I followed the C-sec officer through door after door, mesmerised by the technology around me. The C-Sec officer provided a safety net that allowed me time to let my mind wander. My mind struggled to come to terms with everything that had happened, still reeling from what could have been. Earth called me, but why was my frozen body on Xawin? My only hope was the benefit system of the Scotland could sustain me., my life depended on it until something went right. My head shook to shake the cobwebs free. What were my chances that everything would settle down and allow me to acclimatise to the new world that would be my home? The officer stopped at a door, typing codes into a panel by the side of the door. My reflection caught my eye, staring back at me in a lustrous wall of one-way glass.
I looked abysmal. My flame coloured hair looked about as tame as a wild bramble bush, the mixture of fire and dark copper waves clumping together and knotting in the worst places. It always did that if it hadn't seen any conditioner. Dark rings highlighted the area below my eyes as the strain drained me of energy. My lilac eyes looked dull, weary from the past few days. Looking at my genetics, my eyes were blue, but due to raised blood vessels in my irises, the red blood gave them that purple hue. My midwife didn't have a glue what to put as my eye colour on my birth certificate. My fingertips touched my cheek, the skin looked pale and chalky, the rosy colour gone and the light speckling of freckles looked faded. It looked like a truck had hit me, and for the storm of emotions draining me, that's probably what happened.
The sound of a whoosh showed the door had opened, granting us access to stride though. Then the door behind me shut once the threshold passed behind me and the green panel blinked red. My stomach plunged as it sunk in, my brain heightening my senses as a cold weight settled in my stomach. My eyes flew around the room. The room was only a large cupboard, yet 10 people stood inside. Humans, turians and the 4-eyed species from earlier. All wearing blue armour with a white oval outline on them. The oval had a small circle inside the oval, right up at the top. Most wore helmets. Dread turned my blood cold.
"This 'er?" one asked.
"Aye, she's the one who arrived with Shepard," The 'officer' who led me here said. My body quaked.
"Alright, tie 'er up. We've got a job to do," the first one waved his gun in my direction. People moved towards me. My instincts overrode any commands from my common sense.
I whirled around, trying to turn that red light green again. But my frenzied mind could not remember how these things worked. Someone grappled me from behind. A scream ripped my lungs, as loud as they would allow, flailing. The turians' winced as they tried to hold me down. My flailing was useless, however, their grips were too strong. They pinned me on the floor. Everything in me writhed, making short, panicked screams as darkness tried to enclose me. Only survival instincts prevented me from fainting. But three people pinned me to the floor. Another scream rose again – a loud and proper scream – but someone grabbed my head and smashed it into the floor. Stars danced before my eyes. My body still wriggled, but it had lost its energy as the tears were falling.
Why was all this shit happening?!
"Bloody human," a 4-eyed alien snorted. A grumble of agreement rumbled around the room. Rope wriggled around my wrists, now pinned to my back. My voice screamed, body thrashing to fight free. Someone swore as my foot hit something. A gun butt to the head was a reward. My eyes spun as tears stained my cheeks, head thumping. Why didn't I stay in the goddam docking bay!? Why did my instincts not force me to stay? Udina said to stay in the docking bay!
A human and a turian hauled me to my feet. I tried once more for freedom, thrashing and everything between, but all it did was annoy them. They shoved against the door before they opened it to shut me up. They threw me on the ground and drag me by my bound legs. The men dragged my sobbing body down the deserted halls, eyes spinning directionless, my cries useless against the hardened men and aliens. They were silent as they marched to their destination. The corridors opened out into a new docking bay, this one abandoned of all people aside from more blue and white armoured people. A sole ship sat in the dock, spinning before my frazzled eyes. They dragged me towards it, towards the ramp leading to the hatch. They were planning to whisk me away. To kidnap me. My brain went into full meltdown. My foot lashed out with a vengeance, crying out with all the pain-inducing screaming ability of my well-tuned lungs. Desperation was a powerful emotion. He swore, furious, before he kicked me in the ribs, interrupting my screaming.
It restarted when his head exploded.
Gunfire rang out in all directions, balls of flame hurtled over my head, blue lightning igniting the men around me. The gang around me yelled as commands the sound of battle drowned out their voices. Someone grabbed me, dragged me towards the ship again at a run while trying to shoot at someone behind us. Every ounce of power the adrenaline had granted me hurled my weight to one side, to free myself, to make the alien dragging me stumble. A curse, but he hung me and he was still on his feet. But then his shoulder went flying in the same direction he was thrown in. He fell to the floor. A bullet had freed me its clutches. With bound limbs, there was no way to walk. There was only one thing for it.
I rolled like a goddam chocolate Yule log on the highway to hell, away from the ship and the group in blue armour. The only thing that gave me any pause was a face full of exploded brain. My stomach emptied in seconds. The smell of copper blood around me, the wet sensation, the realisation of what it was, what it had been. The blood was bad enough, driving my stomach to breaking point, but combined with this... My stomach cramped, retching for my life. When my legs moved to pull myself away from the stains on the ground, the rope loosened around my ankles. Wiggling like a cat in a bathtub, one leg freed itself. To roll to safety was out of the question. No more brain to the face. My knees staggered under my weight at that point. The sounds of the gunfire, the smell of burning plasma, the sight of the gore, my mind couldn't comprehend it. My feet stumbled around bodies, slipped on blood. Screams broke free as bullets flew overhead and even my balance shambled after tripping on the rest of the rope still attached to my leg.
Then someone grabbed me. My muscles jerked, floundering as fear blinded me, trying to free myself from the grip and escape the area. The hands became arms across my torso, crushing me. Something grunted overhead as they tried to restrain me. A bullet soared past my head, the hairs on my nose burned Something shoved me to the ground, a heavy weight crushing me to the floor. My body wriggled for salvation.
"Oi, oi, oi! Spirits, human, calm down!" a voice grunted, the heavy flanging suggested a turian. They had that in their voices.
I flung my eyes open. They locked onto the gaze of an emerald eyed turian. Coppery skin glared down at me. It took a moment before the reason for the déjà vu materialised. The turian from the docking bay, the one who gawked at me earlier. Golden hexagons covered his skin, shimmering like a fantastical honeycomb. Some orange holographs hovered over his forehead, more hovered by his shoulders from what the corner of my eyes. Was it armour? My eyes widened and trembled under him as he eased some of his weight off me, pinning me with his stare. He would not let me escape without a fight. At this moment in time, the safest place available was here.
"Calm down," he said in a softer tone, hoping it would break through the frightened haze settled over my vision. He glanced up at the fire fight still going on. "Babis! Cover the right flank!" he called as he yanked my hands free of the rope. A terrified whimper leaked as my hands raised to my chest, clutching the ends of the hoodie together. The turian glanced down again for a heartbeat. He pulled a large pistol from his hip. It popped and extended out, it did not comfort me. His other arm curled around my head. "Don't worry, human, we'll get you out of this in one piece. Just lie still until we get this under control,"
I stared at the underside of his jaw as he focused on the enemy. Bullets slammed into him, but they seemed to bounce off, a small blue pulse radiating from the impact site. He yelled out a few more orders, one about cover fire, another about grenades but he did not move, a dragon guarding his hoard. As darkness spread from the edges of my vision, my attempts to calm myself failed. The only thing not scaring the absolute shit out of me was the turian above me. His voice was more flanged than Garrus', when he turned his head, teal markings lined his crest, wriggling their way along the ridges. On his left side, beside the longest crest... spike thing, the tip bent up. Unique and identifiable though, for all turians looked almost identical to each other.
I heard a bullet smash into his arm, right at my head. It ripped a scream from me, grabbing the carapace armour while trying to bury my face into the deep bowl around his neck. My action must have startled him, for he jumped when my hands dragged him down to hide myself. It didn't make his life easy, however, since he had to drop his chin into his arm, pressing me back against the floor to keep me sheltered. He took several attempts to convince me to bring my arms back against my chest.
We only lay there for a few dozen seconds, but it was a few dozen seconds where my lungs gasped for air, my vision danced before me. The need to cry rose like the tide. Then he called out for cover fire. The copper turian hauled my frozen body up off the ground, securing his arm around my waist. The collar of his armour was my only rock. Then the terror started all over again when blue-coloured armoured thugs charged at us, firing as if to scare my rescuer. Was he my rescuer? The turian side-stepped at a brisk jog, keeping his body between me and the bullets as we scurried to the door. He raised his arm, complete with gun, and returned. Bodies crumpled to the ground. A wall of turians smothered us, putting themselves between the copper turian and me. Where did the endless supply of blue thugs spawned from? There hadn't been more than a dozen of them in the room. Had there been more in the ship?
I released that we were no longer in the dock, rather back in the corridors the men had dragged me through. The turians spun then, sending my own poor rattled brain rolling. He sprinted down the hall with me tucked under his arm. My hands tightened around his arm, eyes squeezed shut as a cold sweat covered me. Footfalls sounded behind me, laden with armour. A minute passed before the lack of bullets forced me to open my eyes, Prying my eyes open, the turian troop watching the rear, jogging down all around me as a ring of sentinels. We slowed to the stop when the turians believed we were safe.
The swaying floor ruined any sense of stability when the copper turian placed me back on my feet. My legs quivered, knees refusing to hold me and then caved. His hands snatched me up again before my knees hit the ground. He lowered me the rest of the way to the floor, knowing the mental and physical strength to do it myself was spent. He knelt down before me, the turians surrounded us, facing outwards with guns ready. My eyes stared up at the turian as my body trembled and my vision swam. He picked something out of my hair, tossed it away out of sight. Something smashed into the floor with a splat. My stomach tightened, an acidic stain welled up in the back of my throat. If my stomach hadn't emptied earlier, it would be now.
"I'm Valérien Autillin, Turian Military, Cabal Division," he said. Cabal? What the hell was a... oh, oh fuck it, it didn't matter. My head swirled. "What's your name?" His tone was soft and slow. Was he trying to calm me? To put me at ease? Or was he worried I would pass out- oooh, don't even think about that now!
"E-En-d-dell-" I struggled. My voice seemed choked in my throat, unable to penetrate the plug of terror that had sealed it. "Dell," I said. My whole body was swaying, my head was throbbing, my stomach twisting in knots.
"Dell, alright. What did they want?" He asked, my jaw floundering, my mind blank. My brain refused to process the question. "Dell, what did the Blue Suns want with you?" His speech was slow. Under normal circumstances, it would be insulting. This was not a 'normal' situation though.
"T-They wan-wanted to use me agai-against Shepard... s-somehow," I answered, trying to pull myself together. My vision alternated between darkness and blurred vision, my sense of balance could not deal with the conflicting data from my eyes.
"Who is Shepard?" he asked.
"C-Commander S-Shepard. A-Alliance N-Navy," I wheezed. Now my throat seized up. Would my brain haemorrhage if my mouth didn't shut up?
"You're doing great, Dell-"
"She needs a doctor," a new turian muttered. "Who knows what they did to her. Look, her eyes are trying to roll back in her head," My eyes... oh. Oh that wasn't a good sign, right? That was a bad sign. It might explain why everything swirled.
"She's collapsing. Hey, hey! Stay with us!" another new voice yelled at me, shaking me. A strange sound escaped as the room collapsed in on itself. My body sagged against the wall.
After pulling Dell off the bloodied floor, blood trickling off her face, we sprinted down the halls. Her body had fallen limp, trapped in between consciousness and unconsciousness. During that time, her voice created some of the most disturbing croaking sounds any animal had made around me. It combined speech with groaning and the occasional squeak. She could've been drunk, anyone would have dismissed it as that, but I saw the attempted kidnapping first hand. With the rest of my team camouflaging the human from the public view, we all but sprinted to the nearest hospital. Huerta Memorial Hospital was the most acclaimed hospitals on the Citadel. Under normal circumstances, a stay there would through you back a few thousand credits. Here, it was because it was the nearest. Dell looked far too pale, even by human standards. She held no rosy tint that kept warmth in other pale-coloured humans. Was that normal? Her most concerning symptom was her eyes. They were trying to roll back in her head and they were borderline successful in that endeavour. I had enough knowledge about humans to recognise head trauma.
What had been going through my head to rally my team and hunt down a human? A human staring at me was far from unusual. They were a suspicious lot, despite the co-operative work done between our species in recent years, neither of us took to each other since the war. So when one smiles and waves, to a complete stranger at that, then disappears into disused corridors with a man known to have shady connections. Well, my instincts told me something was wrong. That one look spoke volumes. Her eyes were too naïve, too raw and young. We had been waiting for a shuttle to take us to our next assignment when I convinced them to follow. Looks like we would have to catch the next one now. Kyern slammed a fist on the hospital floor button once we reached the elevator. We didn't run into any more Blue Suns, thank the spirits. We waited as Dell continued to deteriorate from nonsense noise to silence. The noise was preferable, it was a sign she was alive. The doors opened.
"We've got an emergency here!" I yelled as we ran into the hospital. Nurses and doctors from all species, turned to stare. They dropped their work to run over the distance. Most were salarian, the amphibian-like aliens with long, skinny bodies and limbs, a long face and large frog-like eyes. Males had two horn like structures on top of their heads, females lacked them. They were lucky if they lived beyond 40 years old, given their high metabolism. More than a few asari dotted the area, the blue skinned, humanoid-like species were intelligent and most were powerful biotics. The cartilage on their heads looked like tentacles, thinning and collecting at the back of the head.
"What's the situation?" a hurried salarian asked, impatient over my slower words. A nurse yanked a bed over, waiting by the elevator as if predicting this event.
"Head injuries, possible internal injuries," I said as my knees bent to lower Dell on the wheeled bed. They whisked her away, already examining the obvious knock to her head. My shoulders slump. They would take care of her, she was safe. My attention could return to the problem at hand with my crew. My superiors would need a report on why we were late. I turned to my team, each staring back at me with the same look.
"What should we put in our report?" Tiberius asked. He glowered at my snort.
"She was Alliance, a scientist or mechanic. No apparent combat training at all though, which is odd," I said with a frown. That was odd. If she was part of the Alliance, she must have received at least some basic training. Yet her response was far from any other Alliance reaction and more like a civilian... my mandibles clicked. "We'll speak to her when she's coherent. Maxeus is a predictable man, he'll want every bloody detail," I sighed. The thought of my kabalim alone boiled my blood. My ruffled plates refused to settle as a dark blue skinned asari nurse caught my attention.
"Excuse me, ma'am," I said. The asari looked up from her datapad. "Could you inform me when Miss Dell is available for visitors? She was just taken in, she wore an Alliance jacket,"
"Oh, yes sir," the asari smiled. "If you take a seat, I will keep an eye on the situation," With a nod, my crew dragged me to a set of chairs near the large windows overlooking the Presidium. A sigh rumbled through my chest. They had followed me this far, may as well go the extra mile to get full details. We waited, seated in chairs that put aches in our backs, so someone left to grab coffee for us. Our conversations were sparse, as per usual, I wasn't their best friend by any stretch of the word. Any conversation circled around recollecting any detail we may have missed. Babis was in charge of the report.
We sat waiting in the awkward silence and thin words for several hours. Scowls and drawn plates flew in my direction, but no one voiced critical comments, not before the asari nurse arrived. Dell was ready to see visitors now she was stable. We thanked the nurse, myself more than the others. We could be on the road soon enough and this lot could stop glaring at me for the boring wait. The nurse told me the room number and granted us access to the wards of the hospital. We walked down the hall, the Cabals were on my heels. Labs lined us on either side on either side of the glass walls as scanner beeped overhead. Asari, human and salarian looked over test data or argued over medications, it made me glad I didn't go into medicine.
I entered the main part of the hospital. Plants decorated the middle of the hall in walled boxes, dozens of doors running the length of the hospital, and this was only the first floor. Glass panes allowed a look into the rooms, shutters were down for those that needed privacy. We moved though the people standing or walking down the halls. We stuck to the left, looking at numbers as they appeared. It wasn't long until the room appeared. My hand hesitated at the door, doubt creeping through my head. Was this human even approachable? Had the whole kidnap attempt been a rouse, a trap placed by the Blue Suns? No, her injures were too genuine and her fear had been real. My knuckle knocked at the door before pushing the button to open it. The Cabals stood guard outside in case the Blue Suns wanted to finish the job
Dell's head snapped up, startled by the knock and entrance. She had been lying down with the upper part of her bed inclined, although she sat vertical now. Blood still mingled in the air but a bandage wrapped around her head, her coat slung on the back of a nearby chair. Wires ran from under her pale blue t-shirt, tubes feeding colourless liquid into her system, secured to her arm with tape and bandages. Her strange lilac eyes calmed from panic to a more confused look upon seeing my face. Spirits, this girl wouldn't survive a day in some parts of the Citadel. Her wild red crest, hair the humans call it, was now in tame waves down her back. She smiled, a small one at least, as she tugged covers tucking her to the bed. She still looked too pale. The bed squeaked eased herself back down onto the bed.
"H-Hey," she said. She sounded tired, or was that nerves? She watched me as I crossed the distance to a seat beside her.
"How are you feeling, Dell?" I asked. She gave a nervous laugh.
"I'm so high on medication the room looks like is a dream sequence," she managed with a smile. A snort burst free, tension released from my shoulders. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. My plates loosened to grin, watching as she flushed and fiddled with her fingers.
"I have a few questions, if you are up to them. Need to inform my superiors why my team and I are late," I said. A flash of horror dropped her jaw and widened her eyes.
"I-I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, clutching the quilt. She looked ready to drag it over her head. "I-I didn't mean t-" my hand grabbed her arm to make sure she didn't fall out of the bed. Her reaction sent me reeling, she couldn't be Alliance…right?
"Hey, it's alright, calm down. I'd miss another 10 shuttles if it means I save lives instead," I said. She gave a twitchy upwards flick of her mouth. She seemed to fight with her shoulders, as if trying to settle them.
"I-I try to answer your questions," She said. A slow breath released out.
"Thank you, I need you to tell me why you followed that man in the dock. You are Alliance, I assumed you had have basic training," I said. Her face stilled, expression frozen in place as she tried to process the question.
"A-Alliance? B-but I'm not..." her eyes fell on the jacket. They widened to the size of dishes. "N-No! I-I'm not military. I-I'm just a-a g-geologist th-that they found out o-on-"
"Hey, hey, shh. Ok, ok," I raised my hands, ready to grab her if she trembled any more than she already was. She was swallowing hard, trying to explain but her flustering was preventing her from speaking. "Start from the beginning. The very beginning," She stared at me for a time, clutching the duvet. She swallowed.
She told me of her tale of how she woke up on Xawin with no recollection on how she got on the planet. Then she stayed on an Alliance vessel for several days, someone gave her the jacket since she had lost everything. She told me about her meeting with her ambassador. She explained her ambassador told her to go to the dock to get a shuttle back to Earth. Then she gave a sad smile and said the man who led her away told her he was a member of C-Sec. With the information, the lines drew between the dots.
"So, your ambassador let you go to the dock without an escort, despite knowing this was your first time to the Citadel?" I asked. She nodded. "And the Alliance team didn't take you either?"
"They had already left earlier. T-They have an important mission though, I can't blame them," she shrugged, her shoulders were still tense. She had calmed down, but the unease remained. She just needed something to distract her.
"So, what's the plan now? Return back to Earth despite not having a home or anything?" I asked. She glanced up at me, her eyes wobbling. If they rolled back again, that nurse was getting in here, but they remained stable.
"I'm not sure... sue the ambassador for the lack of protection?" she joked. Tension eased out my shoulders as a grin spread.
"Na, doesn't work that way," I said. She gave me a nervous pout. Another laugh escaped me. She was trying to perk herself up, spirits, she was trying. Her eyes turned sad, however, as she thought about my question more. My mandibles flared, staring at the human.
"I have no choice, there's nowhere else to go," she sighed, tousling that mane of hers. "Don't ask me what I'll do on Earth. No family, no friends, no money, no home," she shook her head. "No degree, no work experience, nothing. I just have to start in the dirt and try to survive. If my country has a benefit scheme, that can help me for a while. Assuming they accept me," A frown pulled my lips down, mandibles clicking.
"You wouldn't last a week," I said.
"I know," She replied. That froze my mandibles. "But there's no going back. If I roll over, then I'll never know if something would have worked, that I could survive. If I get money from my government, I can work for a while, save up and go to university or find an apprenticeship somewhere. Everything hinges on that. Get that far, then maybe I can make something of my life," In that moment, a saw something different in her eyes. A small flicker that flared with each work and only grew stronger with each passing word. This human had a stubbornness to surpass the salarians. Her determination is admirable. Afraid of her own shadow, yes, but determined.
"Hey, if you ever need anything, anything at all, drop me a call. I'll help out as best as I can," I said. She studied me for a time, eyes widening, turning my words over as if trying to find the strings attached. She smiled after a minute. At last, a real smile not held back by fear.
"Thank you," she answered.
"Val, we've got company" Tiberius' voice broke into my ear. A frown drew my plates together, glancing at the door.
"I'll be back in a minute, important call," I said, pushing myself up. She gazed at me, confused. My hand patted hers, a comforting pat on the back of her hand before approaching the door. My plates straightened, fingers twitching for the Tempest SMG at my hip. If this was Blue Suns again...
The door opened. What greeted me was not the Blue Suns. My mandibles snapped close at the scene before me. Three people were giving hardened stares to the seven other turians guarding the door; a turian, a human and a quarian. The human shifted his gaze to me, hard and cool. My fingers twitched, the temptation to pull my Tempest out thrived. The rest of the team had already done so, assault rifles, pistols and SMGs all primed. The doctors stared, eyes shifting around the room and to each other. Some were even preparing beds in case a shoot-out occurred. Eyes on the group, my legs started to stride through the door, hardening my gaze.
"Commander?" Dell's voice rang behind me. My eyes flew to Dell. She was leaning forward, eyes wide and mouth ajar. Her eyes were on the human. Now my gaze locked with that male human. Shepard, Commander Shepard. My pistol unhooked. It had only a second, but all turians and aliens held a gun steady in their hands.
Eight against three. Why did Shepard look so smug?