Fic - Humanoids [FemShep/Liara, Synthetic Humanity AU]
Title: Humanoids
Author: iriscloud (InkstainedWretch on AO3)
Rating: Explicit
Pairing: Femshep/Liara
Characters: Everyone appearing in ME1
Word Count: ~10k
Summary: Shepard was made to be a protector. She was built to save lives. So far, she doesn't feel like she's done a very good job of it.
Spoilers: The entirety of Mass Effect 1, but nothing more
Author's Note: Written for a prompt on the kink meme that essentially asked for an AU in which humanity developed fully aware synthetic humans, and then something happened that made the organics die out before humankind found the mass relays. Essentially, humans entered the galactic community as a completely synthetic race.
This fic spans the events of Mass Effect 1
I have a good few thousand words of a sequel that covers Mass Effect 2, and ideas for what to write all the way through the end of the series, so I'll do my best not to let the WIP die on me. (I like the idea I had for EDI way too much to let this one drop, tbh XD)
I put it on AO3 because it's too long for one LJ entry, but if you'd like me to post it to LJ, I can do that.
Shepard rolled over and gave her movement processes a couple of minutes to wake up. It took a lot longer than it should have for her optics to adjust to the low lighting of the med bay. Her right arm wouldn’t move, which meant she’d gotten a cable detached. Great. That had been a rough shutdown as it was, and the data the beacon had flooded her with still didn’t make any sense. She sat up to see Kaidan sitting on the bed next to hers. He looked mostly intact, but Shepard could see what looked like an internal burn on his neck, right next to his eezo amp. She’d probably ask him later for a copy of what happened after her mainframe shut down, but not now.
“You alright, commander?”
“I’ve been better,” she went ahead and ran a defragmentation cycle. Maybe it would help clear up her thoughts. “You?”
“I’ll be alright.”
A moment’s pause, and then Shepard asked the question she almost didn’t want answered.
“What about Jenkins? Was it a system crash, or…?”
“I’m afraid not, commander,” Dr. Chakwas walked over with a spot repair kit and made a small incision in Shepard’s shoulder. The smell of hot silicone drifted up to Shepard’s nose as the doctor replaced the broken connectors and reattached the nervous cable beneath layers of synthetic muscle. Her movements were careful, but stilted. “They burned him out. His motherboard is completely scorched.”
“Fuck,” Shepard whispered. “Didn’t even take them ten seconds. We’re gonna have to turn the network link off every time we get near the geth.”
“Seems like it, yeah,” Kaidan turned his head to give Dr. Chakwas better access to his amplifier. Shepard grimaced when she saw the scorch marks on the inside of his skin. It didn’t help knowing he probably got them getting her back to the Normandy in one piece. “Unbelievable. A network-transmitted overload that goes straight for the motherboard. It’s almost like…”
Shepard ran a hand over her shoulder and felt the tingling movement of her repair program as it closed the incision. She had a feeling she knew what Kaidan was talking about, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Almost like what?”
“Almost like the organic plague, ma’am.”
There was a long pause after that. Dr. Chakwas didn’t say a word. The only sound was the dull hum of Kaidan’s amp connections being disconnected and replaced.
After nearly a whole minute, Shepard pushed herself off the exam table and left without responding. This was nothing like the organic plague, but she wasn’t going to be the one to explain why. Not today.
Author: iriscloud (InkstainedWretch on AO3)
Rating: Explicit
Pairing: Femshep/Liara
Characters: Everyone appearing in ME1
Word Count: ~10k
Summary: Shepard was made to be a protector. She was built to save lives. So far, she doesn't feel like she's done a very good job of it.
Spoilers: The entirety of Mass Effect 1, but nothing more
Author's Note: Written for a prompt on the kink meme that essentially asked for an AU in which humanity developed fully aware synthetic humans, and then something happened that made the organics die out before humankind found the mass relays. Essentially, humans entered the galactic community as a completely synthetic race.
This fic spans the events of Mass Effect 1
I have a good few thousand words of a sequel that covers Mass Effect 2, and ideas for what to write all the way through the end of the series, so I'll do my best not to let the WIP die on me. (I like the idea I had for EDI way too much to let this one drop, tbh XD)
I put it on AO3 because it's too long for one LJ entry, but if you'd like me to post it to LJ, I can do that.
Shepard rolled over and gave her movement processes a couple of minutes to wake up. It took a lot longer than it should have for her optics to adjust to the low lighting of the med bay. Her right arm wouldn’t move, which meant she’d gotten a cable detached. Great. That had been a rough shutdown as it was, and the data the beacon had flooded her with still didn’t make any sense. She sat up to see Kaidan sitting on the bed next to hers. He looked mostly intact, but Shepard could see what looked like an internal burn on his neck, right next to his eezo amp. She’d probably ask him later for a copy of what happened after her mainframe shut down, but not now.
“You alright, commander?”
“I’ve been better,” she went ahead and ran a defragmentation cycle. Maybe it would help clear up her thoughts. “You?”
“I’ll be alright.”
A moment’s pause, and then Shepard asked the question she almost didn’t want answered.
“What about Jenkins? Was it a system crash, or…?”
“I’m afraid not, commander,” Dr. Chakwas walked over with a spot repair kit and made a small incision in Shepard’s shoulder. The smell of hot silicone drifted up to Shepard’s nose as the doctor replaced the broken connectors and reattached the nervous cable beneath layers of synthetic muscle. Her movements were careful, but stilted. “They burned him out. His motherboard is completely scorched.”
“Fuck,” Shepard whispered. “Didn’t even take them ten seconds. We’re gonna have to turn the network link off every time we get near the geth.”
“Seems like it, yeah,” Kaidan turned his head to give Dr. Chakwas better access to his amplifier. Shepard grimaced when she saw the scorch marks on the inside of his skin. It didn’t help knowing he probably got them getting her back to the Normandy in one piece. “Unbelievable. A network-transmitted overload that goes straight for the motherboard. It’s almost like…”
Shepard ran a hand over her shoulder and felt the tingling movement of her repair program as it closed the incision. She had a feeling she knew what Kaidan was talking about, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Almost like what?”
“Almost like the organic plague, ma’am.”
There was a long pause after that. Dr. Chakwas didn’t say a word. The only sound was the dull hum of Kaidan’s amp connections being disconnected and replaced.
After nearly a whole minute, Shepard pushed herself off the exam table and left without responding. This was nothing like the organic plague, but she wasn’t going to be the one to explain why. Not today.