//------------------------------// // Collector Base - Exfil // Story: Mass Effect: Element of Kindness // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// Chapter 154 Collector base - Exfil Head to the Normandy. 73% “There are changelings here, Commander,” Fluttershy replied. “It’s... Complicated. I need to extract one of them back to Normandy.” “Copy that, I hope you know what you’re doing. Those changelings back on Equis weren’t exactly capable of reason. Shepard out,” the commander replied. Fluttershy looked down at the little changeling in her hooves after closing the connection, the filly looking up at her expectantly. “Guess you’re stuck with me for now,” Fluttershy sighed, switching her channel to the Normandy’s. “Joker, can you send me a pickup point? I’m coming back to the ship.” “Uploading the RV point now, Mordin just got here but we can hold until you get here,” Joker replied immediately, a ping on Shy’s omni-tool showing where the ship was. With the little filly close to her chest Fluttershy hobbled back into the previous chamber, all the changelings that had been in there were cowering away from her. Their fear was literally palpable to the pegasus. What is going on... nothing about this is right Keeping a hawkish eye on the changelings, Fluttershy made her way to the passage back. None of the changelings seemed to follow her, something she was thankful for as a pounding headache formed in the back of her skull. Stopping dead in her tracks she cursed, feeling the two holes in her neck that still had blood pouring out of them and applied medi-gel. She had to get back to Chakwas to find out just what the hell she’d been injected with. Stumbling further the headache only got worse, a wave of nausea welling up as Shy felt something change in her chest. The filly nuzzled her chest as it felt obvious distress coming from the pegasus. ’Where is mommy?’ “She’s not here,” Fluttershy grunted in reply, her mind too clouded to realise she’d just heard from the filly in her hooves. A wave of fear and desperation hit Fluttershy, making her stumble and stop. Wait... that wasn’t mine. Looking down, she found the filly staring up at her with tearful eyes. Unlike the insectoid eyes of the regular changelings she’d seen, these were slitted and more catlike, a definite spark of intelligence behind their pinkish hue. Pushing through the mental fog of her headache and trying the strange whispering she was hearing aside, Fluttershy brushed a hoof through the kid’s hair in an attempt to comfort her. “I... Your mom wanted me to bring you with me. Take you to safety.” ’S-She... I can’t hear her anymore!’ “Your mom-” Fluttershy stopped herself, wondering if she should really tell the filly. She might find out the truth later anyhow which would be devastating... “Killed herself after giving you over to me.” The small changeling trembled as Fluttershy told her the truth, sniffing once before bursting into tears. “Shh, you’re going to be okay. I’m here for you.” The headache slowly disappeared as Fluttershy comforted the little filly, the whispers in the distance remaining very pronounced, but her nausea and the strange feeling in her chest very much remained. “I need to move further, we can’t stay here.” ’O-Okay’ Fluttershy suddenly realised that the filly hadn’t even been talking with her mouth but projecting her thoughts directly into her mind as the other queen had done. “What’s your name?” she asked as she got back to moving, her pace quickening as she headed for the marker. ’Amethyst’ “Well then Amethyst, I’m Fluttershy,” the pegasus smiled, looking over an edge to see if there weren’t any collectors mulling about in the chamber below. She’d taken a shortcut to bypass the place where she’d split off from the others, leaving her in front of an open space. In the distance, she could swear to be able to see the white hull of the Normandy. “I’m going to need you to trust me and hold on tight, can you do that?” Fluttershy asked, Amethyst’s legs clamping around her even tighter in response. Readying her legs, Fluttershy dumped off the ledge and dove straight down to pick up speed, pulling up just in time to avoid slamming into the ground. It didn’t really help with her nausea but she could hold still push that back for a while. Amethyst actually shouted in shock, not mentally but physically, attracting the attention of all the collectors in the room. Rounds quickly started flying all around them, whipping by their ears and bouncing off Fluttershy’s shielding as she protected the little filly in her forelegs. ”The RV point is getting too hot Flutt-” “I KNOW!” Fluttershy shouted back, cutting off Joker. “Open the airlock!” The Normandy rapidly grew in her line of sight, the small door on its side opening as collectors fired their low calibre rifles at the space vessel. “Incoming!” Fluttershy flared at the last second but it wasn’t that hard to see she wouldn’t be able to stop in time. Curling up into a ball with Amethyst in the middle, Fluttershy slammed into the inner door of the airlock. The bang was so loud Fluttershy was sure she’d dented the door. ”Holy... Closing the airlock!” Joker called out over the intercom, the outer door sliding back in place as the Normandy moved away to another location. Fluttershy groaned as she felt her stomach twist, emptying it on the floor of the airlock. ”Ew, gross. I don’t assume the decontamination field can clean that, EDI?” ”I am afraid not, mister Moreau but I think it would be a good idea to help Fluttershy out. I have notified doctor Chakwas, she is on her way up now.” EDI told her. Fluttershy simply lay still on the ground as the looked down at Amethyst who was whimpering on her chest. The inner door opened up with a screech, Chakwas being next to her within moments. “You crazy pegasus, stop scaring the life out of me like this... Who’s the small one?” “Amethyst,” Fluttershy weakly muttered, the little changeling hiding away from the human as best it could. “Well, you only seem to have broken just about all your ribs and cracked your left hind leg but did marvellously keeping Amethyst safe,” Chakwas told her, injecting medi-gel into an armour port so the automated systems could repair some of the damage. Once again Fluttershy felt the strange feeling in her chest return and grasped it, wincing in pain as she threw up again. “That’s bad, get her to the medbay!” A couple of crewmembers picked up Fluttershy and Rushed her to the elevator, leaving Amethyst cowering in Chakwas’ arms. ’Fluttershy!’ she mentally called out but did not get a response. Chakwas placed her on one of the beds in the medbay while she rapidly set up a scanner around the one Fluttershy was laid down on, one of the other crewmembers staying to keep watch of the small filly. “EDI, could you lend me some of your processing power?” Chakwas asked as she turned on the scanner. “And could you please bring up the previous full body scan and cross-reference it with the previous one.” ”Of course, a moment doctor.” Two holograms sprung up, one of them flashing red in multiple places. ”There is a growth rapidly spreading throughout her chest and head which the medi-gel is aggressively attacking. The tissue has already reached her brain and it is my belief the medi-gel is doing more harm than good at this moment.” “Come again? The medi-gel is doing this to her?” Chakwas asked, making her way over to a storage and grabbing multiple syringes out of it. ”I believe so. The tissue is bonding to Fluttershy’s without issue but then being attacked by the medi-gel injected by her armour mixed with the more powerful serum you injected in the airlock,” EDI said with certainty. “I hope you’re right then,” Chakwas said, injecting a small vial of fluid into the armour’s medical port. “Applying neutralizing agent.” The medi-gel got neutralised swiftly as the fluid moved through the system, the red spots on the scan slowly becoming blue as the growth quickly finished growing. Fluttershy shot up from the bed, breathing heavily as she looked around. Amethyst slipped past the human who was watching her and slammed into the pegasus. ’You smell... different?’ she noticed, Fluttershy still confused how she got down into the medbay. ’Different?’ she projected back. ’I’m not going to lie, you smell funny too. Not bad though.’ Amethyst’s eyes opened wide in shock. ‘You made a link!?’ “Fluttershy, how do you feel?” Chakwas asked, getting Shy’s attention. “The nausea is gone and... I sense things.” Fluttershy looked over to the human crew-member. “Apprehension.” she followed it up by looking towards the doctor. “Confusion, curiosity.” ”This is a development,” EDI announced, ”I have isolated a pheromone Fluttershy is extruding through unknown means which was previously not recorded. The same one Amethyst is extruding to be exact.” “Yeah, I smell it. She does too,” Fluttershy told them, getting a confused look from Chakwas. ’We can make a connection of sorts... it’s strangely intuitive.’ Chakwas’ mouth fell open slightly before glancing at EDI. “Is she stable?” ”Yes, she-” EDI stopped talking briefly. “Be advised, Shepard has primed the station’s reactor to blow. Please strap into your designated seats.” “Amethyst?” the filly looked up at Fluttershy. “I’m going to need you to stay with doctor Chakwas here, she’s very nice and will take care of you. I need to go take a look upstairs, okay?” Amethyst nodded as Chakwas took her into her arms. “See you in a bit.”