The guy turns into Jane Shepard and goes into the army at 18. The Scilian Blitz and the career of the Spectrum. Invasion of the Reapers. The post-war galaxy.
The prologue.
The most ordinary day, or rather night, the most ordinary shift at a part-time job in a taxi. I pick up a customer at the address, another dyed blonde eager for a drink and dancing at the club. I've never understood such a pastime. Everything is as usual, the road is shiny with puddles in the holes in the asphalt, moderately broken but still allowing you to drive at a fairly decent speed, the joints of the overpasses protrude. From behind, the heart-rending howl of engines running at top speed approached. Walking at a speed of ninety, I am bypassed by two "chepyrki" (ВАЗ-2114), painted, tinted in trash, with loud rhythmic music bursting out of the windows. They pass and disappear ahead of us behind a smooth turn of the city chord. There's an interchange four kilometers away, so I'll have time to admire the jerks in the oncoming lane. I slow down automatically, there are speedcams ahead on a trellis farm thrown over the road, as soon as these assholes are not caught. The descent is smooth, and a couple can be seen flying around the bend on the oncoming lane. One of the "чепырок" flies into a puddle and catches an aquaplane at a speed of 180 degrees. Time has slowed down, and I'm watching what's happening in slow motion. The idiot skids, throws under the second one, and now two idiots are looping in the oncoming lane, hitting him with a swing against a metal bump on the right side, pieces of bumper fly, sparks, the car crumples into a shapeless lump of metal and plastic. Consciousness notes all this as if automatically. The second one hits the side of the high curb of the dividing strip, the car bounces, it flies sideways onto the divider and hits the metal fence post with all its might. Glass splashes, the rear bumper, torn off by inertia, slowly takes off, the car begins to tear in half, I see a long metal pin fly out from under the bottom and fly in a smooth parabola, rotating, in my direction. "Fucked up!" A piece of metal flies through my mind with a pop like a gunshot, smashes into the windshield, a blow to the chest, and the pain flares up and goes out. I slam on the brake, the car stops abruptly, I feel the jolts of my ABS in the pedal, the passenger squeals across the front seat, burying her face in the headrest. My swallow got up, the engine stopped, the locks clicked, automatically unlocking the doors.
"What are you doing!" Flying from the back seat. "You don't know how to drive at all! I'll report it to the dispatcher. They'll recruit anyone with purchased rights."
"You need to buckle up, you fool!" He floats listlessly in his thoughts. I look at the ragged hole in the windshield with cracks radiating in all directions. I look down, and there's a pin sticking out of my chest with a cut-off bolt at the end. "Why doesn't it hurt?" My consciousness begins to swim, and a hot feeling spreads in my chest.
- There's something sticking out of your seat, I've hurt myself! What's it? Is it sticky?" The ceiling switch clicks, flooding the interior with white LED light. "Ah-ah-ah!" It comes from the back seat.
"What are you screaming about? My ears are already ringing. Or is it just my imagination?" The ringing in my ears is getting louder, and black flies are in front of my eyes. "Why is there no pain?"
***
Darkness and silence, no sounds, no movement, no sensations. Only on the verge of perception is a feeling-a whisper-a thought:
"Forget everything, accept peace and oblivion, forget pain and fear, memories bring pain, why do you need them? Forget it, forget it, forget it..."
"Who am I! Answer me!" A thought flashes by. "I don't want oblivion! I want to remember!"
"Are you sure you want to?" It was as if a strange alien thought-feeling appeared nearby, there are no comparable concepts. "Are you sure that's what you want?" She repeated.
"Yes! Yes, I do. Give me back to you. You are welcome."
"As you wish."
And I remembered everything, my whole life, kindergarten, school, college, the army! I remembered my wife, my children, and my job at the factory. I remembered everything every day, and most importantly, I remembered my death.
"Fuck, did I die? Yes?"
"The biological shell has stopped functioning. But he died, it's pretty controversial, don't you think." They answered me.
"I think means I exist. So what is it?"
"Right."
"And what's next?"
"As you wish. You want to go back, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. Can I?"
"May. But with some condition."
"Like what?"
"People like you, those who have given up oblivion, are offered to return for a reason. They need to help the world they're being sent to. You will be given the skills and gifts to be able to cope with the task assigned to you."
"What are these gifts and skills?"
"Different, for example, how do you like absolute memory?"
"Normal."
"Is it okay?! The brute."
"And which world will I be sent to? What should I do there?"
"One of the worlds you know."
"What kind of acquaintances?! I've never been anywhere but Earth."
"Many of them are described in your fiction."
"So you're giving the authors plots! But why?"
"We can't interfere directly, but with the help of people like you, it's acceptable. You are bound by the laws of that world and you are mortal. Therefore, based on our forecasts and assumptions, we, in other worlds, using means of information delivery, such as books and others, raise people like you. And then we send you to help other worlds. Remember, what you have described is not identical to what you have in reality, but it is close, but not the same, and the forecasts are not absolute. Foreknowledge can fail you. Check it out."
"And if I fail? I'm not a superhero!"
"So we'll raise the next ones."
"What about me? What will happen to me?"
"If you don't break down, we'll send you somewhere else. There are many problematic worlds."
"What does it mean if I don't break down?"
"There are quite difficult situations there, but after all, a reasonable person cannot live in a vacuum, he acquires friends, relatives, and just reasonable relatives. Not everyone can stand losing then, oblivion awaits them. And after oblivion, what good are they? They leave for another incarnation in the usual way."
"And in case of victory?"
"You win first! If you win, we'll talk."
A crazy thought flashed through my mind:
"Oh, I'll turn around!"
"And so that you don't get distracted, I'll change the boundary condition. That's not why you're being sent there!"
"For what reason?"
"For everyone, for everything! As they like to say in your homeland. That's enough talking, you should go."
It feels like I'm falling, falling faster and faster. A dazzling white dot appeared ahead and began to grow rapidly. The dot turns into a cloud of light, the feeling of the body comes, it is compressed as in a vice, there is a soft elastic tightness and darkness around. I'm not breathing, what's going on? The darkness pulsates, strange sounds are heard, as if someone is moaning. My body is squeezed to the point of severe pain and pushes forward with my head, suddenly I am pushed into the light, it blinds everything around me with muddy, some colored spots, voices. Someone hits me in the ass, it hurts so much that I want to scream, I take a breath, my chest explodes with wild pain, I scream and pass out under my own scream.
Part 1. Chapter 1.
Eugene (Mendoir March - April 2355)
March 11, 2355
The realization came somehow suddenly, I saw a giant bending over me, he smiled at me and said:
"Who is it that I have here, so small, and no longer sleeps."
Damn, is he talking about me? And why is it small?! I tried to feel myself with my hands, and I broke off so abruptly, my hands! My fucking hands! THEY DIDN'T LISTEN TO ME! He tried to touch his face and stuck his finger in his own eye. Your mother's! I tried to swear, but instead it just came out.
"Augomugoao!"
Ooooh! I can't even speak properly! A complete polar fox! Have arrived...
The man picks me up, and I realize that my head is being pulled back so badly, I straighten it out with a noticeable effort, and slowly look around. It's nothing like the decor, laconic, futuristic, all kinds of screens, a huge window in the wall floor, furniture made of polished metal bent. A tablet is lying on the table, transparent glass, with glowing orange symbols. I'm the one who got into the future, and that's bread! I would have cast my voice in the Middle Ages, but it was really tough back then. There are no normal toilets, no medicine, you'll shudder when you think about dental treatment, the church is militant with all sorts of inquisitions! So I'll try to look at my hand anyway, if my bring it up to me face quietly, slowly... Oh, it worked, the hand obeyed! Adults don't have such hands, the fingers are plump, the nails are pink, so I'm a child, not a "Gulliver" in the land of giants! And the question about my little one remains open. How can I check that? What an ambush... Oh, I thought of it! I start kicking my legs and groaning! There is a contact! The guy bends down and takes out a metal pot from under the sofa, well, the most ordinary kind, my boys had the same in a previous life, only plastic and not stainless steel. So take off your pants and put me on an iron friend, slowly lower your head and!
Oppa! And HE's not there!That is, the dignity of a man! Fuck! Bitch! AAAhh! This is a boundary condition change, it's just fucking mean! But I really wanted to go to the bathroom, so we're doing it, hmm, it feels strange, different, damn it! Of course they are different, the platform is different!! Ehhh! Well, there's no way out, we'll get used to this one!
So it's done, they're probably carrying me to the bathroom. Exactly! Oh! The mirror! Come on, come on, let's look at ourselves, small as small, about a year old, a smile, oh, dimples formed on the cheeks! There are about eight teeth in his mouth. There's not enough hair yet, and the color is so strange, reddish like. The eyes are green, not GREEN like malachite! So they washed me, put my pants back on, and carried me back. We look around, it's spacious, there are a lot of windows, all kinds of equipment, oh, this is probably a TV! No shit, it looks like two meters diagonally! There are columns of one and a half meters on the sides with grids on the outside, columns probably. Everything turned off is flashing red lights! We returned to the same place we came from, the guy sat me on the couch, propped me up with pillows on both sides, put some crap with a pen in his hand, I shook it, and it started to sparkle, lights inside, bah, it's a rattle, so let's look at it more closely. Well, what can I say, nothing special, a transparent plastic ball with another ball inside, the second one with built-in LEDs, the handle is also made of plastic, only soft to the touch. And everything. Then I heard a "pssssssss" sound from the right, and there was a piece of wall moving so slowly, and the opening we entered was closing, Close. And on the wall to the right, a green circle lit up, about ten centimeters in diameter, and the circle itself seemed to be hanging in the air without touching the wall, wow! A hologram in no way.
Then I felt that someone was looking at me, so we turned our head slowly to the left. Wow! What a huge cat, bigger than my head, hefty, sixty centimeters at the withers! Thick long paws, a meter-long tail like a tube, and only the tip bends back and forth. He stands on the couch next to me and looks at me so intently with his green eyes.
The man sat down at the table and said:
"Is Barsik awake, Zhenya, and you're on guard duty?"
The cat looked at the man, stood on the pillow with his front paws, and folded into a ball, so that his head was right under my hand. I reached out and ran my fingers into the fur, and the fur was soft, I scratched him behind the ear with my little fingers, went down on his cheek, the cat threw his head back, purred like an engine. I was looking at the guy, and he turned sideways to the table, pressed something with his hand under the table, and in front of him a hefty hologram lit up for about a meter and a half. He put gloves on his hands with metal claws on the tips of his fingers, and as he began to feel in the hologram, he pokes somewhere from the left, then moves back and forth with both hands at once, then launches his hands into the hologram itself with fingers spread out as if holding something and twirling his palms as if turning. Bah, it's a big deal to see! I wish I'd been like this in a previous life!
The man looks to be in his thirties, has light
hair and light-colored blue eyes, is wearing what looks like a pair of light-colored overalls with hip pockets and a white T-shirt with a large blue inscription ALC "LOKI EI-14" TAS NAVY on the left side. She wears soft-looking short moccasins made of white material.
I stared at him for about twenty minutes, but in the end he couldn't stand it, got out from behind the table, walked through the hologram, came up to me and said:
"Why are you looking at Dad like that, my daughter? It was like seeing it for the first time." And he smiles, well, I give him a smile back, he bends over to me and covers me with love, tenderness and some kind of joy mixed with delight! Damn, why am I so overwhelmed! Didn't you feel anything like that just now?! The guy kisses me on the forehead and returns to the table. The feelings went with it! Oh shit! So it was his feelings!! That's the second bonus, I'm an empath now, no, an empath girl, cool!
"Maybe turn on the cartoons," says "Dad" from the table. "Well, that's how it is." And he presses something on the table, it buzzed above his head, clicked, and right in front of me, two meters away, a three-dimensional picture appeared in the air, in it, on a blue background, some icons were scattered in groups, the numbers 11:03:2355 10:22 were lit in the corner, the date was decided on the 24th century! The icons are signed with different abbreviations such as "СПиКРК on 1UO" go understand. Here the cursor appeared, it hovered over the icon with the image of a small folder for papers signed "miscellaneous", several windows flashed in a row, voila, a picture with a roaring lion appeared!!! I went all over the "screen" and no, well, it can't be! Tom and Jerry! Hold me seven! It was worth dying to watch these cartoons again in a new life! Oh ha ha ha I can't believe it! Well, let's see!
Two hours have passed.
Something's bothering me, some kind of discomfort, damn, I'm hungry! And this "dad" is stuck in his punch line and it's like I'm not there! So we need to get his attention somehow, maybe yell?! Okay, I'll try:
"Aaaaaaaaaaa! Oooooooh aaaaa! Waaaaa!"
Oh! He looks at me.
"What are you doing, daughter?"
I look back intently and looking into his eyes I make a sound
"Ooooaaaa!!"
"Dad" slaps his forehead with his palm and exclaims:
"You must be hungry at my place! I'm a fool! I forgot about you with my job!"
He jumps up from his chair, quickly goes to the doorway, slaps the green circle with his palm, the door opens with a hiss and he disappears somewhere in the house, another hiss is heard, then something clinks, hums. Everything went quiet. Footsteps were heard approaching, and he returned. He's holding a glass plate with something mushy inside. He takes a chair, sits down in front of me, and begins the process of feeding me. Like any loving parent, he accompanies every spoonful, opening and closing his own mouth, and it's getting harder for me to watch. Oh, I can't take it anymore, I'm neighing like a horse! As a result, I choked and mixed coughing and laughing, I burst into tears, which brought my father to a real panic attack. Well, everything passes, and that passed, and dad went to the kitchen, but where else did he get it all and brought me a drinking bowl with an incredibly delicious compote! After drinking a compote, we continued our business, I watching cartoons, and daddy working on the kool-aid.
An hour later.
There was some noise coming from outside the door! Something rattled, the door slid open and a beautiful woman appeared in front of me, about the age of my father, with dark brown hair, broken dark eyebrows over wide-set large gray eyes with fluffy long eyelashes on a regular Scandinavian-type face, but with soft lips. She was wearing a long fur coat made of thick, shiny black fur. Black pointed-toed boots with low heels were visible from under the fur coat.
"How are you doing here?" She asked, and then noticed a hologram with cartoons. "So! What is this!?" She said, looking at her father. "Michael Shepard, I'm asking you! WHAT IS THIS!" She stuck her finger into the hologram. I'm stuck! What, what did she call her father! What's his last name?! SHEPARD!! And I'm Eugenia Shepard! Very interesting!
March 25, 2355
So one step, one more step, take your time, Zhenya, take your time, keep your head up, keep talking. Here is the corner of the crib, we intercept with our hands and then take another step. I'm learning to walk! My legs are still weak, but my hands are already much better. It's still early in the morning, and my parents are sleeping on the couch with their arms around each other. A Barsik is lying at their feet and follows my steps around the crib with an attentive look. So we keep the balance, oops, the head has outweighed, eee! I manage to fold in half and land on the fifth point uhh! It took my breath away. Is my little one awake?! I hear my mother's voice, she looks at me with a smile, I smile back, grab the bars, pull myself up and stand up. My head is above the bars, and I'm sincerely pushing my forehead and reaching out to my mother. Yes! Now they are really my parents for me, and empathy has turned out to have not only a bright side, but also a "dark" side. It is impossible to remain indifferent under the pressure of parental feelings. Mom gets up, picks me up from the crib, and I'm just basking in a wave of maternal love. They put me on the potty while I do my chores, mom puts on a robe and we hold hands and quietly stomp into the kitchen. There's a mega device, a chair table. It's a tall chair with a sliding table attached in the front. Mom puts me in it, pulls up a table. I look out the window, there are leaves blooming on a large, sprawling tree in the courtyard, a strange tree, the bark is peeling off, falling off in layers, and the leaves are coming out in a strange silver-green color. A hefty brown dog walks thoughtfully around the yard, he is so healthy that he looks like a bear. And when this beast yawns, it seems like my whole head can enter its mouth.
"Come on, eat," my mother says and puts a plate in front of me, it contains porridge with pieces of fruit and some berries. I take a spoon in my right hand and start eating slowly. It's not working fast yet! There's a good chance you can get a spoon past your mouth. Meanwhile, Mom takes out a soft plastic container with a volume of one and a half liters from the pantry and goes out into the yard with it. The dog rushes to her with an expression of such intense joy that it seems to me that his tail is about to fall off and spin like a boomerang into the far distance!
"Quiet Polkasha!" Mom exclaims at the dog spinning around, "If you stay hungry, I'm going to dump all your breakfast past the bowl and you're going to eat from the ground again!" But the dog doesn't seem to be intimidated by this prospect at all!
Footsteps are heard from behind, someone entered the kitchen, quietly came up to me and kissed me on the back of the head, showering me with adoration! Daddy's awake! Mom came back from the yard and I can hear her saying:
"Misha, how many times have I told you not to walk around the house in your underwear! Well, you have a bathrobe!"
"Come on, Diane, I'm only at home in the morning, and in general, I'm at home in whatever I want!"
"Oh so! Look at the example you're setting for our boys! Can you imagine if I start walking around the house in my underwear?!"
"Oh! It will be a magnificent sight! You have nothing to hide and something to be proud of!"
"Double flattery! And anyway, if you haven't forgotten, I'm seven months pregnant!"
"Ooo! Ha ha! It's hard to forget and even harder not to notice! And anyway, come here, retired Major of the medical service! I will explain to you all the subtleties of communication with a senior officer! Heh heh!"
"Get your hands off me! Mr. Retired Captain of the first rank, what are you doing?"
There's scuffling and kissing sounds behind my back!
"Ohhh! Michael Shepard, I love you, my husband! But now you go put on a bathrobe, go up to the second floor, wake up our sons, and don't you dare contradict me! Is everything clear to you!?"
"Aw, aw, ma'am! The order is clear! Allow me to perform!"
"Do it!"
And the father, humming some cheerful tune, leaves the kitchen.
Ten minutes later.
"Aaaaaaaaa! I'm the first one down!"
"No! I am! I'm The First One!"
"Nifiga ha haha!"
It came from the stairs to the second floor. My two older brothers flew down it with a bang! This is the weather of Deniska and Leshka! Elbowing and puffing, they stumble into the kitchen.
"Hi Mom!" Deniska is babbling.
"Hi Mom!" Leshka echoes him.
"So young people, how should well-mannered young chevaliers behave at breakfast?!" Their mom asked. "Come on, let's get out of the kitchen and go in properly!"
The brothers swept out the door, caught their breath, and sedately went back in.
"Hello, Mother," Denis said, bowing slightly.
"Good morning, Mom," said Leshka, repeating his brother's movement.
"Hello children, have a seat at the table." Mom replied, bowing her head.
The guys went around the table "accidentally" passing by my chair, hugged me from both sides.
"Hello, little one," whispered Deniska and kissed me on the cheek.
"Hello, little fox," Leshka whispered, kissing the other one.
After that, they both sat down at the table.
Three hours after.
I'm sitting alone in the middle of the carpet in the children's room on the second floor of our house, and I'm talking softly to the cat. Slowly and gradually, my tongue begins to obey me.
"You're a ba-ss pla-yer, I think I'm so stu-pid. I'm tra-in-ing, I'm en-jo-ying my-self with yo-u! And To-uka?"
The cat is silent, quietly purring, lying down on the carpet next to it, stretched out to its full length and rolling a wheel from some kind of machine with its front paws. The brothers have a whole box of this "scrap metal".
Ehh! I hope the torment doesn't last too long.
"So what's the cat? I'll ge-t all wor-ked up!"
The Barsik purrs, squinting affectionately.
By the way, I managed to find out my location, an hour ago, my mother, holding me in her arms, turned on a huge TV. Uhh! What a thing it is! A natural window into another world. So there was news and a pretty presenter in quite decent English was broadcasting that the current state of affairs in the colony of Mendoir was just fine, and all mining and processing complexes were operating at full capacity. This will allow us to increase the shipment of concentrate this year, and increase the number of colonists and the income of existing ones. Then there was a block of interplanetary news, about the new initiatives of the Citadel Council, about the work of the ambassador of the Alliance of Systems, hmm! It seems that in the canon, people should be on the council, but here is an ambassador, not an Counselor... Then there was the sports news block, and it all ended with the weather block. Everything is the same as always, the surroundings change, but the essence remains the same.
April 11, 2355
As usual, I was sitting at my chair-table by the window and looking out into the kitchen, at how our cat and our doggie were playing with some kind of crap that looked more like scraps of a stuffed toy. You've turned one year old, Zhenya! Suddenly, with a loud buzz, a red and green bike flew into the yard! It's like in the sixth episode of Star Wars, but without the long thing with wings in front, the flying scooter is shorter! Both of my brothers sat on it in tandem, and Denis's face was worried and guilty, and Leshka, who was sitting behind, was crying and scratched, and he was strangely holding his left hand.
I made a sound "EEEEEE" and pointed at the window. Dad went to the window, looked out, his face took on a worried expression, his emotions clearly sounded alarmed.
"Diane," he said. "The guys are in trouble."
"What's wrong Mish." Mom answered.
"Call an ambulance, Dayan."
Mom went into the living room and chirped at the terminal, and after a short chirping, a clear female voice came from there:
"Dayan! My soul, is that you! What happened?"
"Ray, I'm really glad to see you too, but I need you! My guys seem to have had a very good bike ride!"
"I'm already flying, honey, just don't worry, it's not good for you!" And slowly fading away:
"Duck, Du-uck! Get ready, let's fly to the Shepards..."
It is not known what the mysterious Duck replied. The connection was disconnected.
The front door buzzed, and my brothers appeared for all to see.
"Well!" Said the father.
"Paap. We were riding a bike here," staring at the floor, Denis said. "Anyway, Leshka flew off, and I think he broke his arm."
Leshka at this time, hesitated next to trembling lips, and eyes full of tears.
"So-o..." My father said, "and how could this happen, they were driving without a limiter again."
"Well, Pa-ap," both of them howled, "only small ones ride with a limiter."
"Well, that means you're big!" Mom exclaimed.
"Well, Mo-om!" Both of them howled again.
At the same time, the brothers looked the most dejected, and their emotions showed pity for each other and for some reason fear.
"Well, Aunt Ray is about to arrive, and it will become completely clear what to do with you." Said the father.
The brothers hunched their heads into their shoulders, and looked at their mother with some strange hope.
"What are you watching!" Mom said. "You're hoping to get off easy." The brothers shuddered and looked at their father expectantly.
"What did I tell you?" The father asked.
"That we have to be careful." Denis spoke up.
"That you should drive carefully without a limiter." Leshka whimpered.
"And what about you!?"
The brothers began to sob, both of them.
"Well, Daddy..... We didn't do it on purpose....It's like that! We didn't run into Ham on purpose!" The sobs turned into tears.
"So you also ran into Haymon, and how is he doing? Where is he, by the way?"
"Papa Ham flew home, he was taken away there!" Deniska spoke through tears.
"So he also got beaten up! Well, Dakar will give him a hard time."
"Science will drive you like crazy." Mom put her hands on her hips and said.
Then the informant's beep sounded from the door, and how did I not notice how the doctors arrived, there was some kind of long-shaped futuristic-looking thing behind the fence, but with a completely familiar outline of a blue chandelier that twinkled fervently. Mom waddled over to the door and pressed on the flickering green hologram on the right jamb. The door opened and she entered the room... My mouth was already open, all slender, in a fitted snow-white suit, with a bright red cross on her left forearm, a blue-skinned AZARI... It's just like in the "Mass Effect", and the tentacles on the head, and the pigmented spots on the face, and it's beautiful..!
"Michael!" She exclaimed, "Where are they!?"
"Admire it!" The father replied. "There's Leshka, he ejected from the bike." And he pointed at his brother with his hand.
"So!" The doc puffed up with concern. "What's the matter with you, so, so." She bustled around.
Leshka came up to her and held out his shaking left hand. An orange hologram flashed around Asari's left arm, she ran it along Leshka's arm, looked at the hologram, pressed her finger on a strange round pimple on the right side of her head and said:
"Duck! Bring a small treatment table, and a suitcase with clips! And get moving."
I turned to the window, and saw a tall TURIAN sidling through the gate! In a snow-white suit just like the doctor's, with a briefcase in his right hand and a long trunk placed vertically in his left, and our dog, twirling his tail like a fan, gets in his way and does not show any signs of aggression, rather a stormy joy as from meeting a good friend. That's right! But what about the human colony!? Where a Turian and an Asari serve in the ambulance. Nothing is clear. Well, okay, let's take a look, I decided!
The Turian entered the house, went out into the middle of the living room, put a suitcase on the floor, took hold of the trunk with both hands, and I still didn't understand how, but this trunk suddenly turned into a long table, immediately put on the floor.
"Bring three chairs, Mish." Dr. Ray said.
Folder quickly arranged the chairs under Doc's guidance, around this table, Leshka was seated on one chair. Doc took out a strange pistol, pressed its barrel against her brother's forearm, pulled the trigger, there was a "Pssst" sound, Leshka yelped.
"Well, well." Said the Turian. "You'll feel better now, and we'll take your hand off each other."
"And it doesn't hurt." Leshka mumbled.
"You can feel your hand." Ray asked.
"Uh, no."
"Well, it doesn't hurt." Duck said.
"By the way Duck!" Said the father. "Your eldest is hurt too, he's sitting at home!"
After that, a briefcase was placed on the table, which, unfortunately, blocked everything that was happening on the table from me. I fidgeted and whined, leaning to the right and left in an attempt to see what was happening on the table, but in vain. So I didn't see anything.
When it was over, Leshkin's hand was wrapped in a cool white scarf.
"That's Michael." Said the doctor. "You will arrive at the hospital in two days, we will remove the retainers there and it is better not to strain your arm for a week, you understand everything, young man." She turned to Leshka.
"Understood." My brother squeaked.
"And no bike racing. I'll rip off my otorvam piston today, too, and insert it." Dr. Duck said.
"Mish, we're going to arrange for an accident, anyway!" I called Father Azari. "Let's go" said the doc. "The victim's name?"
"Alexey Mikhailovich Shepard."
"Age?"
"7 years."
"Date of birth?"
"July 22, 2348."
"Place of birth?"
"Leonov city, Mendoir colony."
"Parents, father?"
"Mikhail Alexandrovich Shepard."
"Age?"
"65 years old."
"The mother?"
"Hannah Diana Shepard."
"Age?
"63 years old."
"Home address?"
"Leonov City, Strawberry Street 2, Whisper Ranch"
"Okay." Said the blue doctor. "I'll fill out the rest myself."
Then the Turian Duck came up to me, and I stared at him with wide-open eyes with undisguised curiosity, and there was something to see. Well, first of all, he looked like a game Turian and didn't look like one at the same time. He did not have so-called mandibles, just his cheeks with horny plates growing on them closer to the chin, curved with pointed ends below the chin itself and fused with a lower lip, under which fangs were hidden looking down four centimeters long. That makes me understand teeth. The lower canines were much smaller than two and a half centimeters. The figure was dense, proportionally built, beautiful even to a human eye, and not that the product of Biovar designers was squalid, the hands were surprisingly four-fingered, and the little finger was thicker than the index and middle fingers and only slightly shorter than the index finger. All the fingers on the hands ended in powerful, slightly curved claws. The Turian's skin was golden brown, his face had a colorful tattoo of white and blue lines woven into a complex pattern, his eyes were deep-set with dark gray whites, and the iris was incredibly glowing bright blue around a round pupil.
Curiosity radiated from him in a wave, and I stretched out my hands and clenched my fingers into fists several times.
"That's right!" The father said with a smile. "Not a drop of fear immediately begs to be picked up."
"Yes, we can easily do that." Duck replied. "Come here, little one."
And he yanked me out of my chair. I didn't see anything repulsive up close, but on the contrary, I ran my hand over the Turian's cheek, the skin was smooth and velvety to the touch, and hot, about forty degrees, he already squeezed his eyes shut with pleasure, and made a strange purring sound, which was immediately picked up by our cat standing in the hallway.
"And you're going to Aunt Ray's."
I heard it from the left. Turning, she met the gaze of the Asari. She was smiling, which made her face even more attractive. Somewhere else, though.
I reached out to her and was immediately taken away from Duck. The Turian laughed.
"That's Ray. Everyone sticks to you, even the kids."
I was looking at the Asari with interest. The blue skin is soft and silky to the touch, the appendages that slightly springy under the fingers, the pattern of pigment spots in the form of a complex pattern around the amazing color of lilac eyes. By the way, the Asari had eyelashes, although there were no other types of vegetation on the skin. Strange.
"And what's your name, young lady?" Ray cooed.
"Zhenya," I replied! Wow, it turned out to be clean to say!
Dad's jaw dropped, and Mom's already big eyes widened. Oh, to be naughty so naughty! She poked her finger under Asari's chin and I said:
"Ray."
Then Azari's eyes got big, like animeshki with his mom. Turning to Duck, she pointed at him and said:
"Duck."
The Turian's jaw dropped. And I was just overwhelmed by a wave of amazement. The adults were stunned into silence.
"Well, what's my name?" The father came up and asked.
I smiled at him with all my twelve teeth and said:
"Misha's dad."
Just look who's talking! My father said, laughing.
"I'm going to my house!Э Dr. Duck hurried over. ЭI need to examine my senior. Ray, let's go."
"Bye guys!" Azari said, and the medics picked up their stuff and left.
Chapter 2.
Eugene (Mendoir April - June 2358)
April 11, 2358
The slowly rising sun illuminated the peaks of the mountains in the east, they are clearly visible from the window of my room in clear weather. It's been four years since I've been in this universe. The world of a computer game that has come to life, so similar and at the same time completely different! A year ago, I got a desktop terminal at my disposal and started a real brainstorming session. I managed to find answers to almost all my questions. The most important thing was that they had never even heard of the Reapers here, there was a huge pile of contradictory information about the Protheans, and most importantly, everyone was absolutely convinced that they had built both the Citadel and the repeaters. Which means what?! The canonical events did not happen! But most importantly, there is no certainty that I am connected with them. After all, John Shepard, like Jane Shepard, exist in reality and the funny thing is they are members of the same family! Yes, on May 22, 2355, my younger brother was born, and my dad named his youngest son Ivan according to the old Russian tradition! He is very original! Mom laughed and told him so. Well, my parents are retired military personnel, my dad is a Captain of the First Rank or Captain in the Anglo-American rank system, and my mom is a major in the Naval medical Service. Plus, I'm a colonist from Mendoir, just like in the game, but in a crowd. And as far as I could remember, in the game, the colonist's entire family is killed, after which he (she) goes into the army. I'll get out of my skin, but I won't let them kill my family!
After Vanka was born, they pushed taking care of me onto my older brothers and our wonderful cat! The brothers were not particularly pleased, but the redhead seemed to be just happy. A mustachioed babysitter followed me around the house, played, slept, and accompanied me on trips to the center of the town. And after the brothers were allowed to take me out with them, Barsik and I became as much a part of the children's company in our village as my brothers, their Turian friends Hamon (Ham) and Tamil (Tam), the sons of the same Dr. Duck, their Azari girlfriends named Vasil, the daughters of Dr. Ray and a small-time Turian my age, Nino, the younger sister of Ham and Tama. Last September, I went to the local kindergarten equivalent, where a lot of amazing discoveries awaited me.
The alarm clock on my desk showed 6:30 a.m. even though the day on Mendoir is as long as 9 minutes longer than on Earth, but the year is shorter by 7 days. So we live by the time of the Alliance of Systems, that is, Greenwich Mean Time on earth, plus sunset-sunrise correction. The clock is periodically adjusted according to the signal of the planetary control virtin. The whole family is still asleep, but I get up earlier than everyone else and do exercises, several yoga asanas mixed with classical gymnastics and weights on my arms and legs have made me very strong for my age, improved flexibility, coordination of movements and motor skills in two years of training. I haven't forgotten the weaknesses of the first year of my life, and I don't want to be weak. It takes very little effort. Thank the extranet for a huge number of all kinds of video lessons. The main language of the colony was Russian, although English was spoken by everyone, of course, the main language of the Alliance. Plus, they spoke in "Basic" or basic galactic, also known as "galact". It was developed by the Salarians together with the Asari as much as two and a half thousand years ago. Well, all the "strangers" spoke their native languages perfectly, the natural "Babylon 5", not Mendoir!
And once, I bend my whole body forward, leaning on my hands, and twice, in the opposite direction. After all, the girly body is much more flexible than my past, like rubber, after six months of training, I sat down on the splits completely, sitting in the lotus position also did not cause any unpleasant sensations. In general, everything is very good so far, well, except for one small disadvantage, an extremely low pain threshold. But I attribute this to the child's body, I hope it will pass with age. I heard noises on the ground floor, my mom probably got up and went to make breakfast, and it's time for me to take a shower, brush my teeth, and get ready. My brothers will take me to the garden soon.
Five hours later.
A whole bunch of youngsters from all races of the citadel space go to my garden with me. And who is not in our still junior group, ten human of all colors and races, three Asari girls, three Turians, two boys and a girl, two Batarian girls!! And like the icing on the cake, the drell guy! That's a gang of nineteen bullies. Our group is led by two Azari teachers, both purple. The head of the group, Rien Vais, and her assistant, Taya T'dari. Since I'm considered a kind of child prodigy here, I've already kind of learned to read, by the way, looking at me, my whole group has learned to read, after all, children of any kind have a very developed imitative instinct. They really don't read well, but that's in less than four years. As far as I've found out, all children develop about the same way, even Azari girls. To my wide-eyed question to our educators, why is this so, because Asari have been living for so long and have been considered adults since they were a hundred years old, I received a very detailed answer. That the Asari stage of growing up has three stages:
The first stage, from birth to about fifteen years of age, is due to rapid growth and development, and intellectual abilities develop during this period of life, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, physical development slows down sharply but does not stop, and a young Azari, who looks like a human girl aged 13-14, begins to improve intellectually, they study a lot, train, harden their minds and the body, this stage lasts up to about 45-55 years. Then the third stage of growing up begins, the young Asari begins hormonal restructuring, she grows up a little more, gets rounded in all the right places, and begins to develop mental abilities, it is at this time that the Asari are taught to work with biotics, and merge consciousness, in the so-called "embrace of eternity". Well, that's all ideally, of course, in fact, the quality of development is very dependent on social status. Well, just like Humans.
The racial composition of the Mendoir colony is actually more extensive, but since Salarians or Vorks develop much faster than others, it was considered unnecessary to include their children in general groups. You'll probably ask where vork comes from. And so. As the local online encyclopedia suggested to me, the Vork is actually a fairly advanced species, maybe inferior to humans and Turians in intelligence, but with a huge adaptation resource! In the Vork citadel space, they are mostly employed in the mining industry, as it turned out, they are excellent miners. Capable of working in conditions in which most of the races will simply bend. That's why they work in the mines on Mendoir and live in large clans in mining villages. They rarely leave the villages themselves, and almost no one is allowed in, in general, they are recluses. And those thieves who hang out in all kinds of gangs are exiles from clans, complete outcasts and lumpens. With their lifespan of thirty standard years, banishment from the clan is the most terrible punishment for a vork. Because women are never expelled.
And so. Mendoir is actually a world belonging to the Asari Republic, and it is considered a human colony because the Rosenkov Materials Corporation has concluded a concession agreement with the Council of matriarchs for 20% of the total share of resource extraction. Well, since the corporation has little interest in the troubles of the Alliance of Systems Council, it hired staff for colonization without really looking at race, but more at the professional qualities of the employees.
Wow, I spread my mind over the tree, and they were going to congratulate me. So they built a round dance, put me in the center, and under the general screeching and squeaking, we made a loaf like on Eugene's name day.... Of course, I'm making a happy appearance, but I don't want to laugh. Well, I'll get over it, and I'm a recognized authority among our entire group, which I won in an unequal struggle with the Turians. Back on the first day at kindergarten, these two little ringleaders tried to build the whole group. And they built it, but they broke off on me. Well, it's not a small thing to compete with an adult in psychological pressure, even in a child's body. They recognized me as the head of the pack and calmed down (pack predators, damn it) and now with all their problems, the little ones first come to me, and then if my solution does not suit them, they go to the teachers. To be honest, it bothers me unspeakably.
By the way! I have two "girlfriends" here, although I don't have a girlfriend anymore, one is a Turian girl named Nain, the daughter of that very Dr. Duck. My dad's big friend, partner in the preference game, they've been friends since the Navy days, when my dad served as captain of the light cruiser Loki, and Duck or Dakar Tanir was the chief doctor on the Turian dreadnought Smasher, and they turned out to be jointly chasing Batarian pirates in the Skillan Reach. And they were catching up to the point that the father thundered to Dak in the infirmary because the infirmary on Loki was blown apart by a direct missile hit.
The second Girlfriend is Jean Batarian, full name Gina Natol, and I met her at our ranch. Her dad is my assistant, and my deputy chief engineer of the corporation's enrichment complex, and the chief engineer of the complex is a QUARIAN!!! By the name of Tael'Rigar and the corporation values him so much that they ordered him a special house, no less than ours, by the way, completely sealed with air filtration and disinfection systems and a huge glass bay window. It stands in our village on the second street called Strawberry, and Uncle Tael, having taken off his suit and put on a bathrobe, likes to sit in the bay window admiring the life of the village. The most amazing thing is that he differs from a human only by a slightly different knee structure with feet on which there are only four fingers on the hands of these fingers, just like humans have five, and a face more like an elf from fairy tales, with light lilac glowing eyes and pointed tips of ears. It's idiotic to make aliens three-fingered, try holding a rifle with three fingers and shooting at the same time. Igrodely fucking! And his fingers are just like a pianist's, long and nervous. And skaf's gloves also have steel claws, at first I didn't understand why, I thought it was a weapon until I saw how it worked on the omny-tool. There are two times fewer buttons than my father's, and there are twice as many buttons. I once asked my father how cool Uncle Tael's toolbox was, and my father just rolled his eyes.
They sang a round dance and pulled me to the table to eat a cake, my mother brought it, I saw it through the window and put it on the veranda of the group. A hefty cake by the way, well, for twenty-one people in one bite. A hefty pot of compote was brought here from the dining room. And as it turned out here, neither Turians nor Quarians have any dextroamines. And the blood of all races, without exception, is red, differing only in shades and composition, of course. And of course, all races have dietary restrictions. So my cake is universal, suitable for all races, which, alas, does not add to its taste qualities.
That reminds me! When Uncle Duck came to visit us with his family, his wife and three children, his eldest sons are the same age as my older brothers, and since we are also neighbors, they are bosom friends, and all the mischief in the village is the work of my brothers and their Turian friends plus Dr. Ray's daughters. As it turned out, she's also our neighbor. Her name is Rayan T'rann. Uncle Duck's wife is named Kaadi and she is a former soldier of the Black Guard, an incredibly cool aunt. So when they all came to us for the first time, my younger brother turned exactly one year old. The first thing that caught my eye was that the Turians have FIVE fingers on their hands, not four. When I was stunned to see this miracle and, out of excitement, confused in words, I asked Duck about it, the answer amazed me. In fact, male Turians have five fingers on their hands, just the ring finger and the little finger fused together. It happened in some very ancient times. When the Turians on Palaven still lived in trees, Men mostly hunted and usually on the surface, when the mutation occurred it is impossible to establish, but the four fingers gained an advantage in hunting due to a stronger grip, well, this is according to theory. No one really knows what happened. The women did not come down from the trees, but were mainly engaged in gathering. Therefore, women still have five fingers on their hands and toes, the fingers are much longer and more mobile than men's, although the foot itself is smaller. The foot of the Turians looks amazing, as far as I have seen Nain in the pool and in pictures on the Web. Four fingers look forward, and the index and little fingers are almost the same size, thick with powerful sharp claws, the middle and ring fingers are much shorter and with flat thick nails!! The thumb is turned back and for men, by and large, it has completely atrophied into a heel, but for women, although in a greatly reduced version, it has been preserved, and Turians can firmly grasp a pliable surface like a tree with their foot, and even hang upside down without any harm and consequences for themselves. Which Nain has shown me more than once.
Wow, we ate the cake and drank the compote. Now let's go to the pool, there's just a great pool in the garden, and I love swimming. The Turians really don't like this business very much, but they're much deeper and don't pull, let them be broke. In general, the Azari love the pool the most, they are like fish in it. Then people come here as everyone wants, who loves, who doesn't. Batarians are indifferent. Turians rather do not like, although they swim with pleasure on the shoals. But our Drell doesn't wear it. They built a dry room for him in the pantry, where the humidity is about five percent and there are some salts in the air that are useful for drells. It's probably from Kapral's syndrome. And his name is Feron!
Two months later.
The Whisper Ranch
It's vacation time, so I'm sitting on the porch of our house with an album on my lap, pretending to draw. In fact, I shamelessly warm my ears listening to the conversation between my father and his Batarian assistant, Koel Natol, sitting on wicker chairs in the middle of the lawn. Gina is sitting next to him, with the same album on her lap and her tongue sticking out from diligence, drawing something with colored pencils. In general, she has a real gift for drawing, and what I do with effort, she somehow comes out by herself. After introducing her to the album and showing her the basics, I was just amazed at how fast she was progressing. To be her artist. And now, looking into her album, I saw our cat, lying on the grass with a lazy expression on his face, and all this in small strokes and so accurately conveys the mood, alas, I will never be able to do that.
"Listen to the Call." Says the father. "What's wrong with you, you haven't been yourself for the second week, what happened?"
"I haven't heard from my brother for a long time, neither from myself nor from his family. Saer is worried!"
"So, I thought you said that his contract was ending, I got him engaged to us, agreed with Tael, he punched the management. Everyone agrees to accept him and his family."
"That seems to be the problem, someone must have betrayed his brother, that he lathered up to us, and in the Hegemony they look askance at this."
"This way, normal conditions would be created for the reasonable, and they would not have to catch their own population trying to run away wherever they want, just to get away from their native state."
"This is what you have here at RM, the order is like in the legends. At first, we all couldn't believe that this was happening. I kept waiting for a trick, when they would start to squeeze. It was only a year later that I believed that everything that was written in the contract was being fulfilled."
"So Kol. The main resource of any state, corporation, or even family is people. These are not factories, steamships, ships and junk. These are the ones who create, produce, mine, build, transport, and raise the next generation. Invest in the sensible ones and you'll get a hundredfold return. RM has been pursuing such a policy for two hundred years, so the corporation is in third place in the list of the strongest companies in the Alliance of Systems, and it is included in the hundred of Citadel space. And what about the Hegemony!?"
"So I'm not arguing, Michael. I'm not arguing... I'm just worried about my brother."
"Can we have a drink? Would you like some cognac?!"