A/N: The one you've been waiting for! I can't really say anything about the delay, only that is I could have more time to write, I would. Please, for the love of god, write a review: this is the most intense chapter yet, and I would love any expressed opinion.
"Alex? I need you help down here..."
Oh crap. This sounds serious. "Is everything okay?" I ask. Tali responds: "Yes, I'm fine, but I can't access the detector chamber itself. The blast door locked itself when you started the cycle." Oh yeah, didn't think of that... Tali continues: "I need you to come here and deactivate the blast doors. That does, however, mean that you have to take the tunnel here. That's the problem: the tunnel is super-cooled so that the magnets can work better. That means that the air there is about twelve degrees Kelvin, just a little warmer than absolute zero." Yeah, that could be a problem... "I'll try to come up with something." I cut the link.
Hm... maybe there's some way to get to the tramway without going through the tunnel itself. I check the tunnel access door; locked. Wait, didn't that daft guard leave his key in the door? I look back to the entrance; Bingo! I grab them and fumble with the lock, trying to find the right key.
Someone tries to open the door.
Shitshitshit!
I drop the key-chain, which falls to the floor with a loud clash. I feel blood rush away from my face, effectively making me pale as a sheet.
The door handle turns again, and someone shouts:"I know you're in there! Open this door!"
I feverishly pick up the keys and finally unlock the door to the trams and tunnels. The man outside bangs on the door again: "Whoever you are, you're in big trouble!" Grabbing my stuff from the table, I rush into the hallway beyond the unlocked door, and lock it just in time to hear what appears to be a broad shoulder connecting with the entrance door. Time to run! I sprint down the stairs; No time to think about how I'll pass the cold...
Except for when I reach the tunnel level, and feel the icy cold sting my face. Man, that's freezing! OK, there's a maintenance room over here. I unlock it and inside, find a bunch of lockers with tools and stuff. At one of the walls stands a large mannequin wearing some sort of protective suit; it is made of some sort of plastic and synthetic materials, and has an attached helmet and an air tank on the back, connected to a sealed helmet. The whole thing was a dark, metallic orange with an even darker green and black around the joints and connecting points. "Thermal protection suit: one size fits most" - said the plaque on the wall next to it. this is just what I need! Perfect!
I suit up into the gear; it's kind of big but not enough to impede my mobility too much. "Tali, I've found a way to pass the tunnel, I'll be there ASAP." - I raise Tali over the comm. "Perfect: they haven't spotted me yet, but I'm getting some radio chatter about an intruder in the control center. You need to move." I close the channel and leave the maintenance room, only to hear heavy footsteps coming from the stairwell. Damn! Grabbing my crowbar from the bag, I start down the hallway towards a corner; I round it and crouch behind the bend. I think I can immobilize the guard for a short while 'till I reach an area where it's too cold for pursuit. The stomping grows louder, and I prep the bar, holding it at the ready. Any moment now... As soon as I see a foot pass the corner, I swing the bar as strong as I can, letting out a grunt while straining to keep the crowbar in by hands as it impacts the man's shin.
Crack.
The guard hollers in pain, tumbling face forward into the wall in front of him: his nose and chin crash into it, spraying blood over the surface, halting his momentum and abruptly ending his scream. He falls limply to the floor, his nose and leg at angles that look completely unnatural. Did I just kill him!? I check his breathing: he's still alive, but out cold. Man, I sure got him harder than I intended to... but at least he'll be in no condition to follow me when he is awake. Great: I'm wearing an orange hazardous environment suit wielding a crowbar in an underground research facility trying to send an alien back into their home dimension. All I'm missing is a goatee and a pair of glasses and I can safely say I'm as close to being Gordon Freeman as anyone ever could be. In this universe, at least.
Now, back to the task at hand. I leave the guard where he is, and continue to follow the twisting hallways until I reach the tram station. The cold air burns my lungs, so I seal the helmet and breathe in the warm air from the tank. It's a little stale and dry, but my scuba diving experience allows to ignore that. Come to think of it, this is pretty much like a heavy duty drysuit. The tram isn't here, though, and the power is off. Guess I'll have to walk... man, it's dark in there!
I switch on the flashlight on my phone-tool-thing, light up the floor in front of me. Ok, here's a place to get down to the tracks; I jump down, and follow the sign in the direction of the detector station. The walls are covered in cables and pipes, and are surprisingly dry for an underground tunnel. I shine the light in front of me; it lights up the floor and walls, but in front of me the blackness remains unchanged. Ooh, creepy. "Ok, Alex, just keep walking." I start down the tracks at a fast pace: they might have realized where I was headed and headed towards Tali. The hiss of every breath I take and the hum of the LHC behind the wall the only sounds penetrating the silence of the tunnel.
Five minutes later, I arrive at the familiar ATLAS station, also unlit. The door to the main chamber is unlocked. I enter, and there, just as yesterday, looms the giant machine, humming and whirring as the particles zoomed through it at near light-speed. I rush up a few flights of the catwalk, and enter the control room. Here it is: unlock the blast door. Through the glass pane separating the main chamber from the control room, I can see the door open, and Tali runs in shortly. "Alex, they're right behind me, close the blast door!" - my omni-phone crackles to life. Alright, hit the button again. Great, so the security should not bother us... for now. "Tali, I'm up here in the control room." I wave my hand and she spots me. Not long after, she arrives here.
"Now, as far as I understand, we need to trigger the collisions, right?" I ask the quarian machinist. "Yes. That should trigger a release of dark energy, which I'll come in contact with and "teleport" back to the Haestrom system, hopefully in my escape pod." Well, this is it, I guess. Last goodbyes. "Tali, the last few days have been an amazing experience, one I'll never forget." Tali places a hand on my shoulder. "Same here. I only regret not being able to repay you for all that you've done for me." I nod, and turn back to the console.
"So, what do i do?" - I ask. "When I give the signal, you should hit this button over here" - Tali points to a green button in the corner of the console - "And that should cause the collision. Then, you need to get out of here, before you get caught. I can't imagine the amount of trouble you're in now..." She trails off. I give her a reassuring pat on the arm: "Don't worry - I'll get out of here. If there's anything i've realized over the past few days, its that I improvise more or less well." She nods, and walks out to the main chamber. I watch from the control room as she ascends a few more levels, and is now a little above the main pipe of the collider, a good place to jump from if she intends to do so. She takes a few scans with her omni-tool, and raises me on the comm: "The collisions should start a localized cascade event, generating bursts of dark energy at varying intervals. when the collisions end, so should the dark energy production, and it will eventually dissipate, so you don't have to worry about that. Start the process. Keelah se'lai." "Keelah se'lai." I respond, and hit the green button.
The collider hum grows louder, and I hear a whooshing noise every few seconds, as if a giant wave hits the shore and retreats back into the sea. Flashes of blue and purple light start emanating from the detector's main tube with every whoosh. Ripples of dark purple encircle the pipe, spinning around it and growing in size and number with every flash. Soon, the ripples start colliding and forming larger holes, which i can only assume to be apertures in time - space itself. What a marvelous sight!
I turn my attention to Tali: she stands atop the edge of the platform, with one of her fingers bent down. She bends another one; it's easier to count to three when you only have three digits. She bends the final finger, and starts running towards the edge. Reaching it, she leaps, her hands waving as she gains speed right at the dark-blue holes.
With another flash, she's gone.
I don't move for a few moments, my jaw open and eyes wide. Then, above the sounds of the quantum events happening before me, i hear faint, quick footsteps; someone has reached us!
I glance over to the ground level: several bulky men, accompanied by one feeble-looking man, wearing the same orange protective suits as mine, ascending the first flight of stairs, up to where I am.
SHITohSHITohSHITohSHIT!
"Aw hell no.." I mutter. Time to boogie! I grab my bag and crowbar, and head out of the room. Crap, They've covered off the only stairs down! The only way left is up, Which is where I head. The feeble-looking man enters the control room which i was just in, and fumbles with the controls, but nothing happens: the flashes continue, and so does the growth of the warped holes. The bulky guys, on the other hand, seem quite intent on capturing me: I've already reached the top level: There's no way from here but down. The one nearest to me is on my level. I raise my crowbar; whoever he is, i can't let him stop me from leaving. He is quite intimidatingly large though… I back away slowly, reaching the end of the platform, which, oddly enough, has no guard rails. The man raises his hands and approaches me: I respond by letting out a shriek and swinging my crowbar at him, intent on hurting him before he hurts me. He dodges my badly-timed swing and grabs the bar, yanking it and trying to wrestle it out of my hands. Oh no you don't! I pull back, and try to kick his nether regions. I succeed, and he let's go, resulting in me staggering backwards… onto thin air. before i realize what's going on, the platform i was just on rushes past my eyes as i plummet down, facing up. There should be another platform below me, shouldn't there? Maybe I can land on it safely and get out of he-
I hit the guard rails with the top of the air tanks on my back, resulting in waves of pain going up and down my spine. "Argh!" I exclaim, flipping over and now falling face forward, straight towards the tears in reality I just saw Tali enter, and the next thing I know, I feel all my hairs stand up as i pass through it.
I open my eyes: before them is only an empty expanse of stars. I breathe in; air - I can at least breathe at the moment… until i hear a hissing sound. I reach to the back of the suit, and feel a jet of air hit the gloves. I gasp "The valves…" They must have been damaged from the fall. I draw in more air, but with every breath it becomes harder and harder…No, I can't go like this! I can't go like Shepard, I don't have a Cerberus to bring me back! I can't… It's not….
I black out.