Citadel Stories, Book 0 "Warm ghosts"


Prolegomenon

Excerpt from the last chapter of the main storyline:

… "Is there a story?"

A somewhat preoccupied Miranda simply stared at the note:

"It says, first thing, 'See you in Andromeda'."

"Oh yes. Induction tour. It will take some time, even at FTL of fourteen light-years per solar day. That's a Lorentz gamma equivalent of over five thousand. Requiring four hundred and ninety years flight time even so. We are laying conduit relays as we go, spaced at the maximum frigate-mass range of Ilos to the Widow, forty thousand light years. That's why no-one is here to meet you. They are outside, laying the first relay. There needs to be at least ninety relays on the A-train. For purposes of redundancy in case of failure, we'll lay nearly three hundred, with waystations at NGC 147, 185, and occasional points in between."


1 Passed master

Yellow girl

Nearly out of the matron phase, Tevos was older now. Not looking forward to matriarch-hood, but that did mean she had begun to develop some tolerance for fools.

Just as well, for this human had been Shepard's jester.

She bade him sit down: "I'm resisting the impulse to clap your impossible person in chains or at least under guard, Mister Moreau, but do answer my questions."

Joker considered that a moment, decided the best defence was being offensive:

"Ma'am, asking where Shepard is or how old I am is pretty meaningless at this point. And last I looked I'm still an Alliance Lieutenant, albeit on special leave. Certain admirals might take a dim view of such hasty action."

He had the satisfaction of watching the high and mighty asari grimace. But then:

"None of Shepard's teams have been seen in Citadel space since around 2200CE, and sightings were pretty sparse for a dozen years before that."

"I'm sure your data is accurate, ma'am, but their children had stellar careers–"

"Before they vanished. You yourself haven't tripped any sensors since 2195!"

"We got good at dodging the limelight. Doesn't mean I wasn't here from time to time, ma'am. Last occasion being when EDI – that was the Normandy AI – retired."

"I remember EDI. She was with Shepard, saving our lives in the Cerberus coup." This gave the flight lieutenant food for thought. Good. This is important.

"Shepard thought you were a good councilor, ma'am, and that would be enough for me, but points off for attitude. Your prejudices are showing. And a temper."

"You really don't like me very much, do you Lieutenant Moreau?"

"Focus on the main point, please, councilor. I want to borrow EDI."
Tevos actually pounded a fist on her desk at this point:

"The main point is that you're a liability! Although Admiral Boris Mikhailovich described you vanished heroes as convenient for certain council purposes–"

"Really?" Joker was interested. "When was that?"

"This was at his retirement function, when it wouldn't damage his career prospects, nor future relations with the Council. I think he was drunk."

"Boris never cared much for other people's notions of his career, ma'am. He was a brave guy, even provoking Spectre Shepard once – bad career move even back then. Perhaps you saw him with alcohol, but Boris drunk vodka. Vodka didn't drunk him."

Tevos considered this. Did the impetuous fool actually know whereof he spoke?

"Think about it. Shepard deters any repeat of Udina's coup, Rachni, uppity Krogan…"

Light hides the shadows deep

"Your existence at this time and place is still inconvenient."

"I have to make a living, Councilor," said Joker – to kid the asari out of her mood. Error. The grande dame of the council looked down her nose at him and declared:

"I really don't see any such necessity."

Joker couldn't help it, he laughed. "Good one, ma'am."

"In fact, right now I'm having difficulty seeing any profit to council affairs. Accessing your service record tripped a security alert! If it wasn't for the DNA verification, you would not be in this office at all. And I'm going to have to clean up the records so you were never here, or there will be a media riot!"

"Councilor, please. Can we get back to me at least speaking with EDI?"

"I don't see the necessity for that, either. But I'm not stopping you."

"Thing is, ma'am, rather than suffer through rampancy EDI went dormant when the Shepards, and many associated with them, disappeared from view."

"So we saw. One wondered why. It was still several decades before rampancy was due."

"It's because the alternative was enforced idleness. Now, if you remember, Normandy went into Citadel Archives – as a museum ship."

"So it did." Tevos glared at him. "I was at the ceremony. There was bad poetry from Spectre Williams."

"She declaimed it, I picked it. My favorite Masefield. A pilot's poet, marine or aerial or space. Matter of taste, ma'am. You wouldn't have had better from Ash." She's grumpy in her old age.

"I suppose. You're saying EDI didn't see the point in twiddling her thumbs while the Normandy hung from a museum roof, so she went into cold storage somewhere?"

"Exactly, ma'am."

"Now I see the difficulty, except in her position I'd have gone with Shepard."

"Wasn't easily do-able. A ship AI has to be powered, at least briefly, before her mobile can go on away missions. Ideally, the ship should stay powered up for a long-duration mission. Two weeks maybe."

"But what, Moreau, do you want or need me for?"

"I'd like to power-up the Normandy, ma'am. Only you can authorize that."

Feeling free

"Powering Normandy? Even I know that means starting the ship reactor, Mr Moreau."

"I'd settle for running the AI core off the emergency fuel cells, ma'am, except it might not be enough for the time away. We could lock out the ring main, save power that way."

"Still not lightly done, even for her former pilot. The ship's in a museum."

"I just need EDI's AI core. Her free-running mobile is on board–"

"What!? Impossible. Lieutenant, hundreds of tourists file through Normandy every Sunday. No EDI." Tevos visibly caught herself. "At least, I've never seen her."

"Do they now? Well, well. Do they visit the cargo holds, ma'am? Did you?"

"Why would she be in cargo, Lieutenant? Surely the AI core was her place?"

"She spent her spare time in the co-pilot seat, actually. Look, her mobile started as a Cerberus infiltration bot but its organic skin was burned off by the time you met her."

"Yes, I do recall Osoba said it's hard to forget Shepard's silvery sexbot."

"My silvery sexbot, ma'am, I was the Normandy pilot. Not Shepard."

"So I understand. I stand corrected, Lieutenant."

"Anyhow, a whiles before we scotched the Reaper nest, Shepard organized a new skin for her. Favor involving some ex-Cerberus scientists."

"I see. And, here I had thought the skin removal was deliberate. EDI had so many other remarkable military adaptations. Continue."

"She even got combat pay. All that was well within Shep's Spectre authority, ma'am."

Tevos consulted her desktop. "Indeed, you appear to be correct. Your point?"

"She's in a cargo bay because any infiltration unit with human epidermis needs to shut down inside a resuscitation pod, councilor."

Tevos clapped a hand to her forehead. "Of course. Moving on. You wish to extract EDI's mobile for a mission."

"For my own private purposes, ma'am. This has nothing to do with Shepard."

"So you say. In fact, you don't know where he is – or so you said. You still have Cerberus cortical implants. They confound the PETARD lie detector."

"Correct, councilor. Sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No. But please note my implants date from before Cerberus went bad."

The councilor consulted her desktop again: "Point taken. And in fact, my VI tells me there's no tremolo in your voice. You would appear to be telling the truth."

Joker felt this was a good occasion for silence.

Islandia of Mr Moreau

"Or, wait… you don't know where Shepard is. But you can find out, can't you?"

Joker remained quiet, having at last learned – from EDI – when to let someone else speak, and above all to listen. He had to strain to hear what she said next:

("Even now, after several generations, the hole in history left by Shepard's team has space for echoes no wise person fails to hear.")

"Ma'am?"

"It's a quote, Moreau. From an asari Matriarch. Aethyta."

"Ah. Never met her, but heard the stories. Liara's Mom. I mean, other mom."

"Dad, lieutenant. After due consideration, I'm going to accommodate your request."

"Keeping the AI powered-up for the duration, too?"

"What for, Lieutenant?"

"EDI could never vanish along with Shep, Councilor. At least not all of her. Ring 1 processes were too deeply linked with Normandy hardware."

"That is a somewhat extravagant request, Lieutenant."

"It's normal procedure for ship AIs, councilor, you surely know this."

"I take care to keep my ignorance of some matters profound."

"Her mobile can act independently, ma'am. But a QEC link would make her happy. Happier."

"I'll take your word for it. May I know where you are taking EDI – if she agrees?"

"Uh, Tiptree initially, ma'am. It is, was, my home colony. I've, er, the use of a long-range shuttle, and the relay chain head arrived a month ago."

"That whole sector near Salarian space is a wasteland."

"Yes, ma'am. So I'm told. Even so–"

"There's nothing for you here or there."

"Tiptree's my home. My rubbish pile."
Under his breath, Joker muttered: "(*I'm beginning to understand how Kelly felt.*)" Whereupon Tevos, among the very few who remembered that name, favored Shepard's fool with a more sympathetic gaze:

"Your relatives will be dust and ashes. Go find Shepard, Mr Moreau, if you can."

"I can't tell myself they're gone till I see; and I can't leave till I know they're gone."

Tevos blinked, parsing this.
"Well. There are ways. Public visits of the Normandy will be curtailed while, um, scheduled maintenance takes place. Two weeks, you said?"

"Thank you so much, ma'am. Tiptree, here we come."

"There are conditions. No-one else is to know, Moreau. NO one. Understood?"

"Er– fine by me, councilor, but some minion will have to clear me into the archives, and let me on board."

"I will be my own minion."


Thursday, June 2, 2016 -5/5-