Chapter 7: Scary Awkward Greetings

Garrus spun around and found Captain Balak's face watching him a few feet away. In reflex, Garrus jumped back and reached for his pistol. Pain shot through his arm and he squeezed his eyes closed, but also flicked off the safety of his gun and pulled the trigger.

Shots rang out in the room, more pain and Garrus felt his gun slip from his fingers.

Garrus opened his eyes. A thing wearing the batarian captain's armor stood before him with a head completely covered in a black chitinous helmet. He could see shiny little flecks of metal stuck on it. The helmet shifted, writhed and withdrew and the face revealed was not the captain's.

It had a face shaped almost identical to an asari, but tan or very light brown instead of blue. It had hair upon its head as well: a bright reddish rust on hanging down from the top and a darker rust in a pair of strips above each eye (which reminded Garrus of the markings some asari have). It had a pair of eyes that were incredibly like an asari's: black pupils, white sclera, and colored iris which in this case was hazel. Garrus was fairly sure this form was of the same unknown alien race on the vid.

"That was annoying," it said and Garrus wondered how even its voice could be like an asari's. It made an odd gesture with one of its four-fingered hands, which was without gauntlets.

Garrus reached for his shotgun with his left hand and felt an odd sensation wash over him. A clatter echoed in the room and the holsters from his back were without weapons. A tentacle swept around his feet and sent his weapons sliding to the far side of the room.

Garrus looked around and saw the other two, now no longer pretending to be batarians and instead looked like members of the same alien race as the "captain." One was holding a small, metallic rectangular device that Garrus guessed was some type of datapad and the other was lowering its arm and he was certain this was the one who removed his weapons.

"I wasn't expecting to be discovered. Congratulations."

Garrus tried to activate his omnitool, but it was unresponsive. "I had an impressive cocktail of painkillers and other drugs all day," said Garrus and he started backing up, "so if you eat me…"

"We'll get very, very intoxicated?" asked the "captain."

"Sounds worth it." Said the one with the datapad-thing.

"We could just shoot him." Said the other.

The "captain" chuckled. "But that would be poor payment for the opportunity the nice Spectre has given us."

Garrus really didn't like the sound of that. "Opportunity?"

"Spectre Vakarian," it gestured to itself, "I am Commander Jane Shepard of the Human Systems Alliance." Then it gestured to the one that took his weapons, "this is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams," and to the one that now held a regular datapad, "and this is Lieutenant Robert Fonteneaux."

"Pleasure to meet you?" Internally, Garrus was panicking over the implications of Protoform with military ranks, like an actual Protoform military.

"We come bearing gifts." The commander then looked over to the one with the datapad.

It replied something in an alien language while focusing on the datapad. The commander frowned. The third one rubbed its hand against its forehead.

The Commander faced Garrus and smiled, "and we hope to live in peaceful coexistence with the Council."

Garrus blinked, twice and gaped. "What?"

"We come in peace." The commander held its arms wide.

"Is this some sort of… first contact?" Which Garrus thought was absurd and he wondered if the Protoform in front of him considered him an idiot.

"Yes."

Garrus thought for a moment, "I think we are all aware it is too late for that, considering that your kind have been ravaging the galaxy for around three hundred years now."

"That's not us."

Garrus's immediate thought was: Really? Is that what you're going with? "Seems like you," he said with as much disbelief he could fit into his voice.

"The Infected and our race were once one," said the commander as it scratched the back of its head.

"The Infected?"

"You called them Protoform. We call them the Infected." Garrus noted that Infected and Protoform both had the same kind of dread emphasis on them.

"Infected with what?"

"An apocalyptic virus that destroys free will," then the commander shrugged, "Details are in the gifts." It looked to the lieutenant and muttered, "or will be."

"If your kind are not the Infected, then what are you?"

"We are humans."

"Go on."

The commander sighed, "Our ancestors fled our original homeworld, Earth, before the Council found it. The records say we were led by the one known as Zeus who brought our ancestors to the garden world we call Dirt, which they made into a new homeworld. Since the landing of the original settlers we have spread and made homes in several systems."

"So what are you three doing on the Citadel?"

"Exploring. Seeing the sights. Learning about the neighbors. Getting some justice after one of our worlds was attacked."

"Justice?"

"Batarian slavers attacked one of our frontier worlds. We retaliated and discovered that the Batarian government authorized and funded the attack. The ambassador was one of many government officials that have evidence connecting them to the slavers."

"How many?"

"Very many."

Garrus sensed that he wasn't going to get much more on that particular topic. "You mentioned gifts."

"A history of our kind, which Fonteneaux here is working on…" said the commander, "and a few packets of medigel." The gunnery chief handed a small red pouch to the commander, who then held it out to Garrus. Garrus took the pouch gingerly as if he were accepting a live explosive and held it away from himself.

"Medigel is…?" he asked, glancing between the pouch and the commander with suspicion.

"The greatest medical advancement ever," the commander sounded like a salesperson, "it is a gel that heals almost all wounds and it works on all organics."

"We tested it," said the gunnery chief, "it even works on turians."

The lieutenant then said something to the commander whose eyes widened slightly.

"I need to go," said to the commander. Then it made a hand gesture.

Garrus's world filled with a burst of static, darkness and then a day long falling sensation that cut off with a short shock of color and then nothing.

******************** Scary Awkward Greetings: End *******************

Talk for reader:

Okay, made an OC because all of the other human crew that serve under Shep wouldn't cooperate with me. That, and biotics are too valuable to waste on an exploration/first contact mission. So while a few biotics volunteered, they didn't get to go. At least now I have a character I can use to infodump on Garrus and y'all later.

And now I just realized I spoiled the existence of human biotics. Great.

Sorry if you wanted the name change... my sister really wanted the name to stay the same and held the ice-cream hostage. (If you don't know what I am talking about, don't worry about it.)

Yes, I named a planet Dirt. What else would I name it? It was either Dirt or Bob.

I did not want to spoil this but I also don't want you to freak out: Garrus is not infected, he will not be replaced by a Protoform/Infected. If you are wondering what happened in the last paragraph, Garrus got hit with a variation of neural shock, which stunned him and he fell to the ground, hit his head and got knocked out. In Shep and crew's defense, Garrus was looking to be troublesome so they couldn't just leave with him unsecured. I doubt they expected it work so well.

Made a cover on paint. An artist I am not.