2396: Mass Foundations: A New Day, Chapter Two

Title: Mass Foundations: A New Day
Author:  Nord Ronnoc
Media: Video Game
Topic: Mass Effect
Genre: Adventure/Sci-Fi
URL: Mass Foundations: A New Day
Critiqued by: ME-Iron-Maiden and special guest Jennifer Mui

 

DISCLAIMER: THE AUTHOR OF THIS FIC, NORD RONNOC, AND RESIDENT LIBRARIAN HERR WOZZECK HAVE SOME HISTORY WITH ONE ANOTHER WHICH INCLUDES AN ON-AGAIN/OFF-AGAIN FEUD. I AM FAMILIAR WITH BOTH PARTIES AND HAVE NO STAKE OR INVOLVEMENT IN SAID FEUD. THIS IS SIMPLY A CRITIQUE OF NORD RONNOC’S STORY; NOTHING MORE OR LESS.

Welcome back to the Riff of Mass Foundations: A New Day, everyone. I’m your host ME-Iron-Maiden joined once again by Earth’s Most Expensive Mercenary, Jennifer Mui.

*waits for the applause and groans to die down*

Now before we begin, we need to do some preparations. *holds out a SIG-Sauer P226 in 9mm along with several magazines and ammo for the same to Mui*

Mui: You’re sure about this?

It’s just a precaution. Besides, I won’t have it said that I wasn’t accommodating to my guests.

Mui: “A precaution?” What sort of situation are we going to get into where I’m going to need a sidearm?

You never know in this place. Might be bullshit from the fic, or some of our more colorful and/or annoying denizens will cause a mess that needs cleaned up.

Mui: Fair enough. Ever since Venezuela, I’ve become rather attached to the idea of being armed at all times.

I hear you on that. Let’s get started, shall we? Last chapter, Not!Art found a magick orb that sent him flying through space and time, dumping him head-first into the Citadel Reservoir. Unfortunately, he got fished out of there before he drowned and we have to continue on. First off we get an Author’s Note!

Mui: Are we going to be dealing with this every chapter?

It’s another common thing with fanfiction: authors just love leaving notes in their fics that add nothing to the story. Another trap I fell into myself.

Mui: *sighs* Fine. At least I’m not nursing a hangover this time…

UPDATE 1/14/17: 4Ferelden contributed a lot to the prologue and this chapter. I would like to give him credit for helping me and giving me ideas I wouldn’t consider otherwise. My regret was that I didn’t credit him soon enough. I haven’t heard from him in a while and I worry for him. He was probably okay by all accounts, but I tend to worry about people I like.

UPDATE 2/6/17: I know I’m late on the update, but he emailed me not long ago. He’s doing okay. Still living, still breathing as I like to say.

Mui: Not to be callous, but what is the point of the update aside from giving us someone else to blame for the inane fluff that was the last chapter?

No real point. Though I will say it is nice to see people getting credit for their contributions. Anyways, on to the fic!

Eric gasped and launched himself up, his eyes shot wide open. He was laying on a comfortable bed with a breathing mask on his face, the tube attached to something nearby. The clean, white-washed ceiling and walls around him told him he was in a hospital, albeit a fancy one somewhere in Cambodia or Thailand. He must have done something stupid to end up here, and he would receive a scolding from his mother, his grandparents, and even a harsher one from his father. He really wasn’t looking forward to it. But he couldn’t help but wonder how his parents would be able to afford such a place.

Oh, look at this: self-awareness that touching a weird glowing orb you know nothing about is a bad idea.

Mui: Doesn’t make up for the fact that he did something stupid.

Everything was blurry, and he could make out what was on him. A tube was connected to his wrist, and there were a whole bunch of patches on his chest. Another thing he looked at was the cardiac monitor, beeping steadily as it portrayed all his vital readings, and more, some entirely unknown to him.

His vision cleared out and at first, he saw two figures in white garbs pushing the bed down a corridor, only to stop and look at him in surprise. The one to his left was indigo and the one at his right was some strange mix of gray and brown. These two people do not look human at all. The indigo woman looked human enough, except for the oddly shaped cranial structure in the form of tentacles instead of hair. The other, not so much. He looked too alien, having a thin and narrow face with large, black eyes, two cranial horns on top of his head, and a chest that curved inwards.

Mui: Let me guess. Aliens.

Yup. Specifically an Asari and a Salarian. Though I’m surprised that Salarian is in any condition to function. If his chest curved inwards, I’m pretty sure it means his chest was caved in and crushed.

I can kinda see where he was going, but that description is a bit flawed.

The monitor beeped rapidly, and the world began to spin around him. His breathing became rapid and shallow, and his heart banged wildly against his chest. He couldn’t lie down and think any longer. If there was anything different, he needed to hear it now, from anybody who would answer him.

“I… I…” he uttered out. “What is…?”

The woman shushed him like how a mother would to her child. “You’re in shock. It’s just a natural reaction to almost drowning,” she told him, a deeply concerned look appearing on her face.

“Get off me!” he shouted. he swatted the indigo woman’s hand off his arm. “Don’t touch me! Please!”

He began removing his mask and ripping the medical patches off his chest as he attempted to crawl away. The cardiac monitor was beeping urgently now and flashing warnings and the strange beings called out to him, but he didn’t care. Suddenly, the remaining patches injected him with something, and he started to feel light-headed. He only had enough time to glance at the monitor to see a “Patient containment!” notification on it before he passed out for the third time.

I’m not gonna ding this. I’d be freaking out if I suddenly found myself face-to-face with aliens, regardless of my familiarity with this franchise.

Mui: You already know how I’d react.

About 4 million credits’ worth of reaction for the infirmary alone…

Eric found himself floating in darkness, disembodied and formless. He couldn’t move like something was forcing him not to. There was a sharp ring to his ear, and a chill ran through his spine. At first, it was wetlands. He flew across the wetlands, speeding up in seconds.

The wetlands turned into a tropical forest, and Eric saw Angkor Wat. Instead of being smashed into the tower, he phased through the wall. Everything spiraled out of control. Sculptures deformed, and wall carvings became nothing but gibberish.

He couldn’t help but find it all… off, impossible to be real, but the lizard part of his brain told him: Just go along for the ride!

Mui: That was some good shit they knocked him out with.

I know right? It even got the most primitive “fight or flight” segment of the human psyche to chill when it should be in full panic mode!

A wave of fear crept over him as he saw a small, transparent sphere resting on a plain pillar at the center of a small, circular room. Much to his amazement, everything was intact.

He saw his siblings. His brother was entranced by the sphere, his hand hovering over it, wondering he should touch it or not. His sister was studying the strange inscriptions on the floor and wall. Eric struggled to reach out and call out to them, but he couldn’t speak. Alfonso’s eyes widened in surprise as he made a run for the exit. Right as he squeezed through, the door had sealed off its own accord, crushing every bone in his body. There was a sickening snap, like breaking celery in two. There wasn’t a trace of blood staining on the walls.

Alfonso’s death was quick and painless, though that didn’t help at all. His brother died in front of his sister, and all she could do was sob incoherently. She composed herself and climbed on the walls to escape. The pitch became so loud Eric couldn’t hear anything while everything became blindingly bright.

Eric screamed, but no sound came out of his mouth.

Mui: So what’s going on? Is this a nightmare or something?

Could be a nightmare. Would be interesting if Not!Art here was somehow split between two universes at the same time. The EverWorld series by K.A. Applegate explored a concept like that and was surprisingly entertaining. Basically, the heroes were dragged into another realm, but the job was incomplete so whenever they fell asleep in EverWorld, they’d return to the real world where their bodies were just doing their thing and then get an infodump as to what happened on the other side. Basically their consciousnesses drifted between the “real” world and EverWorld, splitting said consciousnesses between two separate bodies at the same time.

Mui: My head hurts from trying to follow that.

It’s an idea with merit and proved successful for that series. Let’s see if the author is going to go that route.

His eyes shot wide open, blinking several times to clear his vision. He found himself back on the bed. The first thing he saw was the whitewashed ceiling, telling him he was still in a hospital. The next thing he saw was a breathing mask over his mouth. His old clothes were gone, replaced with gray, featureless pajamas.

It’s a dream, he told himself. It has to be a dream.

Of course, the author could just hint at a way to make the story cooler if pulled off correctly and, most likely, kill it before it gains any traction.

Mui: Maybe he’s playing coy.

Possible, but I doubt that’s what he’s doing.

He removed the mask to think straight. He turned around and he couldn’t believe what he saw with wide eyes and a slack jaw. There was that indigo woman sitting on a chair nearby, her bored eyes fixed on an orange light enveloping her left forearm.

One thought played in repeat in his mind as he grasped his head:This is not Mass Effect. This is just a doctor or maybe a nurse cosplaying as an asari with some nice special effects.

He let go of his head and looked through a window to his right. Outside, a river had filled a large lake, the blue water gleaming in the sunlight. On one side of a lake, there were a bunch of tall, white buildings, all connected and arranged with a simple yet elegant efficiency. They were too expensive for any country to maintain.

Mui: And the rationalizations begin.

Can’t say I blame him. The absurdity of a medical professional putting on the kind of makeup require to cosplay as an Asari is still more plausible than being blown into a different universe, so I won’t ding him for that. Instead, I’ll ding him for a failure in basic Mass Effect knowledge.

Mui: What do you mean?

Last chapter, Not!Art got blasted to the Citadel, a massive spacestation home to 15 million permanent residence and the political/cultural capital of Citadel Space. Here’s a picture of what it looks like from the exterior.

Notice anything in that pic that contradicts what the author wrote?

Mui: I’m not seeing a sun or a star nearby.

That’s right. The Citadel is located deep in the Widow Nebula which means that there wouldn’t be sunlight on the station. Now he could be in the Presidum where they use artificial lighting to simulate a day/night cycle, but it’s more likely he’s down in one of the Wards in the arms of the station which doesn’t follow that protocol.

Mui: I imagine the wards are of a different nature?

Picture Hong Kong during the night rush. Now put it in space with aliens of widely divergent biologies and cultures milling about.

Mui: That sounds rather intriguing, actually.

Glancing at the sidewalk below, he saw that many people were not human. Some had a lanky body structure with disproportionately huge eyes. Others were female but in various shades of blue and purple with similarly shaped cranial structures. He even noticed a pink jellyfish-like creature floating on the ground, or however its method of perambulation would be called.

Nice abuse of a thesaurus there, chief.

Mui: Who even uses that formal a term for movement?

As he tried to process all of this, a flying car passed by quickly in proud defiance of most engineers and physicists.

Upon noticing that he was awake, the asari deactivated the light and assumed a professionally-concerned expression. “Glad to see you’re awake,” she said. “We were a bit worried about you after yesterday’s incident. How are you feeling?”

“I… don’t know what to feel,” he answered after taking a deep breath. “Who saved me?”

“Natalie Clay. She brought you here yesterday.”

He nodded almost reflexively. In that time, he realized something: whatever happened, and he had no idea why, but he was now in the Mass Effect universe. And his family would have no idea of what really happened to him. A loved one missing was often harder for the family than death. In a twisted way, he wished he was good as dead to them, but he also wished the sphere had also brought his family.

Likely, his family would stay in the country for some time, desperately involved in searches and find leads that would go nowhere. With every scrap of new information, their spirits would soar and fall. Then they would go back home, disheartened but not discouraged by their lack of progress.

Conspiracy theorists would treat his disappearance as a mystery while the officials would treat it as a missing person case.

Oh shit. Mui, you’d better-

***BLARING ALARMS BLARE***

Mui: WHAT THE HELL IS THAT RACKET?!

IT’S THE DRD! THEY’RE COMING!! *draws an M8 Avenger from my back and takes up a firing position behind a convenient chest-high crate*

Mui: *draws her SIG P226 and takes cover next to Iron* WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON?!

THE FIC JUST USED A REDUNDANCY IN A SENTENCE! THE DRD IS SENDING AGENTS TO TERMINATE THE RIFF AND ALL OCCUPANTS IN THIS ROOM!

Mui: OH YOU HAVE GOT-

*the alarms cut off as the sounds of bodies tumbling and crashing into the walls echo from the hallway*

Oh thank fuck, they sprung the trap.

Mui: What trap?

The DRD’s teams are nigh impossible to kill in a straight-up fight. But they get target fixation like none other. Let’s see what they’re up to.

*pulls up a camera feed on my omni-tool as the DRD agents are tangled amongst one another, a slick pale yellow substance covering their bodies*

Mui: What is that? Some sort of oil slick?

I think it’s butter… *watches as a hatch opens over the DRD agents and covers them in a sticky pale green gel-like substance*  … And I think that’s key lime pie filling.

Mui: …what? What kind of juvenile “trap” is-

RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!!

Mui: … Dare I even ask?

That’s Gumdrop, our resident T-Rex.

Mui: A T-Rex.

I wasn’t kidding when I said the Library had some interesting characters.

Mui: I expect you’ll have my armor ready soon?

I’ll get you hooked up with a basic set until we have the time to get you a more customized setup.

He dreaded one time when Alfonso attempted to rebel, being late home from school for several hours, his phone turned off. It wasn’t easy for Alfonso, being the middle child of the family. It was like that but worse; his family’s scars would never fully recover.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what made that sphere bring him here. Was it a wormhole that sent him here?

He turned to the asari once again as he relaxed his shoulders. This was his first conversation here, but he didn’t have to do any more talking. He could just make a run for it and find a way back home. However, he can’t do this from a hospital bed. He had to know as much as possible if it would help him get back home.

For someone who came straight out of high school and into a graduate-level quantum physics program at one of the most prestigious science-focused universities in the world, Not!Art sucks at physics.

Mui: What do you mean?

I’m no physicist so I’m not 100% certain, but a wormhole that can not only fling Not!Art a few hundred lightyears across the galaxy and into a completely different universe would very likely have gravitational eddies powerful enough to rip this planet apart, if my understanding of relativity is correct. On the other hand, since he’s already invoked Quantum Mechanics and the Many Worlds Interpretation, this is just one MASSIVE can of worms to unravel.

Mui: So… he doesn’t have to talk but has to learn more to escape? What does he expect to do? Play charades?

He wouldn’t get very far if he tried to run earlier. That Asari would most likely wipe the floor with him with her biotics.

Mui: Biotics?

A form of telekinesis where the user can manipulate dark energy to create localized gravity fields for various effect. It’s a very strenuous process, but it’s definitely one hell of an advantage, trust me. Asari might not look particularly dangerous at first glance, but they’re among the deadliest fighters in the galaxy when provoked. And even if he gets past her, the rest of the staff and security would handle him. Good on the author for having a fairly realistic reaction to the clusterfuck he’s found himself in.

“So… where am I? What’s the date?”

The asari gave him a strange look. “You’re at the Presidium Hospital on the Citadel. According to your species’ calendar, today’s June 20th, 2182.”

Eric gasped when he heard the date. He wasn’t on Earth after all but on the Citadel, the iconic space station that served as a capital for the Council’s member species. And he arrived here one year before the events of the first game.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine now. Thank you,” he answered. He hated that he had to lie, but it seemed convincing enough to her.

*SNERK*

Mui: What’s so funny?

Asari are a very long-lived species. Their natural lifespan is around 1000 Earth years, barring other causes of death. Due to this long lifespan, they tend to develop slowly with the first 350 or so years being in what is known as the Maiden stage where the usual trend is they go around sowing their wild oats and exploring the galaxy. After that, they hit the Matron stage where they settle down and get steady jobs and start families until about age 700 where they become Matriarchs who are known for using their vast life experiences to act as guides and counsellors to anyone willing to listen.

Mui: So he’s claiming he’s able to lie to a being who is probably 400 years old?

Yup and if she’s been assigned to look after him, then she’s familiar with humans and probably can tell when a human is bullshitting her.

Mui: Sounds about standard.

The asari nurse nodded. The metal door at the end of the room opened, and a woman in a blue-and-black uniform entered, her hair tied in a short, dark-brown ponytail. Almost immediately, Eric recognized her as the woman who saved his life.

“Hi, Natalie. I take it you’re here to see the patient?” the asari asked.

“Yeah,” the woman answered. “Dr. Oron gave me clearance. Mind if you leave us alone for a minute?”

“Of course.” The nurse sat up and left, the door closing automatically behind her. Eric tensed at having to talk to someone from a fictional universe. However, she saved his life, no matter how awkward he felt about it. He had to wonder: did she exist in the games or was she a member of the faceless masses that Shepard ignored?

Eric looked down at his bed, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact. “You’re Natalie Clay, right?” The woman nodded. “How did you find me?”

“You were drowning in the lake. My husband and I happen to pass by before we saw you,” Natalie answered.

“Thank you for, y’know, saving my life.”

“Appreciate it. I’m just doing my job as a C-Sec officer,” Natalie answered and sat down on a chair next to his bed. He noticed she was carrying a small, gray crate. “Let’s get this moving forward. I got your stuff from HQ.” The box made a quiet hissing sound when she opened it. Inside was his phone and wallet, along with a stack of plastic cards next to the phone. Without thinking, he quickly grabbed his phone and pressed the power button on the side. It didn’t turn on.

He sighed and gently put his phone back in the crate. One of his few connections to his old life was gone. He could not get the pictures he took off the sphere, not without extracting the SD card out and find something compatible with this universe’s technology.

Natalie noticed this, her eyes dropping before she regained her professional composure. “I take it that’s yours?” She handed Eric a card from the stack.

Eric looked at it and recognized it as his Massachusetts state ID card. It had everything he expected to be on it, including his signature, his ID number, his birth date (June 6, 1995), and a picture of him taken shortly before graduation. “Yeah, that’s me. But I’m not—”

“The analysts back at HQ weren’t sure what to make of you,” Natalie stated. “Anyone not human wouldn’t recognize what these things are and—” She swallowed as she stopped herself, having trouble find the words. “Can you tell me how you got here to the Presidium?” she asked, seeking a different approach. “It might clear things up.”

… what?

“The analysts back at HQ weren’t sure what to make of you,” Natalie stated. “Anyone not human wouldn’t recognize what these things are and—”

Wow, author. That is specieist as hell right there.

Mui: No kidding. One would think aliens capable of running a station like the one he’s on would recognize an identification card and a communications device, no matter how primitive compared to their own technology.

I know right? What makes this particularly egregious is that Natalie here is a human cop on an interspecies police force so prestigious that one has to have sponsorship from an official at least as influential as a goddamned AMBASSADOR just to apply.

*HEADDESK*

Let’s move on.

Eric looked down at his bed again and pinched his brow. “I-I don’t know. If I tell you the truth, you’ll probably think I’m insane!”

Natalie leaned in and let out a gentle smile, something like his mother would to cheer him up. “Eric, I don’t think you’re insane. Hell, you appeared out of a lake.”

“That—”

“I know you’re stressed out right now. Take your time.”

Natalie had a good point. None of this made sense to him. He wasn’t sure how to put it in a way she could understand. He had to leave the part about Mass Effect being a game series back at home. No one would believe their entire existence and surroundings came from the imaginations of hundreds of developers, writers, and artists. The best way to put it was to think about the many-worlds theorem his brother mentioned. He had to accept that there were too many variables involved in his predicament.

“I…” he answered after long deliberation. “I came from a different time, maybe even a different universe, nearly two centuries in the past.”

Natalie’s smile grew wider, proud she was correct. She let out a small chuckle. “Okay, then. Wow, that was weird. So how exactly did you get here?”

Eric shrugged. “I was on vacation with my mom, my brother and sister, and my grandparents. We spent a few days in Bangkok in Thailand, and we crossed borders to Angkor Wat. And then I was in a small room with this weird orb thing. I couldn’t get out. It got so bright I had to cover my eyes. The next thing I knew, it brought me here. That’s all I can remember.”

He hoped the temple existed in this universe though it might have been destroyed in a war or demolished some time ago. Still, he had to hope for the best.

He continued. “I think that orb generated a wormhole. Know what they are?”

Natalie nodded. “It’s like a tunnel with two ends, a shortcut in space-time. It requires exotic material with negative density, much like a mass relay using element zero to transport ships from one point to another in almost an instant.”

“That’s… wow, that’s amazing,” Eric chuckled, playing along.

“But that orb you described… was it reflective by any chance?”

“Eh, transparent, more like. Why’d you ask?”

“If it is, it might be Prothean. But a device that transports people through time and space and multiple universes? Sounds pretty far-fetched.”

“Uh, the what now?” He knew what the Protheans were, but he figured he’ll continue playing along.

Natalie raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, right! I’ve gotten ahead of myself here.” She chuckled a little. “The Protheans are an ancient race 50,000 years ago that created the mass relays, spanning the entire galaxy. Then one day, they all disappeared, leaving behind relics of their civilization. We have no idea how or why they disappeared; all we know that they just did.”

Eric stayed quiet. He knew the truth behind the Protheans’ disappearance. It was the Reapers, a race of synthetic-organic starships created by an artificial intelligence called the Catalyst. The Catalyst itself was created by an ancient race known as the Leviathans to address the conflicts between organic and synthetic beings. They built the mass relays and the Citadel and purged the Protheans and many other galactic civilizations before it.

“I’m not sure how the others would take your story, but for what it’s worth, I believe you.” Natalie sat up with the now-closed box and approached the door. It opened of its own accord as a green light disappeared.

Oh shit! *smashes a button to throw up heavy radiation shielding around the riff chamber*

Mui: What in hell-?

This is some weapons-grade radioactive bullshit right here. I mean… a cop spotting Not!Art pop onto the Citadel out of thin air and she’s buying his story right then and there? I get that she witnessed it herself, but this is more than a stretch.

Mui: I don’t like the feel of this. It seems like she knows more than she’s letting on.

That too. This is just plain sketchy.

“So what’s gonna happen next?” Eric asked with slight disbelief.

“I’ll file a report about your case,” Natalie answered. “After that, well… you just have to hope for the best. C-Sec will find a way to cover this up. Don’t worry; you won’t get locked up in a mental institute. Your complete lack of background documents is a problem, but not an impossible one. There are hundreds of colony and spacer kids, even duct rats that were never registered at birth. If you can apply, yours wouldn’t be any different. You can make a good reputation.”

Oh BULLSHIT!

Mui: What? Police doing a coverup?

In this case, yes! Someone just broke all known laws of physics and crashed into the Citadel’s reservoir and C-Sec is already on the case. Something this big would go right to the Executor’s desk and very likely would be brought to the attention of the Council themselves who in turn might assign a Spectre just to verify what the hell happened.

Mui: Would you speak English, please?

Ok. The Executor is the overall chief of Citadel Security or C-Sec. In this case, it’s a gentleman named Pallin who is as stick-up-the-ass-by-the-book as it gets. There is no way in hell he would engineer any kind of coverup. Then you have the Council’s Special Tactics and Reconnaissance division or the Spectres as they’re known. These are agents who report only to the Council and have carte blanche to complete their work by any and all means necessary. They might do a coverup, but all the key players in Citadel politics would get wind of the situation. And that’s not even accounting for various organizations with their own information gathering resources, legal or otherwise.

Mui: Ok, I follow now.

Eric looked up at the C-Sec woman with genuine confusion. “What’s a duct rat?” It had been a while since he had played any of the games. Or maybe he hadn’t paid attention that much.

“Duct rat,” she repeated. “They’re kids that wound up on the streets. They go into vents and try to find whatever means to live. Most of ’em die horribly. A few of them were never found.” She stopped herself, horrified. “I’ll spare you the details.”

“I can imagine how bad it sounds,” Eric replied. He wanted to change the subject. It was evident from Natalie’s expression on her face and her tone of voice she did not want to dwell on it. His frown turned upside down to a smile, his expression hopeful. “Anyway, thanks for listening to me.”

“No problem, but don’t hold your breath,” Natalie replied. “It’s a complicated process, and the bureaucracy seems to be getting worse with each year. I have to go back to HQ to file a progress report. Wish you luck.”

“Bye.”

With that, Natalie left the room, leaving Eric alone. All signs of joy faded from his face as he realized the challenges ahead had only just started. His eyes welled up with tears, streaming down his cheeks as he brought his knees up to his face.

“I want to go home!” Deep down, he knew it wouldn’t be easy, let alone possible.

The in-game events took on a terrifying new meaning for him. He would be capable of dying like everyone else when the Reapers come in four years to begin their harvest. And that was before considering the invasions of the geth and the Collectors.

His sobbing intensified. For the first time in his life, he was alone. Instead of school, family, and friends, he was getting war, death, and destruction as his new future.

Ok, this section isn’t bad. Flow is decent and it’s setting the stakes.

Mui: Not bad at all. Pity the author can’t stay consistent.

Slowly and unwillingly, Eric got off the bed and put on a pair of hospital-issued slippers nearby. Whatever would happen to him later, he can’t cry his way out of it. He approached the sink on the counter across from the bed. When he touched the spout, the water ran. He washed his face thoroughly, cleaning the dried tears off his cheeks.

His stomach soon growled as he turned off the sink and dried his face with a fresh towel. By the lighting through the window, it was late in the morning.

The door opened, and the same nurse from before entered the room, carrying a tray of waffles and some scrambled eggs. By the plate was a cup of orange juice. His stomach growled again as the asari placed the food on the counter. Snatching the tray, he sat on the bad and ravenously ate through the meal. He savored the moment. He had never tasted something so good in his life. Perhaps this was on the upside of living in this future.

“You’re hungry, I can tell,” the nurse remarked, almost chuckling as Eric finished the meal. “I stopped by the cafeteria and got you something to eat while Natalie was around.”

Eric thanked her and wiped his mouth with the napkin. He considered himself to have good table manners. “So what’s your name?”

“Oh,” the asari smiled. “I’m Alynea Tani. And you’re Eric Grimes?”

“Yeah. Did Natalie tell you?”

“We’re friends, actually. Is there something else I could do for you?”

Eric hummed to himself, curling his mouth as he thought about what to do next. The hospital could have a broad range of services available, but knowledge was crucial if he had to form up a plan. He resisted asking Alynea to mind-meld with him to exchange information. She wouldn’t take the revelation she was part of a fictional universe well. That and asking a complete stranger for consent wouldn’t go so well.

“Is there somewhere I can go online?”

“Yeah. We actually have an Extranet cafe here,” Alynea answered.

“So… like a beefed-up Internet?”

Alynea furrowed her brow. “Something like that,” she answered hesitantly.

Eric’s hope went up he jolted up from his bed. Maybe he could find a way to earn a living here or a way to get back to Earth. “Great! Can you take me there?”

“Sure. It’s down the hallway.” The asari nurse approached the door as it opened, prompting them to leave the room.

Walking down the hallway, Eric found the place humming with activity, occupied by dozens of species, including humans. To his right, as he and Alynea took a left from his room, a window that covered the entire wall showed the other side of the lake. One doctor, whom he recognized was the same amphibian-like creature from yesterday as a salarian.

He was looking at some diagnostics test on a holographic screen floating nearby before turning his attention away from his two colleagues to Eric.

“Hello, Eric Grimes,” the salarian doctor spoke, though almost speaking at a quick pace. “Dr. Nasurn Glato Aegohr Nao Lalis Oron. But you can call me Dr. Oron for short.”

“Wh-what?” Eric forgot how complex the salarian names could be. Not only they were smart, but they also loved to be thorough. He wished Alfonso was around to help him.

The doctor caught himself almost laughing and coughed, regaining his professional composure. “Ah. Allow me to explain. Our names include—in order—our home world, nation, city, district, clan, and then our given name at birth.”

Eric blinked, shaking off the confusion. “Right, duh. Sorry.” He had to hold off his chuckle as he scratched the back of his head.

“But I have to ask you something: are you okay?” The concerned tone and the expression on the salarian’s face were sincere.

Eric nodded again. “Uh, look, I’m sorry for my outburst yesterday.”

“Don’t be. It’s just a reaction to almost drowning,” the salarian replied. “Amazing how adaptive the human race can be…”

“Uh… look, I gotta get going.” Eric pointed behind him. “Your asari friend is bringing me to an Extranet café. I don’t want to keep her waiting.”

The salarian nodded. “Yes, of course. Be seeing you.” He turned to meet his colleagues once more. With that over, Eric had caught up with Alynea and continued onto the cafe.

He couldn’t help but feel shocked yet fascinated at the same time. His brief conversation with Dr. Oron, a salarian, and witnessing some of the technologies here gave him a different perspective on the games. He knew the game wouldn’t be able to show everything because of technological limitations but playing them was nothing compared to experiencing them in the flesh. However, something bothered him since he had talked to Alynea and Dr. Oron.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?” Alynea replied.

“How can I understand you and Dr. Oron?” Eric asked.

She laughed. “Besides medicine, Dr. Oron and I have been trained in speaking several human languages. Many of our patients and several of our staff here are human, in fact. But some people stick with digital translators.”

“Digital translators? What’d you mean by that?”

“They go into things like jewelry, earpieces, PDAs, and even neural implants. To be honest, I’m surprised you asked that, of all things.”

“Sorry. Guess I’m just out of the loop here.” Eric was embarrassed at his own ignorance, but he had to fight off the thought that it did not matter, with the war coming. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.

They arrived at a medium-sized, white room filled with a dozen rows of desks. On top of them were the orange screens like the one on Alynea’s forearm earlier. Like the rest of the hospital, it smelled clean, and the walls were spotless and pristine. One of the few occupants here had scaly, silver skin, two-toed feet, and a pair of mandibles over his plated mouth. Eric recognized the occupant as a turian.

“Here’s the extranet cafe,” said Alynea. “If you need anything else, don’t be afraid to ask me or any other staff member.” And for that, Eric thanked her.

Mui: And like that, he reverts to lower quality.

Yup. Clunky exposition with dialogue worse than what we got in the first Mass Effect game. I get he can’t look like he’s overly familiar with his surroundings, but if Natalie is the only one who has any inkling that he’s from another universe, then why in hell would Not!Art here be acting like a more stilted and wooden Commander Shepard?

Mui: I’m just going to stop asking and demand you provide me the source materials directly.

Can do. Just a fair warning: if you select a female Shepard for your character, you’ll probably get spooked?

Mui: How do you mean?

I’ll let you find out on your own. After all, I thought you were done asking me questions.

Mui: Wisearse…

After Alynea had left, he sat down at the nearest unoccupied terminal available. Looking at it, he drew a blank. How would he be able to use this thing? His hands hovered over the keyboard and pressed a key. He expected not to perceive anything when he placed his fingers on the holographic keys, but it felt like a real keyboard.

He looked at the screen and found a prompt popping up on the desktop, asking for what language did the user, meaning him, speak in. Naturally, he picked ‘English’ after scrolling through a long list of other languages, both Earth and alien. With that done, he tapped on the screen, bringing up an extranet browser and typed in ‘Mass Effect’ on the browser’s search bar. The result was a series of articles on the mass effect field as a scientific phenomenon. He looked through an encyclopedic article of sorts, and to his surprise, it appeared to be entirely self-consistent. Some key variables had to be different, but so far, he hadn’t found any glaring deviations.

He shrugged. At least the rules of this universe were consistent. But right now, he had to know his family had ever existed in his universe. With a new goal in mind, he went back to the search page.

Eric Grimes

Most of the results had an athlete sharing his name. The image section didn’t show any pictures of him, much to his annoyance. In fact, it shouldn’t be possible. There should be some version of him somewhere, however plausible that would be.

Garcia Grimes

The results showed many people, but almost all of them had Garcia as their middle name. Grimes was a common surname, and there were trillions of people in the galaxy. But he was getting worried

Alfonso Grimes

It was the same result as before, even after putting it in quotes.

Arturo Lorenzo

Carol Lorenzo

Felicia Grimes

Tomas Grimes

Frustrated, he typed in Grimes family tree. He hoped anything useful would show up. Spotting a site of a database for family trees, he clicked on the link. He typed his grandfather’s name into the keyword box and altered the filters to his liking.

Nothing. No records of any sort. Eric was alone, a person out of place who should have never existed here. “No…” Eric covered his mouth. “Oh no no no no. You gotta be kidding me.”

Even though none of them would be alive, he hoped he might find his family’s descendants. He didn’t want to be alone. He wanted the closure from visiting their burial sites and validation that he was real and once had a family. But there wasn’t anything to connect him with anyone in this universe.

The turian broke away from his terminal, noticing Eric freaking out as he let out a gasp. Rather than words, the words the turian spoke sounded… off, like he had a thick accent that made it impossible for Eric to understand what he was trying to say.

Eric sat up and left the room. Finding a spot in the maze of hallways where he could be by himself, he leaned against the gray wall and dropped onto the floor, breaking down into tears.

He had no idea what to do now.

*headdesk*

This segment is all the fail.

Mui: He’s literally a nobody! And from a completely different universe! What did he expect would happen?

Not to mention, he’s in a hospital! It would be a trivial matter for the staff to take some blood samples and send the data off to Earth to run a DNA screening to find any relatives he might have. Not sure how effective that would be, but it’s better than using Space Google at least.

 

Well, that wraps it up for this chapter. I’m ME-Iron-Maiden with Jennifer Mui, see you next time!

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