Blue Fire in The Eyes of The Sky is planned as a novel size work and will consist of two parts: The Lost Child and The Tides of Time.
I would like to thank my wonderful beta Kunari for working with me on the novel and just being an awesome person.
Prologue
A gray-haired man dressed in a white lab coat walked into an enormous room in the very core of a hidden research facility. He looked up on a construction in the very middle of this room built from crescent metal bars wired together to form a circle approximately fifteen meters in diameter. Several large tubes connected to three support beams were glowing in a dim light, pumping element zero to the basis of the entire construction.
In the very middle of the mechanism was a naked asari, held in a mass effect stasis field, helpless. She raised her head to glare at the gray-haired man; her eyes were filled with pain and anguish, but there wasn't anything threatening in them. It was a look of a person begging for death. The man in the lab coat ignored her.
The TiDES was the proud name of the entire mechanism. Not everyone working on its construction knew the meaning of this abbreviation, but they didn't question it. The gray-haired man on the other hand, knew what the machine was supposed to do, he had been in the lead of its development from the very beginning, for four long years since the blueprints of the machine were discovered.
Today the final data for the project had been delivered, the enormous device was finally ready.
"Begin the testing," the man ordered tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat.
Several scientists around him started to fuss around, operating control panels on the other side of the room. The protective screens dropped around the TiDES, before the entire room seemed to come to life: the metal ring in the center started to spin effusing flashes of blue energy, and everything behind the protective screens lid up.
"The dark energy level is ten percent from the potential and rising," announced one of the assistants.
"The Gateway is opening; its current diameter is two millimeters. All systems are stable," supported the second assistant.
"Dark energy level is thirty percent and rising. The Gateway's size is eighteen millimeters. All systems are stable."
A red light suddenly started to blink on a panel next to the gray-haired man, and an alarm sounded around the research facility. Every scientist hurried to power the TiDES down.
"The test subject stopped responding," one of the assistants explained.
The bright lights behind the protective screen went down, making it possible to see the other side of the room. What left of the asari, now a scorched skeleton, was smoking in the middle of the metal circle.
"Clean this mess," the man in the lab coat sighed, before turning around and leaving.
The room adjacent to the area the man exited from was smaller and brightly lit with several luminescent lamps built into the ceiling. It was nearly empty, except for several terminals and personal lockers next to one of its walls.
The man took off his lab coat, hanging it in a locker with a sigh. It was the third subject that died during the test runs. The two others they'd tested even before the last piece of data was received and none of them came even close to providing the mechanism with enough power. The gray-haired man was starting to lose hope.
"Nearly two centimeters?" a calm voice from the terminal asked. "Not exactly a result I was expecting."
"Sir," the gray-haired man turned towards the voice slightly startled. "I'm sorry, sir, the test subject was very weak, we couldn't expect anything better considering - " he tried to explain.
"I'm not judging you," the voice from the terminal interrupted him. "And don't worry, I will provide you with a subject powerful enough to open the Gateway."
"But, sir," the gray-haired man tried to reason, "is it even possible to find someone suitable for this?"
"I said, don't worry about it," the voice reassured calmly, like it always did. "Leave this matter to me."
Book One
The Lost Child
The Systems Alliance's headquarters looked busy, drowned in everyday routine of the largest military base on Earth. Dozens of officers and soldiers were hurrying to attend to their duties stopping only to pass a data-pad, or share a few words with a comrade, or an occasional salute to someone with a higher rank. In general everything looked exactly as Shepard remembered it one year ago, before the Reaper fleet arrived to Earth destroying everything it could reach.
But it was a year ago.
Now a lot of things had changed. The building, which had been nearly destroyed, now looked like the Reapers had never even touched it, and all the people around behaved like nothing had ever happened. Or at least they were really good at pretending.
Most of the soldiers didn't even recognize Shepard as he was passing by, trying not to pay much attention to the surroundings. Occasionally he was still catching a glimpse of utter surprise and fascination among the crowd as the recognition was settling into their minds. With the corner of his eyes he even spotted a young soldier staring at him with an open month as the 'Savior of the Galaxy', 'legendary Commander Shepard' crossed the hall of the first floor.
But most of the time people were choosing to ignore him, which to tell the truth was something Shepard was grateful for, because giving his autograph left and right and taking pictures with the admirers was the last thing he wanted right now.
There was a reception desk before the elevators leading to the higher floors. The receptionist was a young woman in her mid-twenties dressed in a standard alliance uniform who gifted Shepard with a soft smile. Shepard smiled back and attempted a quick maneuver to the elevators waiting the ID recognition system to scan him. The lock beeped and turned red.
"Excuse me, sir!" receptionist called out. "It's a restricted area, you need a special pass before entering."
"What?" Shepard surprised. "Since when?"
"Since half a year ago," receptionist sighed. "You're new in here, aren't you?"
"Well, you can say that," Shepard grinned. For some reason someone assuming him a newcomer seemed amusing for the ex-commander.
"First time in Vancouver?" receptionist smiled leaning forward over her desk and looking Shepard right in the eyes while activating the omni-tool on her wrist. It was very obvious that she was flirting.
"Nah, I live here," Shepard shook his head placing his elbow on the top side of the counter desk and resting his chin on his left hand so the girl could see the thin platinum band on his ring finger.
The message it seemed was received. The girl had never stopped to smile, but Shepard still could see a note of disappointment crossing her features as she focused on the readings from the omni-tool. Then she suddenly froze in place. "Oh my god…" she inhaled. It took her several long seconds before she managed to get a hold of herself standing up and saluting. "Excuse me, sir! You may proceed, sir! Admiral Hackett is waiting for you in the conference hall, sir!"
"Relax," Shepard sighed. "I resigned, don't even have a rank now for you to salute."
The receptionist seemed to relax a little. "I'm sorry, you're still a hero, no matter the rank. And..." She cast her eyes down smiling apologetically, "sorry about earlier."
"It's ok," the man nodded. "And thanks for the clearance!" he smiled before turning back to the elevators and making his way to one of the top floors where he had been invited by Admiral Hackett earlier this morning.
But Sheppard had never got a chance to reach to the conference hall as the admiral met him halfway in the corridor.
"Looking great, Shepard!" the admiral said. Shepard knew that the admiral was an honest person, but still suspected that any sort of compliments besides good field performance coming from him was more of a formality, even if the admiral really meant it. "You have no idea how good it is to see you finally on your own feet."
And it was good indeed. Shepard himself couldn't believe that he managed to recover after that explosion on the Citadel. He'd considered himself a goner, when he'd walked towards the catalyst's core discharging the magazine-clip of his gun into it. But yet, after everything went black, he somehow managed to open his eyes again, finding himself in a hospital bed with dozens of different pipes and wires attached to his body and a sleeping frame of Kaidan seated uncomfortably on a chair next to his bed.
All of the doctors at the time had been sure that he would never be able to even walk again, save the idea of returning to active duty. But somehow he managed to get better. So much better that in several months after the war he'd been already able to walk to the restrooms and back on his own, and a half a year after that, the only minor inconvenience left was an occasional pain in his joints and muscles. Nothing a hot shower, a couple of pills and a pair of strong hands massaging the kinks in his body couldn't help with.
"I was taken good care of," Shepard smiled. "I thank my husband for that."
"Well, look at you!" admiral nodded. "Went through hell and back, saved the galaxy and even had time to build a personal life. Hell of a multitasker, I'd say."
"I assume, discussing my life and well-being wasn't the reason you invited me?"
"No, it wasn't," Hackett agreed. They finally reached the office and the admiral invited Shepard in, gesturing to sit on one of the chairs in front of the desk. "Actually I've been planning to ask if you're interested in reinstatement. We have some… problems you could really help us deal with."
To tell the truth Shepard had been thinking about it a lot. At first he'd been thankful for the end of the war and had thought that he would finally settle down and live a normal life, even if he couldn't believe he would ever be able to function fully again. But he was wrong about it.
After over eight months of doing nothing but taking care of Shepard, Kaidan had returned to duty in the reserves working with the Alliance as the human biotic specialist, resuming his work with the biotic special division program. With Kaidan spending most of the day at work, Shepard found himself drowned in boredom, spending his time watching TV or playing video-games – something he'd never expected himself doing. Hell, he even started to cook dinners waiting for his lover to return from work.
With time the role of a house-wife started to piss him off to the point where he'd finally snapped, unleashing his frustration on Kaidan which led them to the first serious fight. The fight which made so stoic and self-controlled person like Kaidan lose his patience and leave the apartment slamming the door behind his back. Thankfully, Shepard realized what he'd done, starting to feel like an ass for nearly losing the man he loved so much. The understanding of how much he really cared about Kaidan and the fear of losing him hit Shepard after that fight, so the next day he went to the market district and purchased two platinum bands and had finally proposed to his lover.
The thoughts made Shepard reach for the ring, touching its warm smooth surface.
"Would it be something you will need to think about?" admiral asked snapping Shepard back to reality.
"Oh, no, sir!" Shepard shook his head. "It is something I've given some thought already. I would like to return to duty, sir."
"Good," Hackett acknowledged. "With your medical record there is no way of returning to work to hot spots of course, but your knowledge in some areas is exactly what we need right now."
"It's is an honor, sir," Shepard said standing from his chair to salute.
"The honor is all mine," admiral replied reaching for Shepard's hand to give it a good shake.
"So, what kind of problem are you facing?" the commander finally inquired.
The admiral looked Shepard in the eyes and sighed, then he reached for his terminal pressing a few buttons. A wall behind his back slid open revealing a big screen with several images across it.
"Several days ago our agents informed us of a contraband shipment delivered to Earth," admiral started to explain.
"Contraband? You wouldn't ask for my help if it was a simple case."
"No, we wouldn't," Hackett agreed. "Even while we still don't know what was in the container that arrived on Earth, there is something you might find important - the container was delivered from the Iera system, Shadow Sea."
Shepard blinked feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline at the recognition of the star system's name and the image of the system's chart on the screen. There was only one planet in Iera someone could smuggle something from. "Horizon…" he whispered.
"Yes, and that is not all," admiral continued. "We managed to track the container. We found the container, but it was empty."
Hacked pressed several more buttons and the image on the screen changed again. Now it was showing a plane white box the size of a refrigerator.
"There was an insignia on it," Hackett explained zooming on one of the corners of the container.
"This cannot be true!" Shepard said seeing the familiar hexagram shaped symbol. "Cerberus…"