Mass Effect: Pilgrims Progress

[Kaeli]

"You're thinking of your old school, right?" La Croix said, a wry grin on his face. "You always get this look when you talk about Grissom Academy. That's a good idea. Maybe not the best one, but one worth investigating. Let me think about it. Until then, keep an eye on our... guest. Though I'm sure I don't need to order you to do that."


------------------------


Lexicon was sitting up when August reentered the room. She didn't sit on the side of the medical bay bed, but instead sat with her feet and legs pulled towards her, hugging them with her arms. She looked cold again, and more than a little concerned. "I'd be happy to comply with any tests you'd like to administer, Dr. Lysander, but I'm sure I could answer most of your questions if you hooked me back up to my archival cores. There's a lot of information about me stored on the Kore." She finished, speaking at a quicker pace than normal. 


"I'd like to corroborate those results for myself, Lexicon." Lice returned, his voice kind but firm. "Currently, the Kore's electrical systems are down, and even if they were online, we'd need to run some tests of our own before we hook you back up." Lexicon nodded meekly, her face perplexed, but brave. She'd been thinking about how to respond to these Corsairs while the three of them had been talking, but couldn't come to any conclusion. She felt a great degree of loyalty to Cerberus, but realized that some of them had just tried to kill her. On the other hand, if she resisted the Corsairs, what would happen to her? But maybe that's why Cerberus had tried to terminate her, to save her from that danger. And so her thinking went around in circles until Lice came back into the room and began speaking about additional tests.

 

[Steel Accord]

"Well at least she seems willing to be accessed." August thought to himself with a kind of shiver. What they were going to do with the Cerberus ship was something he hadn't thought of but he was sure the captain was now. If they did need it to get the information off of Lexicon, they couldn't just scuttle it, and who knows how long Alliance requisitions would take to get here? For now he focused on his task that La Croix seemed to drop a hint about assigning him that went completely over August's head.


"It's all right if I'm here right, doctor?" August asked as he approached the bed.


"Yes, yes, just give me my space to work." Lice shooed August away from the bed and did an additional scan with his omni-tool and made notes on it.


"Hi again, Ms. Lexicon. Don't worry, the doctor here is not going to hurt you, none of us are." He sat down but adjusted the chair's settings so he was still eye level with her as she sat on the bed.

 

[Kaeli]

"You don't have to call me Miss Lexicon." Lexicon said, her cheeks flushing. "Just Lexicon is fine. Unless you want to, of course." She shied away from the omni-tool, as if expecting it to hurt her. She was, in fact, expecting it to hurt. Back when Cerberus was initially installing most of her implants, they had run regular diagnostics and tests. Most of them were far from comfortable.


Lice finished writing his notes, then glanced up at August. "I'm going to run a full MRI and EKG on her, but it will take me about a half-hour to set up all of the equipment. While I'm setting it up, there'll be a lot of stray radiation in the room. Can you take our guest somewhere else for the time being and bring her back when I comm you?" He crossed over to a drawer, and pulled a blanket out of it. "And here - she starts shivering the moment I turn the heat lamp off. Poor girl."


Lexicon had already swiug her legs off of the bed as soon as Lice mentioned them leaving. She tested the floor gingerly with her bare foot, almost recoiling at the coldness of it. She glanced up at Lice, and then August, then got to her feet. She stood still for a moment, very unsteadily, keeping her hand on the bed for support. "Where are you taking me, August?" She asked, her voice tremulous.

 

[Steel Accord]

August rushed to her side to help support her. She looked like she was going to fall over so weak were her legs. 


"Here." He said and wrapped them both in a mass effect field. He felt a little lighter but not much to make a difference. She however almost would feel like she's back in the tank. She couldn't float but she wouldn't need to support her true weight for now. "You'll be somewhere safe, don't worry." He walked her out of the med lab and guided her through the frigate. He brought her to a port side room with big couches and a viewing port of space, a lounge area. He set her down on the couch and suspended the mass effect field. He took a seat next to but not too close to her. He was already in very physical contact with her, he wanted to give her some space.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon suddenly felt as if she was floating nearly weightless again, and it so much easier for her to support her own weight. She followed August out of the room, smiling at Lice as she left. The ship's flooring felt icy cold beneath her feet, but she tried not to show her discomfort. It was evidently very commonplace to the rest of the crew, so she attempted to not worry about. August's smooth voice reassured her, and soon enough they were seated in a lounge, staring out into deep space. The sight of the stars and nebulae around her cheered Lexicon up, for this sight was very commonplace to her.


"This looks just like the view from the Kore's external cameras." She said, motioning to the viewing windows. August had sat a few feet away from her, but that distance was increased as Lexicon curled into small ball again, hugging her legs against her chest, trying not to shiver. After August had responded, she waited a moment, hesitating while trying to decide if she should ask a question that had been on her mind. Finally, she went ahead, speaking in a questioning tone. "What is my status, here on the Hawkins? Am I a prisoner? A guest? What do you want with me?"

 

[Steel Accord]

August flipped on his omni-tool and turned up the heat in the lounge when he noticed her still trying to get warm. At her question he rubbed a finger against his stache and goatee.


"That's . . . kind of a hard question to answer but not unfair to ask. It's difficult to say, and I'm not the captain so it's not my place to really answer. One thing I can say though is your status is . . . different to that of the Cerberus crew we have locked up in the brig. They're most definitely prisoners that we're going to hand over to the Alliance. You though? I kind of suggested a different plan to the Captain. Not sure if you know about it, but the school Grissom academy has programs to help take in people like refugees and give them a new start. I'm a graduate from there you see." He said with a hint of pride.

 

[Kaeli]

"Why do you have them locked up?" Lexicon asked, referring to the Cerberus crew. "Why are you enemies?" Her voice had a new character to it - disagreement. That quickly left when she next spoke, replaced by a cautious tone that sounded almost apologetic. "Sorry, I shouldn't ask. I can't really understand why, and that's alright." 


As the room began to heat up, she stopped hugging her legs together so tightly, and seemed to open up a bit more now that she wasn't as cold. "So you might take me to Grissom Academy, but its not up to you? When will you find out?" A strand of hair fell into her face as she talked, but rather than batting it away as most girls did without much thought, she moved her hand up slowly, a perplexed look on her face, and carefully put the strand up again.


She thought she had been asking too many hard questions, so instead she asked about something he had responded well to. "What did you graduate from at Grissom Academy? Were you very good?"

 

[Steel Accord]

"Uhhhh?" August wasn't sure which question to answer from the almost robotic seeming girl. . . . . So why not all of them? He took in a deep, deep breath and then spouted all out in one exhale. "1 ) They're dangerous. 2 ) That's a long story that I'm surprised Cerberus didn't tell you. 3 ) Never be sorry for asking questions. 4 ) Not up to me no but I'm very certain the captain will heed my advice because he trusts me. 5 ) Probably when you're getting your scans done. 6 ) Bachelors in philosophy and religion with a minor in alien culture and beliefs." He at last breathed in and chuckled to himself.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon blushed furiously, and the red showed up even more vividly on her white skin than it would normally. "Sorry..." She said quietly. "I didn't mean to overwhelm you with questions. I can do that sometimes." However, August didn't seem to be mad, as the emotion he was expressing seemed to be amusement rather than anger. Even as she processed all of his responses, sorting them in answer to her various questions, she asked, "Do you find me amusing?" Another question rose to her mind, and though she told herself not to ask, she couldn't hardly help herself, so before he could respond, she continued in a hesitant tone, "And, if it's not a bother, can you tell me why the Cerberus crewmembers are dangerous?"

 

[Steel Accord]

Neither question was really easy to answer but August decided not to beat around the bush.


"Cerberus . . . . as an organization, is very dangerous. They've a history of performing unethical experiments on unwilling subjects of varying species." He nodded in her direction for that one. "They've also made it quite clear that they're willing to hurt non-human lives and infrastructure to advance humanity's place in the galaxy, with threats made and carried out against non-human businesses and assassinations." He laid it all out.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon thought for a moment about his answer, thinking back through her past, and what she had observed or found in Cerberus data files. Unfortunately, she didn't have access to the vast majority of her archives, and thus couldn't corroborate his answer like she would have wished. "Hmm." She replied, "That's an interesting characterization of Cerberus that I hadn't considered before. I'll have to think about that." The question, and his answer, brought her back to her ongoing question of how she should react to being aboard the Corsair ship, but didn't necessarily provide any additional information to base her ultimate decision off of. "Can we talk about this later, August? When I have access to my archives and the extranet?" One of her subprocessors reminded her about another unanswered question. "And, you didn't respond to my first question. I take it you find me amusing?" She didn't say this as an accusation, but more as a conclusion - as if she were just verifying data and proceeding to the next task.

 

[Steel Accord]

"Sorry, I figured one question was a tad more pressing than the other. I find you interesting is what I would say. I mean I haven't known you for very long but I've yet to hear you tell or joke. You might be hilarious, we'll wait and see." He sighed and pulled a tube of Kresh X, a kind of Salarian soda, into his hand from across the room with his biotics. "Can I get you something to drink?" He offered, pointing to his own beverage. He himself needed the drink because it was starting to get a little close in the room from having the heat turned up, but she needed it more than he needed to be cool. He wasn't sure if she would like it when she found out what Cerberus truly was or even if knowing the truth would sway her, she seemed quite gentle but she'd also been so disconnected from everything. Would the number of involuntary test subjects or targets killed just be numbers and nothing more? As an evil man once said, "the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic."

 

[Steel Accord]

*bump*