Staring down at the unconscious young alien woman, Alex Shepard couldn't help but wonder what she was dreaming about. Getting their mysterious rescue and the wrecked starship offworld before the Blue Suns showed up in droves had been a good test of her crew at least. They ran a tight ship, and despite their allegiance to Cerberus, Shepard had to admit to herself that she was very pleased with their performance. She still didn't trust them, but most of them were ex-Alliance and it showed.
Shepard had personally taken the alien to the medbay so that Chakwas could look at her. Considering that the alien did appear female, the commander felt comfortable using those pronouns until further evidence presented itself, if ever. Running her eyes over that sleeping face, it still seemed so utterly odd to Shepard that the alien could appear so human. If she didn't have green skin, she would be human. Despite seeing the near-magical telekinetic powers in action and the completely foreign advanced technology, part of her couldn't help but think the alien might just be a human who somehow altered the pigment of her skin to be green.
But she was doing her best to belay her skepticism, remembering how it had felt to dream of Reapers and mass genocide and scream doom into the void only to be shrugged aside and recommended for a psych eval. Yeah, she wasn't going to be the one showing too much skepticism now, not after everything she'd seen and been through. She was pretty certain very few things could surprise her at this point.
The red haired woman was leaning against the wall of the medbay, watching the alien's eyelids ripple as the eyes underneath them shifted and danced so rapidly, waiting for Chakwas to finish her initial examination. There was mostly silence in the facility except for the aging doctor muttering to herself as she typed away on her terminal and her omnitool intermittently, and of course Shepard's foot tapping against the floor impatiently. She had a lot of questions that couldn't be answered until Chakwas was finished with whatever it was she was working on, and Shepard had never been very good at waiting. It's why she was a Vanguard and not an Infiltrator.
Every few moments the ex-Alliance doctor would give Shepard a hard glare and she would stop with a shamed little smile, only to start up again a few moments later. She was almost tempted to leave and come back later once Chakwas had messaged her, but she just knew that the moment she got engrossed in something else Kelly was going to be chirping at her that Chakwas wanted to see her. She just knew it-
"Here we are, Commander." Shepard was jostled from her thoughts by the doctor finally announcing that her report was done. She pushed herself off the wall so she could give the doctor her full attention, watching as the older woman stood with long streams of information displayed on her omnitool. "Her most pressing and worrisome wounds I have already applied medigel to and she is responding well." Shepard nodded, glancing over at the alien to confirm that. They'd stripped her down to what she assumed was the equivalent of underwear to better treat her. It wasn't much beyond boxers and a bra, though Shepard did take note that they were athletic in design, reminding her very much of the underwear assigned in the Alliance. "She had multiple burns across her body, from what I assume are handheld energy weapons similar to the cannons on her starfighter as you described them. Some of those burns were quite old, and severely needed medical attention." There was a pause, Chakwas glancing at Shepard over her display. "I don't think I need to explain the implications of that, Commander."
No, she didn't. Shepard's arms crossed over her chest as her thoughts raced. This was a runaway of some kind, that was clear. Came hurtling out of the nebula, quick to combat, wounded? Yeah, definitely a runaway. The question now was from what, and why? "What is she, Doc?"
"The question of the hour," The doctor noted wryly, taking in a deep breath through her nostrils. "According to our bloodwork, she's human save for the pigment of her skin and some other minor differences. A security scan would flag her as anomalous, but not alien. The only truly strange thing was the micro-organisms."
That caught Shepard's attention. "Microorganisms? Is she sick?"
"No," Chakwas was quick to assure her, "No she is not sick. These microorganisms appear to be in a form of symbiotic relationship with our guest here, though what that relationship might be I am still uncertain." Well, that was frustratingly vague. Shepard let out a disappointed sigh as she turned her attention back to the. . . alien? Was that even the right word? This was all just so fucking weird. She just couldn't decide if it was weirder than the ancient robot aliens that were trying to wipe out all organic life or not.
"Currently," Chakwas continued, "She is in an unconscious state, her body recovering from her wounds. My best prognosis is that she collapsed from sheer exhaustion, and she needs rest."
Shepard nodded, once more tapping her foot against the metal floor. She thought for a few moments, her mind racing, then nodded again, her mind made up. "Keep a good eye on her, Chakwas. Update me directly if anything changes."
She supposed that she really shouldn't have expected every question she had to be answered right then, it never was, but she still had to hold on to hope. Nothing was ever as simple as it seemed, that was for damn sure. If it was, she would probably be out of a job as the galaxy's sole problem solver. The mystery of the alien stayed on her mind as she left the med bay and moved on to the next step, which was the armory. Some of the Cerberus personnel she passed on the way snapped to attention and she had to resist the urge to recoil every time they did. Seeing people in that uniform salute her made bile collect in the back of her throat, making her swallow it back down. It was going to take her a very long time to get used to that. Part of her never wanted to get used to it, actually.
When she entered the armory, she found Jacob and Miranda engaged in a very boring nerdy conversation that she was instantly having trouble following. Not for the first time since they found this alien, Shepard wished she had paid more attention during her technical training. Normally she might have patiently waited for a lull in the conversation, but she already had a headache and wanted this to just be over so she could go back to worrying about normal things, like trying to save the galaxy from an ancient machine race. Normal. Her normal, she supposed.
'What do we got?" Shepard asked as she entered, interrupting the conversation, making Jacob and Miranda jump a bit. She held little sympathy for them, intent on getting down to business.
Jacob spoke first, clearing his throat before gesturing to the array of equipment on the table before them. "Well, as frustrating as it is, we honestly have no real idea." As if anticipating Shepard's incoming sigh, he held a hand up. "But we have some working theories."
Miranda took over then, pointing at the two tubes that the trio had seen cut through all those Blue Suns. "As far as I can tell," the Australian woman explained, "these seem to be devices that emit the plasma field that we saw. They seem to be powered by a strange crystal, but no matter how many scans I run on it I can't get any results. Whatever they are, there's no comparison in our databases." Great. Another goddamn mystery. Just what she needed. "The workings are quite intricate, but if I take it apart, I should be able to-"
"No," Shepard said immediately, narrowing her eyes at her XO. "Those are the alien's property, and I won't be responsible for a diplomatic incident if you break them." She also just didn't feel comfortable taking apart someone else's things, no matter how interesting or new, and she wasn't going to stand for it. She crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back slightly, staring daggers at Miranda. "Get what you can from scans, but I don't want any of her things disassembled. Am I clear?"
Miranda narrowed her eyes as well, chewing on her cheek as if ready to say something, but Jacob beat her to it. "Yes ma'am," he said instantly, snapping a quick salute. "Understood. Scans only." With that established, Shepard glanced down at the other items on the table, frowning. Catching her frown, Jacob eagerly took over the boring technical conversation from Miranda. "Her other equipment we have more solid theories on." He pointed to a little disk, one that looked like it would fit into the palm of a hand. "This is a messaging device of some kind, a communicator. It doesn't pick up any of our frequencies, so we couldn't interact with it at all, but it does have a pre-recorded message on it."
That immediately got Shepard's attention, and with a nod from her, Jacob pressed a little button on the side of the disc. A hologram appeared from its center, maybe six inches in height, of a man. A man in robes similar to what the alien had been wearing, straight-backed and serious as he stared forward. The entire hologram was colored blue, so she couldn't tell if he was green like the alien, but she would bet decent credits on it. His hands were clasped together within the sleeves of his robe, and after a moment the man began to speak in a posh accent.
"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi. Trust in the Force. Do not return to the temple, that time has passed, and our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged, our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere. And in time, a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you."
The hologram powered down, and the three humans were left in the silence of its aftermath. Shepard's headache only grew worse, and she reached up to massage one of her temples as she tried her best to process the wealth of information that she was now being exposed to. "Alright, so that leaves me with a lot more questions than answers."
"Us too, Commander," Miranda agreed, stroking her chin in thought. "It seems that we have picked up a fugitive fleeing political strife. This alien appears to be on the losing side of said conflict, hence her desperate flight from the nebula where her homeworld must be."
"Poor girl," Jacob muttered as he shook his head in sympathy. "Fleeing persecution and her first contact with the galaxy is the Blue Suns."
"Indeed," Miranda said, annoyed at being interrupted. "We can also deduce that this woman is a member of this 'Jedi Order', who must have been associated with the 'Republic'. The message mentions faith and a temple, so they must be a religious order of some kind. Perhaps similar to the asari justicars in their service to a government."
Logic followed, Shepard supposed. The former Specter let her fingers fall from her temple as she resumed a more casual stance, her mind racing. What did all of this mean? Theories were great and all, but the woman preferred cold hard facts and things she could touch and feel rather than esoteric concepts and hypothetical assumptions about alien politics.
Just then, Shepard received a ping on her omnitool. Glancing down, Shepard saw that it was Chakwas, messaging her to let her know that the alien was beginning to awaken. Her heart sped up in her chest, and she immediately dismissed herself from the current conversation, eager to meet this alien properly.
The moment of truth.