The Lion and the Crow
Chapter 1
"Joker get us the hell out of here!" Alex Shepard shouted as he sprinted from the CIC to the bridge.
"Aye-aye Commander!" Joker worked the Normandy's flight controls furiously. "Let's get this baby in FTL now, EDI!"
"What is our heading, Mr. Moreau?"
"Anywhere but here!"
"Very well. Entering FTL now." EDI activated the drive core and the Normandy leapt forward into the unknown. After several minutes of FTL travel. Joker felt more at ease and began working the interface at a steadier pace. He watched his haptic display as light days of distance ticked off at a rapid pace.
"OK, EDI throttle us down. Let's see if we lost 'em." As the Normandy slipped out of FTL, Joker activated the extreme long range sensors and began a sweep of the space around the ship. "It looks like we slipped the noose… again... wait. EDI, do you see that blip at bearing 345 by 352. What the hell? Did they do an end run around us."
"No, Mr. Moreau, the object ahead of us is not the Collector ship. The EM profile does not match. It does appear to be a ship of some kind, but we are too far away for a more definitive answer." EDI silently continued to catalog the incoming data from the long range sensors.
"Joker, what the hell's going on? Are we or are we not out of the fire yet?" Alex asked as his crossed his gauntleted arms across his chest and stared at the crippled pilot.
"Shepard, I have no idea what's going on, but we did get away from the Collector's ship if that's what you're asking. We ARE still on a suicide mission though, so yeah the 'fire's'" Joker uses air quotes around the word, fire. "still toasting our collective asses quite nicely."
"Shepard, after some additional scanning, the ship ahead of us appears to be in a dormant state. It is holding its current position and its thermal signature is only one hundred Kelvin above the interstellar baseline. If we launch a sensor probe I can gather more in-depth data including visuals." EDI replied as she readied a probe for launch.
"Do it EDI. I'll be in the CIC. And Joker that was some quick maneuvering even for you. You might actually get that medal you wanted." Shepard turned around and strode out of the bridge.
"Yeah, yeah. Promises, promises." Jeff waved Shepard away distractedly. He continued assisting EDI with identifying the unknown spacecraft.
"Probe away, Shepard. Logging you out." EDI calmly waited for the probe to reach its long-range scanning distance. The probe's transit time lasted over an hour before any detailed data began filtering back to EDI and the Normandy. "Shepard, the preliminary data from the probe indicates that the ship is indeed in a dormant state. However, the EM and gravimetric signatures do not match any known ship designs. This ship cannot be from any of the Council or Terminus races in origin. The gravimetric readings are especially interesting as it is indicative of a ship that does not have an element-zero drive core. I will continue scanning and the probe will be within visual range in approximately five more minutes."
"Thanks, EDI. Miranda, you and Tali meet me in the CIC. I think we've stumbled across a mystery you two MIGHT wanna see." Shepard logged the Normandy's current position into the ship's logs. A ship of an unknown, possibly alien, origin. It could either be a godsend for the fight against the Collectors, and by extension the Reapers, or another galactic catastrophe just waiting to happen.
A few minutes later the elevator opened and the two requested females stepped out. Each looked distinctly uncomfortable with the other's presence. "We're here Shepard. You said we stumbled onto a mystery. What did you mean by that?" Tali asked somewhat impatiently. She stood very close to Shepard, something that did not go unnoticed by the Normandy's XO.
Shepard gestured over to his private terminal. "EDI bring up all of the scans you've gathered from the probe so far."
"Affirmative, Shepard. Here is what we know about the ship thus far." Shepard's terminal displayed a variety of numeric and waveform data.
"But that can't be right. This readings indicate this ship has no drive core. What kind of ship doesn't have a drive core? Especially this far into interstellar space?" Tali sounded concerned and more than a little apprehensive.
"The ship also appears to have no active mass effect fields."
"EDI, do we have any visuals on the ship yet?" Shepard asked as he watched the reactions of the two female crewmembers.
"Yes, Shepard. Long range visuals are coming in as we speak." EDI routed the visuals of the unidentified vessel to his terminal, and a three dimensional holo of the ship's exterior on the galaxy map interface. "According to my calculations the ship is approximately twice as large as a standard Alliance cruiser. There does seem to be evidence of a spinal cannon but it does not fit with any known mass accelerator designs. And other than the main gun, I only detect defensive weapons similar to the GARDIANs that are equipped on the Normandy, but that is only an assumption based on the visual scans."
"EDI, speculate for a moment. Can you guess as to the age of this vessel? Could it be prothean?" Shepard was looking at the dark structure. The lines of the ship seemed to flow around the structure, giving it a streamlined, organic feel.
"I am not given to speculation, but if I were, I would say that the design of the ship bears no similarities to any of the prothean design philosophies apparent in the ruins that have been uncovered thus far. Perhaps Dr. T'Soni could be more helpful in answering that last question."
"Liara's too busy with her hunt for the shadow broker for me to bother her with this right now." He felt more than a hint of jealousy at that fact.
"We are now receiving more detailed visuals. The ship is definitely alien in origin. The physical profile does not fit any known designs. The emitted EM radiation is definitely indicative of a non-element-zero powered ship." EDI confirmed her earlier deduction.
"EDI, is the ship showing any power readings at all?" Miranda asked a furtive look on her face. She contemplated the implications for the future. The possibility of non-eezo powered FTL travel would be just what Humanity (Cerberus) needed to have an edge on the Reapers and the other races.
"Operative Lawson, the ship is showing minimal power output of any kind. Now that I have access to more extensive scans of the structure, the EM readings are fairly uniform throughout the exterior of the ship. This would indicate that almost all power consumption is located at the center of the vessel."
"Joker take us in closer. Let me know when the ship is less than a hundred kilometers away. I also want firing and escape solutions plotted and ready to go in case this thing wakes up angry."
"Aye-aye, Commander." Joker began calculating the necessary firing angles for maximum damage.
"You three," Shepard said, as he pointed to Tali, Miranda and Kelly Chambers. "With me. EDI let the rest of the ground team know that I want a briefing in the comm. room ASAP. And make sure they have all of the information we have so far."
"Understood, Shepard. Logging you out."
Five minutes later Shepherd Miranda, Kelly and Tali entered the Normandy's briefing room. They found Jacob, Mordin, and Garrus were already there waiting for them. After a few more minutes Jack, Grunt, Kasumi, Zaeed, Samara, and Thane arrived. Shepard moved to his customary location at the head of the table, and began the meeting. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a true mystery on our hands. Roughly two hours ago, during our escape from the Collectors, we stumbled upon a dormant ship of alien origin. The ship is not from ANY known spacefaring race. And it does not appear to be Prothean either. EDI bring up the scans from the probe."
"Understood Commander." EDI displayed a hologram of the ship and the EM and gravimetric wave-forms on the table's center holo display.
"As you may be able to tell from its visual profile, the ship does not match any designs from any of the known races." Shepard gestured to the 3-D hologram. "The ship appears to be approximately twice the size of an Alliance cruiser. We are currently en route, and should be within visual range of the ship in the next hour. Do any of you have any questions?"
Garrus spoke up first, "So let's see if I can sum up. While escaping the Collectors after that fiasco of a recon mission, Joker manages to FTL us right next to a ship no one has ever seen before, and now you're thinking about boarding it... Did I miss anything?
"Shit, Shepard you have either the most ridiculously good or ridiculously bad luck I've ever seen. I wanna to be on the team that goes into that fucker." Jack exclaimed as she gazed at the hologram of the alien ship.
"Shepard, this could be a first contact situation. We need people who are well versed in first contact protocols, not some hothead that will just warp everything in sight." Miranda said as she raised a brow at Jack.
"Shut the fuck up, cheerleader. You just wanna go in there and steal whatever you can get your claws on."
"Agree with Miranda, regarding possibility of first-contact. If ship remains dormant entry could be problematic. Believe team should be comprised of technical experts and combat specialists perhaps a single biotic in case of unpleasant surprises."
"I concur, Mordin, so I'm breaking us up into 2 teams. The first team will consist of myself, Tali, Kasumi, Garrus, Jack, and Grunt. Miranda you're leading team two, and you'll have Mordin, Samara, Zaeed, Thane, and Jacob. Now, I want your team ready to lend support in case this thing goes pear-shaped. Kelly, I want you in the CIC monitoring the com traffic ready to give whatever advice you feel we might need. If we do find life on this ship I'll handle all first contact communication."
"Aye-aye, commander," Kelly responded with a wink and a smile.
"OK, people let's start getting prepped. We'll be in range before we know it." Shepard sighed quietly as he watched Jack silently taunting Miranda with her expression. He still had his armor and weapons from the mission on the Collector ship, so he headed back to the CIC and waited for the rest of the team to assemble at the airlock behind the bridge. He watched as they returned from gathering their gear in ones and pairs. Once the two teams had been fully assembled, he turned to Joker. "Joker, ETA."
"We'll be in docking range in about five minutes." Joker began decelerating to bring the ship to whatever airlock the ship might have. "Holy crap! That thing just lit up like a Christmas tree! I don't think it's dormant any more! EDI any changes in the weapons systems that we should be aware of."
"Negative Mr. Moreau. The defensive weapons still appear to be offline. I am however picking up a significant increase in internal EM radiation. The ship's internal temperature appears to have increased to a more habitable 302 Kelvin. The gravimetric readings have also increased. That suggests the ship may have some form of artificial gravity. It appears the ship may be readying itself to be boarded. Mr. Moreau do you see the lighting appear on the starboard side of the ship."
"Yeah, it looks like a ring of lights surrounding a circular section of the hull. That must be the ship's airlock. Commander, I believe we just found a way in. In case you're still thinking of boarding this thing."
"Thanks, Joker. Okay teams you know you're jobs. We go in hot, but no one shoots or touches anything until I give the word. If this a first-contact, I wanna look like peace-keepers not pirates, understood. He received a chorus of 'aye-ayes,' and a 'sure thing, Shep' from Kasumi.
"OK, Joker let's do this."
"Aye-aye Commander." Joker maneuvered the ship to line up exactly with the ring of lights, and, using the attitude thrusters, slid the Normandy right against the alien ship's airlock. The Normandy's airlock opened and the away team, with Shepard in the front stepped up to the other ship's outer door. Shepard reached out to touch the surface of the ship. As his fingers brushed the surface, the ring of lights changed from a harsh red to a more sedate blue, and the circular section ringed by the blue lights seemed to melt open. The darkness of the interior was partially cast aside by the lighting from the Normandy's exterior lights. Shepard and company could see a small white room with another airlock at the opposite end.
"OK, Miranda once my team has breached the interior airlock, I want you and your team to position themselves in the room here and wait for my orders. Joker keep the engine revving, just in case."
"Aye-aye, Commander" and "Aye-aye, Shepard." Came from both Joker and Miranda simultaneously.
"OK, people, let's do this by the numbers. I'm not losing anybody to a derelict spacecraft." Another chorus of affirmatives wafted over the comms and the team moved into the alien ship. Shepard reached the interior airlock and began scrutinizing it for obvious signs of how to open it.
As soon as he touched the interior wall the exterior airlock closed and the space was suddenly lit from the inside. What appeared to be a decontamination scan began at the front of the room and quickly swept toward the rear. Once the scan was completed, a disembodied voice spoke.
THREE OF YOUR ARE HUMAN. I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE GENUS OF YOUR COMPANIONS. PLEASE IDENTIFY.
"Uh, Shep. That voice… that voice was speaking Japanese."
"What do you mean. I heard Alliance common."
"That's because of our universal translator. But what I heard with my very own ears was definitely Japanese. Tokyo dialect, to be specific." Kasumi stopped to ponder the possible implications.
"Wait, so you're telling me that the who or whatever was just speaking, was speaking in Japanese?" Shepard couldn't quite wrap his head around an alien ship that spoke any human language much less Japanese. "So if that's the case…"
I REPEAT. THREE OF YOU I DO NOT RECOGNIZE. PLEASE IDENTIFY.
"Hey, Shepard, whoever or whatever that voice is, it sounds like it's getting real pissed that we haven't answered it yet." Jack said as she continued to look around the room they were in.
"Well, talk to it Kasumi. I don't speak japanese." Shepard motioned for the thief to continue.
"Right… OK, uh, whatever you are. The other three people in our little field trip, are a Turian…" Kasumi pointed to Garrus.
TURIAN. SCANNING. The scan began again except it focused only on Garrus. The scan lasted longer than the first, and it began to worry the Turian sniper that the ship wouldn't like what it found. After several moments the scan stopped. TURIAN ANALYSED. DEXTRO AMINO ACID BASED LIFE-FORM. SCAN COMPLETE.
"Next we have a Krogan…" Kasumi pointed to Grunt.
KROGAN. SCANNING. The process repeated itself with Grunt. KROGAN ANALYSED. LEVO AMINO ACID BASED LIFE FORM. SCAN COMPLETE.
"And last but most certainly not least we have a Quarian" Kasumi pointed to Tali.
QUARIAN. SCANNING. The process repeated itself a third time. QUARIAN ANALYSED. DEXTRO AMINO ACID BASED LIFE FORM. PHYSIOLOGY DIFFERENT FROM TURIAN. SCAN COMPLETE. YOU MAY NOW ENTER.
The interior airlock opened and a lighted path was present on the floor. "Well it appears that the ship wants us to go somewhere." Shepard remarked as he looked at the floor, before following the path. "Tali, are you recording all of this?"
"Absolutely, Shepard. Though it appears the ship may be a human design after all."
"If it was built on Earth I've never heard of it. But I think we have to consider that a possibility given the situation." Shepard and the crew continued following the lighted path as it wound through the corridors.
Tali spoke up again. "Shepard, from my preliminary scans, it appears we are headed to the center of the ship."
"Ha, ha I can't wait to meet this japese talking pyjack and see if he would like to get know me a little better. Up close and personal-like." Grunt slams his fists together eager for a little action.
"Are you sure it was wise bringing the walking dispose-all to a possible first-contact situation. I mean he's definitely our guy if we want someone to eat our new alien friends, but not if we want them to greet our new alien friends." Garrus had finally spoken after having been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the mission thus far.
"It's fine Garrus. Tali, can you tell how much further we have to go before we reach our destination?" Shepard continued leading the team down the lighted corridors.
"I believe that we should be approaching the central chamber in a…" Tali cut off the rest of her sentence as they stepped through another circular opening into a large spheroidal chamber that was large enough to house the Normandy comfortably.
"OK, now THAT fits the definition of alien." Garrus spoke up once more as the ground team eyed the large number of empty glass chambers on the outer wall of the room. Tali's quick count came up with over 100 empty chambers big enough to hold something the size of a baby. The 108th chamber at the very center of the room was large enough to hold a full grown adult. The fact that the chamber was not empty was not lost on Shepard and the rest of the team.
Held motionless in the glass egg, was definitely a woman. A tall slender woman. A tall, slender, naked woman at that. Long hair, the color of ashes, was pulled into a very long pony-tail. The woman seemed to be suspended in a clear fluid and was just floating inside the crystal egg as if immune to the effects of the ship's artificial gravity. Her arms were wrapped around her legs in a semblance of the fetal position.
Tali started to head directly for the central egg, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. "Let's see if we can find a control panel or something before we start messing with dead or sleeping people in glass eggs, shall we.
"Right. Of course, Shepard." Tali began scanning the room for possible com terminals or ship controls.
"Shepard, maybe I should try talking to it. To the ship I mean." Kasumi eyed her commander inquisitively.
"At this point, anything would be an improvement. Start by asking where it came from."
Kasumi nodded, "Umm… ship, where do you come from?"
The ship responded by displaying a large holo of the galaxy, then zooming into the ship's current location, but the difference was that in the holo there was a small solar system with four planets orbiting a small yellow star. The second planet looked suspiciously similar to Earth. Tali began to type furiously on her omni-tool. "Shepard, by my calculations we should be right in the vicinity of that second planet right now."
"But this area of space is between clusters. There are no systems for dozens of light years in any direction."
"I agree. But there's something I don't quite… Kasumi, tell the ship to zoom out to the galaxy map again."
Kasumi repeated the request. The entire galaxy is once again on display. "Look Shepard, the galaxy is entirely at the wrong angle. The Sol system is now close to the top of the galactic rotation. That means…" She went back to her omni-tool.
"What does it mean, Tali?" Garrus trying to understand what exactly was going on.
"It means that the image of the galaxy depicted in the hologram is one from over 30,000 years ago. If I'm understanding this right, this ship left its home-world a very long time ago. A time when the system still existed. It doesn't exist any longer."
"But that doesn't explain how it knows japanese, Tali. Or who or what is in that big glass…" Shepard turned to see why Kasumi trailed off, when he realized they were now looking at a large, empty egg.