Salvation: A Half-Life/Mass Effect Universe Fan Fiction

Disclaimer: This fan-fiction takes place after the events of both Half-Life 1 and 2 and its episodes, and jumps to the events after Mass Effect 1 and 2. If you have not played or beaten these games this fiction may not make much sense to you. Characters property of their respective companies, Half-Life created by Valve and Mass Effect created by Bioware.

Chapter 9: The Recovery

"Aye Commander..." Joker responded over the intercom, a tinge of bewilderment in his voice. "Setting a course for Earth." Shepard nodded and turned to walk away from the galaxy map. "Commander..." Joker's voice sounded in again, causing Shepard to stop and turn back around, turning his eyes upward. "So uh... What's the deal?" Joker inquired. "The Illusive Man got a time machine or something...? Why Earth?"

"You read the dossier Joker." The Commander replied. "We're going to Earth to see about recruiting Gordon Freeman."

"Gordon Freeman!" Kelly Chambers exclaimed after hearing Shepard's statements, looking up from her work terminal near the galaxy map. "How odd, someone named just like that war hero from that rebellion on Earth all those years ago." She chuckled, shaking her head, and lowering it back down to delve back into her work.

"Uh... not exactly Kelly." Shepard said addressing the yeoman, and aware that Joker was still listening over the ship's intercom. "Supposedly, Gordon Freeman wasn't really killed in the Rebellion on Earth. He was put into suspended animation by Cerberus, well the organization that eventually became Cerberus anyway."

Kelly stopped what she was doing, and looked on as Shepard spoke, her eyes narrowing in an attempt to understand what her Commander was explaining. "So we're recruiting the actual Gordon Freeman?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well..." Shepard said shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. "Possibly... Even if what The Illusive Man told me is true, I have serious doubts that anyone can survive in stasis for almost a hundred and eighty years..."

"Hahaha!" Joker's laugh came over the intercom. "Who else does Cerberus have locked away in the freezer?" Joker continued sarcastically. "While we're at it, why don't we recruit General Patton... Or George Washington. Hell, we'll even get King Arthur!" Joker said as he cackled over the intercom, causing Shepard to roll his eyes.

Not affected in the slightest by Joker's ramblings, Kelly just stood in shock over Shepard's statements. "But... I read he died... Everyone read he died..." Kelly began, completely flabbergasted. "How can he still be alive? How are you going to recruit him? How did Cerberus..."

"Kelly... Kelly..." Shepard interjected, interrupting her battery of inquiries. "I know you have questions, I do too... I'm not exactly sure what we can expect to find. But I'll try and answer all of your questions later, alright?" He reassured her, turning his attention back to the intercom.

"Joker." Shepard called out with his eyes facing upward, not particularly focused on anything. "Yeah, Commander." Joker responded, traces of his laughter still evident in his voice. "What's our ETA to Earth?" Shepard asked. "Uh, We're about eight minutes from the relay, once we hit it, I say about uh... thirty-three minutes. So we're look at about forty minutes or so." Joker responded, the laughter now dissipated from his voice as he calculated their time of arrival. "Thank you Joker." Shepard replied, turning around to finally walk away from the galaxy map and off of the command deck; leaving Kelly to her work, the puzzled look still plastered on her face.

"Tali." Shepard said aloud, as he walked into Mordin Solus' Tech Laboratory, surprised to see her there. "Oh, hello John." She responded, looking towards him, as Mordin seemed to be doing some sort of scans upon her with his omni-tool. As she said his name, it still didn't seem natural to her, but he enjoyed the sound of hearing her say it. "Is everything alright?" Shepard said as he slowly walked into the lab, clearly concerned that perhaps Tali had come down with something.

"Splendid!" the Salarian interjected abruptly. "Believe I may be on the cusp of solving Quarian immune system problem." He spoke out with a very rapid string of wording. "Taking extra readings, need more data. Treatment still in early stages, likely to cause paralysis or comatose state... much more work needed." He claimed, shaking his head. "Thank you Tali, we're through for now." Tali nodded her head as she walked towards Shepard, who clearly had some reservations about Mordin's so called treatment.

"I trust you aren't planning to test this 'treatment' of yours on Tali, Mordin..." He said sternly, crossing his arms. "No no." Mordin replied, looking into his V.R. Holoscope. "Simply, needed some Quarian physiological readings."

"Don't worry John." Tali started in, placing her hand on his crossed forearm. "Mordin just asked me to come up because he wanted to take some scans." The scowl on Shepard's face slowly faded, as he uncrossed his arms, smiling slightly. "I know..." Shepard replied. "Mordin's 'cures' just worry me, I think we all remember the skale-itch fiasco." He said, as they both laughed causing Mordin to look up and shake his head.

"Actually Tali, while you're here. I wonder if you could do me a favor." Shepard asked Tali, as she rested her hands on his shoulder, leaning on him. "We don't have any more room in the crew quarters do we?" He asked, fairly certain of the answer. "No, I don't think so, why?" "We got a new dossier from the Illusive Man, I wonder if you can do me a favor and set a place for him in the Port Observation Deck." He answered.

"Of course." She replied. "Who is it? Turian? Krogan? Asari?" She questioned intently, as she took Shepard's hand and playfully began swinging it back and forth. "Just an old human war hero, from Earth..." He responded, not fully believing himself as he said it. "Okay, I'll get to it right away." She replied, satisfied with the answer. He nodded and smiled at her in thanks, as they reluctantly released hands and she slowly walked out of the lab.

Shepard approached Mordin's work table, as he was completely engrossed in his work. "Have you got a minute to talk?" Shepard asked, as Mordin stopped and looked up.

"Of course Commander." he replied. "How can I help?"

"We're en route to Earth." The Commander started. "The Illusive Man has transmitted a new dossier. It belongs to a man who has supposedly been in stasis for a hundred and eighty years..." Mordin stopped what he was doing and looked up to face Shepard, as he heard the news. "What are the chances that he'd still be alive? Or that this facility would even still be functional?"

"Hmm.." Mordin said, as he pondered to himself. "Stasis... biological, temporal, cryogenic?" Shepard took a second to answer back, taking a moment to make sure he understood the fast talking Salarian's question. "Uh, biotic..." He replied. "The facility would have to be self-sustaining. Wind, hydro, or solar powered, perhaps geothermal. Geothermal probable. Sufficient energy, with little equipment exposed to the ravage of the elements." Despite the long length of time he had already had this Salarian scientist on board his ship, Shepard had still never quite gotten used to how fast  he talked. It was a chore just trying to keep up. "Probability that facility is still operational, and the subject is alive... I'd say... thirty-three point five... no point eight percent."

"Great..." Shepard responded, less than excited. "So we have a one in three chance. Well, either way be ready. You'll be coming with me on the shuttle team when we reach Earth in about thirty minutes or so."

---

The small shuttle set down on the sand, as its thruster engines slowly powered down. The shuttle door flew open, and Commander Shepard stepped out, accompanied by the Salarian scientist and a Turian. "This is Earth?" Garrus inquired as he looked out over the long flat stretch of barren dismal wasteland of the Nevada desert. "Remind me never to vacation here..." He said sarcastically.

"We're here to find someone, not take in the sights, Garrus." Shepard replied as he started looking all around the arid desert, searching for any sign of the alleged facility. "These are the coordinates, the entrance should be around here somewhere." The three spread out as they carefully searched the sands for any discrepancies. "The dossier said the entrance would be a manhole marked with a Lambda symbol."

"This is probably a wild goose chase Shepard, there's nothing out here. I just see sand, and over there there's some more sand." Garrus complained, as he walked around, looking for this alleged manhole. "Besides, from what you tell me, this Freidmen..." "Freeman." Shepard yelled out, correcting Garrus. "Sorry, Freeman... Is just another egghead scientist, and we already got one of those." Garrus said as he laughed, causing Mordin to look up over at him with a scorn. "No offense Mordin." He said with a slick smile.

The three were now separated a good distance, as they tried to comb the desert floor searching for the manhole. They were far enough now, that they had to shout a bit to hear each other. The heat would be intense for anyone, as the blistering sun glared brightly, hung high in the Mojave sky, especially for the three wearing body armor. Shepard stopped for a moment and wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. He turned to look back, seeing that Garrus and Mordin had both wandered a fair distance from their landing zone. Rather than shout, he opened his suits comm radio. "Head back to the shuttle, we've gone too far out – we should have found it by now." Shepard said into the radio, with a fair bit of disappointment.

Shepard slowly walked back towards the shuttle LZ, still scanning the floor in any area he may have missed, hoping he had just overlooked what he was searching for. The three began to converge on the shuttle when suddenly something took Garrus' legs out from under him.

"Damn!" Garrus exclaimed as he quickly scrambled back to his feet, looking down to see what tripped him up. "What happened?" Shepard shouted out as he and Mordin rushed over to Garrus. "Just tripped on a boulder." He answered, dusting himself off. Shepard looked down at the culprit boulder. His gaze narrowed as he crouched down to inspect it. Slowly he started brushing off the excess sand from it with his hands. As he did so, he revealed an elevated concrete protrusion. Frantically now, he started brushing the sand off of the top of the concrete slab, revealing a steel manhole cover marked with a "λ"

"This is it!" Shepard exclaimed, exhibiting an almost boyish excitement. "Hand me the cutter." he ordered, putting his hand out ready to receive. Mordin took out a small pen-like device, and placed it in Shepard's hand. Carefully Shepard began to cut around the inside edge of the manhole, as a brilliant red beam from the device, sliced through the steel with relative ease. A loud clang was heard as the steel lid fell through the hole, hitting the ground inside. Shepard handed the cutter back to Mordin as he switched on his omni-tool flashlight and shined it in the hole, peering into the darkness. He spotted a ladder, leading down into the depths. He situated his feet on it, grabbing the edge of the manhole and slowly lowering himself down, as Mordin and Garrus followed.

Three beams of light shone as the they attempted to navigate their way in the darkness. As far as they could see, it was a large empty room. Their footsteps echoed against the concrete walls as they searched for anything they could find. "Hey!" Garrus' voice resonated from a far corner in the darkness. "I think I found the light switch!" A locking noise came as Garrus threw a large lever situated on the wall. The facility suddenly hummed with activity as bright overhead lights turned on, revealing their positions to one another. The light also revealed a huge hangar sized door before them, as it slowly began to slide open.

The three slowly approached the massive door as it opened. Garrus, on instinct, quickly drew his pistol and readied it, as if preparing for combat, causing Shepard to look at him with a confounded look. "Uh... sorry..." Garrus said as he returned his pistol to his sheathe. "Force of habit." He said with an uneasy laugh as the three entered the cavernous installation.

It was a room fit to house a large aircraft, the entire Normandy would have fit with room to spare, but it was utterly empty. "Down there, Shepard!" Mordin exclaimed, seeing something on the far end of the giant facility. The room responded to his exclamation with an echo. The three slowly jogged in the direction Mordin indicated, seeing some sort of machine emitting a bright indigo glow.

"My god..." Shepard said in awe, as they neared the apparatus. "It's him... It's Gordon Freeman..." Shepard said in shock, now having a clear view of the machine. He was encased within some sort of blue energy shield, in a large cylindrical machine, as brilliant rays of light showered down on him. He had the look of a man laid out to rest at a wake. His eyes were shut, and he looked utterly at peace, completely oblivious to what was now happening around him. Beneath the protective blue energy barrier, he was still encased within his trusted Hazardous Environment Suit which was riddled with scratches, dents, bullet pocks, and dried crusted on blood.

"Is he alive?" Shepard asked, as Mordin stepped forth, materializing his omni-tool. "Fascinating." Mordin began,  scanning the device. "Complete biotic stasis, total intravenous parenteral nutrition.  Yes Shepard, he is alive." Mordin responded, continuing his scans. "He is suspended in very powerful biotic stasis field. Induced coma, suffering from moderate muscle atrophy."

"Coma? Muscle atrophy?" Shepard asked  worriedly. "I thought he was in complete stasis, why would he need to be put into a coma, and why would his muscle mass degenerate? He doesn't seem like he's aged."

"In essence yes," Mordin replied. "Complete biotic stasis, but not frozen in time. Time has just slowed around him, what has been a hundred and seventy-nine years to us has been only a matter of weeks to him. I'd approximate about nine weeks."

"So as far as he's concerned, he's only been in there just over two months..." Garrus said, looking on at Freeman. "I guess two months of not moving from a single spot can wreak some havoc on a guys muscles."

"That's nothing that the Normandy's MMRC can't fix, what about the coma? Can he be woken up?" Shepard asked, moving closer to the encased figure before him, looking on with a deep respect. "Yes." Mordin replied still fidgeting with his omni-tool. "Once we disable the biotic field and disconnect him, the Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate should be out of his system within 24 hours. He should be awake by this time tomorrow, though likely not in the best of spirits."

"Hey Mordin, look at this." Garrus said aloud, as he walked to the right of the machine, noticing a strange device mounted on the wall. "It looks like some sort of strange weapon."

Mordin approached it, and began subjecting the device to his scans. "Amazing." He said as he continued. "It seems to be some sort of energy manipulator, capable of harnessing zero point energy. In essence, hand-held biotic power."

"Take it with us." The Commander ordered, turning his attention back to Freeman. "You can study it later. Now, how do we shut off the stasis field?"

"I still don't think we need him Shepard." Garrus asserted. "The guy looks like a librarian, I doubt he'd be much use in a fight..."

"Humans wouldn't be around today, if it wasn't for him, Garrus..." Shepard scorned. "Show some respect. For my sake..."

Garrus bowed his head slightly, feeling he had stuck his foot in his mouth, as Mordin approached the stasis chamber's control panel. He began turning various nobs, and sliding switches with a seemingly adept knowledge of the machine's functionality. Slowly the device's hum decreased as the brilliant blue light surrounding Gordon Freeman dissipated. The various tubes connecting to his HEV suit gently disconnected themselves, leaving him looking exactly as he did after his last battle with the Combine.

Without the force of the stasis field to restrain him, Freeman's limp body fell forward, caught by Shepard before he could impact with the ground. "Garrus, give me a hand with him." Shepard grunted, from under Freeman. "That suit of his must weigh a ton. Mordin, grab that energy manipulation device and lets get back to the shuttle."

***

"Easy, easy now." Shepard instructed Garrus, who was back out in the desert sun, as the two tried to maneuver the unconscious Freeman out of the manhole. "Watch his head."

Slowly Garrus pulled him up, locking his hands beneath Freeman's shoulders and pulling. "The guy stinks!" Garrus exclaimed. "Didn't he ever take a shower?"

"He's been in stasis for almost a hundred and eighty years Garrus..." Shepard replied, pulling himself out of the hole, with Mordin following; carrying Freeman's gravity gun. "Give him a break. He can clean up after he's out of the Muscle Mass Regeneration Chamber... Come on, lets get him on board."

The two carried Freeman onto the shuttle, as Mordin rushed on, and prepared it for take-off. They rested him carefully on one of the shuttles seats, strapping him in, as his head fell limp forward. The shuttle powered up, and slowly began to lift off the Nevada desert floor before taking off into the sky.

"Commander." A voice came in over his helmets radio, surprising him.

"Yes Joker," He responded, recognizing the voice on the other end.

"The Illusive Man wants you to contact him as soon as you're back on board, says it's urgent." Joker informed Shepard as the small shuttle broke away from the Earth's atmosphere.

"We're already headed back Joker. We'll be back on the Normandy shortly." Shepard acknowledged.

"Did... Did you find Freeman? Was he there?" Joker beckoned. "Was it true?"

Shepard looked across from him, at the armor clad figure hunched over in his seat, rocking back and forth with the turbulence of the shuttle. "It's true Joker..." Shepard said, with a gleam of admiration in his eyes. "Let the crew know, we're bringing Gordon Freeman on-board."