***Author's Note***
I'm sorry I'm late :/
Anyhow I thought I should clear a few things up before I launch into this. In my head Cerberus has been around for AGES! Like, the military has had them around for decades and decades, so with this in mind it is slightly AU. But not too much :)
Just a little reminder that this story will have boy on boy action, so if you're sensitive to that king of stuff be careful.
Bioware owns all!
-Sophus xx
Chapter 2 - The pod
"EDI, prevent anyone other than myself and members of the ground team from entering the hangar bay without my say so."
"Of course Shepard."
Shepard tied his hair back as they made their way to the elevator. He watched Garrus' back as they walked. The Turian was discussing the pro's and con's of shotguns and sniper rifles with his 'baby' Krogan.
"Awww...Shep..."
Shepard raised his eyebrows at the shimmer in the air beside him. "What?"
"You've got it baaad~" The smile on her face could be heard in her words.
"Shut it Kasumi."
"Whatever you say Shep." She flickered a bit as she wandered to cause havoc elsewhere. Shepard dared a glance at his best friend.
Garrus was watching him with a quizzical look in his cyan eyes. Shepard coughed nervously, taking a strand from his ponytail he began to twirl it. A habit he had picked up for when he was uncomfortable.
The elevator ride was cramped and quiet as the team thought about the possibilities that awaited them in the hangar.
What have we let in?
After an eternity the doors opened, the pod could be seen on the far side of the walkway. "Everyone, keep your guard up. It could be anything." Jack's biotics flared as she prepared herself.
It was large and white, pits of black marred its other wise pristine surface. Garrus canted his head. "It must have had good shields. it looks as though it went through an asteroid belt." Seams indicated areas at which the pod could be opened or controlled. "The tech doesn't seem too advanced though."
"That assumption is correct, Officer Vakarian." EDI's voice echoed through the bay. "According to my scans the pod is around 170 years old."
"...And how would you know that EDI?" Shepard lightly tapped the pod with his booted foot.
"It has a production date in its coding, Shepard." He heard Kasumi chuckle from some shadowy corner.
"Of course it does. Any idea to its origin?" They formed a loose circle around it. Each of them studying a small area of their own.
"Scanning." They waited. "There is a life form inside." Damn, nearly forgot about that...
Miranda crossed her arms over her chest. "Asari. If the pod is 170 then the life form must be the same at least."
Mordin shook his head. "No. Architecture states otherwise. Too angular. Not enough thought into aesthetics."
Shepard nodded. "Krogan?"
Grunt laughed. "Shepard! It's too small! No Krogan would crouch like you pyjacks in there! Harharhar!"
"Jeez Grunt. Be a little serious would ya?" Garrus clapped him on the back.
"Shepard."
"Yes EDI?"
"Scans indicate that the origin of the pod is Earth."
"Say what now?"
Joker laughed through the hangar. "Exactly what I said! See EDI! I told you-"
"It was appreciated Mr. Moreau. The coding is also memorable of Cerberus based coding."
The team were staring at the pod. "EDI I want you to open the pod." Miranda was sputtering in anger.
"Shepard! We have no idea what is inside!"
"I said, open it. EDI I want all back grounds you can scrounge of Cerberus on my omnitool as soon as possible." He stared her and Jacob down. "If there is a life form inside I want it out so we can either treat or kill it."
"Commander, I can not open the pod. It's tech will not connect to the Normandy." Shepard shook his head. "It is too old."
"Got it. Team! Crack this baby open!" Jack laughed in glee.
"Aye aye!" They set to work looking for a control point or a weak spot. Miranda and Jacob stood to one side and merely watched their commander and his merry group of aliens break into an anonymous object.
Tali raised her hands above her head in a victorious fist pump. "Shepard! I found it!" Garrus ran over to look at this 'ancient' technology.
"Aww, I wanted to break it open..." Jack huffed.
"Do you think you can crack its code between the two of you?"
"Shepard." Garrus flickered his mandibles. "You underestimate us." They set to work.
Mordin was running his own personal scan over the pod as Garrus and Tali finally cracked it open.
"Shepard!" He ran over from the crate he had been sitting on with Kasumi playing poker.
The topmost seam of the pod hissed open. Years of built up pressure releasing at once caused the top panel to burst outwards. Condensed mist fell out of it, heavy with suppressed breaths and carbon dioxide. Garrus, Grunt and Shepard lifted the top off. Miranda came closer, her curiosity weighing out over her perfection.
"Oh my God." The lid was dropped.
From inside the pod a figure slowly emerged. White hands with overly long nails gripped the sides, skin and bones and pale beyond comparison. A black leather jacket, dried out with age, encased too thin arms. Then the figure leaned over the side and suddenly emptied the bile from it stomach over the metal grating of the floor.
Long brown and limp hair fell over its face and grazed the floor, landing in the vomit and forming a nest as it piled onto itself. It pulled itself over the edge with a rattling gasp and fell onto its hands and knees. Black boots and jeans, dry and creased and hanging loosely on the person.
Shepard finally gathered his wits as everyone stood and stared. "Umm. Hello?"
The figure whipped its head around at his voice. A Girl. An emaciated girl. Eyes too big for her head as her skin sank into her skin. She has been in that pod a very long time. Her mouth opened but no sound escaped her.
Shepard tried to smile warmly and as friendly as he could, as though he were talking to an injured animal. "Hi, I'm commander Shepard." He gestured to himself, her eyes followed. Good, she can understand me. "This is Tali, Garrus, Mordin-" As he indicated each member of his crew, her eyes got wider and wider. Her mouth opened...
"Shepard, I think she's in shock." Garrus took one step forward and the entire hangar erupted in pure fear tainted screams. The girl was shuffling backwards her eyes rolling as she took everyone in. She formed words in between cries.
"Why...why is it...tell it!"
Shepard ran too her and her screams got louder. "Hey!" He gathered her up in his arms, her hair swaying on the floor as she beat at him with feeble fists. "Hey! Nobody is going to hurt you!" Mordin ran over with his omnitool out. Her eyes nearly bugged out her head. Jesus! What is with this girl!
"Ahh! Tell it to stop! Why is it chittering at me! What is That!" Mordin administrated a dose of tranquilizer.
"Hmm. Interesting. No understanding of others language. No translator? Not possible. Administered at birth."
"Mordin. Let's just get her to Chakwas." The group finally unfroze, Kasumi came out of her cloak.
"Who is she?"
Shepard entered the Medbay.
"Chakwas. Any news?"
Chakwas was fluttering around the unconscious girl. Drips and needles were all around her. Blood pressure and heart monitors. Medigel and emergency levo-based vitamins.
"News? NEWS?! Commander! This girl!" She paused to collect herself. "This girl is completely and purely human and organic."
Shepard cocked his brow and sat at the foot of the girls cot. "So?"
"So?" Chakwas flung her arms up in exasperation. "She has no translator. No AMPs, no cybernetics. Nothing!"
"She doesn't have anything?" His eyes went wide. Every child was immediately set with a translator just below the skin near the ear upon birth. This makes no sense.
"Her pockets however." She gestured to the table beside her. "Full of things I've only ever seen on the extranet or on a vid." Shepard filed through the girls belongings. A small item with a long wire, another small item with a hard screen, a bag like thing containing paper and metal objects, a red book with empty pages except the last few.
"What is this stuff?" He held the book and small bag.
"That, I believe, is a form of identification." She took a deep breath. "Shepard. This girl is just over 193 years old."
Shepard sat back down. "You're kidding? 193? You're serious?" Chakwas' eyes were wide as she looked at the girl. "Do you know where she came from?"
Chakwas nodded as she rifled through the little red book. "Travis, Marie. British citizen. September 1992. She's from Manchester, England."
"Whoa." He looked back at her belongings. "Any chance we can wake her up?" Chakwas shook her head.
"I've fitted her with a translator, so when she does waken she'll be able to understand everyone." She gestured to the just healing scar below her ear. "She doesn't know where she is, who we are. She doesn't even know what a Turian or a Krogan is!" Shepard nodded. "She'll be in shock. Also, she has every kind of nutritional deficiency that one can have. She's nearly dead. I want her put in Life Support for the time being. Keep an eye on her."
"EDI, run a search on a Marie Travis. England, Manchester circa 1992."
"Of course Shepard." He and Chakwas got to moving Marie into Life Support in the meantime. Garrus came and helped move the drips and monitors.
"What's going on with her?"
"I'll explain in a short while." He nodded and helped set the cot up underneath the window that overlooked the drive core. He didn't need to explain.
"Commander." It was Miranda. "Marie Travis was a normal girl. Her academic record is nearly perfect. She specialised in Engineering, a hopeful genius to her professors." A sigh. "She went missing in 2014, just after her 22nd birthday. Her family and friends searched for her for years. Releasing pictures of her in hopes that someone may recognise her. There were no witnesses to her disappearance, no cctv...nothing."
Goddamn. Shepard ran his hands through his hair. "Wow. That's harsh. Thanks." Garrus put his arm around Shepard's shoulders.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait for her to wake up and go get our selves an assassin and a Justicar."
"ETA 12 hours, 18 minutes."
Interesting?