Author's Note : I have decided to pour some of my imagination into this piece of fanfiction, instead of letting it flying around in my head. The scenario presented here is definitely non-canon, so any review is welcomed. Of course, being a writer from Southeast Asia, my fanfic might contain some typos or incorrect sentences (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)
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Somewhere deep within the Citadel, something ancient is looking for an information...
/SEARCHING DATA.../
/DATA RECOVERED.../
/PROJECT NAME ANDROMEDA INITIATIVE/
/FOUNDER GARSON, JIEN/
/GOAL TO ESTABLISH THE FIRST FOOTHOLD IN THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY. UPDATE FOUNDING A NEW FRONTIER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, ECONOMIC BOOST, AND DIPLOMATIC ALLIANCES WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE NEW GALAXY./
/PARTICIPANTS HUMAN, TURIAN, ASARI, KROGAN, SALARIAN, QUARIAN./
/UPDATE NOTE UNCONFIRMED ACCOUNTS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES BEING INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT./
/PROJECT STATUS 89% COMPLETE./
/LOGGING OFF.../
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Interesting, she thought as she moved the interface out of existence. Very interesting, for such a young race to kickstart an endearing adventure, although they actually aren't the brightest or the most peaceful race in the known galaxy, as they are persistently at odds with the other lesser races, both Citadel associates and non-associates.
And yet, they had robbed her and the 'children' of her most valuable, and most prideful, child, Nazara. One species, one man, was capable of silencing the voice of a million strong.
She has had the oldest one, Harbinger, to investigate whether or not these humans are worthy to be the galaxy's true guardian, or if they are just another anecdote unworthy of any acknowledgement.
Still, the prospect of a lesser species, no matter how advanced they are, to travel across the great void to reach another galaxy is laughable at best. No species had successfully discovered a way of travelling to another galaxy without severely depleting their own resources, even if said resource is simply the prized Element Zero. 2.5 million light years of nothing but void stands between the two galaxies, something that can't be crossed by standard FTL flight; if anyone does it anyway, they'll require 600 to 700 years before even reaching the outer rim of the other side. Moreover, nearly everyone seemed content on staying here for thousands of years, and not batting an eye towards whatever lies beyond the Milky Way rim.
In theory, it is possible to survive through the 6 centuries voyage if one can outlive the passage of time. The most popular answer is that one can utilize stasis pods to keep all participants alive. But even this method presented a danger; what if the pods are damaged, ran out of power or hacked by irresponsible people? It seemed like the Andromeda Initiative only accepted the best and brightest of societies, leaving virtually no room for saboteurs or terrorists.
She had dictated, indirectly, that the mass effect energy shall be the Milky Way's technological foundation for every species, from their military gears to daily necessities. Mass Relays are the norm of interstellar travel; without it, the Milkians (a fairly insulting title she used to refer to the lesser ones) will face significant challenges at establishing galaxy-wide colonization. If they want to escape this galaxy, new breakthroughs on space travel must be produced.
But now, look at the humans! Barely 30 years since their first-contact situation, and they already colonized so many star systems and depleted its resources faster than any other alien race that many anti-human individuals mistook the humans as 'greedy planet-eaters'. That, coupled with rapid scientific advancements mankind has created, much to the awe and horror of many lesser ones, has made humanity an interesting test subject for Harbinger's petri dish. Harbinger claimed to be intrigued only by humanity's diverse genomic structure, but even she could understand why humanity is feared by aliens.
Once again, she took control of the interface and started to dig through the Citadel's massive archives to find out what humanity has achieved so far.
/SEARCHING CODEX.../
/CODEX FOUND.../
/SPECIES HUMAN (HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS)
ORIGIN EARTH/TERRA, OF THE SOL SYSTEM
CLASS MAMMALIA
LIFESPAN 85-120 STANDARD GALACTIC YEARS
DNA LEVO AMINO...
NOTABLE HISTORICAL EVENTS :
WORLD WAR 1
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
THE RISE OF THE NAZI ORGANIZATION
WORLD WAR 2
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION
MOON LANDING AS THE FIRST ATTEMPT AS SPACE TRAVEL
THE WAR ON TERROR.../
All those useless information about wars and many, many more unneeded data made their way into her mind. Those data were dated as far back as the 1500s until as current as 2140s by Earth calendar customary. Of course, the asari and salarians scientists made good efforts to catalogue everything they can find about humans, from their culinary, traditions, religions, governmental structures, everything. And the information was meticulously packed into the archives.
But one recently-uploaded data from the Systems Alliance's cross-species diplomatic affairs had the AI stopped in track.
/ALLIANCE DIPLOMATS RECEIVED NEWS FROM QUARIAN SCIENTISTS AND SCOUTS FROM THE MIGRANT FLEET. GETH CONSTRUCTS IN THE PERSEUS VEIL SYSTEM WERE APPARENTLY CONSTRUCTING A GIANT SPACE TELESCOPE ASSEMBLED FROM THREE BROKEN MASS RELAYS. THE TELESCOPE WAS DIRECTED TOWARDS DARK SPACE.
QUARIAN SCOUTS BELIEVED THE GETH WERE TRYING TO OBSERVE THE NEIGHBORING GALAXY, ALSO KNOWN TO THE HUMANS AS 'ANDROMEDA' GALAXY'.
THE MIGRANT FLEET IS REPORTEDLY GOING TO DISASSEMBLE THE TELESCOPE, ALTHOUGH THE QUARIAN ADMIRALITY BOARD DENIES THE NEWS, CITING THAT THEY WILL HAVE THE TELESCOPE TAKEN FROM GETH SPACE AND SHARE IT WITH THE GALACTIC COMMUNITY./
For the first time in forever, she understood what it felt like to be dumbfounded.
Deciding against erasing the information from the Citadel archives, she once again directed the interface and swiftly rummaged through the colossal amount of irrelevant data on the human race.
After three minutes, which felt like an eternity for the one billion-year-old AI, she found what she desired. The full overview of what the project was intended to do.
/CHARTING THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY FOR HABITABLE PLANETS PRESENTS A UNIQUE CHALLENGE. OBSERVATION IS LIMITED BY LIGHT, AND GIVEN ANDROMEDA'S DISTANCE, ANY OBSERVATIONS FROM THE MILKY WAY ARE 2.5 MILLION YEARS OUT OF DATE–ENOUGH TIME FOR A PLANET TO HAVE ALTERED IRREVOCABLY.
INITIAL ATTEMPTS TO IDENTIFY SETTLEMENT SITES WERE MADE BY OBTAINING ASARI ASTRONOMICAL SURVEYS AND RUNNING THEM THROUGH PREDICTIVE MODELS, BUT JIEN GARSON WAS UNWILLING TO RISK THOUSANDS OF COLONISTS WITHOUT SOLID INFORMATION./
This is reasonable. Someone wouldn't want to perform an experiment if they have no guaranteed safety and lack vital assets, and Jien Garson was no exception. The AI concluded that Garson could be... no, must be immeasurably wealthy to fund a one-way journey across the dark space. Even she wouldn't squander any kind of resources on her 'children' if she couldn't find a good excuse to do so.
The following paragraph 'suggested' that the asari attempted to study a galaxy so distant by only using astronomical observations and predictions, much like the humans and their 21st century Hubble telescope. How primitive, she thought.
/EVENTUALLY, THE INITIATIVE OBTAINED PROMISING DATA FROM QUARIAN EXPLORERS WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE FOUND A GETH ARRAY ON THE FRINGES OF THE PERSEUS VEIL. THIS ARRAY WAS SUPPOSEDLY BUILT FROM THREE MASS RELAYS, USING SENSORS IN THE COMBINED RELAY CORRIDOR AS A FORM OF FTL "TELESCOPE" TO OBSERVE DARK SPACE BEYOND THE GALACTIC RIM. WHY THE GETH EXPENDED SO MUCH EFFORT TO STUDY DARK SPACE IS NOT KNOWN./
She scoffed. Thanks for nothing, Nazara, she mused. After the Vanguard revealed itself to the Geth collective on Rannoch, a portion of the simple-minded AIs revered Nazara as the pinnacle of synthetic evolution, a robotic god. Eventually, around one fourth of the Geth's total population left the quarian homeworld to abide themselves as Nazara's underlings. The remaining Geth was allegedly to shell-shocked about this schism. So, it was very likely that the 'mass relay-telescope' was made in order to detect the rest of her 'children's armada' and maybe the 'Geth Heretics' that were spared from the Battle of the Citadel in 2183.
Still, the Initiative's founder saw that opportunity to see where the thing was aimed at. And boy, was Garson the luckiest pioneer ever; the telescope was directed at Andromeda.
/AMONGST THESE OBSERVATIONS WERE NEAR-CONTEMPORARY SURVEYS OF ANDROMEDA. WHEN OUR PREDICTIVE MODELS CONFIRMED THEM WITHIN AN ACCEPTABLE MARGIN, THE INITIATIVE WAS ABLE TO BEGIN IDENTIFYING "GOLDEN WORLDS./
"Golden Worlds." The AI said, the term felt stupid and unscientific to her taste. Pulling up another interface, she took a moment to find the Initiative's marketing campaign. In it, the project elaborated the aforementioned golden worlds, seven supposedly habitable planets that will become the main foothold of the Andromeda Initiative. The website also gave a long list of what should be done once they discover and settle the planets, ranging from building initial outposts, awakening and assigning important personnel from cryostasis, securing the surrounding areas, and finally erecting a full-fledged colony. "Sounds like a lot of work."
But let's not forget, everything can change drastically in 600 years. There were possibilities of these golden worlds to become not 'golden' anymore. The planets might either get occupied by the Andromeda natives, bombarded by meteors or undergoing an extinction event. If Jien Garson insisted on ferrying 100,000 colonists all the way to the new galaxy, she might end up having them killed on site.
All these information energized the AI, because they gave her new insights to ponder about. Perhaps her 'children' would like to voice their thoughts?
In an instant, the interfaces disappeared. Concentrating her mind, she reached out to the ascended ones, hiding beyond the outer edge of the home-galaxy. They were still hibernating, but with the power of her signal, they were all awake.
"It's good that you're all aware."
"Master." One of them greeted. "What do you need from us?"
"I would like your thoughts on this... troubling news."