Adam Turner blinked down at the silver vambrace wrapped innocently around his left forearm.
It hadn't been there when he went to sleep last night, returning home after yet another exhausting day at work. Returning his to cold and empty apartment bereft of all energy and excitement. Yesterday had been just another gruelling day, of pushing himself to the limit and achieving nothing.
"This can't be real." Adam muttered, staring at the shiny surface in a daze. His blue eyes were wide with amazement and stunned realization, as if looking beyond the physical.
Because he was.
Within his mind list after list was revealed, the unimaginatively named Armband projecting it's control system directly into his brain. Despite how much attention he was desperately pouring into every moment, devouring all the information it provided, his real vision and attention paid to the physical was in no way diminished.
It was a bizarre sensation, if Adam's mind was split into two halves without suffering any penalty. As if his overall cognitive abilities were greater today than they had ever been at any point in his life.
"Your previous user died..." Adam muttered, running a shaky hand through his dark hair. "So you found someone else."
The Armband was a device that enabled it's user to travel the multiverse, among its vast array of abilities. It could go anywhere, anytime, any-place. Every five years it could forge a random connection to another universe or dimension, allowing the user to bounce back and forth at a generous pace.
He, a simple dockyard worker, could leave this damned world behind and reforge his life. Pushing thirty, without a wife or kids, without any family left to call his own... there was little holding him back. After a disastrous sting of relationships, the concept had soured Adam until before he knew it, everyone he knew had partnered off.
Friends drifted away, caught up in the pace of their own lives, his already small family suffered a series of tragedies and now... Adam was all alone.
With the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes standing before him, what else could he do? Ignore the Armband? There was a simple command he could see, that would send the device on it's way, searching out a new user. Another to command it's vast array of powers.
But he would never do so, because the benefits were immediately clear.
The wearer of the Armband would never age. From the instant it had jumped into this world and attached itself to his body, the slow but certain decline that had been just around the corner had been halted. Adam was biologically immortal as long as the device was attached to him. From a brief glance at the controls, he could even begin to reverse to affects of time, and age backwards!
There was no command to instantly transform into a teenager, but he could set a biological age that would slowly come into effect. If he wanted to be fifteen again? All Adam had to do was flip a switch and live fifteen years, ageing in reverse. If he wanted to be a dignified fifty? Then in twenty years he would stop at that age and could remain there until the stars in the sky began to gutter and die.
"This is impossible." Adam muttered, eyes wide with amazement and inner eyes searching desperately. "I've gone crazy. This is just..."
Even if he never wanted to leave his world behind and disappear into the aether, aiming blindly for a world and universe unknown, there was no way he could pass up the ability to live beyond his time. It wouldn't make him immortal and immune to damage, not directly. There was no super regenerative effect, no lifesaving systems in place that would mitigate a life-ending incident.
But if he lived? He would heal. Slowly, at the speed of normal human recovery his body would piece itself back together from even crippling injuries.
Adam would keep the armband for those features alone, but there was oh so much more.
"Let's try this then." The stunned man muttered, rooting through a junk filled drawer to withdraw an old ring. It was a large golden band with a roaring lion's face. Something he'd picked up as a young man, flush with money and looking to show off, hoping to impress.
It hadn't of course, just one of the many mistakes that those taking their first independent steps out into the world make. It had cost a few grand at the time, money that probably should be been invested back into his own education or living expenses.
"Scan." Adam muttered after a few moments of juggling the not insignificant weight in his palm.
The Armband seemed to hum, although there was no noise given off, no visual effect to indicate it was working. To an outside observer, nothing was happening. Deep within Adam's mind however, he could feel the Armband stir to life, focusing on his wants and needs.
Within a second there was a file in place where nothing had been previously, a single solitary option within an imaginary folder that had been empty. Blueprints.
Swallowing nervously, Adam licked his dry lips. "P-print."
A beam flickered out, licking the counter-top. It was a flashing purple and red beam, emerging from the Armband and focusing down on its destination. With stunning speed, gold formed out of nowhere, molten and twirling.
Within seconds the beam cut out and vanished as if it had never existed, leaving a perfect copy of his expensive golden ring on the kitchen top.
"This is happening. This is real. I'm not dreaming." Adam whispered, reaching out with his free hand, fingers trembling. He grasped the room temperature golden ring as if afraid it would burn him. When nothing happened, Adam picked it up and held the copy in the palm of his hand, the original in the other. His gaze wavered back and forth, trying to discern any differences.
The golden rings were identical, right down to the shallow scratches and embedded dirt from years of neglect.
The Armband could perfectly copy anything it scanned, given enough time.
It could also produce scanned items from nothing, generating up to a kilogram of new matter each and every minute.
Infinite in power, the reserves of energy and matter were inexhaustible.
The sheer potential this device held was incalculable. What could he do with the power that had randomly fallen into his lap?
The possibilities seemed endless, almost enough to overwhelm the senses. The question wasn't what could he do, but what couldn't he do? What was beyond his reach when given such a tool?
One thing was for sure however-
"I'm not going into work today." Adam snickered, gazing down at the shinning vambrace with gleaming eyes.
After quitting his job, Adam sat down on the sofa and began planning. How to make money, how to build himself up. There was a question that had to be asked, one that needed answering.
"What do I want out of life?" He whispered, gazing out the window of his shitty apartment. "I've got the keys to the kingdom, so what do I do with them...?"
It wasn't as easy a question to answer as he'd imagined it would be, but right now there was no rush.
Adam had all the time in the world.
Without knowing where he was going, what universe would be waiting for him, there was little he could do to truly plan his future out. But there were things to do that could help him on his way.
Over the next few weeks, he hit the gym with a vengeance he hadn't felt since he was a young man. Determination flowed through him, aware that the tide of years wouldn't begin to wash away all the hard work, sweat and tears that would be poured into the endeavour.
Without a job to dominate all his waking hours, to drain away all energy and enthusiasm from life, it was an easy routine to fall back into. In his youth, Adam had been a fitness nut but time and hurt had worn away at his soul until it had become a distant prospect.
To return to his roots, casting away the malaise that had grown and began to choke away the joy of life, was an amazing experience.
It felt like coming home.
Samples of materials began to arrive at Adam's home. Slips and nuggets of precious and rare materials, ordered online. Metals of all types and shapes, shockingly expensive even in the quantities provided. The energised man scanned them all and then returned the purchases, getting his money back, which was immediately spent on something else.
He didn't know the world he'd be heading to, so it was best to be prepared for everything. To pay his way, Adam pawned off copies of his golden ring all over the city. London was a big place with a lot of locations that would pay in cash. He received well below market rate for the gold, but given the original ring's bulk, it was more than enough to tide him over.
Impatience began to churn in Adam's gut however. He was eager to leave this world behind, to go forth and see something fantastical. An unexpected world of opportunity had been dropped in his lap, something unlooked for but entirely magical. Adam wanted to forge ahead immediately, to cast the drudgery aside and throw away the sickness that had infected him.
But the timer...
Five years to recharge.
The time gnawed at him, taunting him, mockingly ticking away a second at a time. Like a watched hourglass, time seemed to trickle by at a glacial speed. Want and need burst through his chest, pressure built and there was no outlet that could drain away the relentless build-up.
It felt like the world's greatest tease, to dangle all these opportunities before a starving man, delicious and beautiful. The scent of freedom had entranced Adam like a starving wolf, and he slavered wildly at the thought.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Adam said, knee bouncing with unrestrained energy. There was a way to instantly recharge the Armband, to open up a path to a new universe. If he sacrificed the connection to one world, he could regain another...
All it would take, was to forget Earth. His home-world, his very reality. If it was sacrificed, Adam could leave any time he liked. No more waiting.
"Is there anything left here?" He asked himself, churning the prospect around his mind in circles. There had been vague notions of coming back to Earth, bringing back things he found. Perhaps becoming a celebrity or someone rich and powerful. With no idea of the possibilities he could forge for himself out in the wild unknowns of the multiverse, there was no way to form concrete plans however.
Did he want to throw even the chance of that ever happening away? Toss it aside and forever close a door that would never appear again? The chances of coming back to the world of his birth... it was impossible.
Adam wasn't quite sure how expansive the multiverse was and if the Armband knew it wasn't speaking. He had plumed the depths of the device since it had appeared, but it appeared to delete everything when the previous user died, creating a clean slate.
"Fuck it." Adam breathed, standing up with a sudden burst of energy.
He couldn't possibly wait.
The past few months had been hell as the excitement had built and built, there was no world where he could wait for years more. It wasn't possible, he couldn't do it.
Adam refused.
The time had come and that time was now.
"Let's blow this joint!" Adam chuckled, jumping to his feet and rushing to prepare. He threw on his best clothes, fresh as wet paint. Needless to say he'd spent some time browsing higher end stores than he usually visited, scanning his way through building after building.
A variety of gold and precious gems were tucked away inside his clothes, ready to pull out and pawn off for local currencies. Having to find somewhere to duck away to generate trading supplies would be a pain. Hopefully this would be enough to tide him over.
"This is it." Adam noted, hesitating only a moment as he mentally hovered over the decision to delete this world from his list of available universes. Between one heartbeat and the next, it vanished from possible traversal destinations, leaving an empty entry.
A small mental ding indicated that the aspiring world hopper had a blind jump available. With but a mental thought he could leave his home-world behind, never to return.
"I guess this is so long..." Adam noted aloud to the empty room.
There was nobody there to reply. Nobody in his life who would care or notice his absence. His stomach soured, but his hope for the future remained bright.
"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast." Adam grinned, a feeling of freedom overcoming him. There was nothing now on this world to come back to and he had made his peace with that fact.
It was time to go and leave the past behind him.
With but a thought, Adam dumped his singular charge into connecting to a new world within an entirely new universe.
A surge of heat shot through his body. Within an inch of Adam's skin the world twisted and warped, billions of surging red lines like muscle sinews bursting forth to surround the man's body. The energy strings tightened, closing in on his form until they formed a skin tight prison.
Between one moment and the next reality lensed-
And Adam Turner left behind his home-world, his Earth, forever.
The scintillating shell of writhing energy deposited the traveller onto a new world, his dimensional virginity sundered and broken. Within a second of his emergence, the red veins dispersed, breaking into a million shining motes and vanishing as if they'd never been.
"Oh that wasn't fun." Adam groaned, staggering as the combination of the trans-reality roller-coaster and the sudden increase in gravity stole his stability. His knees weak, Adam leaned out towards the metal wall closest to him, resting his weight against it.
After taking a moment to regain his composure and banish the weakness, his blue eyes shot back open to take in his surroundings. What he saw wasn't what he expected.
The street Adam was on was deserted. The ground was hardened earth, bereft of grass except for a patch here or there. The buildings were less buildings and more... sheds of metal, stacked atop one another like Lego blocks.
Oh they looked shiny and professional, there was no doubt about that. But the street wasn't composed of real buildings either, instead a sort of futuristic caravan? No, prefabs?
And the sky, wasn't quite right either. The colour was ever just slightly off, as if lit from a source different from anything the dimensional traveller had ever known.
Adam's body felt heavy, every limb and motion just ever so slightly too slow, too cumbersome.
"Ha." The chuckle escaped by itself, tearing itself to freedom. He knew what this all meant. "Ha! Hahahaha!"
He was on an alien world.
Excitement surged and Adam took a halting step down the road, eyes wide and drinking everything in. All the doors were closed and what few windows he could see were covered by curtains. A residential area?
Aimlessly Adam began to walk, devouring and searing the images into his brain. Something flew by overhead, looking nothing like any bird the man had ever seen. It was alien in form, resembling some long limbed lizard with bat-like wings. Before he could take a good look, the animal disappeared, vanishing behind a triple stacked prefab building.
"This is amazing..." Adam mumbled as his feet took him further, finding solid pavement suddenly underfoot. He'd found a main road, and unlike before it was dotted with a smattering of people going about their business. Human people, who looked entirely unconcerned or unbothered by the fact they were on an alien world.
Their clothing was kind of... strange. Sleek and different from the styles on Earth, but not completely alien to his senses. The long road seemed to stretch on forever but there were no cars he could see-
A vehicle flew overhead with a hum and gentle breeze of displaced air. It looked like sleek car that had forgotten to include wheels, and so had simply shrugged and carried on in defiance of gravity.
Deciding it would counterproductive to simply wander aimlessly, Adam forced down the manly urge to forge ahead in ignorance, girding his loins to do that most imposing of tasks. To ask for directions.
"'Scuse me mate?" Adam said, approaching a passer-by on the street. The older man turned to look at him, a bemused smile on his face. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find a pawn shop around here, would you?"
"Pardon me?" The grey streaked man replied with a thick American accent, eyebrows raising as if confused. "Are you asking..."
"I'm new here and a bit lost." Adam admitted, hoping that would help the process along. Hopefully it wouldn't set off some red flags, because then he would be in a really tight spot.
"I... see..." The older gentlemen replied, looking a bit lost. He raised his right arm, orange holograms sparking to life and covering the limb. His free hand come up to tap away at an unfamiliar configuration of controls. "Ah, here we are. There's one just at the end of this road, Benny's Broke Brokerage. You can't miss it."
"Thank you." Adam replied faintly, his eyes locked onto the man's glowing arm. Locked onto his Omni-tool. He could feel the world slightly swaying as blood rushed to his head, shock and bewilderment crowding his mind.
What?
WHAT?
Adam knew that technology. Had played games with it in his youth, had been a fan of the franchise. How?! Out of all the universes he could have possibly ended up in, he arrived in a place he recognised. A place he knew, if ever so faintly.
The man he'd stopped replied and shot him a wave, before returning to his business.
What were the chances? Would every universe be a place he knew in some form? Only the first? Was it just the consequence of impossibly long odds turning up in his favour, a random coincidence that would never happen again?
Adam had no way of knowing.
Distantly, he turned in the indicated direction and began to walk, numbly following the road as his mind churned wildly.
Was this the canon Mass Effect universe? A variant? Something that features only a surface level similarity but was wildly different in particulars? Questions gnawed at the dark haired man's mind but there were simply no answers to be had.
Where was he in the timeline? Adam couldn't stop somebody and ask, that was likely to end up with him thrown into a loony bin, if they even still had those in the future.
No, first things first- acquire funding, purchase the means of researching this universe as much as possible, then finding lodgings so he could have privacy to perform a deep dive.
He needed to establish a baseline understanding of the strange new world he'd found himself in, first and foremost. Only then would he be situated enough to begin making moves, to build up resources and become a man of means.
There was nothing he'd copied from Earth that would aid him much here beyond providing some seed funding. With no other universes visited at this point, he'd have to leverage the Armband's powers to provide a leg up.
He may not be able to perform an immediate breakout in this universe, but he could set the stage and perform the groundwork for that eventual explosive growth. That was fine.
Adam had all the time in the world.
