Chapter 3 - Not so graceful landing.

Pain. Pain is all I felt, the worst I had ever felt I'm my entire life. There was an unbearable ringing in my ears. It felt so painful that I wished I did not have them. A warm sensation crept through them. I was sure that they where bleeding. Great I wished not to hear and might now get my wish.

My head felt as if it was splitting apart, I could not comprehend all the sensations that penetrated my body. Wherever I was it was bright, for my vision was completely white. I need to get up. Needed to move. Needed to find out where I was and lastly I desperately needed to find out if I was ok. Lifting my hands up from the floor, I pushed against the floor to get myself up, but nothing. My arms still lay where they were before. I had felt the impulses sent from my overtaxed brain but my muscles were too weak or the impulses never reached them in the first place. 'One step at a time. Crawl before you try to run Andrew.'

The fingers on my left hand began to draw themselves towards my palm. I successfully but weakly clenched my hand into a fist, and with a few repeats of the process feeling was slowly returning to my hand. I did the same with my right. Again repeating the process with both my legs.

After a few more seconds I was confident that I had enough feeling within my limbs to try and get up. Using my hands to push my upper body off the ground before drawing my left leg into my stomach which was quickly flowed by my right. I was able to get myself into a kneeling position. With some of my vision returned to me I was able to get for the first time a good look at my surroundings.

I was in a room, the walls, ceiling and floor where all metal. On the walls to my right and left had shelves going all the way up to the ceiling. The shelves where packed with crates and boxes. Most of them where white and gray in colour, and again if I was not mistaken made of metal. In front of me was a door, I however could not get a good look at it as my vision was still bleary. Although there was something glowing green in the middle of it. This room was unlike anywhere I had ever been. It was alien.

'How did I get here?' What I could remember was that I had just finished mass effect 3. I then created a new game to play Mass Effect and then nothing, I can't remember anything after that point. My mind was still spinning. 'Maybe I'm just confused, I think I need to give myself some time. When I'm felling better I'm sure to remember.'

"Is my little sleeping beauty awake? If you stayed still any longer, I would have thought you were dead." Came a voice behind me, it sounded familiar. I twisted my head and body around to find a woman's face inches from mine smiling at me. I almost jumped as to how close she was, but luckily for me I still had very limited control over my body. Her face along with her voice was familiar.

Then it all came back to me, in a wave of emotions and images I remembered what was missing. There was an intruder in my house, she said something like "There will be no turning back once you click that button" and I clicked it. Although it was an accident. That mattered very little because next thing I knew the mass relay on my monitor came to life and then, and then well I was here.

"Where the hell am I?" I asked the women in front of me. To my pleasure she moved away from me, although she still kept eye contact.

"You're not so bright. Put two and two together. You're in the Mass Effect universe" She said in a matter of fact kind of way. At this point I finally got to my feet, I was a bit uneven on my feet so I had to resort to using one the shelves for support.

I was dumbfounded by her bluntness. "So you're saying I'm in the Mass Effect universe? That I went from my universe and was sent here?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying" she was smiling at me again. She was enjoying this, I just hope this is not how all other conversations with her will be like this. A guy can take only so much.

"Ok assuming I believe you. Why did you send me here?" Shit there she goes again. Her smile gets wider as she thinks of what to say next. I knew that she was going to joke around the question.

"If I said just for fun would you be angry?" she said in the most cute and child like voice I had ever heard.

"I'm already angry at you" I stated.

"Point taken."

"So are you going to tell me why you sent me here?"

"I will but firstly" She put out her right hand. "I'm Tal'kia and you are?" I really didn't want to shake the hand of the woman that sent me here. Wait can she be called a woman? Is she even human? As this all went thought my head she just waited for me to take her hand. Her smile was gone. Her face was serious. I could tell two things by looking into her eyes. One she would not continue explaining why I'm here if I didn't shake her hand. And two the look she gave me, made me think that if I didn't shake her hand I would regret it.

I reluctantly took her hand in mine, and we shook hands. "I'm Grayson, Andrew Grayson" shit I would have face palmed if I was alone. Seriously how cheesy is that? Quoting James Bond, did I think I was some hot shot?

"It's nice to meet you Grayson Andrew Grayson" she said with a huge smile plastered upon her face. Darn it she's messing with me. "ohh and by the way mister James Bond I'm a human woman. "

"Ok ok can you just explain why I'm here" irritation filled my voice, I just wanted to move past the whole James Bond incident and then the penny dropped. "Did you just say you're a human woman?" she merely nodded her head, her smile never leaving her face. She was enjoying this way too much I thought. At that thought her grin grew slightly. This however was missed by me as I tried to processes the information I had received.

"But how? How did you..." Wait when did I even ask if she was hu... "You can read my mind!"

"Bingo"

"Ok that explains that, but how..."

She cut me off finishing the sentence "Can I send you to another universe if I'm human?" Now it was my turn to nod. "Well I'm actually a Primiron. Which is as close to being human as you can get. And before you ask how I will tell you when I explain your reason for bringing you here."

I had all but forgotten my earlier question. I was beginning to feel like a small child against this woman. She had me cornered, making me seen like such a fool. "You know you're cute when you embarrass yourself." I didn't have anything more to say. She had me completely and utterly beaten.

"I think iv messed with you enough. For now" she added as if it was an afterthought. She gave me a wink just to rub it in.

"You are here to prove a point to a matter that has been around for almost fifteen thousand years."

"And what matter might that be?"

"Is the human race ready to take its place beside us."

"What do you mean? What are you really?"

"One question at a time Andrew." She paused for a moment, looking away from me. For the first time in this entire conversation she had broken eye contact. Her face showed confliction and for the first time in this conversation I felt superior.

She turned her head back to me. She smiled at me softly. "Don't start getting cocky now Andrew. Just because I'm trying to work out how much I can tell you without getting in trouble, does not mean you are superior. You know I do have the power to 'flay you alive - with my mind!' At least I could. I have no power in this world no influence."

"All jokes aside. I will tell you as much as I can. We Primiron's evolved into sentient life a billion years ago, we spread across the entire galaxy. It was quite, there weren't many other sentient species out there. The other sentient life lived harmoniously, for a time. War broke out and twelve thousand years later the Primiron's where all that where left. In the war millions of worlds burned. Life was all but eradicated from these worlds. We had lost are home system as well. Our race was scattered, broken but we had a duty to start life once again on the dead worlds. Eventually we were successful in restarting life where there was none. A fraction of are mighty people where left. We went back to are home world to find it devoid of life its atmosphere long gone. However the world closest to our home was spared from the war, its life flourished. That is where we found you, you humans."

I was taken aback by the whole thing. "You're saying that you are from, what mars? That's just..."

"Strange. I know it was a bit weird to find a race of people much like our own right next door. Humans and Primiron have similar ancestry. Both our evolutionary paths led to almost the same outcome. We decided to watch over the humans and guide them along a path so that you would not destroy themselves." She paused for a second taking a deep breath before continuing.

"Eventually humans showed that they were ready. So we made our selves aware to them, we thought them what we knew. Advanced technology and even powers where given to them. We were treated like gods. In the end the humans got greedy, started to kill each other we had to step in and stop them from destroying themselves and the 'pure' humans untouched by our gifts and technology. We had all but one choice. Destroy them completely and utterly. That was fifteen thousand years ago."

"Fifteen thousand years ago. That was the time that Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea. You're saying that Atlantis was real and that you killed them?"

Tears where swelling in her eyes, they formed and cascaded down her cheeks. "Yes we... I killed them. I was the one that decided they were ready and I was the one that had to make it right. I sank there continent to the bottom of the sea. I killed millions that day. And it is my duty to show that this time humans are truly worthy to join us."

There was very little I could say. I wanted to comfort her but I did not know there to start. 'Don't worry you where wrong once but you can believe in me I won't let you down. Yer right that would work'

"Thank you. It the thought that counts." She said wiping way the tears.

"Shit I keep on forgetting that you can read my mind. Wait you said you where powerless in the universe, so how can you read my mind?"

She had calmed down a bit now "I did say that didn't I. Well there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"So basically your not going to tell me are you?"

I was partly curious but what I really wanted was to get her mind on something else... 'And she is still reading my mind. Every little thing that runs through it. Don't think it. Don't think it.'

"I find your body very appealing as well" She said her face once again held a smile.

"Please stop reading my mind its weird"

"Very well if you insist I will stop" I couldn't help but sigh in relief

"Ok now that's over. Where the hell am I? And I mean where in this universe."

"I can't tell you that."

"And why not?"

"I simply can't tell you that. There are some things you must find out for yourself. I am merely a guide I will show you the paths but you must walk them. Although it doesn't mean I can't give you advice once in a while."

"I give up. I guess you will tell me what I need to know when I need to know. Let's get out of here and find out where we are." I turned around 180 degrees to face the door. I could finally make out the door and its green holo panel. Walking over to the door I realised that I didn't know how to open it.

"Do you know how to open the door?"

"I don't know. How about just touching the holo panel, I'm sure that might work." She said sarcastically.

Well here goes nothing. I reached out and touched the panel; it was weird it felt as if I was touching something solid but knew it wasn't. The panel moved back slightly from the pressure I applied. The circle in the middle span for a moment before flashing once. The door split apart exposing the corridor outside.

No sooner had I taken a step outside I meet my first alien (not including Tal'kia). Well I more bumped into him then saw him. He staggered back a step from the force. His four black eyes looked me up and down, he clearly wasn't happy. Disgusted even.

"Damn you disgusting human. Yo... Who are you? How did you get in here?" He was slurring his words, clearly he was drunk and by the smell, he was very drunk. He looked really intimidating in his blue and white armour. His breath was putrid. I took a step back trying to get away from the smell. It was in vain for I could still smell the alcohol.

This move was not unseen by the Batarian. He must have seen it as me trying to get away from him, which was true but not in the way that he thought "You're not getting oout of this soooo easly Human. Answer me human!" His hand reached behind him, pulling a pistol into view. I watched in horror as time slowed, the pistol slowly folded out and around the Batarians hand.

My mind moved a mile a minute trying to work out what to do. 'Do I try and run? Do I try and talk him down? Shit what to do what to do?' The gun had finished unfolding and the Batarian held it towards my head.

'Is this it? I come all the way to the Mass Effect universe to have my head blown apart by some drunken, trigger happy, alien over a misunderstanding. Now that's depressing.' I could hear his finger squeezing the trigger. 'When was my hearing that good?' Yes I know fixating on the unimportant again.

He had all but finished pulling the trigger. In a few milliseconds I was about to die.

My body moved on its own, my left arm rose up to meet the Batarians right, smashing the back of my hand into his armoured wrist. Bang. He fired, but with my quick movement the bullet missed my head by centimetres. The force I put into the attack knocked the gun from his hand. I was not finished; my right arm came up flaring with yellow, gold electrical light that wrapped and twisted around my arm. I slammed my palm into his armour chest plate.

He went into the air as if he was hit by a car going 70MPH, his limp body flew across the corridor until he hit the opposite wall. I heard a clanging sound of metal on metal; I also heard a faint sound underneath the clang. It was a soft snapping sound reminded me of the sound made by a twig when stepped on.

I was pushed off my feet by the recoil, landing heavily on my ass I let out a sigh of relief. "Shit that was close that guy almost killed me. But that was awesome, I'm freaking biotic. Tal'kia why didn't you tell me I'm a fringing biotic?" I asked panting heavily. I remembered from the games that using biotics consumed a lot of energy but I never expected it to be this draining. Guess I need to do a bit of training before I use it again in combat.

Thinking about it I looked over at the Batarian who was still slumped up against the wall. He wasn't moving, crimson liquid was slowly creeping from behind his head and down across his armour. My heart stopped for a moment. 'Is he dead? Did I kill him? God what have I done? Iv killed someone.' Playing games, like COD and Battlefield makes killing seem fun and exciting but now I realise that it is anything but fun. It's disgusting, more bloody and violent in real life.

"Mikhail I know you're pissed but you don't have to start shooting up the place." Another Batarian wearing the same Blue and white armour came around the corner to my right. Firstly he saw his companion slumped against the wall clearly dead. "Shit. Mikhail's been killed! Intruder sound the alarm!" He shouted back the way he just came from. I heard chairs hit the floor and footsteps echoing down the hall towards me.

"Attention intruders are attacking the base. Attention intruders are attacking the base. All personnel report to your stations immediately." Blared a synthesized voice over the intercoms.

The Batarian then turned to me pulling his pistol from his right leg. This had gone from bad to fucking shit storm and I've only been here for no more than 10 minutes.