The Good Shepherd
Episode 2: Brave New World
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Mass Effect is owned by Bioware and Carrie is owned by Stephen King.
The 2013 version of Carrie is owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer productions and director Kimberly Pierce.
The only things I own are this crossover of the two and any original characters that may be featured.
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Carrie White is easily the most gifted biotic of her time or ours.
One could count on the fingers of one hand (even if you happen to have a three fingered hand) the number of other known biotics in the galaxy who could theoretically match her level of biotic power-and all of them are Asari matriarchs.
They are as follows Matriarch Benezia, Justicar Samara and Aria T'loak.
She is also highly intelligent-when people actually take the time to explain things to her properly.
An excerpt from the personal notes of Professor David Chambers.
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Unknown time, Unknown Place.
As Carrie White opened her eyes again she noticed that she was lying on a cold metal table and was dressed in a clean white hospital gown and not much of anything underneath.
The world was still blurring past at high speed though not as quickly as it had been and that was a blessed relief.
The place she found herself in looked like some kind of medical or scientific facility (to her anyway seeing as all that Carrie knew of medical facilities came solely from an occasional visit to the school nurse made necessary by certain individuals) but it looked far more advanced than anything she had seen before...as limited as her knowledge of such things was she wasn't completely ignorant of them.
Though her knowledge of such things was obviously not helped by the fact that her mother had never taken her to a doctor because Margaret White saw any kind of medicine as a sin.
The truth of the matter despite this was that Carrie was far more intelligent than anybody gave her credit for.
Maybe not a medical facility though.
Whatever this place was it looked like some kind of laboratory as far as Carrie could tell, she didn't recognise half of the equipment but it looked sort of like the science rooms at school.
Am I about to be dissected? Carrie wondered I wouldn't blame them for wanting to treat me like a lab freak after what I did-I killed so many people.
I-I killed my Momma.
As her fear of such a fate triggered whatever strange power caused her to fast forward time and the world blurred past faster again the anatomy charts on the wall caught her eye, there was the expected chart for human anatomy but there were also others, Turian anatomy, Salarian anatomy, Asari anatomy, Elcor, Volus, Drell-.
As she was puzzling over this oddity Carrie's eyes caught sight of the holographic display of all things, displaying the date and time.
10:34 AM August 14th 2169.
What? Carrie wondered in shock as time began to rapidly slow down again.
That can't be right, nonononono.
One hundred and fifty six years had passed since the night of her prom.
E-everything and everyone I knew is gone the distraught girl thought in a panic as she stared fixedly at the clock so why am I still here?
Not that Carrie really missed most of the people from her own apparently long gone era but she did miss Miss Desjarden and strangely enough her mother...despite the abuse inflicted upon her by said mother and she missed Tommy despite knowing that she had never really had a chance with him.
She felt bad about killing her mother even if it had been in self defence and about getting Tommy killed...she hadn't meant for anything like that to happen, she had just wanted the one perfect night that he and Sue were offering.
And finding herself so out of her depth was terrifying.
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August 16th 2169
Rhana Wills watched intently as Professor Chambers tapped at the holographic controls of his Omni tool, his eyes glued to the holographic 'screen' displayed above his orange holo gauntleted forearm.
"Well this is interesting," Chambers noted "Carrie White is most definitely alive according to this, the images recorded by the medical scanner show her heart going through the full range of movement for a heartbeat no less than four times over the last forty eight hours."
"That's quite a lot of temporal distortion though," Rhana noted with a frown "how do we go about bringing her out of stasis without killing her?"
"Very carefully," Chambers noted thoughtfully "normally we could wait for her to emerge on her own but given the strength of the stasis field in question I suspect that this would not happen until she goes into cardiac arrest from exhaustion."
"We need to bring her out ourselves," Rhana noted, concern for the girl obvious in her tone "we can't simply break the field though or the resultant biotic detonation would have us picking her up in tiny pieces along with anybody in the immediate vicinity."
"We need to leech the strength out of the field until it dissipates instead," Chambers reasoned thoughtfully and with no small measure of concern for Carrie's well-being "there is a technique to do that if I recall correctly. After all, this isn't the first time somebody has needed a rescue after getting trapped in stasis."
"I barely know the technique you're talking about" Rhana told Chambers, her tone making it clear that she thought they should find somebody with greater skill to get Carrie out "one slip and I could kill her instantly."
"Any Asari commando would know the technique," Chambers recalled, and Rhana swore she could see the wheels turning in his brain "I happen to know one or two who may or may not owe me a favour."
"And they can get here before Burns decides to insist that she's dead and put in place a legal injunction permitting him to dissect her under that supposition?"
"I hope so."
"You gonna finish your coffee?"
"I'll take it with me and decide when we get back to the examination room."
Rhana stretched out her right hand and-.
FLEX.
The cup flew right into her hand.
"No fair," Chamber complained.
Rhana raised one dainty eyebrow.
"Okay...fine, you can have it," Chambers relented as he headed for his office.
Rhana drained the cup in one gulp and set it down on the table of the lunch room before following after the Professor.
"At least I get some compensation for the migraines."
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If Professor Chambers wasn't sure that Carrie White was still alive in stasis just from the time lapse images of her heart the fact that she had moved since being placed on the examination table put that theory beyond any doubt, it was only by a handful of inches but still...
He also noticed that her head had turned in the direction of the anatomy charts and clock on the wall, her eyes now open once again, a look of shock frozen...or near frozen on her face.
Ho boy, Chambers thought as he saw this I can't imagine what she must be thinking right now, even if she is thinking it in slow motion.
Moving through the examination room to his office Chambers accessed his personal Vidcon, and after first contacting Admiral Grissom to clear his intended course of action with him he then placed a call to the Asari Commando he had previously mentioned to Rhana.
"Nalane, it's good to speak with you again," Chambers greeted the Asari of whom a life sized hologram had just appeared in front of him.
"Likewise David," Captain Nalane T'nala replied formally yet not without some warmth "what did you wish to discuss?"
"I need to ask you a favour actually."
"Name it," Nalane instructed him "your amp modifications helped my daughter to get her unstable biotics under control so I owe you a favour or two."
"I need help rescuing somebody who has gotten trapped in stasis," Chambers explained "somebody whose physiology may hold the key to a safer biotic implant for humans."
"Why does this individual hold the key to this?" Nalane asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Because she is a natural biotic," Chambers explained, knowing that trying to lie to Nalane was pointless.
"I see," Nalane remarked thoughtfully "but if that were all that was required then any Asari could help you with this project, the logical conclusion is that the individual in question has to be both naturally biotic and human...I only know of one naturally biotic human and you did say she."
After a pregnant pause Nalane spoke again, once again proving why lying to her served no useful purpose whatsoever.
"Trapped in stasis, for a very long time I would guess, thought to be dead that entire time unless I miss my guess...am I on the right track?"
"You are," Chambers confirmed.
Nalane nodded thoughtfully as she digested the information.
"Then my next question...is this individual Carrietta White?"
"She is," Chambers confirmed "knowing her reputation, do you have reservations about helping me to save her?"
"None whatsoever," Nalane assured the Professor "I always thought that what happened to her was an injustice, if I can help you to help her then I will and you can count on my discretion."
"Thank you," Chambers replied gratefully "how soon can you reach Earth?"
"I have some leave saved up that I can apply to take, once my application has been approved I can leave, hopefully I can reach Earth within a week."
"I appreciate you doing this Nalane, thank you."
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As David Chambers left his office and walked past the young girl frozen in time, taking in the look of shock that sat all but immobile on her face his heart twisted in sympathy for her once more.
This whole experience must be terrifying for her.
Chambers wished...not for the first time since discovering that she was in fact still alive...that there were some way that he could reassure her.
And then the answer came to him and he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before, the idea was so simple that it was genius and it required only something as simple as a datapad.
Tapping out the message that he wanted to get to her on the screen, Chambers then carefully manoeuvred the temporally frozen girl's right hand so that it was holding the pad up in front of her eyes at an easy distance for reading.
Her arm, frozen in time with the rest of her would keep the pad right where she could read it and contact between her hand and the pad would keep the screen active long enough for her time slowed mind to read the message.
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Carrie started slightly as her own right hand suddenly blurred up in front of her holding some kind of device with a screen...on the screen was a message.
We know that you are still alive and trapped in stasis and we are working to free you.
I understand that you must be terrified by your current situation but fear not...we WILL save you.
P.S. I don't blame you for what happened at your prom, you were driven insane by the cruelty of others and it wasn't your fault.
This message banished most of Carrie's fear but it brought her guilt over what happened to the forefront, because as far as Carrie was concerned it was her fault, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as remorse twisted at her heart.
I don't deserve their kindness.
You don't get to cry Carrie, she told herself, her thoughts thick with self loathing not after what you've done.
I'm sorry...I'm so sorry, I didn't feel any remorse at the time but now...
Oh Momma, I'm sorry I killed you...I know you were trying to kill me but still...
She could still smell the stink of burning flesh as Tina Blake burned to death.
And those people she had electrocuted...
She could see Chris Hargenson's bloodied face jammed through the windshield of Billy Nolan's car as she took her last breath...she could hear the whoosh of the car exploding as she had set fire to the gas station it had crashed into.
And she could see her Momma, borderline crucified on the door of the 'prayer closet' that Carrie had been locked in for hours or even days at a time on numerous occasions over the course of her life.
After all that Carrie couldn't understand why anybody would consider her to be worth saving.
Surely nobody could care about her...especially not after what had happened.
But Miss Desjarden had, and Sue had tried to help her and Tommy...
I'm so sorry Tommy, you got hurt because Chris wanted to hurt me.
Still, whoever these people were they seemed to be concerned for her.
Could they actually care about me? I want to believe that they do.
But what if I hurt them?
Carrie knew that if that happened it would destroy her.
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As Professor David Chambers walked to where a skycar waited to take him to a meeting with the project military liaison Major Stephen Hackett a call came through on his omni tool.
A touch of a holographic button was all it took to answer...the caller was none other than Martin Burns.
"Chambers here Project Director Burns."
"Would you care to tell me what the hold up is getting some answers from Carrie White's corpse," Burns asked without preamble.
"The hold up is that Miss White isn't a corpse," Chambers replied "she is in fact still alive, time lapse medical scans of her heart confirm it. This means that we are restricted to non harmful methods of examination and additionally that we need her consent to proceed with those tests, in order to get her consent we have to wake her up."
"Still alive?" Burns denied incredulously "impossible, she couldn't have survived that long."
"Unlikely but not impossible," Chambers corrected "if you'll recall Project Director I did say it was theoretically possible however unlikely, and as it turns out it isn't just a theory any more."
"And how long do you suppose it might take to wake her up?"
"I've already called in someone who should be able to do so safely," Chambers assured the project director.
"And what about security?" Burns asked pointedly "she's a known killer."
"She's only a threat if we make her one Burns...she was 'posthumously' cleared of all charges due to temporary insanity remember."
"I'm not taking that chance," Burns insisted "she killed over four hundred people on Prom Night, I'm going to insist that a squad of armed guards are standing by when we wake her up."
And if you had your way Project Director she'd be executed and then dissected, Chambers thought acidly as the call disconnected, but he didn't say that out loud.
Perfect, Chambers reflected despondently so much for not terrifying the girl.
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As it happened it took nearly three weeks before Nalane was able to reach Earth, but Carrie wasn't going anywhere being trapped in stasis as she was, dying due to cardiac arrest might take only hours from her point of view but to the rest of the universe those hours were more like decades.
As the civilian transport that Nalane had booked passage on touched down Chambers was at the spaceport to greet her, watching out for the woman in question he soon caught sight of her distinctive lavender coloured skin and Asari head crests along with the urban camo outfit and the miltary ID tags around her neck, a duffel bag with her belongings slung over her shoulder.
The woman striding purposefully toward him was none other than Captain Nalane T'nala herself.
A warm but professional greeting was exchanged between the two before Chambers led the way toward the transport he had arranged.
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Upon arriving back at the Institute the first thing that Chambers did was to get Nalane settled into her quarters for her stay, with that done he took her to see the patient.
"Here she is," Chambers told Nalane as he indicated Carrie where she still lay frozen in time on the examination table "sorry if she's not good conversation at present."
"It's fine, she has a very good excuse," Nalane assured him "If all goes as planned she should be much more lively soon and probably very confused."
"To find herself a century and a half in the future," Chambers agreed "she has quite a lot to adjust to, she's been through so much tragedy already, and now to have to deal with this, but at least she still lives."
"There's quite a lot of temporal distortion here," Nalane noted as she scanned her patient with her omni tool's sensor suite and also probed with her own additional senses as a natural biotic "it will take some effort to dissipate the field, I may need some help with this task...your lab assistant is biotic is she not?"
"Yes, but she barely knows this technique," Chambers explained "I'm not sure how much help she is likely to be."
"That doesn't matter," Nalane assured Chambers "I'll guide her, I just need the additional power."
"Okay," Chamber assented with a nod of his head "I'll explain this to her, hopefully she'll be willing to try."
"Don't you worry sweetie," Nalane told Carrie as she placed a gentle hand upon the time frozen girl's shoulder as though trying to reassure her despite the fact that her time slowed mind couldn't possibly hope to perceive this action "we'll have you out of there soon."
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As it turned out though Rhana was reluctant at first she agreed to help Nalane out once the situation as it stood was fully explained to her, the next thing was to notify Project Director Burns so that he could have the security detail he had insisted upon on standby.
Chambers was half tempted to simply go ahead without notifying the pompous ass so as to hopefully spare Carrie the terror of having an assault rifle shoved in her face but there are some toes that one does not step upon unless absolutely necessary.
He just hoped that the people Burns had selected had a modicum of professionalism.
As it stood now everything was ready for the procedure to go ahead, humourless armed guards and all.
As Chambers watched Nalane and Rhana stood side by side before their patient Carrie White and Rhana, acting upon Nalane's instructions as well as Nalane herself simultaneously stretched out their hands toward her and extended their biotic fields until they made contact with the biotic stasis field that sat not even a micron above Carrie's skin.
"Now I need you to invert the flow of your biotic field so that instead of sending dark energy out you're pulling it back in," Nalane told Rhana "this needs to happen at the same time that I invert my own field."
"Like the Reave technique?" Rhana asked.
"A lot like the Reave technique," Nalane confirmed "except that I only want you to drain the stasis field, not Carrie herself."
"I was never very good at Reave," Rhana recalled as she endeavoured to do so with some measure of success "I could do it, but not well enough to use in a fight."
"It should be good enough for this," Nalane assured the young woman as dark energy began to bleed off of the stasis field that Carrie was trapped in and flow into both of them.
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As the dark energy that Carrie's stasis field was composed of flowed into Rhana's body she found the best comparison she could draw was to the flow of water...a lot of water very quickly.
Not a brook or a stream or even a river.
A tsunami...such was the magnitude of this girl's power, and to top it off this was only half of it.
No wonder she lost control when they pushed her too far, Rhana thought to herself in amazement my own power can be hard to control at times but compared to Carrie I'm little more than a bug...her power would be hard enough to control when she's calm, let alone when she's distraught.
As she looked over at Nalane Rhana found herself gaining a whole new respect for the woman.
Nalane was clearly pushed to her limit by the energy bleeding off of the stasis field as well, the tense posture, the furrowed brow and the gritted teeth made that much obvious, but her feet were firmly planted, her focus never wavered and her hands never shook.
Rhana wished she could make even a laughable pretence of the same thing.
Their efforts were paying off though, although Carrie's movements were still very sluggish as though she were moving through treacle, the naturally biotic teen was no longer frozen in place.
Carrie turned her head toward Rhana in slow motion and called out to her as though asking a question but she was still moving too slowly for her words to be intelligible.
Rhana put it out of her mind for now...a distraction was the last thing she needed while channelling energies of this magnitude.
You are really something else Carrie White, Nalane wasn't the only person earning Rhana's respect here.
Nonetheless her whole body felt like it was going to vibrate itself apart.
"I have to get rid of some of this energy," Rhana called out to those other who were present "everybody stand back."
In a moment of quick thinking Rhana saw Chambers bring up his omni tool and quickly work a few controls on it, an instant later the shimmer of a kinetic barrier sprang into life behind her.
"Throw it against the security barrier," Chambers called back.
With a nod Rhana gathered together as much of the energy she had drained off as she could manage to control and put it all into one enormous biotic throw that she smashed hard into the kinetic barrier behind her...three things happened.
The barrier fizzled out after that one hit.
All of the lights in the lab went out.
And the flow of energy from Carrie's stasis field finally stopped.
Rhana could swear that she felt something warm and sticky that smelt like iron trickling from her nostrils as her mind grew fuzzy, the room spun and the floor rose up to greet her.
Awareness faded long before she hit the floor.
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The first thing that Rhana was aware of as she regained consciousness was a splitting headache, the next was an overwhelming urge to empty her stomach quickly and messily into the nearest convenient receptacle.
As she held her stomach with one hand, the other clapped over her mouth to forestall this an office bin was quickly shoved under her mouth just in time for the inevitable eruption, the sound of said eruption causing all present to grimace in sympathy.
L2 biotic implants could be a real bitch.
For once Burns actually looked a little guilty.
You should feel guilty you fucker, Rhana thought bitterly in his direction You did this to me.
Although to be fair not all of the blame for it rested on Burns, a share of it actually belonged to the dark energy that she and Nalane had drained from Carrie's stasis field but Rhana found she couldn't bring herself to blame Carrie for that.
And speaking of Carrie...
"How's Carrie White?" Rhana managed to gasp out between throbs of her aching head.
"Carrietta's fine," Nalane assured her tiredly, turning Rhana caught sight of the wadded tissue stained the distinctive lavender colour of Asari blood that the Commando Captain had pressed under her nose "in fact she's awake, the doctor is checking her over and treating her wounds right now."
"Good, that's good," Rhana nodded while simultaneously wincing from a particularly nasty throb of her aching head as it protested the movement "when the doctor is done checking her over I guess I'll start helping her to adjust to the twenty second century."
"You mean when the doctor has finished checking her and you over," Chambers interjected with a meaningful look in Rhana's direction.
"Of course..of course," Rhana responded quickly, scratching the back of her head nervously "that's exactly what I meant. When she's checked us both over, why would it be otherwise?"
"I don't know," Chambers mock shrugged "but I'm glad you see things my way."
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If there was one emotion that was foremost in Carrie White's mind at present it would have been the feeling of being the feeling of being completely out of her depth.
Awakened into an unfamiliar era after...hours to her but decades to the rest of creation...of watching reality literally blur past as time seemed to speed up from her point of view but in reality she was slowed down.
I think my brain hurts, Carrie noted silently as she contemplated the matter.
Following closely on the heels of this was guilt, guilt for the lives she had taken at prom, guilt for letting down Sue and Miss Desjarden and Tommy by doing this, guilt for assuming that Sue had been in on that horrible prank.
Guilt for getting Tommy killed when the bucket had hit him.
And guilt for the pain that others had suffered in order to save her here and now, this was freshest in her mind as she regarded the two in question, the dark haired human girl and the blue skinned tentacle headed (Asari?) woman both of whom seemed to possess abilities like hers as they both nursed headaches and nosebleeds from the overexertion of their powers.
I'm so sorry, I wish I could take it all back.
Carrie heard the doctor who was treating her say something but her mind was too preoccupied with her shame to take it in.
I need to make it right somehow, but how?
"Sorry to disturb you Miss White," Doctor Chakwas prodded gently "but I need to know if your wounds are still causing you pain."
"No...umm, they're fine now, thank you Doctor," Carrie replied softly, and now that the burning sensation caused by the strange gel that had been used to treat them had faded this was true "I'm sorry I didn't answer before, I was preoccupied with...things."
"Such as?"
"My shame," Carrie replied honestly "I've done terrible things."
Doctor Chakwas laid a comforting hand upon Carrie's shoulder.
"Black Prom wasn't your..."
"But it was my fault," Carrie insisted, her voice almost a sob "I shouldn't have lost control...I...I shouldn't even be here, I'm putting everybody in danger."
"You may think that you're a monster," Chakwas told the young biotic gently "but I don't see that, do you want to know what I see?"
Carrie turned and looked Chakwas in the eye in that moment, truly looked at her, desperate hope shining in her eyes.
"I see the potential for greatness in you," Chakwas told the young traumatised girl honestly "maybe you don't see it but that potential is there, I believe that some day you will touch many lives, change many lives for the better and bring out the best in those around you. When that day comes if I am able to stand beside you in some way I would consider that an honour."
"I hope you're right Doctor," Carrie prayed quietly "but that greatness you speak of...I can't see it."
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It was shortly after this that Carrie was introduced to Rhana Wills who after introducing herself then proceeded to lead Carrie over to one of the computer terminals in the lab and sat her down in front of it.
After showing the time displaced teen how to turn the computer on and log in with a guest account Rhana then gave her a quick run through of how the holographic interface worked and let her at it while staying close to help her out.
For several minutes Carrie examined the device from one angle then another until she reached a point in time where she decided on a small experiment to see if her understanding of Rhana's explanation of how the interface worked was correct.
Carrie couldn't see a mouse, but as she tentatively reached out and touched an icon marked 'Codex' on the holographic 'screen' and the computer responded and opened the file...
...That was when everything clicked into place.
Carrie's eyes widened at the information on the screen, she thought for a moment before selecting the entry marked 'Mass Effect Technology'.
Might as well know something about the technology of the era I'm in now.
Behind her Rhana nodded in approval at her choice of subject matter, although current geopolitical systems or extraterrestrial cultures would have been good choices too.
The information immediately flashed up on the screen, and Carrie found herself awestruck at what was described.
Mass effect technology sees applications in many different fields, from dental hygiene to the Faster Than Light travel that makes interstellar exploration possible and even the Mass Relays themselves.
Mass effect technology utilises a super heavy element known as Element Zero that is formed in dying stars and ejected into the universe by nova and supernova explosions.
Materials with concentrations of Element Zero or Eezo high enough to refine for use are rare and very valuable, however practically everything in the universe contains trace amounts of Eezo, maybe one atom in every million.
Purified Element Zero has the unique property of being able to generate an energy field composed of what is known as 'dark energy' that can raise or lower the mass of an object and alter gravity and inertia within this 'mass effect' field when an electric current is applied, a positive charge creates more mass, gravity and inertia and a negative charge creates less mass, gravity and inertia.
This can even be used to generate kinetic force as in kinetic barriers, electric toothbrushes and antigravity drives.
See also: Biotics.
Frowning for a moment Carrie finally gave into her curiosity and selected the entry in question as Rhana smiled in approval behind her;
Formerly known as telekinesis-the modern term biotic comes from biologically generated kinetic field.
Biotics is the ability of certain gifted individuals to generate and control mass effect fields allowing them to move objects by force of will.
Biotics usually result from in utero exposure to high concentrations of Element Zero in dust form, in many cases this results in fatal cancers however in about ten percent of cases this Element Zero will form nodes in the developing nervous system of the foetus.
These nodes function like additional muscles that a biotic can 'flex' in order to move objects with their mind, generate biotic barriers, raise or lower their own mass or even tear an object apart at the molecular level.
Carrie was deep in thought for a moment at this information.
Concentrating for a moment Carrie reached out with her own-biotic?-abilities.
FLEX.
"Show-off," Carrie heard Rhana mutter in amusement rather than irritation as the computer floated into the air, hovering for a moment before Carrie lowered it back down again.
That's exactly what it feel like when I use my powers, a muscle flexing inside my head. Guess they are biotics-so then Momma was somehow exposed to Eezo when she was pregnant with me?
"Feels powerful to flex those muscles doesn't it?" Rhana noted quietly "when you really cut loose it's like a gigantic sneeze that can kill."
"It can kill all right," Carrie agreed, her voice thick with self loathing.
"It's all very well to feel bad about what happened," Rhana told the younger girl gently "but don't let that feeling drown you."
"I'll try not to," Carrie promised "but right now I'm barely keeping my head above water...anyhow, I should continue reading."
Carrie could see that she was only halfway through the document so she continued reading.
Biotics whose abilities result from in utero exposure to Eezo typically require surgically installed biotic amplifiers in order to raise their level of biotic ability to a sufficient level for practical use-these implants usually include an 'amp jack' that is accessible externally at the base of the skull allowing an additional 'biotic amp' to be plugged in further enhancing a biotic's abilities.
However natural biotics have no need of such aids-though they may still choose to have an amp jack installed.
The trait of natural biotics in a life form typically evolves on worlds with large amounts of Element Zero present, on those worlds natural biotics provide a considerable advantage for survival as they also stave off the carcinogenic effects of Element Zero in the body-however rare cases of natural biotics have been recorded on other worlds.
Natural Biotics possess a genetic trait that apart from giving them full immunity to the harmful effects of Element Zero also causes them to retain the trace amounts of Eezo from the food they eat, the water they drink and even the air they breathe and store it in their central nervous system, resulting in the formation of biotic nodes-and they begin doing this the moment they are conceived inside their mother.
Unlike biotics resulting from in utero exposure to Element Zero whose bodies will naturally regard the element Zero as a toxin and gradually leech it away over the course of their lifetime, natural biotics continue to accumulate more of it-as a result they continue to get stronger over the course of their lives.
For example all Asari are naturally biotic, the strongest of them being the Asari matriarchs.
There have also been occasional natural biotics of various other species-however, the only known human who is on record as naturally biotic is one Carrietta Natalie White.
"Look at that Carrie," Rhana noted as the young natural biotic finished reading the entry and then selected another "you're famous."
"Infamous is more like it," Carrie countered with a tired sigh "what else is new?"
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some time after this Carrie was shown to her temporary quarters within the institute until more long term accommodation could be arranged and given clean clothes to wear, just some basic drawstring trousers and a clean tee shirt as well as some clean underwear.
As much as Carrie had trouble trusting people after the lifetime of abuse she had suffered she had to admit that these people had been nothing but kind so far...well, except for Martin Burns.
He reminded her of a certain Hargensen.
But despite this Carrie knew she couldn't stay here, her very presence was putting everybody in danger, her powers being as dangerously volatile as they were.
The Professor had supplied her with a laptop that had a copy of the Alliance Citizen's Codex on it, and through a little trial and error she had also figured out how to use the word processing software on the device.
With this she tapped out a quick note that she saved to the hard drive and also left displayed on the screen, after all she owed them that much.
And since she couldn't find a pen and paper anywhere this was the best she could do.
But now she had to leave.
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As soon as Chambers rang the door buzzer to Carrie's room he knew something was wrong.
The first clue was the fact that she didn't answer, the second was that upon examination he found that the door was unlocked.
A second try with the buzzer received the same result as did calling out to Carrie..
Chambers didn't want to risk invading Carrie's privacy if it turned out to be nothing but he needed to know so he pressed the control to open the door.
The door slid aside with a hiss of compressed gas to reveal that there was nobody in the room and the laptop he had given Carrie was sitting on the bed with a note on the screen, as soon as he read it he understood what was going on.
\
Most esteemed Professor Chambers and Rhana
I'm truly sorry to do this to you but I can't stay here, as unstable as my powers are I'm putting you and everybody else in danger just by being here.
I wish I could stay, you have so far been nothing but kind to me but if something were to go wrong and I hurt you or anybody else I would never forgive myself...neither can I forgive myself for the people I have already hurt and killed.
I need to find a place where I can live without hurting anybody else...or where I can die in peace, whatever my fate might be.
Whatever the future might hold I wish you well.
Yours regretfully.
Carrietta Natalie White.
\
As soon as David Chambers read that note his heart sank, though he supposed he should have expected something like this.
His hope was to catch up with Carrie before she left the institute and convince her to stay.
Unfortunately, as fate would have it that was when Martin Burns walked by.
Truly no good deed goes unpunished.
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As Carrie walked quickly through the hallways of the institute she heard the voice of Martin Burns giving instructions over hidden speakers.
"Security-full lock down," Burns ordered "as you all know Carrie White's body was exhumed for study and she turned out to still be alive in stasis. She has been awakened from stasis and is attempting to flee."
"She is extremely dangerous and must be recaptured but take her alive, her unique physiology is needed for a project vital to the Alliance-she is seventeen years old, petite, with strawberry blonde hair."
Don't you get it? Carrie thought to herself for everybody's safety I need to leave.
She did wonder about this 'project' he was referring to though.
Whatever it is it can't be worth keeping a monster like me around.
"She must not be allowed to leave," the Burns' voice continued "anything short of killing is allowed but bring her in alive."
Carrie knew she needed to leave, as well meaning as Chambers, Chakwas and Rhana seemed to be Burns still intended holding her here against her will.
And Carrie knew that such a thing could only end badly.
Martin Burns...Carrie decided...was an idiot.
As she began to run Carrie stumbled slightly, yelping in pain as her calf wound twinged, sending agony lancing through her leg, forcing herself to her feet she continued limping forward, just making it through the next doorway before armoured doors began slamming into place in doorways all around her.
Looking around in desperation Carrie caught sight of a ventilation grate.
Here was her escape for the moment.
It was solid and obviously designed to resist any attempt to pry it off the wall.
But I'm a biotic, Carrie thought smugly.
FLEX
The grate bent outward slightly but gave no sign of movement other than that.
Designed to resist biotics?
Apparently so.
A shimmer in the air surrounding the grate caught her eye.
That section of the codex about mass effect technology mentioned kinetic barriers-is that a kinetic barrier? Was this place built for the study of biotics then?
The obvious answer was yes.
Carrie was far above average as biotics went however...and her panicked state of mind made her abilities stronger still.
FLEX
One corner of the grate ripped free from the wall.
Carrie could hear running feet outside the blast door behind her.
"Have you got those tranqs ready?" somebody asked on the other side of the door.
FLEX
The grate ripped free, embedding itself in the opposite wall of the hallway.
The security door behind Carrie began to open with a hiss of hydraulics.
Carrie scrambled into the ventilation shaft in a mad dash, making a deafening racket as she crawled along it as fast as she could.
"She's in the ventilation ducts," somebody called from outside "I repeat...she's in the ventilation ducts."
A security guard crawled into the duct after Carrie, aiming a gun of some sort at her.
Tranquilizer gun?
Didn't matter.
FLEX
He was propelled back out, landing hard on his rear.
Carrie scrambled madly through the ducts, she had no real plan in mind and was just making it up as she went, her only real goal was to avoid capture without hurting anybody.
That lead weight in her gut was a constant reminder that she had too much blood on her hands already.
After a time she came to what looked like a way out.
Was that the metal vent capping on the roof of the building?
FLEX
Well it was.
Now it was her exit.
Clambering out in her now soiled clothing Carrie took a look around and quickly realised that she was nowhere near Chamberlain...not that she had expected to be.
It was difficult to tell with all of the high technology surrounding her, most of which was completely unfamiliar to the terrified young girl, but it looked sort of like pictures she had seen of New York city.
I guess it really has been a century and a half since my time, Carrie realised as it finally sank in.
The population of New York was also different to what she was familiar with, it was still mostly human though.
Mostly.
There were occasional-other kinds of people, some of which she recognised from the anatomy charts in the lab, turian here, hanar there, asari over there.
So there's more aliens currently on Earth than just Captain T'nala, but I guess there would be.
The thumping of booted feet snapped Carrie out of her musings as she turned and caught sight of half a dozen security guards approaching from a nearby access door and surrounding her in front with only the edge of the roof behind.
"Okay Miss White," the head of the security men spoke in a calm voice, clearly meant to reassure "Just come along quietly, I promise that nobody is going to hurt you...just give us what we want."
Carrie gave no reply as she glanced down over the edge.
The pavement was ten floors down.
The head of the security squad noticed this.
"It's ten floor down, you'll never survive."
Carrie jumped off.
ssssss
"NO," Security Chief Dexter Danvers called out in alarm as he saw Carrie jump over the edge of the roof.
Dammit NO, he protested silently as he dashed toward the edge, looking over in alarm.
This quickly turned to relief and more than a little anger at the young girl for scaring him like that when he saw her crouching completely unharmed on the pavement ten floors below.
She must have used her biotics to slow her fall, Danvers realised.
"Danvers to all security units," he spoke into his headset implant "Carrie White is now outside the building, she is so far unharmed but doesn't seem to want to stay here, we're all unharmed as well unless you count my near heart attack-Damn she's a reckless bitch."
ssssss
As soon as Carrie regained her bearings after landing she immediately began putting as much distance between herself and the research institute as she could.
It helped that she didn't have to avoid getting hit by cars in this 22nd century New York-all of the cars were flying through the air above her.
What didn't help was the realisation that she could feel hot blood flowing down her back and her leg.
I must have reopened my wounds...FUCK.
Navigating the crowd was a challenge however-but years of being the target of practically every bully at Ewen High had taught Carrie how to pass by unnoticed, and she instinctively used this to weave nimbly through the crowd while the security guards from the institute were trying to push through.
As she passed through an empty spot in the middle of the crowd Carrie's eyes caught sight of a manhole leading to the New York sewers.
Just in time, she was starting to feel light headed from blood loss.
FLEX
The manhole cover was pulled out of the manhole and moved to one side and Carrie dropped quickly down into the tunnels.
A second application of biotics shifted the manhole cover back into place above her.
ssssss
If asked later Carrie would have been unable to determine how long she spent below New York's streets-all she knew was that when she emerged she was in what was obviously a slum neighbourhood.
For now Carrie was away from where she might hurt anybody, but she was cold, hungry and thirsty and as far from anything familiar as she could possibly get.
The wound to her back still throbbed as well, her other wounds also hurt and her hunger had become painful.
And although her wounds had once again stopped bleeding she had still lost a significant amount of blood.
Carrie had been running on adrenaline up to this point, but as that faded she began to feel weak and dizzy as she began to sway on her feet, unable to keep her balance.
Finally her legs gave way under her as Carrie sank into darkness.
sssssss
For a long time Carrie was drifting in and out of consciousness, at one time when she was briefly aware she could feel that she was lying face down on something soft, and she was naked from the waist up as gentle hands worked carefully to clean the knife wound in her back.
Carrie knew she should get up and leave-she was putting these people in danger just being here.
But she felt too weak to move.
"Pass me that tube of medi gel please," a young sounding female voice said as the gentle hands finished up cleaning her wound.
"Here ya go," said a male voice.
"Thanks Dex."
The gentle hands were touching Carrie's bare back again a moment later, this time applying the medi gel to her knife wound, Carrie steeled herself for the inevitable burning sensation.
She was not disappointed, within seconds it burned like a bitch.
Carrie stiffened in pain as much as her weakened state would allow, which was really just clenching of her fingers.
"Easy Miss, it's okay," the female voice from before told her soothingly "I know this stuff burns but I promise it'll help."
True to this girl's word the burning sensation began to fade after a moment and Carrie's back felt the best it had since before she reopened the damn wound.
"There, that takes care of the life threatening wound," the girl noted "now for the merely crippling ones."
Carrie knew she shouldn't let herself drift off again, but she was so very tired-and these people didn't seem to mean her any harm for now at least.
ssssss
When Carrie next woke she was lying on her back on a makeshift cot with a blanket covering her and soft white bandages were wrapped around her chest, her right calf and her right forearm.
And she was dressed in clean, soft, loose fitting clothes.
She was awoken by someone gently shaking her shoulder.
"Miss...wake up," said the female voice from before "you need to try and eat something."
Finally Carrie managed to force her eyes open, catching sight of a petite Asian girl about two years younger than her as she did.
On the linoleum floor beside the girl was a steaming bowl of soup and a spoon
"Can you sit up?"
"I'll...try," Carrie replied weakly as she endeavoured to do so.
"Here...let me help," the girl offered.
Carrie half suspected a trick-but that was just a conditioned reflex, so far this girl and her companion from before had given no sign of trickery.
And in any case she did need the help right now Carrie realised as she nodded her acceptance.
Carefully placing the bowl of soup on Carrie's lap, the girl offered her the spoon.
"Are you okay to do this?" the girl asked "I can spoon feed you if you're not strong enough yet."
"No...I got it," Carrie replied weakly as she took the spoon and began to slowly eat.
"I'm Emily Wong by the way," the girl introduced herself "and you are-?"
"Carrie-my name's Carrie."