The Normandy's med bay, at least for micronians, was typical for a turian vessel. Where a Terran med bay tended to have protoculture pods lined up in rows, to allow for pumping of the liquid directly into subjects to accelerate the healing process, micronians used stasis beds and much more inefficient medigel dispensers. Still, a saying amongst doctors of late was 'so long as the brain's alive, there's a chance', and they'd lived up to that statement many times in the past few years.
"Careful, careful, this machinery has lasted thousands of years. If you happen to break it just as it's found it will reflect badly on us all," said Mordin as he helped to direct the placement of the pod near the wall, with the bed that should have been there pushed out of the way to make room. The batarian and micronized Terran who were carrying the pod, by hand to avoid interference with the stasis field, grunted, while the quarian behind them held her shotgun close to herself, watching and waiting for something to go wrong.
"There, yes, perfect, set it down gently," he said, as the pair began to stoop, finally, when the pod was an inch from the floor, letting it settle to the deck plates.
"Excellent, excellent," the salarian intoned as he began to adjust settings on the med bay's internal scanners, zeroing in on the life signs, and filtering out those in the room, as the room itself was sealed by a barrier, cutting it off from the rest of the ship in such a way that they could actually blow the compartment into space if need be. This being dangerous, the only people in the room were those who needed to be. Jon Shepard, Tali Zorah, Liara T'Soni, Mordin Solus, and the AIs. The batarian, one of the Normandy's crew, rubbing her hands, exited the door. A moment later, a low whine came from everywhere as a barrier activated.
"Medbay is now isolated. Nothing that happens here will affect the rest of the ship. Should I register a catastrophic failure, we will eject all of you into space," advised EDI, and Mordin nodded enthusiastically, as he got to work.
"Hmm, pod power supply holding stable, but obviously at a low point. Time to failure, one point eight months. Good thing we got there when we did, eh?" said the salarian as he went over the pod's readings. He listed out compositions of the exterior, and a few diagrams of the interior, before having a holo display of the occupant.
"Yes, yes, prothean life signs still strong. Possibly a soldier?" he said.
"Is it a boy or a girl prothean?" asked Tali, gesturing with her weapon towards the holo's...sensitive areas. Mordin, chuckling, shook his head.
"Possibly both? Maybe neither. Prothean biology is odd. No way to know genders until we ask," as he spoke, he continued to tap on the holo displays, making notes of some areas, and registering others for later deeper scans once the pod was opened. After a few minutes of this, he finally stepped back, and motioned for Liara to step forward.
"This moment, very important. Should belong to the one who discovered the unlock code," he said, and Liara, looking between the pod, and the salarian nervously, stepped forward. Licking her lips to get them to stop drying out, she waved away the holograms, clearing the air so that the pod stood on its own, and then pressed her hand into what looked like a flat surface on the thing. With a click and a hiss, the surface slide away, revealing the control panel from the recording. Her hand trembled a little, as she looked over the various controls, before quickly pressing three of them, and then standing back.
Panels opened all over the sides of the pod, hissing with escaping mist as chemicals from inside poured out. The air took on a minty smell as it did so, and slowly, the pod began to slide open, the top pulling away. Coughing a little, Liara's eyes bugled out as she beheld a sight not seen in the galaxy for fifty thousand years. A prothean, a real, live prothean. Chitinous skin covering muscles stretched taut across a frame that was lithe and powerful, like a weapon ready to strike. Stunning emerald green armor, shimmering as the body seemed frozen.
"By the Goddess, it really is alive," she said, reaching her hand into the pod, and gently touching the cheek of the alien being. As if in response to that touch, the prothean's eyes opened, slowly at first, blinking away the seeming frost that faded within seconds, leaving it just laying there, looking up at them.
"You, you're among friends, please don't be af-ah!" Liara cried out as the prothean moved. Where its eyes had seemed slow, its body was fast, striking like a viper. Its body glowed green, a pale thing compared to its armor, and it shot out a blast of biotic energy that knocked Liara backwards. Then it slipped out of the pod, doing a handstand on the edge, before flipping out. As it moved, it kicked, and a fine mist seemed to come out with it. Everyone in the room felt the odd tingle as the mist passed, but then heard the sputtering noises as EDI lost connection with the Medbay.
"Mordin! Knock him out!" shouted Tali as she brought her shotgun to bear, forcing Jon behind her. The Terran, unarmed, didn't object to this in the slightest, as the salarian quickly began to type a command into his omnitool. As it sparked with power, the prothean almost contemptuously spun on his heels, a hand striking out. The overload pulse that should have knocked the prothean out was scattered as the blast of electrical arcs and biotics met in the air, then a second shot struck Mordin in the chest, causing him to go flying backwards, slamming hard into a wall and going limp.
"Looks like you need to learn some manners!" shouted Tali as she fired her shotgun, aiming for a leg. The blast, an old style mass effect accelerated round, smashed hard into the limb, knocking the prothean down, off his feet, but the barrier the armor was projecting now offered it too much protection for it to be more than an annoyance, and with a roll, the prothean moved to the side, then skittered forward on all fours.
"I hate bugs!" shouted Tali, as she fired repeatedly, but the prothean was moving now, slithering around the shots in a way that was rather unexpected given its frame. Then it popped back to its feet right in front of her, smashing its fist into the top of her gun, which fired down as she pulled the trigger, causing the kickback to knock the thing into her chin. Tali, feeling the weapon drop from her grip, tried to fight back regardless of the stars in her eyes, but the prothean blasted her hard, causing her to fly upwards and smash into the ceiling, before falling down limp.
The prothean turned as it registered all three of the others down, before bringing all four eyes onto Jon, who was at the door, quickly typing something into the controls. With a clang, a bar on both the outside and inside was dropped into place, the prothean's eyes going wide as the Terran turned towards him, and dropped into a fighting stance. Obviously, it had expected the Terran to be running, after that display, but instead Jon was offering to do battle. After a moment's surprise, it obliged.
Jon ducked and rolled under the first blast it fired, letting the attack go over it, before he kicked out, getting his legs between the protheans and then bringing them both to the ground. There, the Terran quickly whirled his feet around, bringing his legs together hard at the prothean's neck hoping to block a windpipe or something. Unfortunately, the armor was designed to prevent just that, and the prothean wiggled out of the hold, even as Jon rolled away. Briefly, he considered going for Tali's weapon, but the prothean was on him before he could make good on the thought.
Dodging no, Jon seemed to dance between blasts, moving closer to throw off the shots, and then ducking away from fists and feet that were reinforced with biotic power. A chambered kick to the gut finally got him though, a knee smashing into his chest hard enough to drive the air from his lungs, before an elbow smashed into him from above, driving him into the deck plates with a wheeze of escaping wind. Jon desperately tried to struggle to his feet, but even as he grunted, the prothean set both his hands on the side of the Terran's face, and then forced their eyes to meet.
The green glow of the prothean's biotics took both of them for a moment, becoming something like a second skin as it spread over the pair, and Jon began to whimper a little. Inside his head, images, thoughts, and emotions flashed. Horror, pain, and death which rivaled and even surpassed everything he'd ever heard about the Robotech Wars played across his brain, while the prothean seemed terrified at what he...she was seeing in Jon's head, before the two were blasted apart with a bang, each sliding to the ground, and leaving the room still.