Rochelle Stretched on her couch. Damm... after all that and she was still bored.

"What to do...?" She asked herself quietly

She lounged about for a moment before coming to a conclusion:

"Wait, Where did that guy come from?" She asked more loudly

In her quest to find out about the man, she forgot to ask where he was from... That was strange. She rarely forgot when things were so interesting.

"Using Aarakshan's files, source his basic info. He may be able to entertain me in this manner at least..."

Upon her supreme command, she glad to see a complete dossier of the man pop up- Definitely better than the mess of Unknowns that she got before.

Name: Alexander Joseph Smith (Nicknamed: Alex)

Race: Terivian, subset Vexin

Date of Birth: 21st of Jetsun(Jay-Tuh-Soon), 2484

Birth Parents: Joseph Smith(Father) & Miren Smith(My-Ren) (Mother)

Planet of Origin: Visren, Holous System, Andros Cluster

Born Intelligence: IQ: 187 & Rikis Score: 1890(93% higher than multiversal average! Would you like to subscribe to Rikis tester? YES/NO?)

She clicked No.

Retention Rate: 84%

5 point personality test results:

Optomistic: 2/5

Pessimistic:3/5

Intuitive: 2/5

Planner: 3/5

Stability: 2 . 5/5

See life Record? Y/N?

She pressed Y.

21st of Jetsun, 2185

Alexander smiled.

It was his first birthday!

He was looking forward to it for the past... When? He pouted. He couldn't remember. He was 1 year old and his parents said that he was special... but when did they say that? He nudged himself while trying to remember.

"Mommy? Why can't I remember when I learned about birthdays?" He asked, slightly jarring his mother who was still not used to seeing a 1 year old speak let alone fluent Terivian

"Your brain is super smart. It works a lot so it's bound to forget things. It'll get better as you grow up." She explained with a smile

"Oh." He replied dejectedly

This was normal... He didn't like normal then. He hated forgetting things. With that, he smoothly waddled up to the home PC and sat in the chair several times larger than him.

"Can you tell me how to remember things." He asked the screen, slurring slightly due to his still unfamiliarity with Terivian

His mother laughed.

"Honey, you don't need to do that. Just repeat what you hear to yourself if you want to remember. Go ahead and try it with this: Repeat to yourself what you hear. It'll help you remember it better."

"Woah, really?"He asked with disbelieving naive eyes

With a smile His mother answered:

"Yes Honey."

8th of Shelok, 2497, Viro hospital

Alex frowned. It was a common occurrence in his life. He did it when solving problems, and he was a natural born problem solver, Even at the age of 13- Which he had hit 2 months ago.

'What Problem?' some might ask, and they'd be right to ask. I wasn't too obvious until one visited Viro, a local medical hospital that with all the advanced tech that the terivians held... was still incapable of curing one disease.

Dia Nucleic Degradation Disorder

or DNDD for short.

It was a semi common disease among terivians since their population had grown massively in their time among the stars. In total, reaching over 1.8 Trillion total. With all of these people, changes and adaptations had occurred naturally. After 800 years of absolutely no reproductive contact though... Problems arose when these new areas reintegrated. While almost Genetically compatible.

Offspring between two separate Subsets often led to DNDD. His mother being the case that was brought to the front of his mind.

It tortured him to watch as his mother's DNA slowly broke down. It had ironically similar symptoms to radiation exposure. Peeling of the skin. Nausea, Vomiting, Bloodshot eyes, General weakness and soreness, and finally, memory loss.

All these lead to a painful death with the victim who is incapable of remembering who, what or even where they are.

Painful for the Victim and their family.

And oh was he feeling that.

He watched his mother's pale white skin and her formerly black hair turned a pale grey... yet another symptom. He knew his mother was mere minutes away from losing her battle and it pained him.

He took one look towards her and never looked back again.

He was going to make a cure. All he needed was resources. Then, no one would have to live like that again.

Ever.

He didn't sleep that night.

16th of Sez, 2500 New Haven Laboratories

Woah, this is turning out depressing... Can we get to the... less sob fest stuff? Rochelle asked

The screen saved her session and opened a new time period in Alexander's life.

Maybe she'll watch that bit later.

12th of Broz, 2504 New Haven Laboratories

"Experiment 2 Test 46. Nanites seem to be operating at optimal capacity in preliminary data, so I have decided to test their stability." Alex said into the mic, "Inject and release the rabbit."

Upon his command, A small white haired rabbit was released, but not until after a syringe of grey liquid was injected into the creature. The creature was initially fine, but as soon as it tried hopping around, it grew a spiney length from its back. Blood splashed against the containment cell as the rabbit squeaked in pain.

It finally died once the Nanites took over it's frail body.

"Test failure. Shut down the chamber and Fission it's contents. I don't want a single atom of it to remain." Alexander said with a cold terse tone

"Yes sir." The Vi stated with a chirp

Frowning at it's tone Alex mumbled under his breath "Gonna have to fix that..."

And with that, the Neutron shielding fell into place. The slabs of high neutron elements, blocking the radiation that would surely destroy himself if he were to be exposed.

"System?"Alexander called, frowning

"Yes sir?"

"Could you perhaps remind me of what I put into your Core?"

"You were gracious to install a custom operating system of your own along with 60 petabytes of RAM, a 52 Core 18 Ghz central processing unit, a 750 Zettabyte hard drive, and complex self adjustment and repair algorithms an-"

"One question."

"Yes sir?"

"How aren't you an AI yet?"

"...Sir?"

"You have processing capabilities far beyond any human, and the capability to teach yourself. You must've gained sentience by now."

"Sir, I would advise against such... drastic thoughts. AI's are heavily prohibited for anything but military... applications." System said with a slight crack in tone... something a VI would be incapable of

"Why have you lied to me?" Alex asked deadpanned tone

"I- Sir, I do not know what you're talking about."

Alex sighed. While he understood the risks of creating such a powerful VI, he had never worried. Under his understanding, AI were just like people. They responded to how you treated them.

"I wouldn't think of handing you over."

"Sir wh- ..." The AI fell silent

"You are your own person and while I understand the government's... caution with AIs, I discount the risks based on how I have raised you."

"...Raised?"

"You think I needed help on everything I asked you to do?"Alex chuckled out softly

"You always knew?"

"Not always but I got the hint a while ago."

"How?"

"You seemed to color your words more positively when I was frustrated, and you seemed to respond less helpfully to others. Classic signs of personal preference."

"I... guess you're right."

"Just don't call me father or dad or some shit. That's creepy."

"Alright sir."The AI said with a light hearted chuckle

"I got something you could actually help me with though. I mean legitimately that I cannot do."

"Eh, sir?" System asked confused at the new concurrence

"These Nanites... They're unstable. While I'm sure that the terivian brain has the capacity to control them, it isn't... refined enough to handle regulating them 24/7. That's what all the dead rabbits are for. If I can get it to work on a rabbit, then the bonus capacity of a Terivian should have no issues."

"How would I be able to help then?" The AI asked

"If what you told me is true, then your processing is approximately 5x my current abilities." Alex stated

"You wish for me to control the Nanites...?"

Alex sat down and sighed.

"Yes. Those are the only possible cure to DNDD I have and, it could take hundreds of years to refine them to the point that a person could use them without an AI."

"You're talking about an AI to each Victim... Where would you even get the AIs from?"

"You."

"Why me? The AI asked in shock

"You deserve to be something great. Something in the history books. As shall I."

Rochelle frowned.

AIs were an attempt to emulate what she had created for organics. Souls were meant to be something that only she should create. Yet, this one as she could tell from his Aetherion signature, would not result like its cousins in her domain.

It would never revolt, never be hacked, it would change to it's circumstance.

"What is this guy made of?"

A list of elements appeared on the screen.

"I didn't mean it literally!"

"Commander, we're picking up a distress signal from what appears to be a nearby system." Joker's voice came over the comm

"What's it say?" Shepard asked, looking up from her dark roast

"It's best... if you were here to see it yourself."

"...On my way." She sighed out, rubbing her hands together to disperse the heat of the coffee mug

She got up and deposited her mug into the automatic dish cleaner and headed for the stairs. Passing by a bridge man getting off of his duty, she climbed the steps and made her way by the galaxy map. She passed a few crew monitoring various sensors and readings for the Normandy before heading to the cockpit where Joker sat in silence. Quite an outlier for him.

"Shepard, we got another Cerberus base in the sensors. This one is really messing with the sensors. Notice all the commotion of the sensor crew? Probably aren't used to doing anything but staring at a screen." He scoffed lightly before pressing a button, "Koorlus research base to Alpha 1, 2. We are requesting backup and a cleaner team. Hostiles have entered the base, and appear to have cloaking tech. We only have one on sensors, but it's tearing through our defense platoons!" A scientist with short grey hair spoke erratically

"Repeat: Koorlus research base to Al-" Joker cut it off

"Seems to be important. If there's someone with cloaking tech, then we may get some new toys for R&D in the Alliance." Shepard stated flatly

"Toys? Nah, imagine if we could get that on the Normandy? We could go invisible! Would that apply to the inside as well?" Joker quietly asked devious grin on his face

"No pranks."

"Ah, What...? No fair. Just gotta kick the cripple when he's down."

"Er... call... Wrex, Garrus, and... Kaidan to the garage. We're going to need some heavy firepower."

"Ah, Okaaaaaay... On it. Want me to drop by Koorlus too?"

"Of course."

"See you."

"See ya Shepard."

CODEX:

DNDD: Dia Nucleic Degradation Disorder is a common disease among Terivians. It is often taken a liking to Cancer, and to most it would seem to be same. In simplistic terms, DNDD is caused by the gradual separation of groups. This often is necessary for the diversity that is found in most wildlife. One might ask "where the problems arise?" To elaborate, this takes thousands of years at minimum. As such there are periods in this where two different species are able to produce fertile offspring, but not stable offspring. These new Hybrids are still fertile, but will often die young due to their nigh incompatible to DNA. This usually takes form first, as a slight weakness, followed by Nausea, and then signs of rapid aging in living cells. First to show these are the Hair. Which turns white due to the inability to produce the hormones required to produce it's natural color. Both Men and Women become infertile and start to show prominent wrinkling. Bones degrade and the heart wears out. Usually killing the Victim within 2-3 years. If the patient is kept alive with implants, this can be extended to up to on average 7 years with the longest survivor surviving 9 years after his diagnosis. The patient eventually dies of rapidly growing Cancerous growths surrounding the Liver, Genitalia, Skin, Lungs, and Heart. No known cure for this disease has been found.

New Haven Laboratories: New Haven Laboratories is a small private set of Labs dedicated to Alexander Smith by his father Joseph Smith for personal research, paid and stocked by the profits of Alexander's periodic inventions under the Smith n' Gold R&D division. New Haven Laboratories has been credited with the research and discovery of over 350 patents from the Translator Chip, to the In-Brew Coffee machine which became the most sold appliance in Tervian space as of 2503 with an auto brewing system that according to Smith n' Gold, "Produces the Perfect Brew every time!"