Chapter Text
MSV Dawn Star—Athabasca-Class Freighter—Mass Effect Universe
“How are our passengers, Donna?” Elmer Forrester, the recently promoted captain of MSV Dawn Star, the White Star Lines newest Athabasca-class passenger liner-freighter, asked the ship’s purser who had just come on board the bridge of the large merchant vessel.
“Settling in, Captain.” Donna Welles, a young vivacious woman with smooth chocolate-skin and raven dark hair, responded with a smile. “The turian couple in A-3 is complaining about the quality of our dextro-cuisine. I told them there’s not much I can do as far as food is concerned except pass their complaint on to you and maybe cut them a discount.”
Nodding his head, Captain Forrester granted his approval. “Go ahead and give them a fifteen percent discount, extend our apologies, and invite them to my table tonight. That should mollify them somewhat.”
“On it, Sir. Speaking of your other guests for dinner tonight, that Alliance gunnery chief in C-12 wanted me to pass on a message that he’s looking forward to meeting you, as is the quarian. She also asked if she might be permitted to speak with our astrogator and be permitted to observe and collect data from Farinata after we jump into the system.”
“I don’t see any problem with that.” Forrester replied, “It’s not as if we’re carrying classified information or anything like that.”
“I’ll let her know.” Donna grinned as she continued her report. “As for that krogan merc--he told me in no uncertain terms that he wanted plenty of space by himself and that no one was to disturb him or he’d, and this is a direct quote, Sir, ‘Tear off their head and shit down their neck.’ So I did what he asked me to do. I put him in an empty cargo bay with plenty of varren meat and ryncol and passed the word to everyone to not poke the krogan.”
Laughing, the captain quipped, “Good move.” Looking down at his passenger manifest he then asked, “What about our tour group? Are they behaving themselves?”.
“The middle school kids coming back from their honors study tour?” Donna chuckled, “So far, no problems…more or less. Their chaperones are doing a good job of keeping them in line.” With a shrug of her shoulders, the youthful purser added, “They’re tweens and teens after all…”
The captain responded with a wry grin, “Go ahead and cut them some slack so long as they’re not causing any disruptions or being blatantly obnoxious. It’s not every day you get a chance to go on an all-expenses paid tour courtesy of the Sirta Foundation, so let them have some fun.”
“Aye, Sir.” The purser grinned. “Anything else, Captain?”
“What about our freight?”
“The eezo in Cargo Bay 5 is under 24 hour guard—six hour shifts—two at the entrance and one rover.”
“That sounds good enough.” Forrester nodded his head in agreement at his administrative officer’s security arrangements. “And the other cargo?”
“The medical supplies for the Citadel and tech goods for Illium are all secure in their bays.”
“Excellent.” The captain smiled, “You’re on top of everything as always.”
“Will there be anything else, Sir?”
“No.” Forrester replied, happy at how smoothly everything was going on his new command. “Thank you, Donna. I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”
MSV Dawn Star—Dining Area
“Thank you for allowing me access to your equipment, Captain. The data I’m picking up from Farinata is most fascinating.” A quarian woman wearing a maroon and gold traditional sash and hood over her encounter suit said as she picked up a tube of nutripaste.
“What are you studying Ms.…”
“Zara.” The quarian helpfully provided her name, “Zara’Arosa vas Callina. I’m an astrophysicist and cosmologist currently teaching at Terranova University and am currently studying dark energy and dark matter and whether and how they interact with normal matter.” She then talked at length about the subject, until, seeing that she was losing her audience, the quarian scientist chuckled embarrassingly, “I’m sorry. I tend to get carried away with my work, but you did ask.”
“Yes, I did.” The captain grinned, “Even though ninety percent of what you just said flew right by me.”
“Don’t feel too bad,” the Alliance gunnery chief joked, “All one hundred percent flew over my head.”
“Thank you for inviting us to your table, Captain.” Orinia Rix, an elegant turian woman, remarked courteously.
“It’s the least he can do after making us eat this swill they call turian cuisine. Where did you get this slop? A charity house?” Lorrin Rix, Orinia’s husband, sniffed as he regarded the meal on his plate with distaste.
“Please forgive my husband.” Orinia apologized, shooting a warning glare at her spouse. “He gets upset if his ale is not at the right temperature.”
“That’s quite alright, Ma’am.” Captain Forrester graciously replied, “I’ll make sure to speak to our procurement officer about acquiring better provisions for our dextro passengers in the future.”
“So how are you and your students enjoying the cruise?” Donna, the purser, asked the woman seated next to her, a matronly middle-aged woman with a warm smile and wicked gleam in her eyes.
“They’re a handful.” The chaperone chuckled, “Me and Edgar…my partner who’s responsible for the boys…”
“He’s the one with the kids now, right?” The captain queried, inclining his head at the youths’ table where a middle-aged man with a receding hairline seemed to be fighting a losing battle to stay in control of his somewhat unruly charges.
“Yes and it looks like the young ones are being a handful tonight.” The mature chaperone laughed, “I have a feeling I’m going to have to step in shortly and restore order. They’re really not bad kids though.” The older woman qualified, “As school tours go, they’ve been remarkably well behaved. A lot better than our last group.”
“Chief…” Donna queried.
“Keys.” The gunnery chief replied smiling at the lovely purser, “Donald Keys. But just call me Donkey like everyone else.”
“Donkey?” The purser chuckled flirtatiously as she traced the rim of her glass with her finger, “Is there a story behind that?”
“Got it during Hostile Environment Training on Titan.” The chief replied, returning the purser’s flirting gesture with a wicked grin. “My drill instructor, Gunnery Chief Ellison, gave it to me ‘cause I was too stubborn to quit.”
“Forgive me for noticing, Chief.” The captain remarked, “But isn’t that an Eden Prime survivors ribbon?”
“There aren’t too many soldiers still alive and in uniform wearing that ribbon.” The ship’s doctor noted, his expression one of both sadness and pride. “I knew someone who was in the relief expedition.”
“Yeah.” The gunnery chief replied, his display of good humor now replaced by a melancholy sadness. “You’re right, Doc. There aren’t a whole lot of us left. Some are like me, still in uniform, Others…they’re dealing with a lot of issues like survivor guilt and post-traumatic stress. For almost two years…” he confessed shaking his head mournfully, “I was one of those in that group. I spent an entire year in a coma and another six months in rehab—mental and physical. And then there are those…including my squadmates and a good friend of mine who was in the 212 with me…who are at the bar on the other side waiting for us.”
“If it’s not too much to ask,” Orinia diplomatically queried, “Where were you stationed when the geth attacked?”
“My unit was assigned along with the 232 to guard an archaeological team.” Donkey replied, further explaining, “We also had a side mission. Someone from intel got wind of a smuggling racket involving some of the local farmers and workers at the spaceport. And…” he reluctantly admitted, “intel suspected that someone at the base was also involved.”
Shaking his head, Captain Forrester commiserated, “That sucks. I wore Alliance blue for twenty years before finally retiring as a Staff Commander. Most of us wear the uniform proudly, but there are always a few.”
“Yes, Sir.” The gunnery chief sadly confirmed, “I guess that’s true everywhere you go. Anyway, we were ordered to keep an eye out for that while we were in the field. We were on patrol when the geth attacked and my unit, Dog Squad, First Platoon, got separated from the others. We were trying to unite with the other squads to organize a counterattack when we found Bravo squad. They got wiped out.” Donkey shook his head, “The geth hit them so fast and hard that they didn’t even have time to draw their weapons to make a fight of it. A little after that, we found Alpha and Charlie squads, but the geth attacked before we could link up. My friend and I got separated in the fighting and I got hit and went down. Lucky for me…” the Eden Prime survivor shook his head, “I tumbled into a ravine and managed to drag myself to cover just as a geth recon drone came down. If they’d have caught me…I probably would have been impaled on one of those spike things and turned into a zombie like Rasputin and Pennyloafer were.”
“Your friend.” Donna asked, “Who was she?”
“Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams.” Donkey flashed a momentary sad smile, “Although I always called her Ash.”
“She’s the one who died on Virmire a couple of years ago—right?” Donna remarked sympathetically.
“Yeah.” Donkey lowered his head, “I found out that she was killed in action a little after I came out of my coma.” Sighing, he growled, “It took her death to finally get the REMFs to give her what she deserved from day one: her due as a soldier.”
“Wasn’t she awarded the salarian Silver Dagger and turian Nova Cluster medals?” Donna inquired.
Nodding his head, the gunnery chief affirmed, “Yes. The second human to win those decorations right after they pinned them on Shepard.” Gritting his teeth, he rumbled, “And the reporters fu…” pausing as he remembered where he was, the salty veteran quickly amended what he was going to say with a rueful grin, “I mean fouled…that up when they dug up that stupid quote.”
“The ‘human or alien…we’re all just animals’ quote?” Lorrin interjected with a scowl on his face as he joined the discussion. “I’d heard that she was a human supremacist.”
“That’s bull…” again apologizing, Donkey, after calming himself down, quickly censored the curse he was about to utter, “Again, I’m sorry, but Ash was a good friend of mine and intensely loyal to the Alliance. You’re right, Mr. Rix…” the gunnery chief declared, “Ash did have a big chip on her shoulder where non-humans were concerned—but it wasn’t due to racism or speciesism or any other bull like that.”
“Why then?” The turian persisted, “From what I heard, that remark she uttered was more along the line of ‘you can’t tell the aliens from the animals. If that’s not bigotry, I don’t know what is.”
“As if you’ve never said anything nasty about humans before.” Orinia reproved, shushing her husband. “An acquaintance of mine told me that she was there when Gunnery Chief Williams confronted that man…what’s his name? Oh, yes!” The turian woman exclaimed, “Saracino…Charles Saracino.”
“One of the spacer MPs in Parliament.” Captain Forrester recalled with a grimace of distaste, “Head of the Terra Firma Party.”
“Bunch of bigots.” Donna cursed.
“According to my acquaintance, Gunnery Chief Williams thought the same.” Oriana recalled, “My friend said that Chief Williams called out Saracino, saying that most of his supporters were racists.”
“That sounds like Ash.” Donkey chuckled, remarking fondly, “She always called ‘em as she saw ‘em.” After pausing to take a drink the gunnery chief continued, “Ashley’s problem with aliens didn’t come from racism or xenophobia or anything like that.”
“Then where did it come from?” Lorrin demanded.
“A combination of things.” The chief remembered, glowering at the pompous turian businessman, “She had family who…let’s just say they suffered…during the First Contact War. That made her bitter towards turians especially.” Addressing Orinia, he apologized, “I’m sorry. No offense was meant.”
“None taken.” The turian woman replied reassuringly, “That war…”
“The Relay 314 Incident.” Lorrin interjected.
“We are not going to get into another fight over the war or what it’s called.” Orinia declared to her husband, firmly putting her foot down. Speaking again to the humans and quarian at the table, she said apologetically, “As I was about to say, that war affected some of us too. Lorrin lost family during the war—a cousin and an uncle. So…unfortunately…there’s plenty of resentment on both sides.”
“I guess so.” Donkey conceded before continuing his defense of his friend, “Ash also never worked with nonhumans and didn’t trust the Council to back us up. You see…” he explained, his lips turned up in a fond grin, “She always put on this act of being just a dumb grunt—but Ash was smart. A lot smarter than me. I’m just someone who knows how to point and shoot. But Ash was different. She knew how to lead.”
“Sounds like your interest in her was more than just professional.” Donna quipped.
Chuckling, Donkey answered back in a bantering, yet also winsome, voice. “Caught that—didn’t you?”
“I’m observant about these things.” Donna replied, maintaining as light a tone as possible.
“Yeah.” The gunnery sergeant nodded his head, admitting, “I did have a thing for her and…she had one for me too—but it never went anywhere. Fraternization regs, you understand.”
“I know what you mean.” Forrester commiserated. “But they’re there for a reason.”
“I wish other officers understood that.” Donkey grumbled, his voice dripping with bitterness. “I heard through the rumor mill while I was recovering that Ash’s CO…Shepard…was having a fling with one of her officers. She had to choose between saving Ash or her boyfriend. Guess who she chose to save.”
“That’s why we have those rules.” The captain declared.
Changing the subject, Donna remarked to the table at large, “So what do you think about the newest residents of the Citadel?”
“The aliens with pointed ears and their friends?” Lorrin snorted derisively, “Not much. We’ve only seen one ship.”
“It’s a helluva ship from what I hear.” Forrester pointed out with a grin, “Scared the crap out of the Citadel fleet when it suddenly appeared as if out of nowhere.”
“Sounds to me like it’s just a highly advanced form of stealth.” Donkey shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“Advanced enough to be invisible.” Forrester noted. “What I’m most curious about though are the humans with them.”
“From what I saw from the extranet feed, they’re not Alliance.” Donna commented as her fingers grazed the Alliance marine’s thigh under the table, getting in return a wink and leer. “They come from something called the United Federation of Planets—whatever that is.”
“Lost colony maybe?” The doctor speculated.
“Not likely.” Forrester rebutted. “Not enough time. We’ve only been colonizing space for about fifty years—give or take.”
“Besides that woman Al-Jilani interviewed spoke with a strong Dutch accent.” Donna pointed out, supporting her captain’s position.
“You think it could be a massive con?” Donkey queried, then shaking his head, he quickly dismissed his notion with a laugh, “Forget I just said that. If it were, then it’s probably the greatest prank in history.”
“Could be from one of the earlier sublight arks we sent out before we tumbled on mass effect technology.” The doctor postulated. “I downloaded their Federation Charter from the extranet and read the preamble. There’s a lot that they borrowed from the United Nations Charter—in some respects almost the same verbiage but altered to reflect a multispecies government.”
“That means they had to have come from Earth.” Forrester concluded with a frown.
“If they did…” Donkey interjected with a frown, “Then they’ve lost many of their human roots.”
“I agree.” Donna replied, “Remember what that woman wearing that short skirt she called a uniform said?”
Laughing, Donkey remarked in derision, “No military I know would have that as a uniform.”
The captain agreed, “That short skirt couldn’t have been a real uniform. Not to mention the length and styling of her hair.”
“And did you notice the winged eyeliner she was wearing?” Donna laughed, getting a little catty with her critique. “I’ve seen pictures of that beehive style along with the eyeliner she had on in some reprints of old fashion magazines. ”It went out of fashion sometime in the late twentieth century.”
“If nothing else…” Donkey commented in a professional manner, “that hair would make wearing a combat helmet impossible. If she really is in some sort of military, then she has to be a desk jockey. No way they’d put someone looking like that in the field.”
Clearing her throat, the quarian scientist spoke, “I don’t think they’re a lost colony.”
“Then where did they come from?” Captain Forrester inquired, “That woman definitely looked human, so did their ambassador.”
“Understand…” Zara carefully qualified, “this is strictly speculation and I could be…and probably am…wrong. But some of the dark matter and dark energy readings I’ve been picking up in my studies support my hypothesis.”
“What is it?” Orinia asked, her curiosity aroused.
“What if they weren’t some lost human colony, but rather, they came from another universe.” Zara postulated, “One where there’s another Earth that developed differently from the Earth we are familiar with. That would also explain these Romulans and the other aliens from this Federation: the blue skinned ones with antennae, for instance.”
Laughing derisively, Lorrin harrumphed, “I don’t think I’ve heard anything more ridiculous in my life! Leave it to a suit rat to come up with a stupid idea like that.”
“I don’t see where it’s so stupid!” His wife snapped back, coming to the quarian scientist’s defense. “They obviously didn’t come from Council space, nor from the Traverse or the Terminus systems. So…smarty…where did they come from?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” The turian businessman bit back. “Other universes…what a pile of…”
Cutting the turian off, Captain Forrester diplomatically questioned the young quarian, “If they are from another universe, then how did they get here? I was taught in school that even if parallel universes did exist, that it would be impossible to travel to one because of the energy required.”
“That’s the commonly accepted theory.” Zara agreed, “However, it has long been hypothesized that wormholes could potentially be portals into other dimensions…other universes. Some of the results of my studies into dark energy and matter recently seem to bear this out. I noticed when I did my scans of the Farinata system the appearance of some previously unknown sub-particles.”
“Oh?” Forrester exclaimed in surprise, “Have you any idea as to what they might be or what they do?”
“No.” The young scientist shook her head, “That’s what I’m hoping to find out. One of the things I have noticed from my observations though is that whenever I’ve detected traces of them, there have been sightings of anomalies.”
“What sort of anomalies?” Donna inquired.
“Mostly wormholes or something similar.” The scientist replied. “So far, they’ve only been transitory phenomena—we haven’t found a stable one yet. So unless one exists…and if those aliens and humans do come from another universe…then they could have well come here by accident.”
As she finished her lecture, dance music played, signaling an end to dinner. Giving the gorgeous purser beside him a flirtatious wink, Donkey held out his hand, “I don’t know about you, Donna, but I think I’ve heard enough about parallel universes. Care to dance?”
“Love to.” Donna responded with a coy half grin as she took the handsome marine’s hand and let him lead her on to the floor.
Holding out his hand to the youthful quarian, Captain Forrester gallantly asked her to dance. Zara, suddenly flustered at the invitation, hesitatingly accepting.
“Come on, Lorrin!” Orinia urged as she practically forced her husband on to the dance floor. “Quit being a grumpy old fossil! Let’s dance. It’ll do you good to get some exercise.”
“Yes, Dear.”
Sometime later that night
Her hand wandering under the sheets until it found its prize, Donna leered as she purred in delight, whispering to the man lying in bed next to her, “Why do I think that being stubborn wasn’t the only reason they called you Donkey.”
“Glad to be of service.” The handsome marine quipped as he gave the lovely woman next to him a kiss.
“Mmmm…I see you’re up for another round.” Then, just as they kissed, the ship shook violently as alarms rang and the captain’s voice blared from the speakers. “The ship is under attack from unknown vessels. Passengers please remain in your staterooms. All able bodied hands are to report immediately to your marshaling area. This is not a drill. The ship is under attack.”
Jumping out of bed, Donna quickly donned her clothing as Donkey did the same. “Sorry, babe but I gotta go to my area—I’m in charge of the other passengers.”
“Go.” Donkey urged in a no nonsense voice, "Where’s your armory?”
“Down the corridor…left…then right. Danny’s the security chief. He knows you’re an Alliance marine. There shouldn’t be any problem with him giving you a gun, but if there is, tell him I authorized it. Code Amber 14.”
“Right.” Donkey replied as he gave the woman standing before him a quick kiss, “Take care of yourself.”
“You too.” Donna smiled as she returned her paramour’s kiss. “I want more of what I was just holding in my hand.”
Following Donna’s directions, the gunnery chief stumbled a few times as the ship shuddered under the impact of something. Reaching the armory, Donkey quickly spotted the chief armorer hastily handing out weapons. “Danny?” He called out. “Donna sent me…said to give me a weapon.”
The middle aged retired Alliance vet in charge of ship’s armory responded, “Gunnery Chief Keys—right?” Taking the marine’s single head nod as affirmation, the armorer handed Donkey an Avenger assault rifle and a half dozen thermal clips. “Here…you might want to head to the bridge and check in with the captain. Our comms are down right now.”
“On my way—thanks.” Rushing down the corridor to the bridge, Donkey felt the ship suddenly lurch and then move as if it was seemingly being pulled. Entering the bridge, he called out to the man standing behind two officers, looking at a large alien ship.
“Captain.” Donkey reported.
“Gunny.” Captain Forrester responded, pointing at the alien ship. “Recognize it?”
“No, Sir.” The Alliance marine answered back, “I’ve never seen a ship like that before.”
“Neither have I.” The captain replied. “It doesn’t resemble that of any of the races in Citadel space or the Terminus regions. Whoever it is doesn’t seem to want to destroy the ship though. They took out our engines and then we got caught up in this beam that’s drawing us closer to them.”
“They plan on boarding us.” Donkey concluded, the captain nodding in agreement.
“Right. I’ve sent every available man I could to the airlocks. I need you to stay here—if we lose the bridge…”
“We lose everything.” Donkey interrupted, finishing the captain’s thoughts. His gaze turning back to the alien vessel the Dawn Star was being drawn towards, he whistled, “Ugly motherfucker.”
“Where are the shuttles?” One of Forrester’s officer exclaimed in surprise.
“They should have launched them or sent out boarding pods by now. We’re close enough and they’ve got a tight hold on us.” Forrester opined as four pillars of light suddenly appeared, materializing into alien figures holding what appeared to be rifles.
Striking quickly, Donkey fired a burst from his assault rifle at the aliens, not knowing if he hit or miss before being struck by a beam of light. Then, intense pain as everything went dark.