"Lieutenant!" The voice drilled into his skull even as Kaidan struggled to comprehend it through the fog in his brain. "Lieutenant Alenko, wake up!" Whoever the woman was, she was talking to him, he realized. But where was he? How had he gotten here. He tried to remember, but was still having trouble getting through the fog. "Get up! This facility is under attack." Those words were enough for instinct to kick in. He rolled off the bed, landing on shaky legs, and scanned the room for a weapon as he took a moment to steady himself. "There's a pistol in that locker in the corner," the voice said, echoing his concern.
He retrieved the gun from the locker, its weight comfortable in his hand. Beside it lay a device that he recognized as a biotic amp; on a whim he ran a hand across the base of his skull and found that he didn't have one equipped. He inserted the amp and instinctively activated a Barrier. The hum of his biotics was familiar, yet different somehow. He didn't have time to ponder it further, however. The voice continued to prod him.
"There are hostile mechs in the corridor outside. Take cover." He ducked behind a crate in the medical room where he'd awoke and peered above the top to see the mech approaching. Calmly, he squeezed off three shots into the mech's chassis, which was enough to bring it down. He headed down the corridor, which opened into a larger storage room. Several more of the mechs filed into the room from the opposite side. He took cover again behind a crate, wishing he had an omni-tool; he'd be able to make short work of the mechs with that.
Nonetheless, he managed to take them out the hard way: bullets, biotics and a little bit of patience. Convinced that he'd taken care of any hostiles in the area, he pressed on. The next corridor provided him with two unlocked doors; the first one he tried went to an office space. A recently saved video log flashed from a nearby terminal. Curious, he shut the door behind him and played the log.
The voice on the log was the same one that had awoken him a few minutes ago, and Kaidan realized he could recognize her face as well. He remembered waking up once before, in the same medbay he'd just escaped. He'd been barely aware and unable to move, hardly having a chance to take in his surroundings before everything went black again. Rudimentary brain activity? Organic reconstruction? Just how bad off was he, he wondered as other memories started to break through the fog.
The Normandy in flames, almost ripping apart before his feet. The desperate race to the bridge, the need to get to Shepard and keep her safe. Shepard's screams over his helmet radio, his desperate attempts to say goodbye with his remaining breath...
But he'd been saved. The Alliance must have gotten there quickly, he realized. Or someone had; that woman wasn't wearing any kind of uniform that Kaidan recognized. Desperate now for more information, he tried the nearby voice recorder. "The cost of this project is astronomical, over four billion credits." Four billion? What project? Was it talking about him? But four billion credits? For what? Just how long had he been out? Someone, maybe the dark-haired woman, had to have some answers. He left the office and continued through the station.
It wasn't long before he heard gunfire again. A dark-skinned man was crouched behind a railing, trying to hold off the crowd of mechs on a nearby catwalk. Kaidan watched as the man yanked one of the mechs toward him biotically, then decided to join in, using his own biotics to hurl the mech against the wall. Drawing his pistol, he helped gun down the rest of the hostiles then hurried to join the other man.
"Alenko, didn't think Miranda would have you up yet. I thought you were still a work in progress."
"Miranda... was she the one on the intercom?" Maybe he could finally get some information.
"Yeah, she's in charge of this project. I'm Jacob Taylor, by the way," Jacob held out a hand. "Been working on security here pretty much since we started."
"Jacob, listen, this probably isn't the best time, but would you mind telling me what the hellis going on here?"
"Shit, yeah, I guess getting woken up like that must have thrown you for a loop. I can give you the quick and dirty version. Your ship was destroyed, torn apart. You were killed in the attack; wasn't much left by the time we got to you. We've spent most of the last two years just trying to put you back together. You've been comatose, or worse, since we started."
"Wait," Kaidan started backing away, "you're telling me I was dead? Dead dead?"
"No pulse, no respiration, no brain activity."
"How?" he sputtered, trying to take in what he'd just heard. "Why? I mean, that shouldn't be possible."
"That would have to wait until we talk to Miranda. It's not exactly my area of expertise, you know?"
"Right," he conceded, though he continued to eye Jacob warily. "Do you know what happened to She- to the rest of the Normandy's crew?"
"I know Navigator Pressley was killed in the attack, along with a few others. But most of the crew survived, including Commander Shepard herself. As for where they all ended up after that, couldn't tell you."
"I'll want to try tracking them down when we get out of here, then."
"Understandable. We'd better get moving then."
"Lead the way."
They hadn't been moving long when they picked up another voice on the radio. Kaidan recalled it from the audio log he'd come across. The bitter one. Kaidan couldn't blame him, though; he wasn't sure his life was worth four billion credits either. "Jacob?" the voice called, "anyone? Is anyone here?"
"Wilson, I'm here," Jacob responded.
"In the control room right now," said Wilson, " trying to keep an eye on the situation. I spotted you on the camera. Take the door to your left; I'll meet up with you."
The door Wilson had indicated opened into a darkened equipment room. Kaidan had barely made it through the door when they were ambushed by another group of mechs. He Threw two of them across the room while firing his gun at a third. At least he had some help now, with Jacob proving more than adequate at disposing of the mechs.
"Wilson!" Jacob shouted angrily. "Next time can you try to not direct us into the middle of the hostiles?"
"Look, just keep moving, okay? I've made it to server room D and- augh! They're everywhere." Kaidan heard frantic gunfire in the background. "Ugh, one of 'em got me. Hurry!"
They hurried through the station, Jacob leading the way. "About time," Wilson barked when they finally reached the server room. "I thought I'd try to hack into the mechs from here, shut 'em down."
"You'e a med tech, Wilson. You don't have the clearance for this," Jacob said.
"Hey, it was worth a shot. Now are we gonna talk this shit to death or is someone gonna patch up this leg before I bleed out?"
Scanning the walls of the room, Kaidan spotted a medigel dispenser. He grabbed three packets from it and pocketed two, applying the third to the gunshot wound on Wilson's leg. The wound was pretty nasty, looked like he'd been hit from point blank range, although he didn't see any mechs nearby that might've been responsible. "C'mon," Kaidan said, reaching his arm down to help Wilson to his feet, "we need to keep moving."
Finally the shuttle bay was in sight. The door slid open as they approached to reveal Miranda standing in the doorway. He'd noticed how attractive she was on the vidlog, of course, but in person she was a knockout. Not that it mattered, of course. His only thoughts were for Shepard. They just had to get out of here...
"Miranda," said Wilson, "you're alive?"
Miranda drew the pistol clipped to her belt. "Despite your best efforts, yes." She pulled the trigger, dropping Wilson at point blank range.
Kaidan could only gasp. Jacob was slightly more composed. "What was that?"
"Wilson was a traitor. He sabotaged the facility, released the mechs, turned them against us. And now we need to get out of here before more of them show up."
Kaidan looked down at Wilson, but there was nothing he could do now. Reluctantly, he turned and boarded the shuttle with Jacob and Miranda.
He didn't know where they were going or what was going to happen when they got there, but seeing Miranda gun down Wilson in cold blood only strengthened his resolve to get the hell out of there and go after Shepard at his first opportunity. As he was pretty much stuck where he was at the moment, he settled for glaring at Miranda.
She sighed, finally tiring of it. "He was obviously guilty, Lieutenant. He set up all three of us to get killed." Kaidan had, in fact, come to a similar conclusion. The audio logs revealing the man's progressively injured pride, the way he'd guided them straight into a room full of hostile mechs, the suspicious leg wound- yeah, he probably had been guilty. Still...
"I thought a trial might have been in order. Or did humanity give up on due process in the past two years?"
"We handle things a little differently in our organization."
"Oh, and what organization might that be?"
Jacob leaned forward before Miranda could respond. "We're with a group called Cerberus."
"Jacob!" Miranda snapped.
Jacob shrugged. "He'd have found out sooner or later."
"Cerberus? The guys doing experiments with husks, and Thorian creepers, oh, and I think there was something with Thresher maw venom?"
"Acid," muttered Miranda.
Well, she wasn't trying to deny it. "Is that what you were doing with me in there? I'm another one of your experiments? Well, congratulations. You won. You figured out how to cheat death using me as your test subject. Good for you."
"Is that what you think?" Miranda shook her head at him. "Believe me, lieutenant, you're not just a guinea pig. You're far too valuable for that."
"Valuable? How? Actually, you know what, it doesn't matter. Because as soon as we get somewhere with a functional comm system, I'm calling the Alliance. If you think I'm going to work with you, you're crazy."
"I hope you'll reconsider once you've spoken with the Illusive Man."
"Illusive Man? Really? Is that supposed to inspire confidence?"
Miranda narrowed her eyes at him.
"Great," muttered Kaidan. He'd been kidnapped by mad scientists led by a man with delusions of enigma. Still, he was alive, and so was Shepard. That was something; really, it was everything. He'd sort out the rest when he had the chance.