Disclaimer: BioWare owns Mass Effect. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien franchise. EA owns Dark Space.
Hades Nexus Cluster, February 23, 2177
Dhan'rana! Dhan'rana! Wake up! Please!
Pain. It was what she first knew. In her limbs, in her body, in her mind. It was an ocean of pain and darkness, confusing and directionless as words came to her, how, she didn't know. She couldn't remember anything; where she was, why she was there… her name. All she could remember was the pitiless void that surrounded her, that she breathed and drank.
Dhan'rana! You must wake up!
The voice came again… a woman's voice. She couldn't place it, but it felt… familiar. She looked about in the inky blackness of the void, a cold blanket that offered neither hope nor salvation, one direction as good as another. Whatever it was, she didn't like it. It seemed to suck everything away at her. Though she couldn't remember anything but the pain and darkness, something glimmered with in her… small, but bright. A hope. A beacon.
Dhan'rana!
A pain hit her chest, like a punch, and she didn't like the pain. It was different than the pain of the void that suffused her; this was singular, penetrating, right into her breast. It hit her again and again, like a rhythm, pumping into her. She wanted it to stop, to let her heavy limbs to sink into the ocean, to let herself drift away. She was so very tired.
WAKE UP!
The voice… it was calling to her. Was it the Gods? Was it something else? She tried to open her eyes, her lids so heavy, as she felt something pushed into her, something harsh and searing, her chest aflame as she felt it expand not once but twice. The burning sensation subsided as the pushing, pressing pain came again, pumping her chest once more. She wanted it to stop, begged and pleaded as the void around her shimmered and wobbled, threatened by the new pain thrusting into her chest. The ocean was so comforting, the pain numbing her, but the pressing sensation brought a new pain to her, a burning sensation that trickled into her body and limbs, carrying the oppressive weight away. She tried to fight against the new pain, the comfort of the void slipping away, stirring her from the deep sleep that had comforted her so. What was doing this to her? Why?
PLEASE!
Her eyes opened.
1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard found herself looking upon nine eager, worried faces as the intense need to vomit came to her and she turned her head to expel the contents of her empty stomach, heaving as she got up on her hands and knees, trying to vomit on a metal floor as her body heaved several times. She gagged a few times as her ribs and stomach hurt from the action, coming up only with bile that she spat out onto the floor, its sore taste reminding her…
She had died. She had been brought back.
"Oof." Shepard slumped back onto the floor, her body so heavy as she looked at the faces of her team mates, that of her grandmother, Ellen Ripley, the closest. Her mind was now awake and alert, making connection of what had happened. She had died gasping for breath. They were inside a metal hallway… they must have made it. The fact that her helmet and chest piece of her armor were removed, Ripper had performed CPR on her, bringing her back. She tried remembering what had happened in between her last breath and her next one… and couldn't remember anything in between. She found herself looking from Ripper's concerned face to that of Tela Vasir's anguished one. "Not Valhalla?" Shepard asked, her voice weak and horse from bile and gasping for life. Gods, but her chest hurt. Felt like she broke a rib.
"Not close, kiddo." Ripley replied, tears shimmering down her cheeks as she wiped them away, and gave the Human Specter a fierce hug. "Scared the shit outta me, Janey. Don't ever do that again."
"We were desperate, Ripper." Shepard replied in her grandmother's ear, knowing that however bad she felt, Ellen Ripley was undoubtedly feeling worse, the woman whom believer her daughter Amanda died hating her for abandoning for space. "I… I can't make the promise, grandma. If anyone of you were in danger, I will face it with everything I have. I know you understand why."
"Yeah, I do." Ripley pulled away, the pilot wiping away her eyes. "Doesn't make it easier, Janey, but I do understand." Ripper gave her a wane smiled as she helped Shepard to her feet, making the Marine groan in pain, her body crying in protest as she stood on wobbly legs, feeling as if everything were disjointed and not fitting properly. She looked over to see Tela's face looking at her own, a mask of grief and desperation on the Asari's face. Shepard tried to reach the Thessian through their bond… and found it empty. The realization was like an emergency break to her; it stopped her very thoughts in their tracks as she tried grasping for that point in her that represented the Asari's gift of memories to her and couldn't find it. It finally occurred to her why; she had died.
Their bond was gone. She was alone.
"Tela? I… I can't feel you." Shepard whispered, looking to the Asari Specter, whose face fell with the words. "No… I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…"
"It is damaged, not broken." Tela finally replied, and everyone else wisely moved away, Dr. Liara T'soni giving one look of sympathy to Shepard before turning away, to give them the allusion of privacy. "I held on, no matter how it strained and frayed. I didn't let go."
"Thank you, my love." Shepard took the smaller Asari into her arms, holding her tight as she kissed her forehead, just below her crest. The movement of her sore limbs made her body protest, but she ignored them; this was more important. "You carried me, you saved me. I didn't want to hurt you, but I couldn't stand the thought of others suffering the same fate."
"I know. Just like Aleea." Tela closed her eyes and pressed her head against Shepards', touching foreheads. "You are a stubborn, foolish Maiden that risks much. I was like that, once." She watched as the Thessian concentrated hard, and Shepard felt a small pinprick of hope in her heart, a small glimmer of love that wasn't her own, the faintest of touches that was once ironclad. It was their bond, weak yet there, and despite the diminished feel of it, Shepard couldn't have felt happier; she wasn't alone.
"I… I felt you." She sobbed, holding the Asari even tighter, her arms screaming in agony. "I don't know how to make it up to you, putting you through that, but I'll find a way, dhan'rana."
"You'd had better." Tela replied, only half-amused as a smile smile appeared on her blue lips. "I am just glad that we were able to bring you back, Jane."
"Me, too. Now, where are we and where are we going?"
The Engineering Section was the largest section of the Ishimura. It was also the most complicated.
1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard sat on a convenient table, checking everything on her armor after connecting the chest piece back onto her, reengaging the connections to her Byrnhildr armor, running a full systems diagnostic to make sure everything was in place and in working order. Team Valkyrie was currently cooling their heels in a utility room of some sort, where work tables and tool chests filled with and assorted allotment of work equipment was stored in several supply rooms, the room possessing a cargo freight elevator that could take them to the several levels of the Engineering Section. The diagnostic program booted up, checking through the connections and relays of the Serrice Counsel armor, confirming each and every point until it came back on the Kuwashii Visor that all systems were nominal. Shepard pursed her lips, looking to the others of Team Valkyrie, and saw that everyone had given her her space. Good; she didn't want anyone to see what she was about to do next.
"Byrnhildr, run user medical diagnostic."
The program beeped as the same sensors that had ran internally on the armor now turned and ran over her, scanning over her body for any injuries. Shepard could still feel the pain that suffused in her joints, the ache in her muscles, and how sore her chest was. She was pretty sure Ellen Ripley cracked a rib giving her chest compressions, which she didn't blame her grandmother at all. But the other pains she felt… those were due to her temporary demise. Was there something wrong with her? Was it permanent? The scanners took a moment to go over her body before it gave her a read-out over her Visor. Shepard read it silently.
A few pulled ligaments. Two strained muscles. One micro-fracture in her third left rib that sat over her heart. An unusual build-up of lactic acid in several joints, but nothing alarming. The read-out had the Human Specter give off a silent sigh of relief; nothing a few days of rest wouldn't cure. Hell, a small dose of the shitty Medigel they had brought would clear most of it up in just a few minutes. She had been worried; she had died, after all, from asphyxiation, at that. She could still remember the fragments of memory from when her counter had hit zero, the panic and terror that had gripped her. It shamed her somewhat, but Shepard was realistic about it; she had died a horrible death, and yet had come back from it thanks to Tela Vasir and Ellen Ripley.
"Jane, is everything okay?"
Shepard looked up to see Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis standing in front of her, so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't notice the Quarian Pilgrim approaching her. Her Quarian friend was standing in a posture that indicated that she was worried; her three-fingered hands were clasped together in front of her, held at the level of her breastbone. She was standing closer that was usually considered comfortable among humans; something that Shepard had noticed Quarians did. Perhaps because their Fleet was so overpopulated that territorial boundaries were lesser than others. The Human Specter gave the Quarian Specter Recruit a reassuring smile, letting her friend know that she was indeed fine.
"Just performing a basic medical diagnostic. Nothing a few anti-inflammatories and some bed rest wouldn't cure." Shepard replied, seeing Rahe relax slightly. "I… I haven't thank you all yet for what you did. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to spend time I didn't have arguing. I made my decision for the best of the team. I apologize for what you had to see and feel out there."
"To that, you have no need to apologize." The Quarian's accented voice was quiet, almost subservient as she folded her arms over her torso, holding herself; a Quarian sign of unease. "That is… that is something a Quarian would do for his or her shipmates, Jane; sacrifice for the good of all. If it had been me, I would have done the same thing. But I came here to tell you something else, something you should know. It is not easy to admit, but you will hear it." Shepard nodded as one of Rahe's hands went to tug on her lime-green sha'hana, obviously embarrassed about something. "You remember how I became a Specter Recruit?"
"You went and saved your kidnapped Pilgrims by letting yourself get captured so the slavers could take you right to them." Shepard replied immediately, remembering almost every detail. The Human Marine had been very impressed with Rahe'Tarram's actions to rescue her own people, showing a bravery that Shepard admired and respected. It was one reason why they became such fast friends. "You also killed slavers. That's always a good day. Badass Quarian warrior."
"My… my twin sister was one of those captured." The Quarian spoke softly, her vocalizer barely able to pick up her words as Shepard felt her heart drop; that portion had never been mentioned before. "I wanted to save my people, but I went to rescue Jora. We had gone our separate ways for our Pilgrimage because we wanted to compete with one another, friendly competition, but we've shared everything before. We… we wanted to prove ourselves as individuals. I… I heard from another Pilgrim how Batarians were kidnapping Quarians outside the Fleet, and all I could think of was Jora in their clutches. I tried messaging her, to get into contact with her, as we talked every week despite the cost, but… but…
"She was taken." The Quarian fell silent as she held her own arms, rubbing them as if she were cold.
"So you went in the only way you knew how; you let yourself get captured, too." Shepard nodded her head, thinking of how brilliant that was; who would suspect anyone would purposefully get captured by slavers? "I know you said you rescued most of the Pilgrims. Jora wasn't one of them, was she?"
"N-n-n-no." The normally fearless Rahe stuttered the word, grief evident even through her vocalizer. "She fought back, and earned their ire. The bastards unmasked her."
"Oh… oh no." The Human Marine couldn't relate, of course, but she knew of the Quarians' almost nonexistent immune system. The common cold was as lethal to a Quarian as the Ebola virus was to a human being. Probably just as bad.
"She was so sick, delirious, the fever burning her up…" Rahe'Tarram shivered with the thought, obviously reliving the memory. "But she saw me one last time, Jane. I got to look upon her true face as she laid dying, and she spoke her last words to me with a smile. I… I watched my twin take her last breath, holding her hand as she died in front of me. I never wanted to see that again.
"But I did. I saw it with you."
Shepard felt speechless as she looked at the Quarian's silvery eyes through her orange-tinted visor, barely able to make out some of the features that made the Quarian's face. She remembered how Tela had told her how similar in appearance Humans and Quarians were.
"When you started choking and gasping, I remembered Jora as she gasped her last breaths, could hear it rattling in her lungs." Rahe continued, almost sobbing. "I thought it the most painful moment in my life, watching my sister die. Yet her words stayed with me, and I'll never forget them. My baby sister, I did all I could to save her, but I was too late. Yet I wasn't too late to have her see me one last time, to be there for her last moments. For that, I am forever grateful. I had a sister whom I was proud of, and who was proud of me. One day, when I join our Ancestors, I'll tell her all about being a Specter, traveling the stars with a crazy Human Marine that throws herself out of airlocks and tries killing bugs with her fists. She'll get a kick out of that." The suited Specter Recruit went silent for a moment, and Shepard knew that her friend wasn't finished. "What she told me, lying on that table as I held her hand, was that family wasn't limited by blood or species, that one day, I would find my own. I… I didn't understand her at the time, Jane. Our parents had died years before, and my last remaining family member was dying before me, and yet she was telling me to go find another? I… I hated hearing that, but I didn't say anything at the time. Now, now I understand what she was trying to tell me. She wanted me to go out and find those who understood me for who I am, not what I am. Do you remember the first time we met?"
"I do." Shepard whispered, thinking of her first class in Specter School…
"Class," Instructor Cavius Reminion stood in the front of the classroom, with a Human by his side. "This is Lieutenant Jane Shepard of the System Alliance Marine Corps. She is a Specter Recruit like yourselves." Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis found herself looking at what appeared to be a human female dressed in something like a blue military uniform, complete with a blue hat of some sort on her head, round and flopping over to one side on her red hair. She was a little taller than the Asari and herself, though not quite as tall as Kya Drang, the female Drell Recruit. They had been told the day before that the Office of Special Tactics had accepted a Human Specter, the first of her kind, and the barbs and jibs had been lively in the classroom. Both Turian Recruits had wondered if she would flee at the sight of so many aliens, running right out the door. The former Detective Ulla D'evora wondered out loud if she had evolved enough to count past her fingers and toes, while the Volus Recruit, Cur of Clan Dileed, was making wagers with Naor the Bull and Daeporm Norban on which person she would insult first… and who would be the first to send her to the hospital. Through all this, Cavius said nothing to stop them, and Rahe did nothing to join in. She wondered to herself… was that how they were like when they heard there would be a Quarian Specter Recruit coming in the next day? The other Recruits were polite to her in a distant fashion, but neither did they talk to her, either. Despite the population of the Citadel, Rahe'Tarram was a woman alone amongst a crowd. So when the human female plucked the blue thing from off her head, something she called a 'beret', and scanned the room, Rahe was surprised when she became the target of green eyes and a smile as the class's newest Recruit came right towards her with an extended hand.
"Hi, I'm Jane." The human said, her tone… friendly? It took a moment for Rahe to realize that the hand was meant to be taken, and she slowly slipped her three-fingered hand into the human's five-fingered one, and was surprised when she jerked it up and down. It was a weird salutation… but it was the first one anyone had ever tried giving to her.
"Rahe'Tarram nar Sofis." The Quarian replied, at a loss of what else to do. She knew nothing of Human customs. As she understood it, not many did.
"'Nar' means 'born of', right? Your birthship?" The Human asked, still smiling, friendly and polite. Was it an act? It was all Rahe could do just to nod her helmeted head, struck speechless. "I was born on a ship, too. The Battlestar Oregon." Much to her surprise, Jane Shepard sat in the chair right next to her and winced. "Oof! I think this one's a Turian chair."
"It is." Jordam Bau, the nearest Salarian Recruit, replied, his tone even.
"Well, I doubt you have any chairs built for a human ass, so I guess I'll just have to get use to it." Rahe boggled at that; just who was this creature? Weren't humans suppose to be snobby and controlling? This Jane Shepard knew what 'nar' meant! She doubted anyone else in the class had thought to ask or to look it up! And she said that she was born on a ship, a military one by the sound of it. She was a part of her races' Marines.
"The Oregon was your birthship?" One of the Turians asked, Elias Korvan, the loud-mouth soldier who, like many Turians, was selected due to his performance in the Hierarchy Military. He was the bragging, boastful kind, though this time, his voice was a bit more subdued. "And your name is 'Shepard'? Do you know John and Amanda Shepard? Are you related?"
"I'm the daughter of the Widowmaker and the Ripper." The human female replied, and all three Turians looked at one another in abject silence. Something profound had just happened between them, Rahe was sure, but what, she couldn't say. "No worries; I don't fly a Viper."
"Spirits. It would be their hatchling to make it." Garrus Vakarian muttered, shaking his fringed head, his flanged voice somewhere between wonder and worry. Rahe had no idea what they were talking about, but she guessed it had something to do with the 314 Relay incident that happened almost two decades before, when Humanity and the Turians were fighting one another.
"Were your parents warriors?" The Quarian asked, curious, when they took a break later on during the day, the human female standing by one of the classroom windows, looking out into the Citadel, probably to enjoy the scenery.
"Highly decorated Viper pilots." The human replied with a smile, and Rahe didn't miss the wistfulness in the new Specters' eyes. "Dad died ramming a Turian Dreadnaut, saving the colony of Shanxi. Mom was killed by Batarian pirates. Raised on military ships my whole life. Now I'm… here." For a moment, Shepard looked uncomfortable, looking at the various species behind them in the room. "I really don't know much about… well… the others." Rahe could tell that she was trying to be polite. "I'm nervous as hell."
"You don't seem nervous with me." The Quarian pointed out, curious. Why had the human approached her in the first place? Most avoided Quarians. Rhae decided to ask.
"Honestly… we're both pariahs. I figured it's a start." The female with the red hair answered, and it boggled her mind. Shepard approached her simply because their species were looked down upon? Well, it made a queer sort of sense. "And we're both born on and lived on ships almost all our lives, so we've got a few things in common."
"My parents were Migrant Fleet Marines." Rahe admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "My father died defending the Sofis from a Geth excursion patrol, and my mother died giving birth to me." She wasn't ready to talk about Jora yet. "I had hoped to be a Marine like them when I finished my Pilgrimage. Even have my father's Carbine Shotgun. Now I'm… here." The Quarian finished by gesturing towards the window, to the Citadel itself. "First Quarian Specter in three hundred years. I'm frightened beyond measure."
"Well, Humanity's First Specter thinks you could use a friend. Care to try?" Again, the human female extended her hand once more, but this time, the Quarian knew what to do, and she took it.
"I… I don't know what to say, Rahe." Shepard looked away for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip and thinking all that the Quarian had told her. "When I showed up to that class, my heart was going at a hundred miles an hour, I had no idea what to expect. When I saw you sitting there, all I could think was… there was someone who could relate and understand what I was going through. Quarians are ostracized and ridiculed, even worse than humanity. Yet you had made your way into the Office of Special Tactics, and all I could think of was… kindred spirit. And you ended up being tough and funny, brave and kind, thoughtful and decisive. I guess what I would like to say… Rahe'Tarram, can we be sisters?"
"I would like that." The Quarian replied softly, her vocalizer almost not picking up her words. "Maybe you'll get to see my birthship, meet my Captain."
"Well, the way things are going with Earth, you'll probably be seeing that pretty soon." Shepard stood up from her temporary seat, stretching out her limbs to fight back the soreness in her limbs. "Ugh. Still got to find a way off this infernal machine. Hasn't anyone invented teleportation yet? We've got Salarians, by the Gods! You'd think one of them have figure this out by now!"
"What? You're not asking the Quarian to fix the mechanical issues?" Rahe folded her arms and stood in a cocked position, one hip cocked out as she leveled a glare at Shepard.
"Would it make you feel better if I did?" The Human Specter smiled, eliciting a chuckle from her new sisters' vocalizer. "C'mon. Let's find a way of this shithole of a ship so we can scrap it and sell it for profit."
The elevator ride up toward the first level of the Engineering Section was both slow and somber. 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood near the front, where the door was, impatient with the elevator. The grinding of metal-on-metal was slight yet annoying, and she couldn't help but tap her foot on the metal planking of the elevator floor. She started tapping her foot some more, pretending to ignore the annoyed look that Bastila Shan was giving her.
"Gods, are we back on the Citadel? Can this thing go any slower?" Shepard muttered as she looked at the HUD readout of her Kuwashii Visor, seeing no contacts coming up. Sergeant Rita Vrataski snorted while Tela Vasir merely shook her head, standing beside Humanity's First Specter, the Asari standing even closer to her than she usually did. Her foot continued to tap out a rhythm, and for some reason she felt impatient, like she wanted to go out and run a marathon or climb a mountain. It wasn't that she somehow had the energy to do so, but the urge and willingness were there. Maybe it was with her brush with death; correction, it wasn't a brush with death but a head-on collision that she had walked away from. There had been a few times she had cheated death, but never so flagrantly, so audaciously. She had truly been dead; no pulse, no breath, nothing. Worst of all, she couldn't remember a thing in between that final breath and that first breath, where she had been dead for five and a half minutes. No light, no Valhalla, no great understanding. Perhaps she hadn't been dead long enough. Shepard wasn't willing to try that out twice. Still, the impatience was still there, still making her wish she could be doing something right now! She was so caught up in it that she hadn't realized that she was bouncing on her toes, humming a song, and garnering the attention of everyone in the elevator. "What?"
"Um, are you alright, kiddo? I swear you're humming a Faunts song." Ellen Ripley asked, her grandmother looking at her with some worry. "You're practically dancing to the tune of your own soundtrack."
"I dunno. Brynhildr says nothings' wrong but… I just feel pent up!" Shepard replied, frowning, stopping her bouncing and humming, but the feeling inside was still there.
"Perhaps it is a human thing." Tela Vasir replied, a little concerned, looking to Ripper. "Asari are generally introspective during such trials. I've heard Turians seek Clan members for reconnection."
"We Quarians get morose." Rahe'Tarram nas Sofis volunteered, looking at Shepard, her helmet cocked to one side. "I wouldn't think a near-death experience would make someone… bubbly."
"Probably just need to go out and shoot something. Battle high, probably." The Human Marine shrugged her shoulder, still feeling like she wanted to jump out of her own skin and run laps. "I wasn't even like this a few minutes ago! Maybe it's one of those '5 Steps of Acceptance' things? How'd it go again? Denial? Anger? Bargaining? Right now, I'd say I feel effervescent or indestructible."
"Goddess, all we need is a hot-headed Maiden running around, shooting everything in sight, convinced of her own immortality." Tela sighed, shaking her head. Shepard gaped at the Asari.
"Hey! I don't shoot everything in sight! The rest… well, that's mostly true." That had Sergeant Rita Vrataski chucking in the back of the elevator as Cur Dileed gave off his hacking laugh through his suit's vocalizer. "A girl's gotta have dreams, right? I always thought I'd buy it and end up one of the einherjar."
"The… what?" Dr. Liara T'soni asked, confused. "Is that like God Father and Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost? Human religions are… confusing." The Protheanologist looked to Bastila Shan, who stood next to her, shaking her head.
"The Einherjar are warriors who died courageously in battle." Tela Vasir spoke softly, answering the question. "They are chosen by the Valkyrie, the Battle Maidens of the Gods, to pick the best and the bravest, to usher their souls to Valhalla, the Warriors' Heaven. There, they will feast and drink with the Gods, training and fighting one another as immortal warriors until the day Ragnarok comes; the Great Twilight of the Gods. It is then that the Gods, the Valkyrie, and the Einherjar will fight Ragnarok, dying to save Asgard and Midgard, the home of the Gods and the plane of mortal beings."
"I'm… impressed, Tela. I didn't think I told you that." Shepard replied, her tone surprised. "I know for a fact I never told you that."
"I looked it up sometime after we first met." The Asari Specter replied a little shyly, obviously trying to hide it. "I was trying to get a sense of who you were as a Maiden. So I looked up your religion to see what you might have been taught. It is a rather intriguing, if rustic, religion. Rather morbid, though. I'm just glad that you don't hang people from a tree to give thanks to Odin. That's… barbaric."
"Not many trees in space." Shepard gave her Asari lover a joking wink. "I'm kind of surprised you looked it up. It's touching, really."
"Ugh! Stuck in an elevator with lovebirds!" Full Metal Bitch lamented. "I'm gonna get cavities!"
"Why the Norse religion?" Ripper spoke up, looking to her granddaughter. "I mean, I figured it out on LV 426 before I knew we were related, so I didn't think much of it afterwards to ask you when I learned you were my granddaughter. Was your father Scandinavian? Did… did Amanda believe in the Norse Gods?" Shepard heard the pause in her grandmother's words; it was distressing to think how little Ripley knew of her own daughter. Then again, Shepard knew so little of her as well.
"You're probably not going to believe me, but I was looking up Afterlifes on the extranet after… after the Iwo Jima." The Human Specter finally replied, the jubilant feeling she had before crashing down as she remembered those days. "Pop had just taken me under his wing, and… and I was a mess. I just watched my mother die, and I… I was in space, where there was no sky to think of a Heaven to be in." The elevator went quiet, despite the various species of different religions, everyone was listening. "I wanted to think that my mother was someplace good, someplace she deserved. But none of the other religions ever covered anything like that, traveling to other places, other beings… save the Vikings. They were explorers and travelers, going across the oceans in glorified canoes with sails, braving uncharted waters and unmapped lands. So far from home, yet they had a pantheon that was more than just an Earth-bound religion. Yggdrasil, the World Tree, was said to hold all of the galaxy upon it, that Earth was just a small part of everything. The Gods of Asgard were to be the Guardians and Protectors not just of Midgard, but all the Realms. And that those who fought bravely, who died valiantly, were to earn a spot at the side of the Gods, eternal warriors who wait for Judgment Day to come, to fight the Final Battle. I… I wanted that to be true, because that's where I want to think my mother and father are at; together, eating and drinking, laughing and fighting, among the best that Humanity ever had to offer. And I want to earn my place there as well… so I could see them again, to fight alongside them." Shepard went silent as she felt the old knife of grief twist in her heart, thinking of her parents. She hadn't cried about their loss in a long time, but the hurt associated with it was always there, like a piece of shrapnel too close to the heart to remove. "The thought of a Warrior's Paradise was… it was romantic to me. None of the other ones had what I was looking for, didn't give me the solstice and comfort I was craving. Then I realized it was because I wasn't looking for answers, I was looking for a purpose, for the will to accept and move on. And I did. It helped me, helped me move on, helped me realize what I wanted to be, what I wanted to become. I guess in a strange sort of way, I am here, right now, Humanity's First Specter, because of that search."
"That's sort of sweet, really." Bastila Shan replied a moment later, her voice husky, obviously touched. "Romantic for a people famous for reaving, raping, and robbing. And I see why a spacer like yourself wouldn't find the other religions appealing. I kind of remember the hick-ups the religions had when we realized that there were others in space with no answers to be found. I guess the Norse religion has the closest thing to aliens in it that isn't considered one of those nut-job cult religions that end up doing suicide pacts."
"Thanks. I think?" Shepard replied, shaking her head. "Anyhow, that's Shepard 101; I believe in the Gods of Asgard. At least I'm not so fidgety anymore, but could we ever get somewhere in this fucking elevator? Seriously, how is it slower than the ones in the Citadel?"
"Those are slow because Elcor get airsick if they move too fast… and no one wants to be stuck in an elevator with a one-ton creature that's throwing up and defecating all over the place." Tibevius Victonius offered, the Turian pilot surprising the Human Specter with his explanation. And now there was a reason not to hate the Citadel elevators. "As for this one… I'm going with shoddy human engineering." That had Porol Lamal snicker as Shepard rolled her eyes.
"You won't make fun of human engineering if we ever crash into water and I don't throw you a flotation device, Mr. Swims-like-a-rock." The Specter teased the pilot, going after the well known fact that Turians could barely tread water for a moment or two, having descended from birds on a planet where the largest bodies of water were barely medium-sized lakes. "I could toss you a cute, plush Hanar stuffed animal for comfort as you sink like a metal bar." Sergeant Rita Vrataski snorted at that one as Dr. Liara T'soni politely hid a smile with her hand. The Turian pilot's mandibles went wide with indignation, but at least he had the the good sense to understand that he started it, and was a good enough sport to bow out gracefully. The elevator finally dinged as they arrived at their destination. "Fucking finally! I've all but forgotten where we were suppose to go."
"We're linking up with Royce and Stacy so they can take turns berating your little stunt." Her grandmother reminded her, her tone disapproving.
"Oh. Yeah. That." Shepard sighed as she shouldered her Specter Gear HMWAR Mark VII Assault Rifle, her stiff joints making her wince slightly. "Let's get that one over with as soon as possible so we can get the fuck off this ship."
A/N: For those not versed in the Norse Mythos or Wodinism (as is the current name for those who practice it), the Einherjar are, in fact, mortal humans who have died in battle, picked by the Valkyrie to serve the Gods in Valhalla, to eat, drink and fight amongst one another until Ragnarok, where they will fight the Final Battle of the Twilight of the Gods, to die valiantly as they did so in life. A warriors' heaven and paradise.
'Humming a Faunts song…" - I think we all know what song I'm talking about here…
5 Steps of Acceptance - a psychological study believing that there are 5 steps in accepting death; denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and finality. There is a YouTube video involving a cartoon giraffe sinking in quicksand that gives a cute snippet of the 5 steps.
Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost - My idea of what an alien might think of the Holy Trinity. First seen in Mass Effect: The Battle of Tuchanka, Chapter 4- For A Few Krogan More, where the Asari Huntress Asha T'vara called the Trinity 'God Father and His Son Jesus Christ Holy Ghost'. I'm still trying to think how Athame, a Prothean, somehow mutated into a blue chick.
The Gallows God - Odin, sometimes Woden (where the term 'Wednesday' comes from, btw) is the All-Father of the Asgardian Realm. What Marvel Movies don't tell you was that the proper way to revere Odin was with a man doing the skydance with a noose as a necktie. Odin hung himself for some reason off of Yggdrasil (the Tree of Creation) and became known as 'the Gallows God'. He gave up an eye for wisdom, and has two ravens that serve him, Hurnin and Thurnin; thought and memory. His mead is brewed from the blood of dead dwarfs, and he faces Fenrir in Ragnarok himself, where they both die; Odin is swallowed whole, and Baldir rips the snake's mouth open in two. In fact, in the Great Cycle itself, I believe almost all the Asgardian Gods die killing their opponents; Thor kills the Great Serpent Jormanger but drops dead nine steps afterwards, Tyr dies killing one of the joten giants, etc. If I remember correctly, Fenrir starts it by becoming free, from a time where there are three winters with no intervening summer. Four of the seven days of the week are named after Norse Gods; Tyr's Day, Woden's Day, Thor's Day, and Freyja's Day. Saturn's Day, Sun's Day, and Moon's Day were named by the Romans. Why is this? Go look it up… cuz' I don't know.
Nut-job cult religions that do suicide pacts - I'm referencing the Heaven's Gate cult on this, from back in 2000, some 30+ people kill themselves when the Hale-Bopp comet came by, the believers thinking it a spaceship that would cart their souls… shit, why am I explaining this craziness? It's like Jonestown with fewer people.
I don't know who started the concept that Turians can't swim, or that they are descendants from birds, but I'm running with it, and why they can't swim as well.