[VIDEO, shifting to ACTION potentially | 001: Arrival]

[standsentinel]

[By the background, Kaidan, outwardly a normal-looking dark haired man in his mid-30s, is still on the ship. Still beside the pod that's disgorged him even, as a blurry nameplate can be made out behind him if you squint. His own communicator has come to him in the form of a datapad, which he's currently holding out in from of him with the slight abstracted furrow to his brow commonly seen amongst iPad users as they try to make sure the camera's focusing. Some things carry down across centuries, apparently.]

Look. I don't know where the hell I am, but this sure as hell isn't the shuttle down to Vancouver. Everything's saying 'ship', but I'm not hearing engine noise and what little I've seen says this thing is way too big to be stealthed.

And there's another thing--

[He turns the datapad to let its camera pickup take in the pods along the corridor.]

That's not normal cryostasis like I'd call it. It looks more like prothean tech. So if anyone's picking up on this frequency, I could use a few answers.

[After a moment more, he stares at the camera and awkwardly rubs at the back of his neck with one hand as he's recalled to manners and lets the irritated command slide out of his voice.]

Uh. Please?

Comments

[Video]

[relicrebellion]

It is not prothean. [That particular blend of certainty and abstraction could only really come from one asari - even if the slightly-disfocused image on the screen wasn't familiar.]

But it is oddly familiar.

Re: [Video]

[standsentinel]

--Liara?

[It's not that he's not glad to see a familiar face, but a ship with tech alien to his eyes, and unfamiliarly alien at that, is not exactly where he expected to find someone he knows.

On the other hand, finding Dr. Liara T'Soni in the middle of an unknown vessel is a case of 'where else would she be?'.]

Is this some sort of bizarre first contact thing? Or the rachni or something?

[Video]

[relicrebellion]

I am not entirely certain. I have only just awoken here myself, and have not yet had a chance to familiarize myself with the available information. If the vessel were closer to your fleet's design, my first guess would have been Cerberus.

[A small frown flits across her face, tightening abstraction into focus.]

Do you have your omni-tool? It might be prudent to meet and continue searching for answers together.

Re: [Video]

[standsentinel]

Wouldn't that be wonderful. [Kaidan: still wants to biotically punch The Illusive Man in the face.]

I don't think this is human, though -- or at least not any 'human' I'm aquainted with. It feels familiar, but it feels wrong, too... and yeah. I'll set up a ping to yours now.

[And so he does.]

[Video]

[relicrebellion]

No, it does not appear to be. The timing is merely...inconvenient.

[And isn't that word loaded with half again as much meaning as it should be.]

I will see you soon, Major.

[Audio]

[femshep]

Liara. [Her tone's almost warm and almost relieved, but right now she's too caught up on the 'Kaidan' thing to spend too much time on a joyous reunion.]

Borrowing Alenko for a minute, then we'll both find you.

That is, assuming I'm invited. [This last bit has a note of dry humor. Of course she's invited, she's just tacking that on because Liara's got enough of Shepard's respect to have the option of saying no.]

[Audio]

[relicrebellion]

Of course, Commander.

[Warmth answers almost-warmth - and, perhaps more tellingly, Liara does not sound at all surprised to hear from Shepard.]

I will attempt to make some sense of this.

[And not get caught behind a barrier curtain this time, thankfully.]

[Action]

[flowing_kinetics]

Pro-what?

[Hi, Kaidan, do you want a 20XX-thug looking teen coming up behind you? Of course you do.]

Re: [Action]

[standsentinel]

Prothean.

Kaidan turns before Akira closes to within melee range, some soldierly reflex tingling at the back of his neck. He takes in his questioner with a quick glance, arms folding across his chest to still them from falling into any mnemonic patterns as he offers the level explanation of]

Alien race about fifty thousand years ago, some of 'em tried to use stasis pods to survive the Reaper invasion. Didn't really work out all that well for them, but... they looked a little like this.

Uh. The pods. Not the protheans.

[Action]

[flowing_kinetics]

[It still doesn't make any more sense to him the second time Kaidan says it, but something else he says perks Akira's attention.

"Reapers." Didn't that one old lady mention something like that when he was pestering her out of boredom?]

...Reapers? Like the ones Shepard talked about?

Re: [Action]

[standsentinel]

Shepard? Commander Shepard?

[Kaidan manages to keep the level tone to his voice... mostly. But his attention on Akira has sharpened to interest beyond just the simple threat assessment and observation of a moment earlier.]

That's be them. Eldritch mechanical horrors from the edges of dark space... I'd call them holovid monsters, except they're real.

[flowing_kinetics]

Yeah, talked to her before. [He's never met her in person, so he doesn't know what to think of her. Still, he's eying Kaidan warily now.]

Why? You know her?

[Audio]

[femshep]

[Audio because there's no way in hell he's seeing exactly how uncertain she's looking right now.]

Stay where you are.

I'm coming.

[Video]

[standsentinel]

Shepard?

[He should be concerned. He should be distrustful -- after all, he was headed back to earth because she's about to go before a tribunal regarding the deaths of three hundred thousand batarians. What he actually sounds like is relieved, and just a little bit of pleasure pairs with it, lightening his expression across the one-dided video feed.]

You got it, ma'am... although I, uh, guess technically I have to stop calling you 'ma'am' now.

[Indeed, those are major's stripes on the shoulders of his BDUs.]

[femshep]

[Oh, she noticed. That's the least of her questions right now. In fact, she's talking to Liara for a second, but other than that she's done with the conversation until she arrives. Until she confirms this face-to-face.

Maybe 15 minutes after the talk with Liara ends, Shepard's on her way down the pod-lined corridors toward where she remembered his specific pod being. He can probably hear her coming, but she hasn't quite reached his row yet, and there's a tiny and irrational part of her that isn't quite sure she wants to.]

[standsentinel]

[When and if Shepard screws her courage to enough of a sticking point to reach him, it's to find someone who is unquestionably Kaidan Alenko, if a couple years older than when she last left him. There's silver at his temples that wasn't there before, and the guns that he's crouched down to pull from his duffle and field strip to inspect in right-and-proper soldierly fashion are a Phalanx and an Avenger with modern thermal clips in use.

And then there's the jump in his rank bars.

But it's very much Kaidan still. His eyes lift to meet hers, a mix of searching and expectation.]

Shepard.

[femshep]

[There's no 'when she screws her courage' about it. No hesitation. Whether she's sure about this or not, there's no way in hell she'll show it. This is something she has to do. Has to understand. Because this is impossible.

But it seems that much more possible when he meets her eyes. There's a moment of silence after his greeting, a moment of searching and the barest hint of otherwise-concealed uncertainty, and then:] Kaidan.

[Another pause, this one a bit longer, and the next bit's a little more wary.]

But you were dead.

[No use beating around the bush.]

[video]

[knightoflight]

You are hearing nothing because the ship has crashed.

Apparently a considerable time before any of us awoke.

Re: [video]

[standsentinel]

[A... geth is talking to him? Talking? Or maybe it's just a mech with a VI on board. Kaidan composes himself from his earlier alarm at this thought, and decides to go with it.]

That's... good to know. What is the current status of the ship?

[The slightly-stilted phrasing of his question is designed to help a virtual intelligence rather than a true AI parse it.]

[video]

[knightoflight]

[Or maybe it's Wing, the Polite Cybertronian!]

[Maybe the slightly formal language is how they talk where this human is from? Wing rolls with it.]

Flightwise? Nonfunctional. The life support systems for your kind appear to be...moderately working.

Most of the humans who awake move to the Old City.

Re: [video]

[standsentinel]

[He squints a little at that. The inflection, the hesitation... neither are something a standard VI is all that good at. Kaidan lifts one hand and rubs at one temple as if to ward away a headache.]

Uh, not to be rude, but... what are you? And... is anyone working on repairs to the ship, or is this 'Old City' pretty much where it's at?

text ;

[worldkiller]

< Pro...thean tech?* >

* translated from kyrptonian

Text:

[standsentinel]

Protheans. Race that was exterminated about 50,000 years before my time. They had technology like these pods. Wondered if they were the same.

Text:

[worldkiller]

< It might be a hard jump for a first guess.

Or maybe not. >

Re: Text:

[standsentinel]

Hard jump? I think my dictionary program glitched on that one.