Chapter Two - Contact
"Conroy, we have to go!" the soldier shifted, sighing.
Dr. Michael Conroy grumbled before he replied, his British tones showing his annoyance.
"I would already be done if you didn't bother me every bloody second! Just go, Commander."
Neil towering behind him shook his head and activated his comm. "SSV Columbus, come in, this is Commander Collins."
The line remained static for a few seconds, then, "What is it, Commander?"
"It's Conroy, sir … he's still resisting leaving this damned wreck," the Marine reported. Moments stretched into minutes. At last, he heard a crackle, like wood breaking, and his ship responded.
"Bring him back unconscious if you have to, Collins, I'm not letting that bastard kill himself under my command." The captain left no room for questioning the order in the finality of his voice; even when he wasn't present, they should obey.
"Aye, aye, Captain. You heard the man, let's get the hell out of here."
"Not yet!" Conroy still resisted, his long and skinny fingers dancing on the console's interface with such speed the armored soldier couldn't even follow what he was doing.
Patience was a virtue, one Commander Neil Collins didn't possess at the time. He motioned ahead and detached his pistol from his hip, pointing right at Conroy's helmet.
The scientist chuckled as he saw the soldier from the corner of his eye. Neil heard two faint voices in his head. One, his own survival instinct, telling him to leave this rotter alone to his fate. And another, his inner man, whispering he had to convince him to leave, whatever it took. His anger clouded his sight for just one split-second, yet he was moments away from hitting him with the butt of his pistol. Shooting him, of course, was not an option, much to his dismay.
"Seriously?" the scientist asked, grinning, still burying his head into the device, the arrogant look on his face more irritating than words could have been in the situation.
"Move, goddamit!" Neil said, still scarcely controlling himself, except the stubborn Conroy wouldn't turn away from the console that had alien symbols all over it.
Conroy twisted and turned a few of the 'buttons' in their slots and rails, as if he was aware of their purpose.
The dim lights switched off, letting the heavy curtain of darkness fell on the two. Both men's hearts skipped a few beats before brighter lamps took the former bulbs' place in an instant, filling the circular room with some warming light. It makes the monsters run away, Neil remembered his distant childhood with a relieved sigh. Yet some shadows still remained, cloaking the threats and watching eyes. Even in the cozy enviro-suit, the thought made Neil shiver. He already hated the place.
"Life-support activated," Conroy announced, his tone smug as ever for this remarkable achievement. Checking his omni-tool though, he saw they had air for less than ten more minutes in their suits. That wouldn't have been enough to get back to their own ship without the life-support. That froze his smile off.
Neil put his gun away and carefully took off his helmet, sniffing into the air. Artificial, and smelled like dead bodies, but at least his lungs still worked and they weren't dead. A relief nonetheless, he thought. His grey and furious eyes still trained on Conroy, he felt an urge to punch the scientist in his ugly, stupid face. He chose the less violent road and pushed him hard to the rusty wall beside the console. As Conroy's back hit the metallic surface, Neil could swear he heard a faint crack.
"If you ever disobey direct orders again …" He loomed over the weaker man, resisting the voice of the devil to destroy him. It would be just too easy, yet so satisfying.
"Then what? You'll kill me, Commander?" Conroy asked, his lips pulling to another arrogant smirk. With his deep wrinkles and waxy cheeks, the scientist reminded him of an undead man, here to haunt the living. His combed hair now messed up due to the struggle, a greasy lock dangled on his forehead. Neil finally let the asshole go and turned his back on him.
"Did you find out anything about the ship?" He gestured at the ancient, alien consoles, his movements jerky and harsh. His muscles felt tense, as if they wanted to take over and just hit that S.O.B.
The scientist stroked his left cheek before answering, "I was trying to save our lives, Commander. I had no time to access the database yet." Conroy paused for a brief moment and chuckled. "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how I was even successful at activating the life-support system exactly."
There's your freakin' genius, Neil thought, anger bubbling back up in his throat, threatening to choke him. He swallowed it back down, instead.
The unpleasant beeps of their comm device snapped Neil from his thoughts, just as the captain's voice blared out of them. "Shore party, status report."
Neil rubbed his eyes, wishing the day was shorter and he could spend the rest of it in a bed. Or at least those things that were in the crew's quarters people dared calling bed. "We're still alive, sir. Life-support is on, no need to bring Conroy's ass back. The others can join us again."
Captain Dave Clark copied the reply a blink later. Looking around, Neil jumped to the conclusion that the formerly dim lights did much good to the place compared to the bright ones. The rust had eaten most of the walls, leaving the carved forms in the metal disrupted or completely ruined, their intent lost forever in time. In its full glory, the room was once probably a more pleasant architectural piece, but now it looked just like rotten insides of an old egg. When they first stepped aboard, Conroy had expressed his theory that the ship could be ancient, Neil remembered. Probably even the doc thought it would be in a better condition than this, though.
Turning around, the commander saw the scientist stepping back to the console and diving into work. "Just don't get us killed," Neil warned him, pondering what he should do in the meantime.
Unfortunately, he was responsible for the man and leaving him alone was, to his dismay, out of question. Still, he felt the need to catch some "fresh" air and cleanse his mind, except his squadmates were still probably in the long process of getting on the vessel.
With a sigh, he moved beside Conroy to see what he was doing. "Any idea what these things even mean?" he asked, reaching for one of the buttons. The interface looked more like a puzzle than a keyboard. All symbols had been carved into a triangle, rectangle or something similar, always with edges and never circular. They could be moved left and right or up and down in their straight rails, some even moveable to a different slot. Conroy grabbed Neil's wrist before he could touch a rectangle-shaped object, his grip stronger than what Neil would have expected.
"Don't touch anything!" he told the Marine. "I told you, I cannot work if you keep asking me ridiculous questions."
"Understood," the commander pulled his arm back, swallowing his frustration and need to break the little man's face.
He went on to sit down beside the console on the floor, leaning against the cold wall. He detached his pistol from the belt and looked toward the two corridors that led to the room. On his left, the hall they'd come in through beckoned, now shining in comforting and protecting white light, calling him to its safety, while the other sat bathed in gloomy darkness. Who even knew where that one led?
A good five minutes passed, when Neil started to feel cold drops on the top of his head. He reached for the spot and his hand came away wet. Looking up, he saw the culprit, a leaky ventilation shaft just above him. "Shit…" he whispered, standing up. The dripping became more and more intense. His head started to itch a bit, however sounds of steps from the left corridor made him ignore the uncomfortable sensation.
Soon, his squadmates returned, with an additional person, the biologist Dr. Eve Park. She had soot black hair, dark as space outside, the longest lock reaching only her ears. Neil couldn't help admiring her hourglass curves in the armor suit, and those eyes, brown as chestnut and mystical like the dark hallway on the other side.
She was escorted by the asari Feara, the turian Thetus, and as always, behind them Nick Donahue brought up the rear.
Taking two longer steps, Nick took the lead of the small group and caught Neil staring at Eve Park. "Don't start the speech, boss, she insisted," he said, forestalling Neil's question, shrugging in the process.
Neil couldn't really pay much attention though, his itching now burned, as if somebody lit his hair on fire. He started to worry if that fluid wasn't even water, but some sort of hazardous chemical.
"I decided to come by, since meeting a new, intelligent alien culture is inevitable. Better to have a few experts around in that case," the doctor said.
Neil shook his head, the conversation being only secondary on his list. A wave of dizziness hit him making him reach for something to lean on. He blinked, hoping it would pass, but his stomach decided to jump on the train and twisted in sudden nausea. Fear of the unknown quickly carved its way into him, he felt his heart beating like it wanted to escape from his rib cage. Opening his lips, he desperately tried to cry for help, but instead of words, he couldn't do more than a bleak groan. His vision blurred and darkened, the shadows slowly eating him up from the inside. The voices of his squadmates seemed so far away, they may as well have been back on the Columbus.
What the hell is happening to me? he asked himself before dropping unconscious.
Opening his eyes, Neil started to gasp for air. He was underwater, the surface nowhere to be seen. His lungs were empty, and despite his N7 training, he felt panic quickly taking over him. It took a few seconds to realize he wasn't actually choking for some unexplainable reason and he could breathe normally.
Am I dead? he wondered, yet the experience felt too real and strange. His body floated in the fluid, except he couldn't move his hands or legs to swim away, only his eyes, but apart from the dark blue of water, there was nothing to see. Small bubbles slowly whirled around his eyes rapidly, seemingly caused by a current, but then a bunch of them stopped in front of him. That was when he saw them. Electrical discharges danced inside the bubbles, a mesmerizing sight that somehow filled him with peace and calmed his mind. They were wondrous, like fireworks on the night sky. Dozens of them converged into one spot, melting together until they formed a bubble as big as Neil's own head. It started to sculpt a figure from electrical currents. Slowly, Neil recognized a face without features in it.
"Leave!" it said, the voice being faint as one would expect underwater, yet authoritative. "Not... ready!" it continued seemingly struggling with the words, now threatening, "Ours!"
Neil had no idea what this mumble meant, only that this thing had to be some kind of alien life-form. "Why?" he asked eventually.
"NOT WORTHY!" insisted the alien, the sparks dancing faster.
The thought that he initiated first contact with a new, alien species hit him like an oncoming train in a tunnel. He thought of himself more as a master of fighting than words. There would be dozens of more suitable people aboard the Columbus for this task. Afraid he would unwillingly frustrate this species, he tried to be as diplomatic as he could. Even narrowing the dozens of questions to just a few seemed hard as lifting the heavy weights back on Earth.
"We mean no harm, we just want to meet you and understand you," he said, trying to find the best words mid-sentence. "Where did you come from?"
It shouldn't be me. He was trained for combat, not negotiations, Neil wasn't the type to sit down and chat for hours. It frustrated him that he could screw this up just because he prefered doing over talking. Shepard would have known what to do, Neil pondered, disappointed in himself. He couldn't move in the water, yet he sensed his pulse in his neck, his heart rapidly pumping blood in his limbs, the adrenaline feeling as if someone poured cement in his veins.
The bubble's sparks disappeared for a second, then concentrated in its nose and hit Neil in the forehead. He felt an unbelievably strong headache, as if someone pushed a giant needle through his brain, then as fast as it came, the pain floated away. He was, however, still in the water with the alien.
"This, not your place. Mistake, to come here."
So you know more than just a few words in English, Neil thought, And sound like that green guy in those old space movies, he added in his own head, but the bubble seemed to be unimpressed.
"We need help," he said, "War is threatening our galaxy!" It had been so for ten long years now though, but this ship could mean the end of it.
"Not our concern," the alien told him without room for questioning. Neil couldn't really argue with them. They were probably not even from this galaxy, for all he knew.
"Why did you even come here? What is this ship?" he kept going, hoping it would eventually lead somewhere, desperately clinging into this small thread of hope for answers.
"Protection," the alien finished then the only bubble exploded into thousands and Neil was snapped back to reality.
"He's regaining consciousness," Neil heard a familiar voice, soft, like gentle waves of the ocean. Definitely the biologist one, he determined. He opened his eyes slowly, only to see all the others leaning over him, except Conroy. He slowly sat up, trying to ignore the stares from his squad.
"Sir, what happened? Are you okay? You passed out for a moment." Donahue looked like he had seen a ghost. Neil rubbed his eyes and peeked at the vent shaft. It was completely dry.
"I'm not sure," he replied. "But I'm okay, don't worry about me."
Dr. Park scanned him with her omni-tool.
"I'm fine!" Neil exclaimed pushing her arm away, jumping to his feet, "Jesus, don't you have other stuff to do than to stare at me? You guys look like creeps," he added, his face flushing by the embarrassment like heated metal. He needed trust and respect from his men, but he doubted passing out in front of them improved their opinion of him. Turning his eyes upon Conroy, it seemed the genius didn't even realize what happened a moment ago. "Conroy, anything on where the hell we are? I don't want to spend too much time here."
Conroy smirked at the question, a gesture Neil would gladly give him a slap for. Repeatedly. "I did, actually," Conroy responded, leaving the others hanging in suspense for a while.
"Oh, spit it out already," Faera demanded this time instead of Neil. Somehow, it felt good not to be the one asking the obvious.
"It's an ark. An intergalactic ark …"
Jaws dropped around the room, even the always silent Thetus seemed shocked just like Neil, who couldn't even comprehend the significance of the discovery. An ark? A goddamn ark? he slowly realized how obvious this had been. The ship had an enormous hull, like a whale swimming amongst the stars. Who knew how many knowledge could be hidden in a ship like this? God knows, he tried, but it was beyond his power to imagine how much they could learn.
The geeks would know, though, and already he saw Park or Conroy running around excited like a five-year-old for finding something new. Neil swallowed, feeling a rush of adrenaline as his own little puzzle came together. The whole first contact experience made more sense now, and he was the only one aware they weren't alone in that room.
"Protection," he whispered.
A/N: aaand yet another thank you for Palaven Blues and Lachdannen for their critical eyes ;)