They set course for Tralfamadore (located in the Angel Constellation; Phaëton system) a few days later, taking two mass relays from where they were to their destination.
He refused to take Garrus to the surface with him; there was an argument between them, which culminated in the turian simply walking away.
Dazed and angry with himself, he went downside with Thane and Samara.
They landed in an isolated spot in a wooded clearing, about forty miles from the nearest population centre. The sun was high in the sky, but despite that, the air was pleasantly cool.
Oddly enough, it was silent. There was not even the sound of birds. Nor was there any wind, even a breeze. The place was as silent and static as a crypt.
It was a place of the dead.
Shortly afterwards, Shepard noticed that communications with the Normandy had ceased. There was only static.
White noise.
It was disturbing.
"We must be close" came a voice from behind him, sensuous, yet dangerous. It was Samara's voice.
"Yeah," he replied, moving forward, crushing brown dried leaves underneath his feet, and the crunch of the leaves as they were stepped was the only sound in the place. He gripped his pistol tightly.
Walking forward, they also realized the auto-targeting systems on the heavy weapons were malfunctioning. No wonder the area had often been referred to as 'The Bermuda of Tralfamadore'.
After walking and searching the surrounding area, they found a rock near a tree. The rock had been inscribed with archaic symbols, which all three of them recognized: the inscriptions were unmistakably of Prothean origin (as to what the symbols meant, none of them knew).
They soon uncovered what appeared to be a small opening, covered by rocks and boulders, and overgrown with local vegetation.
Using his biotics, he moved the largest boulder, which had presented the greatest obstacle. In front of them now lay a small opening, dark and narrow. But it was large enough for them to enter.
And so they did.
They came back disappointed.
The artefact had been nothing more than an ancient Reaper indoctrination device. He had uncovered similar devices on other worlds, and Cerberus had already began studying them. Thus, the artefact was useless.
They had also encountered a few husks, and then, as a matter of course, destroyed the device.
There was nothing else of value in the small and ruined grotto. They exited, to find the magnetic disturbances were gone.
Looking at his comm. relay, he discovered there had been several calls from the Normandy. He picked up, and told them that he was just fine, as was Samara and Thane.
He went up to his quarters and stayed there. Garrus was still angry at him, he guessed. Out of his window, he could see Tralfamadore, floating in the cold uninhabitable expanse of space. A rare jewel amidst the thousands, if not more, of uninhabitable and hostile rocks for planets the galaxy had to offer.
What made him miserable was that the lead had led to nothing. He hoped the lead would have led him to something which could be used against the Reapers. But the lead had led to a dead end.
And to top it all of, Garrus was angry at him.
There was nobody to comfort him, to simply cling on to.
But damn it, Garrus, I did it for you, he thought angrily. I did it for your safety.
He snapped his fingers, and the holo-visor came on.
"-well, Angela," was saying a human male to an asari, "so your family is coming over? I'm nervous – what will they think of you when they know you're with a human?"
He snapped his fingers again, before the asari from the sitcom could respond, and the channel changed. Over and over, he snapped them, changing channel to channel, until he stopped at a turian channel, where a show about scandalous marriages and affairs was being broadcast.
Seated on a studio in front of an audience, there was a pair, made up of a turian female and a male human.
The turian female claimed that although the two had been married happily for years, the human had, at the same time, been cheating on her for all those years, supposedly because he wanted 'to go native,' as she claimed.
Before the human could respond to defend himself, the turian host stated that "this just proves it, humans can't be trusted!"
There was laughter from the audience (mostly turian), while the human, seated on a chair, brought his hand to his head, his mouth moving as he said something, which was drowned out by the laughter of the audience.