence.
"If I jettison out the back cargo hatch, how fast will I escape the ship?" The human gesticulated towards the back viewport even though no one was watching.
"…please tell me you're not doing what I think you want to do."
Nicolas thought back to the batarian pirates intercepted the ship where he met Hal, "I can't do it unless you take over the ship, Hal. Can you intercept the Cerberus ship and have the remains stay in orbit around Alchera?"
There came a clicking sound from the translator much like the one that would come from twentieth century computers when they processed information. Hal finally talked again after a minute, "Just get your ass to the cargo bay and get the back hatch ready for emergency breach."
…
Nicolas looked around the cargo bay, handgun in his hand and his assault rifle attached to his back along with the sniper rifle. Piles of Normandy debris had been dumped at random places of the floor. There were pieces of the hull, several metres of different kinds of cable and samples of various materials. Kicking over different pieces of the junk that had been strewn around, Nicolas made his way to the back of the cargo bay, where a hatch painted over in white and red strips to symbolize an emergency exit was waiting. He sat down lazily against it, resting his arms on his knees and tapping the barrel of the gun against his helmet absentmindedly, the gun's safety activated by Hal.
The AI spoke over Nicolas' translator, "I'm going to take over the ship shortly. Hold on to something. We're gonna collide and fall into orbit in roughly three minutes."
…
Aria sat at her balcony in Afterlife, scrolling up and down a list of names on her datapad. On another datapad next to her thigh was the crew of the Normandy at the time of its crash on Alchera. She deleted the names on the tags that Nicolas had ignored and the crew that had been accounted for after the incident until only a few names remained.
Robert Felawa, Abishek Pakti, Jane Shepard.
Aria replayed the messages the crew of her ship had sent, "He opened the mako without hacking the door…"
A small smile tugged at her lips as she brought up the crew of the Normandy during the mission against Saren. She was going through the information on each crew member when her omnitool rang. It was the turian she had sent as pilot.
"What's up?" she asked in a low voice, her bubbly mood oozing into her voice.
"Aria, I've lost control of the ship and it's on an intercept course towards the Cerberus ship, what is going on?" the turian sounded annoyed.
"What do you mean, you've lost control of the ship?" the asari asked as she shuffled to find a comfortable position on her couch.
"I mean I lost fucking control of the fucking ship," Aria's smile turned quickly into a frown and made a mental note to kill the turian when he came back, "Are you doing this?"
"How am I going to be doing this from all the way in Afterlife, how stupid are you? Get the ship under control and come back. Where is the human I sent with you?"
"I sent Tareshk to go find him. He's been missing since we left the planet."
"Get that ship under control," Aria snapped before cutting the conversation short. After a moment, one of the datapads beside her began to glow blue and fizzled before imploding into a tight, smooth ball of metal and plastic.
…
Tareshk's mandibles were aching as they pressed against his face. He paced down the hall leading to the cargo bay, resting his hands on the walls of the corridor in case the ship made a sudden course change again. The door to the cargo bay whooshed open and he immediately saw the figure of the unknown man sitting against the emergency blast door.
"There you are! Listen, man, the ship's gone crazy and we're gonna crash against the Cerberus ship. The pilot's trying to get controls back but it ain't workin'. If you have any ideas, now would be the time to say them!"
The turian was met with nothing but silence and the sound of the handgun tapping on the man's helmet. Tareshk's mandibles clicked against his face as his heart raced against his carapace, "Did you hear what I said, human? We need to get this ship under control or we're fucked!"
Again, the human didn't budge or make a sound. The turian's patience was long gone and he stalked up to the sitting alien. He lunged forward to grab his arm when the handgun left the side of the human's face and was pressed against Tareshk's forehead before the trigger was squeezed.
…
It seemed like the rest of the crew didn't notice the dead turian, since no one appeared in the cargo hold again. Nicolas holstered his handgun after he was done wiping blood off his visor. Hal spoke over the translator, "I don't think that was necessary, Nicolas."
"He was either gonna die suffocating or in the crash. I gave him an easy way out. How long until we make contact?"
"Fifty seconds. I'll give you a ten second countdown for you to get a running start to the emergency hatch. You might as well back up to the entrance of the cargo hold."
Nicolas nodded and jogged to the entrance, jamming it using his omnitool to fry the lock, "so how's this gonna work?"
"So I'll start my countdown from 10 at 100km from the ship. Around two, I'll drop the speed to subsonic levels so we can penetrate the shield with minimal damage to the hull and I'll open the hatch. You'll be jettisoned out more-or-less one hundred metres away from the blast, and if you're lucky, you'll survive unscathed. Then you'll use your machinegun to manoeuvre yourself to the remains of the ships, and hopefully be able to fix it enough to get back to Omega. Alright, ready? 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…"
Nicolas started running for the hatch as Hal counted down. The hatch blew off its hinges and Nicolas was launched into the silence of space. He turned his head just in time to see the ships collide silently. A dim fireball emerged from his ship, as the other lurched into a slow spin, disabled. Debris flew past him reflecting the light of Alchera and the distant sun. Rolling himself into the fetal position, he closed his eyes and waited for the danger to pass before getting his assault rifle and looking around to see the ships were gone.
Hal's voice came to life on the translator, "The ships are drifting away at a quarter the speed of sound, Nicolas, and they won't hold orbit together. Get going in the direction of your right shoulder."
With a quick nod, Nicolas twisted to align himself so he could shoot between his feet to get going in the right direction and pulled the trigger.
Hope you enjoyed it!
