The chapter before this was more of a prologue, meaning this is the real first chapter.
AN: Thanks for the follows and reviews. Will be out of town most of the week, so will either have the next chapter out before or after I get back. I do go back and edit mistakes I've made, and work to improve. And yes I guess you could say this is an OC insert, more fish out of water style I guess.
Update 4/18/17 Been on vacation In Vegas, so I haven't had time to work much on chapter 2. will hopefully be out some time near the end of next week, thank you for following.
God the questions, the type of questions, the amount of questions. Not to mention what that officer had told him before he was pretty much arrested. They were all crazy to say the least. This was starting to sound more and more as if he was an enemy combatant being interrogated.
"I told you guys for the hundred time who I am,"
"You'll forgive us if we don't believe your close 200 years old," The disbelief Kyle could see in his eyes kept him thinking. How in the world this man thought Kyle was that old was beyond him.
"Jesus Christ I'm barley in my early thirties. Listen I don't care what you black-ops freaks are up to, or what you guys are working on here. I can keep my mouth shut. Now can you please just have me sign whatever papers you need me to sign so I can be on my way?" He just wanted all of this to be over so he could leave and hit the sack, the amount of will he had to do to keep awake was starting to get to him.
"Captain if that is your real rank..."
"It is you damn push over! Just look at my records,"
"Yelling at me isn't going to get you anywhere,"
"Well acting calmly sure as hell didn't get us anywhere now did it?"
"While it's strange you carry the same DNA as the lost Captain Kyle Reed. DNA signatures that out of date aren't that hard the mask with the right tech. This prank of yours has gone on far..."
The door to the medical room nearly burst open when another military officer stepped inside. "Lieutenant Can we speak in the next room,"
The officer sigh in frustration as he stomped his way out of the room. The door slid shut when he made his way to the observation room where his CO was waiting.
"Well?" The captain asked.
"I'm good at reading people sir, plus from what we're getting from the machines the man isn't making any lies. He truly believes he is this lost Marine captain,"
"Maybe he is,"
"Sir?"
"While yes DNA and medical records this old can be falsified it's Impossible to come up with a hundred percent match, even if so happened to be a clone, although why someone would try to clone a person thought dead this long is beyond me, so that rules that out." the captain took a deep breath before continuing. "Plus not to mention a lot of the tech in that fighter hasn't existed in over a hundred years. That and some of the resources it's made with is nearly impossible to get a hold of now. Not even an air museum has a fighter that old, let alone in perfect working condition,"
The LT looked through the one way mirror seeing to so called time man slightly struggling with his restraints on the hospital bed he lied on. "Is there any other proof he is who he says?"
"Just some minor health issues that are not a problem in today's world."
That peeked the lieutenant's interest."So what now, if this is true to media is going to have a frenzy with this?"
"I have one more test in mind," the captain brought up his omni-Tool "Dr, Zetch,"
"Yes captain?" Came the reply from his omni-tool
"I have a patient in room 238, do you mind going inside to get a 2nd opinion scans for the records?"
"I'll have it done right away sir,"
That got the LT attention. "Are you sure that's wise sir? The man has nothing on him as a translator,"
"His reaction will help us confirm what we already believe,"
Kyle was beyond frustrated. He wasn't only pissed off, he was tired as well. Ever since being arrested after his landing, these nut jobs have been claiming his been missing for nearly 200 years. 'Fat chance' the best he could figure is this was some kind of sanity test, or some really missed up dream. He had been constantly questioned multiple times about who he was by that poor excuse of a lieutenant. Being restraint to the bed he was on wasn't helping either. 'Damn if he didn't have to take a piss for the last hour' He had to admit from the facility he had been walked through he was pretty impressed with all the holographic like tech he had been seeing. The guys in RD really knew there stuff. However, the fact that he wasn't blindfolded and was able to see everything wasn't a good sign at all. This was becoming some real area 51 shit for sure. And Kyle had been at area 51 before, emergency landing during a combat Exercise. At least when he was there for his short visit he was blindfolded. Kyle was brought out of his thoughts as the door to his room slid open.
"Can we just get this over wi...What the fuck is that thing!" Kyle screamed while he forced the bed over the side with his massive amount of struggling. Doing so caused Kyle, still restrained on the floor with the bed now on his side. The 'creature' Kyle could only explain came over towards him growling as if he was trying to communicate with him or something.
"Get the hell away from me!" Kyle brought his other arm not restraint up in defense.
A cracking sound before a voice on the intercom went off. "That would be all doctor," the voice of a man said. With that the creature with weird skin with what he can only describe as a strange bird like look and odd body structure left the room.
With that thing gone Kyle took in a deep breath before another man in uniform, but slightly older then the last entered the room. Looking at Kyle he brought up his hand, and that same orange holographic thing on his arm came on like many he had seen before. With the tap of a few keys Kyle's restraint were released.
"I'm sorry to be to one to tell you this Captain Reed, but welcome to the year 2174."
Kyle wasn't someone to faint, pass out, or anything like that. With nearly thirty hours of no sleep and his mind in a frenzy with this revelation his mind just couldn't handle this right now. Before he knew it his world turned black.
….
There was a huge sense of relief when Kyle started coming back into the land of the living. Like he had slept all week long. Faintly opening his eyes he recognized he was in a hospital bed. The groaning he gave out got the attention of somebody by him.
"Easy there sir, your body is still adjusting. Next time don't go so long without sleep," A woman's voice said. Kyle looked to his right where the said voice came from, and it looked as if it was a nurse.
"Man I had the strangest dream," Kyle muttered. The last real lucid thing he could think of before this dream was the turbulence in his fighter. He didn't feel injured though if bailing out was something he had to do. He was probably on a bunch of pain meds and couldn't feel it. Although it didn't felt like he was on any pain meds.
"I'll be right back sir, I was told to alert someone when you finally woke,"
With that the nurse fled the room. Coming more aware of his surroundings he noticed something off. Out the window he could see the mass amount of skyscrapers that looked so strange to him. Then he noticed the medical equipment around him all looked strange, 'oh shit'.
"It wasn't a dream..." He whispered to no one in particular.
He could hear the sounds of voices and faint whispers out in the hallway outside his room.
"Is it true?"
"I hear he came in on an ancient plane,"
"He can't possibly be from another time,"
Turning to the doorway he noticed a man in uniform he had not seen before he passed out enter the room. Although unlike the nurse he had the sense to close the door behind him, well mechanically slide the door he guessed.
"Mister Reed, my name is Warrant officer Jefferson," He announced sitting down on a chair beside his bed.
"Mister?" Kyle faintly said.
"Yes I'm sorry you have to forgive me. While the US still exist as well as its military in a way your commission ended umm years ago. That and you could understand why they probably wouldn't want to have you a part of the military anymore."
Kyle shook his head. "I guess I'm kind of out of the loop on things,"
Jefferson cleared his throat before continuing. "The Alliance says your story checks out. You are who you say you are. How you got here is something they would want to know though?"
What could he say, I had a bumpy ride and then blam I'm in the future. "Umm Jefferson…Yeah I wish I could tell you I used some sort of time machine made by Skynet or something," That got Kyle to chuckle, but the Warrant officer looked completely clueless. "Look I was out running system checks on one of the bases fighters, doing a routine every day test flight."
"Could something wrong with your fighters systems had caused you to jump in time?"
Kyle shook his head. "Doubt it, otherwise you'd probably have a lot more than one person out of time here,"
"What happened during the test flight?"
Kyle thought back trying to remember any little detail he could. "I experienced some heavy turbulence, then all around me there was some kind of, Hell I don't know what to call it. It was some kind of massive electrical storm all around me."
"So you think this was some kind of anomaly that caused this?"
Sounded saner than any other idea he could come up with. "Sure, yeah, lightning storm zapped me in the future. The hell do you want me to say, you think I'm so kind of mad scientist getting a kick from all this…"
"Calm down Kyle, calm down. I'm not your enemy, were just trying to get as many facts as we can to get through this."
With that Kyle sighed. It wasn't this man's fault, he didn't bring him here away from his home. This man was just doing his job, and with that Kyle did in fact calm down, for now at least. "So what happens now?"
"If we could we would keep this information under the radar. Nothing good would come from us placing you in the spot light while you try to adjust to…"
"But?" Kyle asked stopping him. He could hear that 'but' coming a mile away. "What are you guys going to do, some weird experiment crap?"
"Why would we do that to you Kyle?"
"Guess I just feel how the movies go. Man comes from time, government tries to capture him. That's usually how these things go."
The warrant officer looked confused. "Well Kyle this isn't some vid, and frankly I don't see how much we could learn about you that would benefit us in any way. Aside from destroying your lungs through smoking without any medical attention."
"If that was a joke about my smoking habits it's not funny. Took me over a year to quit that crap." He looked into Jefferson eyes. "So what was it about that 'but' you were about to say?"
"Right, well it looks as if the facilities staff couldn't keep all this quiet before the Alliance could warn everyone off. Let's just say you've become the biggest story on the extranet in the pass twenty hours."
Kyle figured that was some type of internet, only thing that made sense. "So what now?"
"We can give you two options Mister Reed. The alliance provides you with a sustainable funds for your past military service and old accounts reimburse, we would give you orientation and some simple training on how things are different. Although you would probably be the constantly harassed an annoyed by the public. Sorry Mister Reed your face and name is all out there for the public to see."
Kyle didn't like the Idea of that very much. "And the second option?"
"We have an alliance representative stick with you, you run the celebrity act. Give the people the stories they want. I give it less than a year before people move on to the next big thing in the galaxy, giving you some peace."
Kyle wasn't one for ultimatums. They always made you feel like you were backed up into a corner with no real victory. Both options sounded both good and bad, but when it came down to it he was going to have a lot of re-learning to do, the last thing he wanted was to be harassed as he was doing it. That left only one real option.
"Okay, option 2 it is," What Could possibly go wrong.
….
Everything was going wrong.
"Two weeks learning shit and I can't figure out how to flush this damn toilet."
If it wasn't one thing it was another. Kyle felt like a baby growing and learning how to simply just live in this world. The alliance helped, oh they helped a lot. Didn't give him any instructions on how to flush a simple god damn toilet in a hotel room on this colony world named something he could barely pronounce.
"Shit," he cursed out loud.
"Everything alright in there?" Randal an alliance lieutenant representative stuck with him for the past week asked into the bathroom.
"No everything is not all right in here lieutenant!" Kyle barked back, sure to bring the lieutenant down a notch. He didn't hate the guy, but half to time he was either asking him a ridiculous question or babying while teaching him how to use some form of simple tech. which was about to happen about right now. Finding nothing that looked like a switch on the toilet he gave up. "How the hell do you flush this damn thing?"
"Um Sir, you just leave the room, and it flushes on its own." There he goes again with his simple explanations to him as if Kyle was a two year old. Seriously this shit was getting old.
"You got to be kidding me!" with that Kyle stormed out of the room hearing the sounds of the toilet flushing.
"Didn't they have automatic flushers in your time?" Randal asked looking towards Kyle.
"We had something like that, but I only ever saw them in theaters, or a fancy restaurant." Kyle replied as he tossed himself onto the bed in the room.
"Guess you wouldn't have them on warships in the pacific either."
What the hell was he talking about 'oh not this again' I've already corrected him twice. "Lieutenant for the last time you're getting my time wrong. I did not fight in the pacific in World War 2, and I was not in Vietnam either." He added thinking of the last think the man had said the other day. "Those were before my time, the only action I ever saw was in Afghanistan," A part of him almost rather be there then here. At least there he knew how to flush a toilet, or turn on a freaking TV in the barracks.
Everything wasn't all bad. This was the first time he went off planet in well his whole life. They were currently on some outer colony world. The first week he was in this new time was spent learning how to use basic things, and also spent doing interviews. The amount of what this times TV host, and journalist that had questions for him were just insane. They weren't even asking good questions.
'How was it like in constant struggles with neighboring countries?'
'Was the food really horrible from your time?'
'What was it like having to drive your car everywhere rather then fly?'
'Is it true you were a heavy smoker, how did you survive on such primitive medical care?' now that one had made him angry.
Not the mention the massive amount attention he got wherever he went. You think it's annoying for women to constantly hit on you simple because you wear a uniform. Just try being a man from another time. Different women all over the place hit on him, even some men too. To them he was just some massive conquest to claim.
"The interview is tomorrow around…" Randal tried to say, but Kyle Just didn't care right now.
"Not now," He would do almost anything to get away from this guy. That made him think for a second. When they arrived at the spaceport, and had spent time doing other mundane things he realized people here either didn't care, or simply didn't know who he was. For the first time since getting sucked into the future he felt like he could just be himself out in this colony. That gave him an Idea.
"Hey Randal, if you don't Mind I'm going to head into the lobby, see if I can find some food to get."
"I could have that done for…"
"No please, I'll be right back. I just need a quick walk to myself. Get my mind clear and all," Kyle didn't even wait for a reply as he headed out the door. Looking back he was glad the Lieutenant didn't follow. When he got to the ground floor he didn't stay in the lobby. He headed outside, looking for the closest bar he could get to.
…
Going down the street in this town he noticed something, something that he hadn't placed much thought too. Looking around he saw families, groups of friends laughing. The emotion that was always in the back of his mind hit him full force. He was truly alone, no family to speak of, well none that he would know. No long life friends that he had once considered as brothers. Hoping to empty his thoughts he entered the first bar he could see.
Going inside the place wasn't too loud, it seemed pretty local, and distant at the same time. There weren't just humans in this bar. He had spent time learning a few of the species, surprised to find way more than the one Turian he first met while coming here. Well met is so much more gentle then it sounds , more like it well 'he' scared the crap out of him.
Kyle sat at the bar looking over some holographic menu of so many drinks he didn't even know if he could pronounce right. A bartender stood over him, looking at Kyle strangely. He thought for a moment thinking on the species he was. He wanted to say he was a salara...Something.
"Umm, strongest drink you got," Kyle said loudly.
"I don't like the Idea of a human dying in my bar,"
"Fine second strongest drink,"
The bartender placed a glass next to him then poured some kind of purple liquid he assumed was alcohol.
He was on his forth drink and before taking his first sip somebody shoved the right side of his shoulder. Kyle looked at his aggressor seeing a face with four eyes.
"Problem?" Kyle asked calmly.
"I don't like Alliance types in here," the Batarian yeah that's what this thing is replied.
"Well go find one to hassle and leave me alone!" Kyle stood his ground, it would be a cold day in hell when he let this guy push him around.
As Kyle tried to turn back to his drink the Batarian brought him around to face him. "You think your funny human, you're all alike taking things that don't belong to you."
"I'm not taking anything, unless you paid for another drink that is, then yeah I'll be taking something from you."
Probably not the smartest thing to say, the Batarian lunged for Kyle, but he ducked and smashed his drink on top of the batarians head, which brought him to the floor. Kyle smirked in satisfaction of a victory, but like everything else it was short lived. Coming towards him were not two, or three, but four more Batarians.
The second they surrounded him he couldn't help himself. "I don't take it you guys want to take turns you know. We can make this some sort of championship fight…." He was cut off when one of the Batarians gave him a mean right hook. Kyle who was thrown back towards the bar smiled at this. When two of the Batarians grabbed him he used all his strength of his elbows and knocked them back. He had been in many fights before, and he could tell this guys were no pushovers.
With the two knocked back words he turned around to face the others, and he wished he didn't turn to fast. Because now he could feel the alcohol all hit him at once. Dazed he dodged the first punch, then gave a much harder one back into one of the Batarians faces. He tried to keep himself into this fight, but four on one were not good odds. Before he knew it Kyle was on the ground, and all four of the Batarians were kicking at him.
They were laughing having the time of their lives working their way at him. Then the kicks stopped, as someone intervened. All Kyle could see was blurs of motion as the batarians were now getting their asses kicked by a single person.
"He's not worth it," one of the Batarians said as all of them ran out of the bar, carrying one of their companions.
"Need a hand?" The figure that saved him said holding a hand out towards him.
Kyle took the persons hand when he saw his helper and froze, staring at her face. She Very pale in the skin, as if she never spent too much time in the sun, her red hair barley covering the left side of her face. Coming to his senses he knocked himself out of though and stood up with her help.
"I had them you know, was about to make my move." Kyle slurred. He thought he said it out loud clearly, but the beating and alcohol were taking into effect.
She just chuckled at that. "I'm sure you did Jarhead,"
"How do you know I'm a marine? No alliance uniform on or anything,"
He figured she had to be military too. She had on a casual sweeter and jeans but the way she handled and postured herself had military written all over it.
"Your tattoo on your arm, its old school I'll admit, but I could recognize it." She pointed to his Marine Corps symbol that was tattooed on his left arm. "Plus the way you engaged those asshats, I mean given your intoxication brought your skill down."
"Please, Lady if you gave me just two more seconds I would have been back on my feet in that fight."
"Of course you would,"
The both turned as the heard a whistle like sound coming from behind the bar. "You humans get out of here, you've already caused enough of a mess." The Salarian yelled.
Kyle turned to leave the bar, but nearly tipped over himself. He would have fallen if it wasn't for this woman.
"Easy there Jarhead, let me help you outside."
Kyle felt like he should refuse, but it had been a long time since anyone was friendly towards him so he reluctantly let her help. The second the two got outside he didn't know what to say.
"Need help getting back to your place?" She asked. The street was nearly empty. No telling how late it was on this planet.
"I don't really feel like going back there,"
"Girlfriend kick you out?"
That got Kyle to laugh. "Hardly, Annoying roommate I would probably feel more like punching right now then anything."
She looked to be thinking of something. "Plenty of room at the place I'm assigned to right now, you can have my couch."
"Do you always take strangers home from the bar, what if I'm some kind of psychotic killer?"
"I doubt that, you give off a goof fib, besides if you did try to harm me I would kick your ass before you got the chance."
It was then that everything hit Kyle all at once. For the first time since he got here. He was having an actual conversation with another human who wasn't in awe about his whole time situation. That what probably change if he gave her his real name though. He thought about it for a second and made a mental decision.
Kyle reached his hand out to shake hers. "Kyle…" Already off to a bad start giving her his real name. She took his hand.
"Got a last name Kyle?"
"…Resse" he gave a fake last name, hoping she didn't understand the terminator reference. Besides what were the odds she's seen a movie that old. "What's yours?"
"Jane" She replied.
"No last name I'm hurt."
That got her to laugh a bit before she replied. "Shepard,"
