#estharwriting

[albinoshepard]

N7 Month: DAY #016 Child

Admiral David Anderson : You did good, son. You did good. I'm proud of you.

I keep having the same dream.

I am asleep in a bubble surrounded by water. A storm is consumed around me, the waves scratch the sphere that protects me, they try to shake it, but nothing seems to wake me from my sleep.

Then suddenly the bubble shatters, a thousand silver splinters that envelop me in a gust of rushing wind, tearing my clothes and violently waking me. Before I can even realize what is happening my vision becomes blurred, blinded by a red light.

I would like to scream, I try to raise my voice as much as I can to make myself heard, but no sound comes out of my lips, no matter how hard I try. Blue lightning strikes the night tinged with blood red, the explosions subside, the pain becomes more excruciating and as I am dragged into the dark a strong hand lifts me, supports me, awakens me from death.

Don't worry, child. We are here. It's over. My name is David. Everything will be fine, trust me.

[albinoshepard]

Origins - Part One

This is the story of my character's origins, about the accident that gave her biotic powers and her particular albino appearance. It takes place on an unknown planet (or maybe it's a small moon), the name doesn't matter. In the first years of humanity's colonization of space, mining outposts have sprung up all over the Attican Traverse. Shepard's parents were both working in the local Element Zero refinery when the accident occurred. And this is what happened that unlucky night...

The air had become tremendously heavy, merging with the unbearable heat that had saturated the entire structure. His lungs burned like embers with each breath, but he continued to walk undaunted through the screaming and frightened crowd, running against the current. «Have you seen her? My wife ... where is she?» he would ask, when he thought to saw a familiar face. «Is she with you? Chief Engineer Helena Shepard...» then he stopped suddenly, just in front of the entrance to the engine room, as the whole structure was shaken by another explosion ahead.

He looked around in vain, searching for her in the crowd, and almost breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the group of technicians from his wife's team arrive. He elbowed his way through the fleeing people and grabbed one of them by the shoulders, startling him, as he pulled him to him «Where is she?! Smithson! Where is Helena?».

The boy in front of him - because that he was, nothing more than a child at his first experience - was petrified at that question and looked away from the shocked face of the man. «Arthur... she...» he began to stammer.

«Where is she? Talk! Why isn't she with you?!»

«She decided to stay behind. She ordered us to escape, while she ...»

«Did you leave her behind ?!» the terror in his voice was overcome with anger, but the technician was already too scared to notice.

«She said that if she can divert the energy flow from the primary to the secondary battery before the fusion of the core, she will be able to ...» Arthur Shepard let him go with a jolt, without giving him time to finish, slipping into a cloud of black smoke behind them «HEY! You can't go there! It's too late now! Everything's about to blow!» the young man yelled at him, but nothing would ever make him go back. Shaking his head disconsolately, Smithson rejoined the group and continued to proceed with the evacuation, following the flow of the crowd.

Helena had no intention of giving up without fighting.

There would be a time to discuss the causes and the responsibility for the mistakes made, but for now it was necessary to contain the problem to prevent the deaths of over 6,000 innocent people. The safety of that facility was her responsibility. She was in charge of the technical engineering sector, which had to worry about the proper maintenance of the refinery and the operation of the implants. If anyone of her team was wrong, he would pay the price, but it was partly her fault if she didn't spot the flaw in the system before it was too late.

«Ouch...» her face wrinkled in an expression of annoyance, while the child she was carrying in her lap distracted her from her thoughts with a powerful kick to the abdomen. She looked down at her belly, smiling sweetly «Just a moment, baby... Mom is almost done, then we could leave too...» and after giving a quick but tender caress to the point where the little foot (or maybe the elbow?) of the child had made itself heard, returned to focus on the control screen of the main core.

After about ten minutes spent checking numbers, tubes and heat exchanges - that same infernal heat that seemed to melt her clothes on her skin - a series of flashing green lights on the screen managed to get her a satisfied smile. «EUREKA!» she beamed, and the baby on her lap returned that happiness with another left hook right under her liver. «AH. Ok, got it ... it's time to go!» she turned towards the exit of the engine room and, as she was about to set off, she almost bumped into her husband who was arriving from the opposite side all out of breath.

«What the hell are you still doing here?!» he yelled. Helena looked at him surprised, with that innocent expression of someone who doesn't know what trouble she got herself into, but before she could open her mouth to answer, Arthur continued with a resigned sigh «Have you finished? Can we go now?»

The chief engineer nodded seraphic, stood on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, before taking him by the hand and dragging him towards the corridors of the implant, which fortunately were already completely deserted, a sign that the evacuation was proceeding as per protocol.

The security troops of the mining town who rushed to the site of the explosion were already fencing off the area and the other workers had already been sent away at a safe distance. When they saw them coming they motioned for them to run behind the kinetic barrier, but they were not fast enough. They were almost halfway between the plant and safety when there was another explosion, as powerful as the one that had caused all this disaster. They were thrown to the ground, but Arthur managed to shield his wife and they fell together, rolling several times on themselves, until they landed on their backs with their faces turned to the starry sky. When they managed to open their eyes Helena barely held back a cry of terror as she pointed to the sky with a trembling hand. Arthur followed her gaze and instinctively hugged his wife as a luminous blue cloud rose over their heads from the refinery's burning carcass.

That was the second publicized accident involving the exposure of humans to element zero.

The causes were never fully clarified. It was thought of the carelessness of an inexperienced technician or the negligence of an older worker, in any case the structure was sealed and the staff reassigned. Chief Engineer Helena Shepard received a commendation for her efforts to stem the leak, as her intervention effectively prevented a larger-scale catastrophe, but that was not enough to allay her sense of guilt. Trying to escape from it, she decided to join the Alliance's colonization program, trying to start a new life together with her husband and her newborn daughter, in the nascent colony of Mindoir.