The Cryonic Man
Chapter 2: A Face Full of the Future
A bit of foreword
This is my first story so please no flames.
I do not claim ownership to the rights to Mass Effect or its characters (sadly only Bioware and EA can claim that).
I do however claim ownership of the characters I create
Italics stand for thoughts and voices over an intercom
John felt hazy as he began to wake up. He felt cold, his limbs had lost feeling, and he had a splitting headache as well.
"Wa, where am I," he asked in his haze.
He then heard voices coming from all directions.
"Shepard, he's waking up,"
"Commander, subject is still not completely reanimated, we need more time,"
"Give him the sedative,"
Then he felt the world turn black once more.
6 hours later
"GAHH," John yelled as he stood up.
"Hello there young man," said a voice to his right.
"Who's there, where am I, am I dead, WHAT IS GOING ON!" yelled John.
"Calm down, I'm Doctor Chakwas, no you are not dead, you are currently on the Normandy SR-2, and you were retrieved from a space shuttle and revived from your cryo-pod," said the woman to his right.
"Space shuttle, cryo-pod, Normandy?"
And then all of a sudden, he remembered everything. The delivery, the attack by the yellow-eyed man, being sealed in a pod, and then being flash frozen.
"Oh my god," said John.
"I must say, you don't look like much of an astronaut," said Dr. Chakwas.
"That's because I'm not. My name is John Desmond and I'm a 19 year old bike courier from New York," replied John.
"Then what were you doing in the shuttle," asked Dr. Chakwas.
He then explained what happened, from the start of his day to the delivery, to the attack by the weird man and then to being locked into a container and cryogenically frozen. Chakwas listened to the story intently, laughing at some parts, and gasping at others.
"Where exactly am I again," John asked breaking the tension.
"Ahh yes, let me explain. You've been frozen for almost 174 years, and a lot has changed since then."
"Like what," John asked.
"Why don't you talk with the Commander, he could probably explain it better than me. In fact, there he is now," said Dr. Chakwas.
Right after she said that John turned to see the door open. Standing in the door was a tall, muscular man with a buzz-cut. John noticed the man had piercing blue eyes, and exuded an intimidation that comes from years in the military. Yet for some reason, to John, the man also exuded a sense of warmth and virtue, something he hadn't seen in most people since his parents died.
That's when he felt a certain melancholy in his heart. 174 years had passed and most of the people he knew were dead. Zevran, Mrs. Windsboro, hell even Mr. Decker, he would never see any of them again. He wondered if Zevran got his act together after he disappeared, maybe Mrs. Windsboro found someone else to dote over, maybe Mr. Decker finally softened up a bit.
John mentally laughed at this; Mr. Decker probably wouldn't soften up even if he was gone a million years. Still he felt a little sad, though he was quickly shaken out of his thoughts when he heard the man named Commander Shepard calling him.
"Excuse me," Shepard said for the 14th time.
"Huh," John said as he looked at the man, "Oh I'm sorry, I was just thinking about a few things, being frozen for 174 years has put a few thoughts in my head."
"I must say when we found you, I was surprised that you were still alive, considering your comrades were all dead," said Shepard.
"They weren't my comrades, I ended up there on accident," said John and after seeing the confused look on Shepard's face, he sighed and told the same story he told to Doctor Chakwas.
Shepard listened to the story going from a light laugh, to a look of a shock, but by the end he had a philosopher's look (think about a face someone makes when they are thinking about something very hard).
"So, he ended on the shuttle by accident, but something else stands out. That attack by the man with the yellow eyes. Could it possibly be…,"
"Um, Commander," said Doctor Chakwas.
"Oh uh sorry, so your name is John, right?"
"Yes sir, John Desmond Commander sir," replied John.
"Well John, just call me Shepard, mostly everyone does," said Shepard.
"Um, sure um Shepard," replied John, who felt a little weirded out that there was a person in the military who didn't like to be addressed by his title.
"Well John, the doctor says that you are perfectly fine, how about I give you a tour of the ship while we talk history," said Shepard.
"Um sure Shepard," said John
He then got up and immediately regretted it when he fell down.
"It's alright, after being on a shuttle for 174 years, I kind of have a bit of jet lag." Said John when he saw Shepard and Chakwas move to help him up.
Both the doctor and Shepard laughed at this.
"Joker may have some serious competition on his hands," said Shepard.
John got himself up, noticing he was still wearing the same the clothes he was wearing from that day. Dark shirt with a pattern on it, blue jeans, his black hoodie and his blue tennis shoes. He searched his pockets and found his subway pass and MP3 player, which was still in working condition to his surprise. John enjoyed the fact that as tough as Mr. Decker was, at least he didn't have a dress code for his job.
"I was sure that you didn't want to be in a Cerberus uniform when you woke up," said Shepard.
"It's alright, now come on, I want to check out this space ship of yours and learn what has happened in the past century or so," said John.
They headed out into the mess hall where John listened as Shepard explained everything that had happened in the past years from the discovery of the Protean artifacts on Mars which led to human science being accelerated by 200 years, to the establishment of the human System's Alliance in 2148, which surprised John that all the countries of the world banded together like that, to the First Contact War with the Turian Hierarchy in 2157, which John stopped halfway through to find out who the Turians are, and finally the events that led up to the Battle of the Citadel, 2 years ago.
"Wow, I've missed out on so much, but why did you stop after 2 years ago," asked John.
"Well John, the reason why is because I was dead all that time," replied Shepard.
John stopped and then said, "Wow, technology has advanced faster than I thought," which both men shared a laugh about.
After that Shepard explained all of the alien races that had been found over the years including the asari, the turians, the salarians, the krogan, the quarians, who John was especially interested in due to their unselfish nature, their amazing tech skills and their envirosuits, a technology that interested John, to the batarians, the volus, the hanar, the drell, the geth, and finally the Collectors and the Reapers, which John faced with a mixture or fear, that a sentient colossus, no several sentient colossi, that wiped out all sentient life every 25,000 years, and skepticism.
By about that time John had more than his fill of information. Shepard asked about his life in the 21st century which John told him about. From his childhood, to studying at Empire State and meeting Zevran, who Shepard said reminded him of a certain Joker on the ship, to his many dating mishaps thanks to Mrs. Windsboro, which both he and John laughed about. To his parent's death, which forced him to drop out of college due to being unable to pay tuition.
"And that's basically it up to the day I got frozen," said John as he looked at his MP3 player again.
"What's that you have there," asked Shepard.
"Oh this, it's an MP3 player, the people of my time used this to listen to music back in the day," said John.
"Next chance we get, we are getting you an Omni-tool," said Shepard.
John and Shepard's conversation was interrupted when they ran into a certain blue-armored individual.
"Hey Shepard, so this is the guy from the cryo-pod," Shepard nodded, "I must say you don't look much like and astronaut, little young aren't ya," said Garrus.
"I've been getting that a lot lately, and I'm 19. Anyways I'm John Desmond, you must be Garrus Vakarian, am I right?"
Surprised, or at least what John thought looked like surprise, "Umm yeah, that's me. Shepard must have told you about me, am I right," said Garrus.
"Yeah, taking on 3 of the galaxy's toughest gangs by yourself huh, Archangel. Very cool," replied John.
"Hey Garrus, you want to grab some lunch with me and John," asked Shepard.
"It's only been a day and you've already found a new best friend, I'm kinda hurt," Garrus and Shepard laughed and John chuckled a bit, "Thanks but I need to do some calibrations to the Normandy's new Thanix Cannons first, so go on without me," said Garrus.
"Alright, see you later, Garrus," replied Shepard.
After eating some of Chef Gardner's calamari gumbo, the two began the wider tour of the ship; they headed up to the CIC where John met Kelly, who he found very nice and friendly.
"You may want to talk to her about the dreams you told me about," said Shepard.
"Why would I talk to your personal assistant about the recurring dreams I've been having," John replied as he and Shepard headed towards the cockpit.
"Kelly is a certified psychologist and she could definitely help you," said Shepard.
"Well, I guess I can give it a shot. I don't have to pay her for the session do I, cause I'm kinda broke," said John.
"Don't worry, she won't charge you for anything," replied Shepard.
By that time they had gotten to the cockpit where Joker was listening to something that probably should have been going to his headset. Joker then turned around to see John and Shepard standing there with surprised looks on their faces, where he quickly shut off what he was doing and started to stammer an explanation.
"Oh uh umm that was supposed to go to my headset, sorry," Joker said with an awkward grin. "So uh Commander this is our astronaut huh, kinda..."
"Young yeah I've getting that a lot, I'm 19 for Christ's sake, and I was on that shuttle by accident," finished John.
"Someone's a little sensitive," Joker said.
"That's what she said," John replied.
Shepard and John burst out into laughter while Joker just looked at them with a confused expression which quickly turned into embarrassment.
"Sorry man, so you're the pilot of this ship," said John.
"Just one of my many functions I guess," Joker replied.
"I do not understand Mr. Moreau as being the pilot of this ship is the only function you serve on this ship," said EDI as she appeared on her small pad.
"GAHHH, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT," yelled John.
"Hello, Mr. Desmond. I am EDI or Enhanced Defense Intelligence. I run the cyber-warfare components of the Normandy," replied EDI.
"She is also a huge pain in the ass," said Joker.
Shepard rolled his eyes, while John continued to stare at EDI.
"Wow, a real artificial intelligence," he ran his hands through her holographic display, "Amazing, wait she isn't going to start singing Daisy is she."
Joker laughed a bit and said, "We all think it might happen someday,"
Then it was John's turn to laugh, when Shepard gestured him to tell him it was time to continue the tour and John nodded.
"Well time to go, nice meeting you Joker," said John.
"You too Joker Number 2," said Joker.
They both laughed one more time and John and Shepard went off to continue the tour.
The two then headed off to the tech lab where John met Mordin Solus.
"Ahh Shepard, I see the subject has been fully revived and there were no complications, strange process you humans have come up with, freezing yourselves in order to last longer. Almost like freezers in typical homes whereas humans are like the sticks of fish your kind keeps there, but enough of that good to see you're alright," said Mordin, his gaze pointed towards John.
John shot Shepard a "Is he always like this" look, to which Shepard shrugged, and said, "It's great to meet the man, er alien, er salarian, that helped saved my life Doctor Solus."
"Good to meet you too Mr. Desmond, I trust the Normandy has been to your liking," said Mordin.
"The amount of technology here is amazing; I never thought I would see something like this in my entire lifetime, and yet here I am," replied John.
"Yes, Normandy very advanced in design; most of latest technology is here on board, including this very well-stocked lab," said Mordin.
"Don't mean to sound rude, but must return to work on Collector swarm counter-measure, very important, talk later," said Mordin.
"Okay let's head to the armory John," said Shepard.
"Sure Shepard, nice talking to you Doctor Solus," said John.
"You too John Desmond," replied Mordin.
"That was nice, and weird," said John.
"Be lucky he had something to do," replied Shepard as they walked into the armory where Jacob was busy polishing the geth plasma shotgun.
"Hey Shepard, who's he kid," asked Jacob.
"Again with the young thing, I'm 19," said John.
"So where did he come from," asked Jacob again.
Shepard explained to Jacob what had happened; finding the shuttle, John's extraction and reanimation, and John's story of what happened.
Jacob let out a whistle, "Damn, that's messed up right there."
"Yep, 174 years. So you run the armory huh," John said.
"Yep, check out some of our weapons," said Jacob.
He then proceeded to show John the assortment of pistols, SMG's, sniper rifles, shotguns, assault rifles, and various heavy weapons in the armory.
"Wow, you could outfit a small army with this kind of tech, there is only one problem though. This missile launcher here," said John.
"What," asked Jacob.
"Do you have any more of those Phalanx Heavy Pistols," asked John.
"Uh yeah, right here," said Jacob handing John one.
John took it and disassembled it, earning a gasp out of Jacob, taking out the target light emitter.
"Sniper scopes," John asked in a questioning tone.
Jacob handed him a spare and John attached a few spare wires lying around to the target light emitter.
"Do you have a wireless transmitter," John asked.
"Uh yeah right here," Jacob said as he pulled one out of a spare parts bin he kept for weapon repair.
John then attached the transmitter to the side of the rocket launcher and attach the wires on the target light emitter to the transmitter, then proceeded to remove the rear lens in the scope and move the target light emitter inside the now open scope. Finally he attached the scope to the missile launcher, calibrated the wireless transmitter, and then he set it down on the table.
"Alright, the mod is complete," said John.
"What did you do to it," Jacob asked with a bit of awe in his voice.
"Added a remote target system. You see; all you have to do is aim it at a target, press this red button, and no matter where the target hides, the missile will seek it," said John.
"So I just paint a target and the missile will arc towards the target, even if they're hiding behind cover," said Shepard picking up the modified missile launcher.
"Yep," replied John.
"Wow, where did you learn how to do that," asked Jacob.
"I had a part-time job repairing guns at a weapon store back when I went to college in the 21st Century. Combined with my knowledge in Mechanical Engineering made creating this remote targeting system a breeze," said John, "However, if I'm going to be put to work in order to stay, I'd much rather just work in engineering, sort of moral reasons I guess."
Shepard decided not to question his reasons and said, "Alright John, I understand. We may need to put the tour on hold until we call a meeting and introduce you to the crew."
"Fair enough, I'm kinda tired of explaining my story to everyone," replied John.
The crew had gathered in the mess hall all in conversation about what the meeting was about. The only people who knew or had a vague idea were the people who John was introduced too today. The sounds of chatter were hushed as the Commander stepped forward.
"I know you are all probably wondering why I called this meeting," said Shepard, "The reason is simple, a few hours ago Joker found something that hasn't been seen in almost 2 centuries, a pre mass-relay Earth space shuttle."
"From galactic archives we found out that the shuttle contained 6 people who were cryogenically frozen as part of a secret government project to find life in the universe known as Project Archimedes," Shepard continued, "Unfortunately, when a team consisting of me, Garrus, and Mordin, went to the shuttle, we found that when the ship lost primary power, 5 of the pods stopped working, causing 5 of the brave souls who were on that ship to die from lack of oxygen."
The crew, except for Garrus and Mordin, all drew a collective gasp. Jacob, Chakwas, Joker, and Kelly, who had not been told that part of the story, gasped as well.
"Luckily we managed to bring back one of the pods and saved the life of the one person still alive on the craft, and since he will be staying on the Normandy until further notice, I'd like him to come out, introduce himself, and tell you all his story," finished Shepard.
Just as he finished John walked out, "Hello there everyone, my name is John Desmond, and like Commander Shepard has told you, I'm from the year 2011," said John.
The crowd uproared again, until, "Wait a minute, this bloody kid is the guy you saved," said Zaeed.
After hearing that comment again for the umpteenth time today, John simply rolled his eyes and told them all the story of how he had ended up in the shuttle, from the start of that day, to the delivery, to the attack by the yellow-eyed man, and finally being cryogenically frozen for 174 years. All the while having to stop when one of the crew members asked about something, like what a subway is, occasionally. By the end, the crew all looked at him with shock in their eyes.
To break the tension, Shepard stepped forward and said, "There is the situation. Since he has nowhere to go, I'd like him to stay on the Normandy. He has requested to work in Engineering, so Kenneth, Gabby, tomorrow I want you two to help introduce John to the Normandy's systems.
Kenneth nodded excitedly, hoping that he would have a chance to learn about technology from the 21st century, as did Gabby, who was excited to get to know the new guy. However one person didn't seem to like the idea, at least her scowl said that to John.
"Commander, as your second-in-command I refuse to allow a frat-boy to work on the engines of Cerberus's ship," said Miranda.
John was actually expecting something like this, so he was about to speak until Jacob spoke up instead.
"Miranda, this "frat-boy" built a remote targeting system for the ML-77 out of spare parts I keep around for weapon repairs. Hell this guy is probably almost on par with quarians when it comes to tech skill."
The crew looked at John with surprise, to which John shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's no big deal, I just came up with the idea when I saw the target light on the Phalanx Heavy Pistol."
"Be that as it may," Miranda spoke again, "This is a serious mission, and we have no time for babysitting."
"And I'm not a baby. Look if it's too much of an inconvenience I can just get off this ship at the next port, but if the only reason you want me to leave is because you think I can't handle this, then let me tell you what's what. I'm tougher than you think, and if can help in any way, I'm willing to contribute, but don't stand there and tell me a bunch of bull about how young I am. I lived for years on my own, I can handle myself," replied John.
Miranda looked shocked as did the rest of the crew. No one talked back to the XO before, and no one actually lived to tell the tale.
"If anyone else has any objections, speak up now," said John.
Miranda looked like she was about to launch another tirade, but a sharp glare from Shepard shut her up. The other crew were still shocked, so none of them spoke up.
"Good," said John, "Now how about we all get some dinner, anyone else hungry," he finished, dropping the serious look and tone he used earlier.
"I'd call that a good idea Desmond," said Garrus.
The conference room contained 2 people at this time, Miranda and The Illusive Man in a hologram, where Miranda was busy telling The Illusive Man about their new crew member.
"This is interesting, a man from the 21st century," said The Illusive Man.
"Shepard also seems to trust him, maybe we can use this to our advantage," said Miranda.
"What interests me more however, is this attack by the yellow-eyed man. It appears the Reapers and Collectors have been monitoring humanity for far longer than we initially thought, this deserves investigation," said The Illusive Man.
Miranda looked up in surprise, she hadn't thought of that. Could the Collectors have really been monitoring humanity before they had even found the mass relays?
"I'll have a team look into this, in the meantime how goes your plan of seducing Shepard," the Illusive Man asked.
"Things are not going well so far, but I'm genetically perfect, there is no way Shepard can resist me much longer," replied Miranda.
Miranda had suggested to the Illusive Man that she try a "honey-pot" in order to convince Shepard to leave the Alliance and come to Cerberus. So far things weren't going well but Miranda was so narcissistic that she believed her genetic perfection would win in the end.
"Keep me posted, and keep an eye on this John Desmond, from the story I heard his technical skills could be an asset to us," replied The Illusive Man.
He then ended the transmission and took a slow drag from his cigarette; he had a lot to think about.
(Author's Note)
Finally, after almost a week I finished the 4th Chapter (counting the prologues)
Sorry about the wait, my brother has been hogging the computer, I've had school, and I've been trying to follow my reviewers' advice of making chapters longer (which unfortunately means that the next chapter won't be up for a while)
Luckily however, winter break has started and I'm starting on the next chapter soon.
Thank You to all who have read and subscribed to my first story!
Please R/R