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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)	By : unrealuniverse Category: +M through R > Mass Effect Views: 22185 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Mass Effect characters, species, locations and the universal setting are owned by Bioware and not myself. Any other brand names mentioned are property of their respective owners. This work is and always will be free for anyone to read.

Chapter List
- 8
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Chapter 9 - Finding Out
24th December 2016
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A loud beep came from the kitchen and Shiala sat up quickly wondering if they were compromised. Her rapid movement woke Adastra who was distinctly groggier than Shiala as she wiped the sleep from her eyes and squinted towards the new source of coloured light in the corner of the room. The aurora in the early morning sky was more a tinge of colour than the strings of neon lighting it was last night. It was certainly no match for the Christmas tree lights however.
Carefully getting up she went to find the bathroom. Once she got back Adastra was sat up still looking half asleep. "Morning Shiala."
"Morning, Adastra. What happened last night as you looked like you had been slapped around with a wet sunfish." Shiala tried to stay as quiet as possible so as not to wake Sam.
"Errmmm" Adastra rubbed her head as the attempted to think of how to explain it. "He had something on his mind he wished to share." The question of oh really was just ready to be let loose from the sly grin that was painted on Shiala's face when Adastra continued. "No not like that." Shiala just smiled but said nothing, the speed of the denial being a bit quick. At that Sam started to stir in the chair and rubbed his eyes before squinting towards the sofa, the two Asari who had turned to face him looking back. He banged his head on the arm of the chair before looking back at the sofa.
"It is definitely not a dream then." The two Asari were a little confused as to why Sam had banged his head.
"Everything that happened last night is true." A touch of guilt hit Shiala after she said that.
"That would explain why my head feels as if it's splitting open. I'm sure I will be fine after something to eat. What would you two like?"
"I am sure anything you are making would be fine for us." Adastra, knowing from the meld they had a similar biology, looked to Sam with a warming smile. Shiala just nodded in agreement.
"Bacon buns all round it is then, after I've been to the loo."
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The two Asari sit opposite Sam in the kitchen on stools at the small table that could seat two on each side. Sam put three large buns and three teas on the surface before he sat himself down and proceeded to squirt a load of tomato sauce into the bun before taking a bite.
"Are you two going to wait until it goes cold?" Sam struggled to get his words out around the large chunk of bacon bun occupying his mouth. "There's brown and tomato sauce for on it. I would recommend trying it without and then a bit of each before drowning it." They both do as Sam had suggested, trying each sauce first, Shiala preferred to have no sauce and Adastra preferred tomato.
"How did you find connecting a second time Sam?" Shiala wished to try and quieten her curiosity about last night.
"It was much less painful but still a bit difficult. I think most of that was from having a long, extremely strange day though." Shiala still did not quite believe either of them, but she could see she was not getting anywhere so just nodded in reply and carried on eating.
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Sam took the empty plates to the sink which looked out on to the back garden. It was not an overly large space but he tried to keep it looking semi-reasonable. "Typical, a day early. It's never a white Christmas." Sam sounding a little annoyed as he watches a few snowflakes drifting by on the wind.
"What is this Christmas you speak of?" Shiala determined to get some kind of answer today.
"To keep it simple it is basically a winter celebration which has gathered various traditions from all over the place to be on one day. The name is taken from the religion Christianity, who believe that the son of their God was born on the twenty fifth of December."
"Is that tree with lights on one of the traditions?" Adastra curious as to why you would decorate a tree, let alone a fake plastic one.
"Yes. It is the only thing I put up this year given that I had no one to celebrate with." Sam suddenly wondered how the hell it had come around to that topic again as if it was haunting him.
"You have us." Adastra trying to lighten the mood, the smile to go along with it was a nice touch.
"While I appreciate your presence it's not quite the same as your parents. Is there something else we can talk about?" Shiala wondered if this is what Adastra had talked about having on his mind last night.
"What kind of technology do humans have?" Adastra quickly asked knowing full well how damaging it was for Sam to dwell on the loss of his parents. Sam seemed to get a bit of a spark back with that question.
"I have a few things in the basement I could show you, but since we haven't really got space travel solved yet I'm guessing the technology will look really, really old to you."
"That would be why I am interested Sam." Adastra seemed genuinely keen to know given they use wheels on vehicles.
"Follow me then." The two Asari follow Sam who opened the basement door by the front door and descended the fairly rough stone stairs down into a fairly large room that was packed with junk, a sofa, a small cupboard, a desk and a server rack. Shiala was being a bit more cautious down the stairs than Adastra.
"It is ok Shiala, it is not a trap." Adastra obviously needed to calm down a little.
"I know Adastra but my leg is just hurting a little." Shiala holding her left thigh.
"Shit. I had forgotten you were injured." Sam having a sudden sense of guilt and empathy wash over him, which was a little odd as they were aliens, not other humans. He goes rooting through the junk and pulls out a five litre tin, then goes to a tin box in the corner and picking out a roll of waterproof plaster.
"I will be fine." Shiala insisting.
"I think it would be better if the wound was closed, especially on an unknown planet with unknown infections." Sam cut a piece of the plaster off as he spoke. "I'm guessing you have an idea what to do?" Shiala just shook her head.
"We just have antiseptic glue that we use."
"This is a bit more low-tech. The alcohol should clean the wound and the glue is the plaster. Wash out the wound with the alcohol, then stick the plaster over the top." Shiala started removing her pants. "Do you want to do that now?" A shocked tone to his voice as his face goes a tiny bit red.
"I was not going to remove everything." Shiala laughed a little at Sam's reaction.
"Good." Sam does not seem all that comfortable with the situation. He rolls out the office chair from the desk and puts it behind Shiala, who duly sits down on it to look at the damage. "Are you good patching yourself up?"
"I would usually say yes but I have never used a plaster before Sam." Sam got this anxious feeling in his stomach knowing the alcohol will sting for a few moments. Also he did not really want to touch Shiala.
"Errm." Sam did not seem know quite what do to.
"Sam." He turned to Adastra. "I can see you are uncomfortable with the situation."
"I apologise, but yes, I am. It is just the fact that you are a different species that is worrying me." Sam turned to look back at Shiala. "It feels a little awkward Shiala."
"Sam, Asari tend to be comfortable with their bodies and I cannot see how you could harm me." Sam looked a little unconvinced. "I know it will probably be a little strange but you are going to have to start somewhere."
"It would at least help you get over that fear a little Sam." Sam heard from Adastra behind him. He decided to just get on with it and picked up the can of alcohol before taking off the lid.
"I must apologise but this may hurt a little." Shiala gave a nod and with that Sam poured the alcohol onto the wound. The neutral expression on Shiala's face turned to more of a grimace a few seconds later. Once the alcohol had dried Sam stuck the plaster over the top carefully, trying his best not to touch Shiala's purple leg any more than was necessary. "Supposedly the plaster is water proof but in my experience they tend to be more splash proof so just try and keep it dry." Shiala was already in the process of putting her trousers back on.
"Thank you Sam."
"I will try to help you both but it is a little difficult when you are both so new to me."
"You helped us yesterday Sam which we are also thankful for. I am however interested in knowing what everything is down here."
"Where would you like to start?" Sam was seemingly happier now he could concentrate on something else. Adastra pointed to the corner with the server rack so Sam began his explanation to the two Asari there.
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Sam showed various items to the two Asari and answered copious amounts of questions, mostly from Adastra but occasionally a tougher question from Shiala. "The speed of the progress made is astounding." Adastra seemed to be under the impression that everything takes tens of years to get done instead of weeks. "Do you mind if I have a go on the computer?" Sam unplugged the tablet PC before picking it off the top of the desk and holding it out to Adastra.
"Sure, this does everything except high end games, it's also a touch screen so it should be easier to use."
"Thank you." A bit of a shock overcame Adastra as the rest of the equipment she had seen was cabled. This looked more like a datapad. "I may need a bit of help when I get stuck."
"Not a problem Adastra. I need a drink, lets head back upstairs." The three of them walked back up the stairs to the living room with Sam continuing on into the kitchen. Adastra had taken a seat on the sofa before prodding at the tablet. She soon before scrunched her face up as she became stuck.
"It wants a password and the hint of `it's not Password` is very helpful."
"It's passwood Adastra." Sam liked that password, he only used it for things which wanted a password but did not really need password protecting. "Would both of you like to try a coffee?"
"Sure." Adastra responded as she wondered what to do now on the tablet.
"I would indeed like to try a coffee Sam." Shiala said over her shoulder before taking a look over Adastra's shoulder at what was on the screen.
"What do you do on this now Sam? Oh wait, I think I've got it, it is showing a page with Google on it."
"Type what you want to know and press enter, you'll get a list of pages to find what you want to know." Sam was slightly glad the tablet went through the servers in the basement for the internet, thereby filtering illegal stuff.
Adastra and Shiala took it in turns over the rest of the day to use the internet to find out various pieces of information that could be useful later.
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"Is that really what humans perceive aliens to look like?" The two Asari watched the film closely while occasionally having a bit of their drink.
"There are so many variations and yet none of us look remotely like that." Adastra wondered quite why humans thought that aliens would look so weird.
"This is so unrealistic." Shiala's face showed that she was not joking but finding how bad the film was amusing.
"I know, but there is nothing better on as it is basically last years output repeated, given it's a public holiday tomorrow and all." Sam looked through the EPG on the tablet to find that the film would be ending in a couple of minutes.
As soon as the credits started to roll Adastra pointed towards the ceiling, made the end of her finger have a blue glow and said "ET phone home". Shiala's usually subdued emotion subsided into a laugh as Sam looked massively confused.
"You can make your fingers glow?"
"Its just built up energy in the nervous system moved to one point. Some Asari can put out a candle at ten paces." Adastra pretended to shoot from her finger as the blue energy evaporates. Shiala just shook her head with a smile.
"I think the drink is getting to you, I'll be back in a second." With that Sam went upstairs to look in his draws for gloves. He was rather surprised when he found four pairs, two pairs of black thermal gloves, a pair of stripy coloured woollen ones and Sam's favourites, which had a red pattern on the back of the hand otherwise, were black wool. With that he headed back downstairs with the gloves and put them down on the table.
"If you have that much energy, making snowmen shouldn't be a problem. I thought you might want something to keep your hands warm though." Sam seemed keen to at least get out of the house.
"We might be seen?" Shiala seemed to want to play the part of the party pooper, clearly in need to be plied with more alcohol.
"My back garden is not overlooked and it's dark, come on." Sam had already slipped on his favourite gloves.
As Sam opened the back door to see that the snow was up to the bottom of the door frame. "There must be nearly two inches of snow here, should do nicely." With that he launched himself out of the door to land in the snow with a solid crunch as his feet sank into the white blanket.
"What is a snowman Sam?" Adastra was at least seemingly keen to get going. Sam quickly made up a small snowman out of a couple of handfuls of snow.
"That's the classic quick snowman. I would be more impressed if it looks like you though."
"I can do that." Adastra made tracks, quite literally, from the back door to claim an untouched corner of the garden.
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"Your aim is awful Sam." Shiala mocked as yet another snowball went a touch wide of her. Adastra laughed at Sam's inability to hit her but the ability to make a fairly good outline on the brick wall of the house.
"Look at the wall behind you." Shiala looked to the wall behind her which got a small laugh.
"That is more impressive than your snowman." Sam just shrugged. He had decided to do a classic snowman as it left more time for flinging snowballs, although his aim was usually a little better. He put it down to tiredness and alcohol.
"I'm finished and I think my fingers are going to drop off. I'm going back inside to warm up. Also my snowman is cool." Sam intended the pun and had a good laugh when neither of the Asari seemed to get it.
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It was not too much longer before everyone was sat around the log fire, warming up with a brew in hand. Sam thought he would have an early night as it was Christmas tomorrow so after saying goodnight he headed off to bed. Just before Shiala got some shut eye she sent a message to the Enlighten.
ASL-Enlighten,
I am not sure when you will receive this message but we crashed a little hard into the planets surface after the flare hit the shuttle. The shuttles door seal was damaged and I got a cut in my thigh hence why we were unable to request a pickup earlier. We are currently in a home of one of the native species and are being looked after well. The native species is very similar to our own which really surprised us. They seem to be rapidly improving technology wise and could probably build FTL space ships within three hundred years. Adastra seems to be getting along particularly well with the one that we have met. If you can find another opening for pickup then it would be appreciated.
Shiala
With that she stuck her head down to attempt to get sleep.
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Notes.
Day one with two aliens in the house. The question being what will Christmas day be like, find out in the next chapter.
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Marked Effect (AFF Edition)