The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 42

A shooting pain shot through Olivia's brain as the console activated. She could hear the others shouting her name, the panic in Nina's voice, and she felt a pang of guilt. It was short lived as the crippling pain bit into her and a fog descended over her eyes. 

As the mist cleared, she came back to her senses, slumped against the console itself, dropped to her knees. Her body felt numb, tingly, as if she'd been electrocuted.

It didn't work! She thought in a panic, blinking blearily, expecting at any second for her sister's tirade to begin. It didn't come. In fact, the room was eerily silent.

Remembering SAM's words, she slowly looked to her side. Well, there was no sign of Scott, no body lying there, and a sense of relief hit her. Clearly, she hadn't gone anywhere. And yet, where were the others?

"Hello?" She called out, using the console to pull herself up. She felt encumbered by the armor and the bags of supplies, dropping them to the floor.

That was when she noticed the difference in the room. The dust and dirt were gone, the broken pipes miraculously intact, and the power restored. She frowned. There were doors now that hadn't existed a minute or two ago.

"Where the hell am I?" She wondered aloud, "Scott?" She called out aloud. She heard only silence, the dull hum of machinery.

There was a scraping sound outside of the room that made her jump, and a grating sound, like metal against metal. Olivia cringed, hands jumping to the gun at her thigh. The sound seemed to move preternaturally, from one door to another and she whirled on the spot, gun in her hands, aiming at each entrance, her eyes twitching.

There was a bang against the door, and she shrieked, leaping back. Adrenaline flooded her system. As she prepared herself mentally to go open the door, he heard a scuffle, whining sounds and screeches ripping the air, like something from a horror movie.

The door slid open.

Breathing hard, she raised the gun uncomfortably.

"Another visitor!" A dreamy voice said. Olivia stared in shock at the Angaran woman who stepped in. She was old, older than any Olivia had seen on her travels, but still clearly fit and nimble. She was also soaked in a sticky reddish substance that smelled more than a little like blood. In her hands was a long curved blade, similarly drenched. "Is it really you, Gafro?"

Olivia frowned, not lowering her gun. "My name is Olivia Taylor. I'm looking for a friend of mine, another human like me. Can you tell me where I am? Have you seen him?"

"I knew you'd come back to me!" The old woman croaked out, still coming towards her with the blade.

"No, you're mistaken." Olivia stammered. "My name is Olivia. Why don't you just put the sword down?"

"You're not Gafro!" She said suddenly, her whole demeanour changing. She was cold, her eyes furious and suddenly even more dangerous. "Who are you?"

"I told you..."

"Yes, yes." She said brusquely. "You'd better come with me." She turned and strode out of the room.

"Okay." Olivia muttered, shouldering the bags, and following slowly into a corridor that hadn't existed not long earlier.

She winced. Gore splattered the walls and floor and bodies, eviscerated to the point where she couldn't even tell the species any longer. There seemed to be far too many legs, she thought, her mind oddly disconnected from the sight. What in all of Andromeda had been stalking her?

"Hurry or there'll be more of them." The woman called back, jogging.

Olivia ran after her, immediately losing her way in the labyrinth of corridors, the Angaran activating endless doors with an ease she envied. "Where are you taking me?"

"Somewhere the Creepers can't find us." She hissed over her shoulder.

"Creepers?"

"They infest this place." She replied.

They entered some kind of lab, one that had definitely not existed in the ruins of before. As she entered, the Angaran woman sealed off the room, activating some kind of shield over the door. Slowly, she turned back to face Olivia. "What have you done with the others?" She asked aggressively.

"What others?" Olivia shouted back. "I just got here! I don't even know where here is!" Tears stung her eyes. "I just want to find my friend." She took a breath, "I don't even know who you are."

As the Angaran began to advance, Olivia backed up to the door behind her. Panicked she opened it and ran, her legs pumping hard in the heavy armor. She'd dropped the bags of supplies in her haste to avoid the crazed woman and her sword. Her breathing was rough as she barrelled through doorways, dropping down a gravity well deeper in the structure.

It was like she'd stepped back in time. The facility appeared to be there in its entirety, and entirely functional.

She started to slow down as she heard that grating metal sound again. Around the corner, there were pods hanging from the walls and ceiling. They reminded her of amber, or of honeycomb, sticky and curved like a hive, but with long black dangling tendrils, like vines.

"Need to get out of here." She murmured in terror. She retreated back through another door, taking a side route, passing another cluster of pods, stepping over one.

She knew that she was being pursued. The sound of the monsters, the Creepers, was undeniably close but as she zigzagged, it became more and more faint. Her leg ached, and she flopped onto the ground, heart almost bursting from her chest. Even though time had passed since her surgeries, her leg was hurting badly, and her side. Her head ached from opening all of the Remnant doors.

"Where are you, Scott?" She asked angrily. There was no way she'd be able to find the console again, and the supplies were far behind her, with the crazy Angaran.

She had to be one of the Angara who had travelled through the console, one of those mentioned in the journal. She had mentioned Gafro, one of the engineers had gone through. Olivia couldn't remember all of the names. Also, the woman was incredibly old. How she could still be alive after all that time seemed impossible.

Exhausted, Olivia pulled herself back onto her feet and kept going. She was hungry and tired, and she lost all sense of time as she wandered the deserted corridors.

She was on the brink of giving up when a voice behind her called. "Another one? A live one this time? Who are you?"