1 : audio : day 18 : sunset

[30minutesdead]

[The communicator turns on to the sound of wind whipping at the speakers. A male voice speaks in a dry, flanging tone. He seems almost nonchalant. In the background, just barely audible in the pauses of the wind, is the sound of footsteps.]

An interesting way to welcome a guest, though not the strangest I've seen.

[He adjusts his voice as the wind

Comments

[femshep]

[Nihlus. Now that-... That's an interesting twist in things.]

You'll want to head for the compound. I can meet you at the gates.

[30minutesdead]

The Eastern ones, preferably. I can see them from where I am now.

[femshep]

Roger that. I'm en route.

[30minutesdead]

[It doesn't take him too long to reach the gate. He approaches with slight caution, unconvinced that he's not walking into a trap. Still, the lure of a stronghold is more tempting than that of nature and after a couple moments of studying the gates, he enters and waits.]

[femshep]

[By the time he gets there, she's arriving as well.]

Nihlus.

[It's careful, almost respectful.]

We can talk in here. [And she's stepping over to push open the door into the cafeteria, glancing back at him to make sure he's coming before heading inside.]

[30minutesdead]

[He nods, following Shepard inside. On instinct, his eyes move about the room, searching for bugs. He finds none (visible to the eye) and, satisfied, turns the majority of his attention to Shepard.]

You look well.

[He, on the other hand, looks slightly worse for wear, though better than he did the last time she saw him. The armor's removed on his left arm where a large cut now resides. The injury is fresh, though it doesn't seem to worry him.]

[femshep]

['You look well,' he says. And yeah, she guesses she probably does. I mean, yeah, the scars are new, but they've faded significantly since she woke up in Miranda's lab. And that's probably not even what he's referring to, anyway. She can't deny that she's changed a lot since he last saw her.]

How much do you remember?

[Well, more like 'what has he been able to put together about what happened to him', but... still.]

[30minutesdead]

[Part of him hoped they wouldn't have to go through this. There's something unnerving about talking about your own death. He crosses his arms, starting to walk around her.]

Everything up until the shot.

[He stops, turning to regard her.]

I'm assuming that's what you're asking about.

[femshep]

[She'll be stepping over to a nearby table and sliding up to sit on the tabletop, feet up on the bench.]

It was.

[But after a second, she's shaking her head in dismissal of the topic.]

You wanted to talk?

[30minutesdead]

Think of it as a report.

[>He continues to walk around her at a leisurely pace, taking the time to examine the features and characteristics of the room.]

There's only so much the records can tell me about this place. You've been here long enough to know what it's really like. Information to fill in the gaps.

[He stops again, this time at a nearby window. He doesn't mention Saren or ask about what happened afterwards. He'll find that out in due time.]

[femshep]

There's a lot to report. What have you figured out already? [Because that'll give her a jumping-off point for her explanation, at the very least.]

[30minutesdead]

We're stranded on an unknown Island as a "game" by the Kernos Company. Everyone who is brought here arrives on a beach, presumably similar to the one I found myself on. It has the ability to resurrect the dead, as I should be evidence of. Days are extended. Creatures are present on the Island, mostly coming out at night. There are at least two different groups against the Kernos Company, one led by an Erik Lehnsherr, the other by a Rupert Giles. Erik Lehnsherr's group claims to have "powers" that are presumably not present in Giles' group.

[He pauses, turning back towards Shepard and walking towards her.]

You arrived on day thirteen, followed by Miranda Lawson, an associate of yours. In the following "days" more natives from our universe arrived. You were familiar with all of them.

[There's a beat as he grasps his hands behind his back.]

Obviously, there is far more to this place than that. I was hoping you could... enlighten me.

[femshep]

[She should've expected he'd know as much. Spectre, after all. She'd done the same thing when she'd gotten here.]

There are missions. One every four, maybe five days. Participate, even if you don't reach the objective, and you get a token. Supposedly, four tokens is a ticket home. No proof yet.

[That's all there really was to say on that topic. Moving on...]

Most everyone here, including both Lehnsherr and Giles, lived in or before the early 21st century. No other signs of interplanetary life beyond what seems like myths and stories about glowing discs in the sky, in their home-worlds anyway, but I guess that was to be expected. [And she's choosing her next words carefully, because she doesn't want Nihlus digging into the sensitive histories of anyone who's trusted her with that kind of information thus far, but:] There's evidence suggesting alternate... I don't know. Alternate versions of the same place. Someone's Earth was decimated by disease before the human race even found the martian Mass Relay, which is obviously

[30minutesdead]

[It doesn't take long for the information to soak in, even with the unexpected quantity given to him. He reviews the information in his head, analyzing the possibilities suggested by certain facts. Whatever conclusions he makes he doesn't tell her, sharing her apprehension of giving away information.]

An interesting crew you've got, Shepard. [He turns around to sit in a chair opposite Shepard's.] An impressive one, if what you say is true.

[He leans back in his seat, crossing his arms again.]

I heard the tokens are distributed unevenly. Has the cause for that been found?

[femshep]

[Nothing she gave him was something he couldn't have found out on his own, with proper research, so she figured she'd establish her grasp on the situation early on. Show him she knows what they're dealing with. And trust me, she's noting that he's keeping things to himself. Which is all well and fine, that's his business, she's going to make sure he knows what he's dealing with, if he decides to turn any of it against them:]

This is nothing. I have fifteen in total, and they're coming in fast. And that's just counting my crew from Citadel space.[Because she's made quite a few incredibly valuable allies here, as well. Meanwhile, her tone was still respectful enough, and she's sliding down off the table to sit on the bench instead so she can face him now that he's sitting. As for the tokens:]

The strongest theory so far suggests that the job you take during the mission will affect whether or not you get a token. So by that theory, only Thane and Kasumi of my squad will be getting one this time.

[30minutesdead]

[He looks away as he mulls it over, returning his gaze when he's going to speak again.]

Do you know the date of the next mission?