If It Meant Living: Beyond - Chapter 4

"A Galaxy Far, Far Away"

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." – Arthur C. Clarke

July 18, 2194: Normandy SR-3 Conference Room

Shepard strolled slowly along the end of the long conference table, her fingertips dancing upon the edge of it. She waited until everyone was seated and settled, until the jokes and shoulder punches and caustic jibes born of five months together in a confined space had subsided.

Only then did she look up.

"Good news, guys – we're almost there. Hopefully, very soon we'll have the chance to get some fresh air, some fresh food, maybe even some fresh clothes…or we may just have the chance to kill some fresh aliens."

She smiled as laughter rippled around the table. Garrus shook his head and leaned his chair back until it touched the wall. "You know Shepard, if all you wanted was fresh aliens to kill, I'm sure we could have found you some back in our own galaxy."

Her eyes narrowed at him in mock indignation. "Yeah, yeah. If you're not interested, I can wormhole your ass back to your fancy office on Palaven?"

He shook his head sagely. "Nope. Carry on."

"That's what I thought. Now I don't have to tell any of you that we don't know what we're walking in to. These aliens have ostensibly asked for our help. We go to them as ones answering that call, arms open in greeting…and weapons loaded and clasped at our hips and on our ship. Just in case."

She nodded sharply and continued. "Our long-range scanners have picked up increasing signs of, well, civilization. Energy signatures that look like they're from ships; hot spots of power emissions that look like they're from space stations."

Her gaze shifted from the images to the people around the table. "To me, this means one of three things: we're not too late; the bad guys already won – or it's a trap."

Kasumi tossed a kernel of popcorn in her mouth and kicked her feet up on the table. "It's a trap."

At Shepard's raised eyebrow she shrugged. "What? It's always a trap."

James' head tilted to the side, his brow furrowing. "Well there was that one time…no, that was mostly a trap…never mind." Kasumi nodded at him as she slid the bowl of popcorn back over.

Shepard rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Your memory is remarkably selective; in no way whatsoever were they all traps."

Garrus looked at her skeptically. "Purgatory was a trap…and Horizon."

Miranda shrugged. "The Collector Ship."

"Agebinium."

At the sound of his voice she looked over her shoulder at Kaidan, who leaned against the glass to the left of her. He didn't sit at the table, because he wasn't her subordinate. That wasn't why he thought he didn't sit at the table, at least not overtly; he was merely choosing to be at her side. But had he tried to sit at the table with the rest, she would have asked him to instead stand at her side.

He smiled teasingly at her; the left side of her mouth curled up in a private grin. "Yes…those were all traps, as well as a number of others." She turned back to the table. "But the fact remains that not all our missions have been traps. Now can we get back on topic, please?"

Jacob frowned slightly. "Just because they asked for our help, that doesn't mean there are bad guys to defeat; maybe they need our help to overcome some astronomical disaster or, I don't know, a biological or physiological problem."

She nodded. "Point taken. In that case, it's the first option – we're not too late."

She paused, her expression growing more serious. "We have also detected two…anomalies. The first is an unusually high concentration of exotic matter in the region of space we're approaching. The possible explanations for this are too numerous to draw any conclusions at this point – it could be natural variations in LMC's makeup, or the remnants of an astronomical event; the aliens' technology or weaponry could be based around exotic matter…"

"They could be exotic matter," EDI suggested helpfully.

"And wouldn't that just be a blast…" Wrex grumbled.

"…as I said, we don't know enough to make even a SWAG. We – "

Legion whirred. "I am not familiar with the term 'SWAG.' Shepard-Admiral, please provide additional context."

Shepard laughed. "Sorry, Legion. A Scientific Wild-Ass Guess."

The frame around his head pulsed. "I comprehend the vernacular term 'wild-ass guess'; however, it is by definition incapable of being scientific. Please clarify."

Shepard looked around the table for help.

Kaidan smiled from the window. "That's the point, Legion. A SWAG is a guess backed up by at least some level of knowledge informing the situation, but not enough for it to be considered an educated one."

Legion's neck adjusted a bit. "I understand now. Thank you, Alenko-Admiral."

Shepard sighed. "Now that we've cleared up the fact that we don't know anything about the exotic matter, the other anomaly. Liara?"

Liara nodded. "Thus far we haven't picked up any signals that resemble communications – not of the form the signal to the Citadel took nor any other form. Granted, we may not be able to recognize their communications; but we haven't picked up any signal with both a definite origin and destination point. However…we have picked up something else."

She tapped her Omni-tool; the images above the table shifted to reveal a map of the nearest third of LMC, overlaid by a 'cloud' of varying hue and density. "We've detected the presence of a…'noise field' is probably the best way to describe it. Space in this region is saturated with it, though it is not uniformly distributed. The color and density on the map correspond to the levels of concentration. You will note that changes in levels are not dramatic, but rather smooth and gradual."

Miranda's eyes narrowed at the map. "Perhaps it's just an astronomical phenomena, like the exotic matter? That's what this – " she gestured up at the hovering map " – looks like to me."

EDI turned to Miranda. "Except that the composition of this field does not correspond to any known particle, exotic or mundane. Also, it is active."

That got everyone's attention, and all at once –

– Miranda frowned deeply. "Define 'active'?"

– Keenon's brow markings glowed brighter – an act Shepard had learned over time was a sign of agitation, concern or uncertainty. "How can we detect it if it's an unknown composition?"

– James sighed heavily, a pained expression on his face. "Are you saying this shit's alive?"

"Guys!" Shepard looked back at Liara. "Please, continue."

"Right. To answer James' question, no, it's not alive; at least, we don't think it is. To answer Keenon and Miranda's questions together, we can detect it using methods similar to those of extremely long-range astronomical research – by its effect on the surrounding particles. And what it is doing is…vibrating."

No one had anything to say to that.

Finally Garrus leaned forward over the table and pointed to the region that was an almost solid deep crimson, indicating the densest concentration of the noise. "So what's that area?"

EDI smiled. "That's where the signal to the Citadel originated."

James groaned and rocked his chair back. "It's totally alive…"

Liara cleared her throat. "Actually, we think it more likely that the field represents the aliens' communication network."

Miranda glared at her in exasperation. "But you said we weren't detecting any communication signals."

Liara raised a slightly smug eyebrow at Miranda; it was hardly a secret that the two of them did not get along particularly well. "Yes, I did."

Miranda's eyes narrowed…but she let it go in favor of providing the answer. "A hive mind? A networked intelligence?"

Liara's lips pursed together slightly, but she nodded. "It is likely not precisely either of those things – but the core concept is probably applicable. The area in which the field is strongest is the size of a large star system. It permeates out from there, with regions of relative strength appearing periodically. This suggests other concentrations of civilization spread around the galaxy."

Miranda eyed the projection again. "So how long until we reach this field?"

Liara looked back at Shepard uneasily. Shepard rested her hands on the table and leaned forward, a wry grin pulling at her lips.

"Oh, we're already inside it."

She continued to speak, ignoring the murmurs that rippled through the room. "We're approaching the region from which the signal to us originated, cautiously yet deliberately. Lacking any other way to communicate, we're broadcasting a message of greeting and non-hostility that EDI crafted based on the structure of the signal we received; hopefully they can understand it."

She gazed around the table. "In forty hours we'll be going to Yellow Alert; forty hours after that, assuming the absence of additional information, we'll be going to Orange Alert. So get your sleep now. It's about to get interesting."

July 19, 2194: Weapons Battery

Garrus carefully removed the front panel from the first of the four Javelin IV cores, revealing an intricate latticework of light-circuits. "You know, sometimes I wish technology would move forward just a little slower; it's damn hard work keeping up with all this…" He shook his head and motioned Kaidan in to look at the assembly.

Kaidan stared at the circuits for a moment, then his eyes cut over to Garrus. "Just for clarity – what is our purpose here?"

Garrus' huffed a brief laugh. "We want to make certain everything is calibrated correctly; should we need to use the guns, we'll want to use them accurately."

"Okay." Kaidan pulled back to inspect the local sensor panel. "Most everything is within parameters, but it looks like the power overflow is running a bit high at three percent – which means a critical situation could quickly turn into a disastrous one."

Garrus nodded. "Let's add some capacitors to the conduits to siphon off the excess power." He lifted his head up and peered down the long cylinder. "Two panels down, I think."

Kaidan hit his comm. "Adams, can you bring up maybe…sixteen" he glanced at Garrus, who nodded in agreement "220 kF EDLCs for the Javelins?…Great, thanks."

Garrus was unlatching a panel further down when the door opened and Litha walked in; she walked over to the farthest Javelin cylinder, climbed up on it, and draped her arms over her knees.

Garrus' mandibles fluttered slightly. "Um…something we can do for you, Litha?"

She shrugged. "I'm bored; thought I'd see what was going on."

"Okay, well – "

The door opened again and Adams walked in, Keenon trailing behind him; they each carried a tray filled with tiny shrink-wrapped packages.

Kaidan motioned them over. "Thanks, Greg." He picked four of the packages out of the first tray. "You can just set the trays over on the table; it'll be a little while before we get to all of them."

Adams shrugged mildly. "We weren't busy; we don't mind hanging out and helping."

Garrus glanced up. "If you want to start pulling the other panels off, that would speed things up. But Keenon, let me know what the power overflow readouts are first; we may not need to tweak all of them."

"Got it." Adams walked down the narrow space between the cylinders and bent down a third of the way down the second cylinder. Keenon watched the local sensor panel for a moment. "Two point eight percent."

"Pull it off, Greg."

Litha stretched her neck over to peer down at them. "So what do you guys think these aliens are going to be like?"

Kaidan laid out the capacitor packages next to Garrus then sat down on the floor in front of the Javelin's sensor panel and leaned against the wall. "Well, across our galaxy the vast majority of advanced species are humanoid…you know what I mean: bipedal, two arms, a head with a braincase, eyes and ears, a nose and a mouth. There's no reason to think that pattern won't hold in LMC…" his eyes flicked to Garrus "…that's a little better, but you should probably add another one."

Adams set the panel down gently on the floor; he started to climb over the cylinder then thought the better of it, instead walking the long way around to the next one. "Still, they could be like the Hanar, or something even weirder."

"They could be Reapers."

Garrus' head poked up; he glared at Litha. "That's not funny."

Her right mandible twitched. "I fought them, too, Vakarian – and that gives me the right to joke about them."

He exhaled harshly. "I know you did, I just – "

The door opened yet again; Kasumi poked her head in. "Hey, we heard talking in here. What's up?"

Litha leaned back a bit. "The nerds are playing with the guns."

"Ooh, cool." She walked in, Keiji in tow, hopped up on to the table by the door and patted the spot beside her. Keiji looked over at Kaidan. "Sir, do you need any help monitoring the sensors?"

Kaidan smiled but shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but we're going to have to do this one at a time. You guys are welcome to chill out, though." Keiji nodded and only then joined Kasumi.

Litha huffed a laugh. "With our luck they'll be like the Elcor; we'll still be here a year from now waiting for them to finish describing the problem."

Kaidan nodded at Garrus. "That looks good, but let's give it a second to stabilize."

"Sentient clouds."

Every head in the room turned to Kasumi.

She brushed her hair over her shoulder. "I read this science fiction novel once, it was completely trippy, they had this – anyway, a giant sentient cloud showed up and blocked out the sun." She frowned as everyone continued staring at her strangely. "Look, I'm not saying these sentient clouds would be malevolent; they could definitely be friendly sentient clouds."

Keiji rubbed her shoulder softly. "Love, you have the most amazing imagin– "

The door opened – again – and Legion walked in. "I understand you are altering the functionality of the Javelin IV torpedoes. Please ensure that you update the data banks and inform me when you are finished so that I can run thorough tests and adjust related parameters as necessary."

Garrus looked at Legion, then back at the open circuits; he picked up the panel and carefully re-secured it. "Okay, Legion. Of course we were going to inform you."

"Very well. I believe I will remain to observe and provide assistance if needed."

Garrus frowned at Kaidan as they crouched down at the next open panel. "I'm not used to my space being so crowded. What are they all doing here?"

Kasumi overheard him and laughed. "We're having a party, obviously. All we're missing is…" she looked around curiously "…where is Shepard?"

... ... ...

Cargo Bay

"Shepard, you're…" Steve glanced up sideways at her. "I can't see what I'm doing when you lean over like that; you're casting a shadow."

"Right. Sorry." She leaned back against the wall, quickly twisting her hair into a ponytail for good measure.

She was sitting cross-legged atop the weaponry worktable. The center of the table was covered with her disassembled Valiant; to the left and right were various materials and equipment whose functions were not immediately obvious. Steve was standing in front of the table, his hands resting lightly on the rim. James was to his right, digging around in the locker.

Steve chuckled slightly. "Thanks." He reached to his left and picked up a small, curved rectangular object; it emitted a faint green glow from the more narrow ends. He leaned down and carefully placed it against the end of the main body of the Valiant. His right hand activated his modified Omni-tool; the electron knife slowly slid along the frame, chiseling it carefully until it curved down to the outer edge of the added piece.

Shepard exhaled heavily. "I can't believe I'm letting you do this to my rifle…"

Steve looked up. "We can still stop…I mean, we'll have to replace part of the body now, but that's not too big of a problem really…"

She worried her lower lip. "It'll still fire regular ammunition, right? Just as accurately?"

James' muffled voice came from deep inside the locker. "Yup – assuming we do this right, anyway."

Steve shrugged somewhat abashedly. "I'll do my best…I've made plenty of field adjustments, but this is pretty high-tech modding here; there are people that would be better at this – "

"And they're all back in the Milky Way. Chill out, man – you got skills; you'll do fine." James emerged from the locker with two long, smooth, double barrels. "Kal not only had a shotgun fucking named after him, he then modified it to be double-barreled." He handed the barrels to Steve and relaxed against the wall. "His Carbine is based on the same tech as the Adas, so those barrels are already compatible with the mod; and they won't have any issue with standard ammo, it's…superfluous."

Steve raised an eyebrow at him. "You know quarter words now, Mr. Vega?"

James eyes twinkled. "More than one, Esteban. I even know what to do with them…"

Steve blinked twice, his eyes widening slightly in between. "Right." He cleared his throat and turned back to the table. "Anyway. James is correct. Combining these extra barrels that Mr. Reegar so helpfully provided to create a doubled sniper rifle barrel, we will be able to mod your gun to fire both regular ammunition and electrical ammunition in the same manner as the Adas Rifle – at the same time."

She frowned, instinctively leaning forward. Steve glanced up at her pleadingly, and she quickly straightened back up. "It's just, the Adas' homing capability is cool as shit – until it's seduced by solid cover – "

"Which we've fixed." James scowled at her. "Shepard, I told you this. Keenon and I figured out a way for the homing mechanism to distinguish between inanimate and "live" objects. That's why you came up with this crazy idea in the first place, remember?"

"I know." She eyed him suspiciously. "AIs too, right?"

He rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "Yes, Shepard. AIs too."

"Okay." She breathed out slowly. "Okay. Do it."

Steve suppressed a smile, concentrating on the pieces on the table. "You sure? Last chance to back out."

James smirked at her. "It's going to shred the fuck out of some bad guys…"

She grinned deviously. "Yes, it is." She looked back down at Steve and nodded. "I'm sure. Do it."

July 20, 2194: CIC/Science Lab

Shepard rounded the corner to the Science Lab –

– and ran smack into Keenon. The door to the Lab closed behind him as he looked up at her in surprise. "Shepard! I…I was just making some modifications to the equipment that Li–Dr. T'Soni requested…"

She raised an incredulous eyebrow, though her expression was kind. "At 0600 in the morning? I appreciate your dedication to your work, but truly…" She smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Keenon. I don't want you to feel you need to hide anything from me."

He stared at her a moment, luminescent eyes seeming to almost pulse with internal conflict, then nodded tightly. "I know. I won't, ma'am. I just – well, perhaps you want to talk to Dr. T'Soni – she is your friend, no?" His eyes pleaded with her. "Now, I really need to…"

"Of course." She smiled again and patted his shoulder then stepped into the Lab. Liara was, as always, huddled over her floating keyboard. She had of late been experimenting with more human-style clothing; she wore form-fitting leggings and a tunic top that fell to just above her hips. The small door in the back of the lab that led to her cabin was still open.

Shepard waited until the door had closed behind her, then lost the smile. "Liara…"

Liara looked up, a blank expression on her face. "Good morning, Shepard. What is it?"

"You know what it is."

Liara's brow furrowed. "I don't…" She gave up the half-hearted attempt and rolled her eyes, smiling somewhat sheepishly. "He's very intriguing – and extremely intelligent. He understands everything I'm doing in here; we…have a lot in common."

Shepard glared at her, unimpressed. "Except the fact that he's twenty-nine and you're one hundred seventeen."

Liara scoffed. "That doesn't matter so much, Shepard. After all, you were twenty-nine when we met…"

Shepard huffed a brief laugh, then her lips pursed tightly. "Fair enough. But the fact remains that I'm very protective of the people that serve under me…particularly the ones I've yanked out of their comfort zone and dragged across the universe."

Liara smiled affectionately. "I remember…and I understand, I do. But he's a grown man."

Unmollified, Shepard met and held Liara's gaze. "Are you serious about it?"

Liara's gaze slid away as she shrugged. "I don't know…" She sighed. "Probably not. It's something new, and a little exciting. And goddess, those eyes…" She shook herself roughly. "Sorry."

Shepard frowned deeply; her stare cut through Liara. "Don't hurt him. And if you must hurt him, do it gently – and tell me first."

Liara nodded quickly. "Absolutely. I promise." She held Shepard's stare as long as she could then turned back to the displays lining the wall. "So, did you need something, or…"

"I just wanted to let you know that we're about to come out of our last wormhole jump. We'll be FTL after that. Expect a lot more data coming from the sensors and telescopes."

"Excellent. I'm excited to see what we discover."

"As am I. I'll see you at breakfast in a bit." She eyed the side of Liara's head for another moment, a troubled expression on her face, then finally turned and left.

July 22, 2194: Cockpit/CIC

The red hue outside the viewports gradually lightened; then, in a blink, normal space appeared. A beautiful pale green gas giant dominated the view; beyond it was a sea of stars.

Garrus exhaled softly. "It looks just like home, really."

"Yeah…" Shepard's voice lacked the whimsical tone it typically would have carried when presented with such a sight; it instead had a hard, tense edge to it. "EDI, are we picking up anything?"

EDI shook her head. "Other than the omnipresent noise field, no. There are no discernable signs of advanced life on or in the vicinity of this planet."

Shepard sighed heavily. "Joker, take us into the atmosphere and discharge the FTL static electricity. Quickly. I'll have new coordinates for you by the time you're done."

His face wrinkled in annoyance. "Shepard, you always say 'quickly' – you know I can't speed it up, right?"

"Yeah. Come on guys." She turned and headed down the CIC, EDI, Kaidan and Garrus following her.

When she reached the perch she stepped up and activated the galaxy map; it quickly zoomed in to their current region. The system that was the source of both the signal and the densest concentration of the noise field, which they had designated "Alpha" for lack of a better term, was highlighted; the noise field had been superimposed onto the map. The Normandy was still fifty-eight light-years away from the Alpha System but by this point was well inside the field.

Shepard stared at the map, chewing on her lower lip. "They should be all around us…unless we're wrong about what the field represents?"

EDI looked up at her earnestly. "Perhaps not. Space is big, Shepard. Really, really big."

Kaidan suppressed a grin. "So don't panic."

Shepard frowned deeply at him; she looked mildly offended. "Excuse me, but I do not panic. Ever."

He gazed at her curiously. "Oh come on, you know what I'm talking about…forty-two?"

"Forty-two what? I know you turned forty-two last year, we celebrated and everything…"

He stared at her, a completely incredulous expression on his face. "Seriously, you've never read – you've never even heard of – no, it's fine, it's fine; I'll send a copy to your Omni-tool. We'll read it together in bed tonight."

Her eyes widened incomprehensibly at him; but it was far from the first time he had confounded her. After a moment a whimsical grin pulled at her lips; she just shook her head and some of the tension seemed to leave her body. "Right. Anyway, EDI's point is valid – just because we haven't bumped into them doesn't mean they aren't out there." She zoomed the map in further until it consisted entirely of the space between the Normandy and the Alpha System, then studied it for a moment.

"Okay. I think we make one more FTL run, to…" she zoomed in again "…here. That look good?" She looked around at them for confirmation and received it. "We should be there in…?"

EDI blinked. "Approximately thirty-seven hours."

She zoomed back out to the Alpha System. "We'll proceed from that point at 95% maximum conventional speed. It's looking more and more like our goal is…here." The map zoomed into a region that included three planets and was covered thick with the haze of the noise field.

Garrus stared at the map. "Are we going to stealth once we're out of FTL?"

"No."

He looked over at her, frowning. "But – "

"They asked us to come – how are they going to know we answered if we're stealthed?"

His mandibles twitched erratically. "Okay, I see your point, but…I don't like it."

She smiled darkly. "I don't either, really. But it's the logical option. We'll be monitoring everything; we get an inkling of anything nefarious and we stealth."

Garrus nodded slowly. "I'm going to go run another check on the guns…" He turned and went into the elevator.

EDI looked up at Shepard. "I'll be in the cockpit if you need me."

"Thanks, EDI." Shepard turned back to the map, staring at it silently.

After a moment she felt Kaidan come up beside her; he rested against the railing facing away from the map. His voice was soft. "You alright?"

She turned around and leaned against the railing next to him so that their shoulders lightly touched. "I just don't like going in blind. I wish we knew more; I…expected to know more by now – thought maybe we'd find a giant neon sign flashing 'Welcome, citizens of the Milky Way' with an arrow pointing to their central office or something."

His eyes twinkled affectionately. "I know. But it's hardly the first time you've dove headlong into the unknown."

She didn't smile. "Not like this. When we went to Ilos – " she squeezed his hand briefly at the recollection of what would always be a singularly precious memory " – I knew what would be there: Prothean ruins and Saren. When I went through the Omega 4 Relay, I knew what would be there: the galactic core and the Collectors' home base. When I stumbled into the Conduit to the Citadel, I knew what would be there: Reaper Husks and the key to controlling the Crucible…wasn't expecting the Illusive Man, but whatever. When I jumped into the ocean on Despoina, I knew what would be below: really old mind-controlling Reaper-type aliens."

She glanced over her shoulder at the map. "Here…I know that we'll find advanced, sentient aliens, and that they expect we're coming. But that's pretty much it." Her eyes met his, looking for reassurance, guidance, an answer.

He smiled softly, running his thumb along the inside of her palm. "It'll be enough. For you."

... ... ...

Captain's Quarters

It was nearly midnight; the day had been spent going over contingency plans based on infuriatingly spotty information, double- and triple-checking data and coordinates, running simulations and drills and safety checks. Five months of nothing but waiting, and soon everything would be happening at once.

But here, in the comfort and luxury of their bed, they could put it all aside and be at peace for a little while longer. Tonight, that apparently meant reading a book.

Shepard pulled the covers up to their waists then snuggled against Kaidan's side. "Okay, I'm ready. Wow me with this science fiction masterpiece."

He bit his lower lip. "It's not so much a sci-fi masterpiece as it is a comedy – well maybe more of a satire; it cleverly – "

"Kaidan." He looked over at her questioningly. "Start the book."

He chuckled lightly. "Right." He tapped his Omni-tool and a virtual display appeared in front of them. He began reading aloud.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams:"

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

"This planet has—or rather had—a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time – "

Her nose scrunched up. "Where's the part about space?"

"Well that comes a bit later, after the main character escapes Earth…"

"Skip to that part."

He scowled at her. "Impatient much?"

She growled huskily into his ear. "Just skip to it already…"

"Alright…" His finger slid quickly across the virtual screen. "No…no…okay, here we go."

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is…"

"…The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination. Even light, which travels so fast that it takes most races thousands of years to realize that it travels at all, takes time to journey between the stars."

She dropped her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, a contented smile on her lips as she listened to the soft, soothing warmth of his voice tell her a story.

July 24, 2194: CIC

The claxon rang throughout the ship, its meaning clear: the ship was not under attack (that was an even louder and more insistent claxon), but nonetheless everyone should really get to their stations much sooner rather than any later – in common parlance, 'Red Alert.'

Miranda hurried up the emergency stairs from Deck 4, not even bothering to try for the elevator; she didn't bother to hit her comm either. EDI, what is the precise reason for the Red Alert?

Though EDI's body was not organic and thus not capable of using a standard tele-comm, she had designed herself a modification which allowed her to both receive and send its signals. However, she responded audibly, as she nearly always did.

"We have dropped out of FTL and are proceeding under normal propulsion in order to maximize acquisition of information regarding our surroundings and destination. We have confirmed the existence of multiple artificial structures in the Alpha System of significant size and power; nonetheless, we have thus far not received any response to our greeting. At this close range Shepard feels we are vulnerable on multiple levels and should be on alert for any eventuality."

How long until contact?

"What sort of contact? Communication contact could occur at any time. Physical contact? Our weapons will be in firing range of the closest artificial structure in approximately 1.6 hours."

Miranda hit the door to Deck 2. Any ships or stations in the vicinity?

"Negative."

She hurried down the hallway, reached the door to the CIC and paused, taking a deep breath and slowing her heartbeat, then walked confidently through the door.

Shepard was leaning against the right railing of the perch, looking back and forth among the galaxy map, the larger CIC, and the holo-display that Kaidan stood in front of, rapidly manipulating it to pull up data and images at her direction. She looked over her shoulder as Miranda entered.

"What can I do?"

Shepard smiled gratefully. "Make certain that Garrus and Keenon and Liara – and Adams – don't need any additional assistance; they've said they're good to go but that could be glossing over things. Make sure all the stations are staffed – but not overstaffed, we don't need people fighting over controls and fucking things up. Then…just be here; in case I need you."

Miranda nodded firmly and headed back through the door.

"EDI, confirm our greeting is still broadcasting."

"Confirmed, Shepard."

"Good." Shepard leaned almost horizontally over the perch toward the holo-display. She stared at the screen, glanced at Kaidan, then back at the screen.

It was ablaze with readings. None of them were inherently malevolent in nature; they were most likely simply the signals generated by sentient beings going about their business. But on the display they screamed in harsh reds and yellows.

"Visuals? Do we have any visuals yet?"

He tapped the display and it morphed into a vid-capture. Though distant and indistinct – they were still almost three hours away frrom the largest cluster of artificial structures after all – smooth, dramatic-looking structures could be made out against the darkness of space. Thousands of tiny bright lights twinkled on and off in a chaotic yet regular rhythm; hard, defined iridescent streaks stretched unbroken for kilometers.

Anti-matter trails could be seen lighting up the darkness on the feed from the gamma-ray telescope; they likely represented ships travelling to and from the hub of structures. Whether that center of activity was military, commercial or residential in nature was as yet undetermined.

She exhaled slowly, remarkably so amongst the frenzied atmosphere. "It doesn't look like a military armada."

Kaidan reached over to the railing and grasped her hand briefly. His smile was hopeful and reassuring. "No, it doesn't." He let go and turned back to the display. "Let's see if we can figure out what it does look like…" His fingers moved rapidly as he fine-tuned the resolution and focus, working to get a more informative view of what they were speeding toward.

EDI came over her comm. "Shepard…long-range sensors are detecting the presence of at least a dozen Dyson rings around the Alpha System's star."

"Seriously?"

"Well, yes."

Liara, drop by when you can.

Of course. What's going on?

We are dealing with some significantly advanced aliens, far more so than even we thought; I'm going to need your input.

Wha– how do you know?

They have numerous Dyson rings around their sun.

Oh my…I'll be there in just a moment.

The elevator opened and Miranda stepped back out. "Engineering's fully staffed; Adams swears things are well in hand. Weapons is…" she smirked slightly "…well, Garrus is there. He seems to have it under control."

Shepard laughed briefly. "Alright. Why don't you get on one of the consoles and pull the readings from the microwave and infrared telescopes; see if they can tell us anything about the makeup of the aliens' structures."

Miranda nodded; she went over and activated a console along the right wall then immediately began pulling up data streams.

Shepard's gaze passed once across the entirety of the CIC, confirming that everyone was functioning and working and that there were no obvious crises in active development. She glanced over at Kaidan. "So what do you know about Dyson rings?"

He shrugged slightly, still focused on manipulating and enhancing the visual feeds. "A theoretical method of harnessing a star's energy for use by a civilization. Likely a series of orbiting power satellites that wirelessly transfer the energy collected to power stations closer to where it's needed. But the scale of such a construction would be immense. I don't think anyone has gotten beyond hypothetical long-range plans – "

Legion interrupted him. "Before the War with the Old Machines the Geth had been in the early stages of construction of a Dyson ring; it was to power the central hub that would house all Geth. It was estimated that development would take 1,620 years before the first gigawatt of power would be collected."

Kaidan nodded appreciatively as he pulled in the first visuals of the Alpha System's star. "You said 'would' – have they discontinued the effort?"

There was an infinitesimal pause. "As I am no longer part of the neural network, I am not privy to the current or future plans of the Ge– Shepard-Admiral, I am detecting an extremely high level of unusual sub-atomic fluctuations."

Shepard's mouth twitched as she stared at the image of what appeared to be an ordinary, bright yellow star. "Where at?"

"The CIC."

– Miranda looked up from her console. "What?" –

– The door from the Science Lab opened and Liara stepped out. "Shepard – "

– Kaidan's head jerked back over to the perch to see her reaction –

It was empty.

Shepard had vanished.