Mass Effect: Anomaly/Chapter 1

April 30, 2185

Watson, Hawking-Tyson University

Though still a newcomer on the galactic scene; humanity has already proven to be a strong contributor to the galactic academic community. The Hawking-Tyson University on the planet Watson was one of the first Council-Accredited Universities in Alliance space outside of the prestigious institutions on Earth. The university has built its reputation on developing and honing the talents of its students via rigourous curriculums and providing hands on studying opportunities. Ellie Beaumont was one of the school's brightest students, even if it went unnoticed.

Ellie was a twenty year old girl that had a slim, if a bit frail looking body, in addition to short, hazel colored hair and a somewhat fair skin coloring. Though it was rather fitting that she had "not much to look at" looks to compliment her tendency of being overlooked. But despite all this, it didn't seem to bother her, she had more important matters to focus on. Among those matters was having to write a dissertation on the recent out-of-pattern deterioration of stars  and then she had another huge thing to worry about, her brother.

Ellie's parents were both killed during Saren's attack on the Citadel two years ago. Her mother was an advisor to Ambassador Udina and was killed by wreckage that crashed into the Presidium. Her father was an officer in the Fifth Fleet and lost his life alongside the crew of the SSV Jakarta during the battle against Sovereign. With both parents having lost their lives, Ellie was now responsible for the care of her eight-year old younger brother Parson. Though at first glance this may seem to be a burden to most, Ellie had balanced her education and caring for her brother with stunning efficiency. In addition, Watson had built its reputation as a "Scholar's Planet", being home to the Alliance's most premier and leading academic institutions. Which was fortunate as Parson required special schooling to combat his case of autism. While 22nd century medicine had nearly wiped out most common cases of Austism and mild LDs, there were still several, more severe cases of the neural disorder. In Parson's case, had he been born in the 21st century, he wouldn't have made it past age 10 before being tossed in a mental institution.

Ellie entered a rapid transit shuttle to get from the campus back to her apartment. While there were plenty of on campus living quarters nearby where her classes were, raising Parson meant that living there wasn't an option. The  shuttle slowly lift off the ground and gingerly ascended into the sky. Ellie looked out the window, watching as the college campus slowly shrinked away. She sighed as she activated her omni-tool, she pressed a few buttons and opened up a document concerning the recent detorioration of the star Dholen which was host to the old Quarian planet Haestrom before the Mourning War. The star had begun to mature into a red giant at an alarming rate which caused the system to become uninhabitable.

Ellie continued onto reading the dissertation on dark energy patterns written by her professor, a salarain known as Tal Ze. Ze, like all salarians, was brilliant yet very guarded; at times it would seem he was too busy guarding secrets to actually teach. That, and the fact he volunteered  to teach in a human-sanctioned institution had drawn even more suspision; such an action would never appeal to any council race, let alone a salarian. Nevertheless, Ellie couldn't deny the professor's brilliance; she had learned more from his lectures than she had from the rest of her courses combined. Ellie snapped back into focus when the shuttle landed at the apartment complex. Ellie shut down her omni-tool and got up to exit the shuttle. Ellie brushed off her grey leggings and tried to straighten her shorts out before glancing up at the steel canyon that was the Rutan District Commercial/Residential Complex. She sighed as she made her way down to the apartments, the Rutan District wasn't exactly the best place to raise an autistic child, but it was the best Ellie could afford.

Ellie entered the apartment building and stood still while the security VI scanned her to make sure she was, in fact, a resident of the apartment. The VI made an affirmitive "ping" and the doors before her slide open. Ellie entered the elevator and thumbed a button for the 15th floor. The door slide shut and the elevator slowly ascended. Ellie leaned against the back of the wall and absent mindedly gazed up at the ceiling as the elevator crept up the building at a snail-pace. She pushed her crooked glasses up and continued her blank gaze at the ceiling before the elevator came to a halt and the door slid aside followed up with an affirmative 'ping.'

As Ellie progressed down the hallway a feeling of sustained dread came about her mind. It was nearing the time of day for Parson's afternoon medication and Parson's trypanophobia made it a dreadful expierience for both himself and his sister. Ellie sighed, mentally telling herself that this is for Parson's health. Ellie swept her key card across the scanner on her door, the scanner flashed green and the door unlocked. Ellie entered the room and it was clear that Parson also knew it was time for his medication as well. The apartment was essentially a bedroom, kitchen/sitting room and bathroom all compacted into a snug rectangle and Parson knew every possible hiding spot in it. Fortunately for Ellie, the landlord of the apartment, an Asari named Concala I'liata, was at her apartment ready to help Ellie wrangle up Parson for his medication. Concala, like Ellie and Parson, had lost family in the attack on the Citadel two years ago and knew of the struggles that the victims of the attack had to deal with and had been helping Ellie in taking care of Parson these last two years.

Ellie saw Concala leaning against a tabletop in her kitchen, sporting an amused, if exhausted facial expression. "Where's he hiding this time?" Ellie sighed as she set her backpack down on the table. "He's a slick little bugger, almost like chasing a vorcha out of a sewer pipe." Ellie could see the eezo emanating for Concala's body, like all asari, Concala was extremely adept at the usage of biotics, however, she had geared her biotics for more "civilian" usage rather than martial purposes. One of the main tactics Ellie and Concala used with Parson was having Ellie flush out Parson and then Concala trap him in a mass effect field. However, Parson, like any other human, adapted to his surrondings very easily, being able to dodge Concala's biotics with ease without the assistance of Ellie. "Well, how should we do this?" Ellie scanned the sitting room, looking for hints as to where Parson might be hiding.

Ellie than looked over towards the sitting room and noticed the vidscreen was flashing a notification: THE ADVENTURES OF ARCHANGEL WILL BEGIN RECORDING 10 MINUTES. That gave Ellie an idea, earlier in the day, she had been given an Archangel VI by a Volus classmate who had made it for his final project in VI Calabrations III. She had planned to give it to Parson, who admired the enigmatic vigilante, as a birthday present, but she had different plans now. If a TV show about the Turian hero wasn't enough to lure him out, than a VI recreation of the youngster's hero certainly would. Ellie pulled out the holo-drone for the VI from her backpack and then brought up the VI control interface on her omni-tool, after entering the activaction code sequence, the drone flickered to life and slowly formed into the silouhette of a Turian. It began solidify in form, first the turian's dark blue helmet fleshed out and gradually the battle-scarred armor of Archangel appeared. Ellie than brought up the dialogue interface for the VI, which took dialogue clips from the show as well as digitally created dialogue. Ellie tapped a button and then the VI hollered out "Who's ready to calibrate some bad guys?" Archangel's catch phrase on the show.

Ellie than turned around to see her little brother, staring in awe of the VI. "Gotcha!" Ellie grabbed her brother in a playful manner and then nodded to Concala to grab the medical injection for Parson. Parson, who had just realized he had been tricked out of hiding, grew wide-eyed when he saw Concala coming over, injector in hand. Ellie hugged her brother and gave him a reassuring smile, but the moment he saw the needle, he was far past the point of being assured. "The less you fidget, the quicker this will be Parsy." Ellie knew he wouldn't listen, but at this point, it was basically an automated response that came out each time she had to give him his medication. Concala gingerly stretched out Parson's right arm and swabbed the bottom of his forearm with a numbing solution, which lead up to the most difficult part; actually administering the medication. Parson would begin sweating uncontrollably, then his behavior would become more erratic and/or unpredictable. Sometimes Parson would be paralyzed by the fear of the needle, other times he would flail about in a violent, crazed manner; once he managed to break Ellie's nose. The needle slowly ascended upon Parson's exposed forearm, which prompted Parson to get a vice grip onto his sister with his free arm, and then shut his eyes tightly.

The needle then punctured the forearm's flesh, it began to slowly administer administer the drug via it's VI controlled injector, which calculated the proper amount of the drug being injected and the proper time interval in which it has to be injected to ensure an overdose doesn't happen. After a few seconds passed, the injector gave off an affirmative 'ping' notifying that the drug had been fully and successfully administered. Parson looked up once he heard the sound and then looked to his sister who than gave him a smile. Concala then cleaned off the blood from the punctured skin and applied a bandage to the youngster's forearm. Ellie then brought up the VI interface in her omnitool and pressed the speech option button. Then the VI of Archangel then turned to face Parson and then spoke out "That was a great display of bravery my fellow guardian of justice!" It gave Parson a thumbs up and he gave it a thumbs up back. Concala nodded to Ellie as she then left the apartment to go make her rounds of the complex.

Parson let go of Ellie's arm and jumped off the chair. "So, how was your day mister?" Ellie shook her arm for a bit, trying to get the blood flowing after Parson had cut circulation off with his vice grip. "I got to learn about Batarians today. They have four eyes and sound funny. We also have a new Hanar and Drell classmate!" HTU's special ed program ran a specialized basic education program that was tailored to multi-racial classrooms. It was all part of the Citadel Council's "Landmark Initiative" for aiding the learning disabled youth of all council races. Ellie looked over to see Parson had already planted himself right in front of the vid screen and was watching Archangel fight Doctor Heartless, the evil Salarian mad scientist. In addition, his backpack was nowhere to be found, which meant Parson most likely hid it in the hope that Ellie wouldn't make him do his homework, it's never worked once, but it has not stopped him from trying it every single day.

POW! SMACK! KABOOM! Parson, was captivated by the exploits of the Turian vigilante. Ever since mom and dad left, he had to live with his big sister, Ellie and he wanted to learn how HE could protect Ellie from bad guys, just like how Archangel protected all of Omega's innocent and weak from the evils of the chaotic station, well at least until mom and dad come home. Ellie always told him that they weren't coming back, but that's not possible; they PROMISED they would never leave him, why would they lie to him? But Parson liked being with Ellie, well at least not when she makes him do homework or makes him take medicine. She always seemed busy, but she always there for him when he needed her the most; always there to tell him a story at bedtime and check the closet for Vorcha, always there to help him with his homework, always there to help the bad dreams about Sovereign and the Geth go away, always there to take him to the lake or the park, always there to comfort him whenever he had a bad day or scraped his knee... Whatever it may be, she always seemed to be there and she always had the biggest, prettiest smile he ever saw.

Parson watched on as Archangel was locked in a hand-to-hand fight with Dr. Heartless. The two repeatedly exchanged hits, it was a dead even fight. However, Archangel managed to gain upper hand by knocking Dr. Heartless off balance and forcing him into a corner. However, before Archangel was able to deliver the finishing strike to the malefic Salarian scientist, the vid screen froze! The two combatants appeared to be frozen in time, what sort of plot twist was this? Had Dr. Heartless truly uncovered the secrets to bending and manipulating time with his very will? Had the reapers granted the mad doctor with an unspeakably evil power? Parson looked over his shoulder, only to find the cause of the frozen vid screen was done to serve a much more sinister purpose.

"Homework time!" Ellie shouted to Parson as he saw her holding his backpack that he had tried diligently to hide from her, but despite his persistence, he had a 0% success rate of hiding anything from his older sister, be it his backpack or himself during medicine time. Ellie kicked off her shoes, revealing her bare feet which weren't covered by her gray tights, that only went to her ankles. She then sat down cross-legged in front of Parson and placed his backpack in between the two of them. Parson and Ellie had no official "study place"; sometimes they'd do homework on her bed, sometimes in the kitchen and occasionally she would let him come with her to the library. "Well, why don't you show me what you got for today?" Ellie pushed up her glasses and rolled up the sleeves of her cream, loose sweater which had the letters "HTU" printed in green on the chest. Parson didn't know what the "U" was for, but he could only assume the "HT" stood for "Homework Time."

Parson let out a deep sigh and began to empty out the contents of his backpack; Every day, Ellie always made him take EVERYTHING out of his backpack and then she would help him sort all of it out. Ellie set his text books off to the side and Parson handed her his assignment notebook. Ellie opened the notebook to April 30 and skimmed through it. "Reveiw the for chapter four Monday." Ellie skimmed through the other garbled assignments and doodles of Archangel, Blasto, Commander Shepard and of course, the "Sister best in the galaxy." In addition to his autism, Parson also struggled with Dyslexia and often times Ellie had to take a minute or two to decipher her brother's writing and on occasion, would have Parson just draw out his explanations whenever he was struggling too much with putting things into words, as a result, Parson had developed an aptitude for art.

Ellie looked up at Parson just as he was trying to conceal a piece of paper whilst sorting out his materials. "Busted." Ellie held out her left hand and Parson reluctantly placed the paper in her hand. She looked at crumpled sheet, it was a grammar quiz, Parson's hardest class. The sheet had a red "D" on the top of it in addition to a slew of red marks all across the sheet and written below was: "Please have Eloise contact me." -Mrs. Lambert Every time Ellie met with Mrs. Lambert, she insisted on calling her "Ms. Beaumont" or by her full name "Eloise." She was perhaps, the most tightly wound individual she had ever met and was Parson did not like any aspect of her and Ellie assumed that the feeling was mutual. Parson appeared to be on the verge of tears; while Ellie was disappointed with Parson getting bad grades, Parson was absolutely devastated by it. "Have you been seeing Mr. Fraeda?" Ellie wiped away his tears and set the paper aside. Parson sniffed and nodded, Gordro Fraeda was a Salarian expert on mental disabilities and had volunteered to teach at Parson's school to be able observe and study how human mental/learning disabilities compare to those of other races, he had been helping Parson with his dyslexia and he was also Parson's favorite teacher.

Much like his sister, Parson had shown from an early age to have a great mind, potentially even better. The problem was that his struggles with autism and dyslexia greatly hampered his ability to fully realize his potential. Things ulike art, math, and gym were what Parson had flourished effortlessly in. Though things like grammar, spelling, literature, basically anything involving reading or writing intimidated him to the point that his disabilities were amplified from fear born of his struggles. Ellie set aside Parson's notebook and examined the now organized contents of his backpack. While each student in Parson's class had data pad, most assignments were done on paper to eliminate any potential distractions that come about from having a data pad connected to the extranet. In addition, due to the school's focus on special education; usage of electronics were kept at a minimum to ensure that an overuse of such devices wouldn't interfere with the development of the young students brains or at least wouldn't worsen any of the students' current disabilities.

Parson had made 6 piles, one for each class. Ellie instantly picked up the pile of paper from Parson's class Mr. Fraeda, much to her younger brother's ire. In the pile were notes written by Fraeda regarding Parson's progress, alongside his typical assignments from the class. Parson immediately pulled out his file for his resources class. He flipped it open to reveal an additional slew of papers.

School was evil. Parson was a 110% certain of it; having to sit still for hours on end, doing nothing but study, study, study and get yelled at. How was Ellie able to do it? She made it seem so easy, it just wasn't fair! Parson could only watch as his sister looked through his papers for Mr. Fraeda's class. Fraeda was the only teacher who didn't yell at Parson or make him nervous. Despite this, Ellie looking through all of his papers was always a source of angst for him.