It took more than a week, but Dal Segno was finally able to sense the Hairless One near the range of the communication crystal she had left behind for that purpose. She pushed her mind through the connection in her desperation to get through.
"Hairless One, we must speak!" Fester felt a massive pain flare in his skull at the power and urgency of Dal Segno's tone. The rachni queen must have something very important to say, because she was usually much more polite. Fester blundered through the lab until he found the glowing purple crystal and grabbed it, his mind being drawn into the mental landscape of Dal Sengo.
"Alright, I'm here DS, what's the emergency?" Fester asked.
"The Yellow Note has returned!"
"You mean the Reapers? Yeah, we know, and we're working on it. Besides, you don't have much to worry about, the genetic modifications I gave you will prevent you falling to indoctrination, and it's passed on vertically, so all your offspring will have a similar protection."
"We had forgotten, the Yellow Note made us feel fear again."
"Feeling fear is fine DS, it's how you react to that fear that defines you. Instead of stopping, you reached out to do something. So, now that you have my attention, what can I do for you?"
Dal Segno thought for a moment, and Fester was entranced at the swirling colour patterns of her mental process, before she reached a decision.
"We wish to see the Child of Woe again. We would bestow upon her a gift to help fight against the Yellow Note. We have no way to reach her, but perhaps the time has come for us to return to the galaxy, even in a limited fashion. Can you contact her, and would you consent to us using you as a conduit? We would not ask, but our need is great."
"Yeah, I can get in touch with my niece. And as long as you don't mind sharing the secret of your acidic blood, I'd be happy to let you talk to her through me. Just let me check to see she's available, then I'll return here."
"Your proposal is acceptable. Our thanks, Hairless One." Fester felt the connection fade until he was back in his lab.
That's one hell of a trip, Fester thought to himself. Good thing I gave up mind-altering substances years ago, because I'd be forever trying to recreate that feeling. He brought up his omni-tool, pressing the button on the integrated Addams QEC to connect him to Wednesday. A few seconds after he pressed the button, his niece in miniature appeared on his arm, her holographic form covered in grease marks like she had been working.
"Uncle Fester, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon? Did you think of something on the way back to Noveria?"
"No, but I just had a very interesting conversation with an old friend of yours. I'll let her tell you what it is she's offering." With that he grabbed the purple crystal again. As Dal Sengo thanked him mentally, he watched curiously as he felt her take control of his body for a moment.
Wednesday watched as Fester's eyes rolled back in his head, and his voice when he spoke again had a strange double-layered effect. Rather than concern, Wednesday smiled, as she recognised the technique.
"Child of Woe, we are glad to speak to you once more."
"Dal Segno, it's been too long. Is there something urgent?"
"The Yellow Note is returning, we have felt its sour scream across the galaxy. But we stand ready to assist you. We are prepared to reveal our new home to you, so that we may give you a gift to help you on your quest to rid the galaxy of the yellow note forever."
"Wow… that's very generous of you," Wednesday replied, her eyebrows raised. She had been thinking of trying to get Fester to contact the rachni again, but it had been a low priority on her long list. Perhaps she should reassess that now.
"I would be honoured to see you again. Where shall we meet?"
"We will give the location to the Hairless One, we cannot give you the location through this connection in a manner you would understand. Our language is too far apart. We will await you there."
"I will be there as soon as I can. Thank you for reminding me, Dal Segno."
"We are glad to be remembered, and to sing again, because of you." with that Fester's eyes returned to normal, and he shook his head.
"Now I understand what Benezia meant," Fester said. "It's a little strange, but not unpleasant when you open your mind like that. I'll forward on the coordinates once I get them from DS."
"Thanks Uncle Fester."
Fester sent Wednesday the coordinates soon after the conversation ended, and Wednesday took them to the galaxy map. She zoomed in on the Seriph system, noting that the star and planets only had the barest of astrological information. The system had previously been remotely surveyed by telescope, and deemed a low priority for probe survey, let alone an organic survey. The only garden world identified appeared to have a highly toxic atmosphere, even to the hardy krogan. As Wednesday studied the little information available, EDI's hologram appeared beside her.
"Commander, is there a reason that you are interested in this system?" she asked. The AI had taken to not monitoring Wednesday when she was in her cabin out of respect, such as when Fester had called, so was not aware of the significance of the system.
"I've gotten a lead that this system may have a strategic resource we can use against the Reapers, but the Normandy isn't exactly in condition to fly right now," Wednesday replied as she turned to look at the hologram. "EDI, at our current rate, how long would it take us to repair the ship to take us to this system?"
EDI turned to look at the galaxy map, which zoomed out and a trail followed out from the system into the cluster and the nearest mass relay, then further through a series of other relays until the line came back to Mindoir.
"Based on current work estimates and system diagnostics, the Normandy can be ready to fly in eight days. However, we would not have the benefit of the stealth systems, which would be highly recommended as we would have to pass through several systems in the Terminus. To ensure those systems are fully operational, I would suggest leaving in ten days. Once we leave the system, assuming no difficulties, we should be able to reach the destination system in less than twenty-four hours."
"Alright, then it looks like we've got some work to do then. Carry on EDI." The AI nodded with a faint smile and faded away, while Wednesday just grabbed the toolbox she had gone to her cabin to collect and headed back below decks to help upgrade the drive core. Hopefully once the upgrade was done, it wouldn't give her a headache every time she was near it.
It took an extra day to get the Normandy-A spaceworthy, but they were finally in the Seriph system. Wednesday looked over from the command podium as EDI filled in the details from the Normandy's scans of the system.
"Commander, scans are picking up approaching ships. Checking profiles against databanks. They are registering as… rachni scout ships?" EDI questioned as she turned to Wednesday.
"That will be the welcoming committee then," Wednesday replied. She hit the intercom and turned slightly to it. "Traynor, let me know if we receive any signals. We are probably going to be hailed using some… unusual channels."
"Aye Commander," Samantha replied from what was shaping up to be one of the finest war analysis chambers outside of a fleet flagship, and even then it would give them a run for their money. She was running a communications scanning protocol when she came across the most unusual signal protocol she had ever encountered. It read like nothing she had ever seen before, almost organic in nature, and partially over the QEC connection. She couldn't make sense of any of the data she was getting from the channel though.
"Commander, I'm getting a signal like you said, but that's where my understanding ends. This signal is like nothing I've ever seen before. Can I ask what ship is sending it?" Traynor asked as she tried and failed to make sense of the communication attempt.
"Why don't you fire up the projector and see for yourself?" Wednesday said in a challenging tone. Sam was cautious, Wednesday sounded like she was up to mischief, which was always… interesting. Sam moved from the communications terminal and transferred the data to the central projector, booting up the rest of the programs at the same time. Including the real-time situational space-time tracker. As the holograms formed, she got a look at small ships that looked like they had been grown rather than built, before the computer helpfully tagged them as matching rachni profiles. Sam squeaked in surprise, before she swallowed her jolt of fear and hit the intercom. She was doing that a lot since she'd transferred to Wednesday's command.
"Is there a particular reason that there are rachni ships on the scanners, Commander?" she asked carefully.
"They invited us here," Wednesday replied, and Sam could hear the smirk.
"Next time, can you just tell me instead of turning me white as a sheet - if for no other reason than I think you'd like to watch next time."
"If I just give you the answers, you don't learn anything Sam. It's the way life teaches: test first, then the lesson. Congratulations though, you passed this one. Now, knowing that these are rachni ships, what can you tell me?"
Ok, I can do this, Sam thought to herself, before her fingers flew over the keyboard as she accessed archived salarian intelligence data from nearly 1500 years ago, when her ancestors still thought bows and arrows were a pretty cool thing and writing was a privilege for the elite. After accessing the ciphers, she ran the signal through them and began to make some sense of it.
"Looks like it's a 'Halt, Identify' message, though I'm not going to say that with 100% certainty. I'm using communications intelligence data older than most asari, which doesn't take into account language, cultural and technological shift over the intervening time."
"The intervening time probably isn't as much as you think," Wednesday replied. "Open a channel and prepare the cipher, I'll send back a message." Wednesday waited until Sam gave her the green light, literally a little light on her console turned green and she spoke.
"This is the Child of Woe here to speak to Dal Segno." The ravenette waited as the message was translated and sent back to the best of Sam's abilities. A moment later, Sam replied.
"It looks like they understand, for what it's worth. They've sent us a 'Follow' message. Can I just say this sounds a little creepy?"
"Sam, I know you're missing a lot of detail, as most of the people here no doubt are, but I'm asking you to trust me on this. Joker, follow them please, but I'm fairly sure they're taking us to the garden world, such as it is. Sam, why don't you test out that new long-range communication protocol you were telling me about." Sam relaxed slightly at Wednesday's tactic, trying to distract her by giving her a task.
Not that it isn't a bit of a cop-out on Shepard's part, Sam thought to herself as she went about her tests, but it's the thought that counts I suppose.
Joker was without his usual caustic wit at the moment as he followed the two scout craft further into the system. He too was uneasy at the way Wednesday seemed to be putting them within reach of the rachni, for Bob Hope's sake. As in, the freaky insects who almost wiped out galactic civilisation a couple thousand years ago.
Heh, Reaper lite, he quipped internally as his hands automatically moved over the holographic interface and he piloted towards the planet. The automatic scanning warned him of dangerous terrain for the ship as they slowly descended into the atmosphere, and all manner of warning lights activated as the sensors got a feel of the toxic mess that was the air. Only the rachni could live here, he thought with a minor shudder. Ten credits Wednesday tries to go out without a full suit.
Wednesday did eventually go outside, but Joker lost his bet to himself when she turned up outside the airlock in a full environmental suit. He couldn't figure out what exactly she was going out for, since the heavy metals in the surrounding rock were obscuring the ship sensors past 50 metres, but she seemed to be pretty confident. He lost her signal as she ventured further out into the desolate landscape, only her QEC connection to the ship itself giving them an indication she was still alive.
Wednesday was following the sound of the music she could hear in her head. She recalled in her previous life that Dal Segno said the rachni communicated by 'touching of thought'. She'd only experienced it once in person and then it had taken physical contact to achieve. As soon as the Normandy had landed though, she had heard the notes in her head, the song the rachni had composed for her, telling her where to go.
Wednesday wandered out into the murky yellow fog as the ground sloped downwards, until she came to a large cave entrance guarded by a pair of rachni soldiers, similar but much larger than the insane ones she had fought and killed on Noveria. Turning off the audio and visual connections, but keeping the vital monitoring signal to the Normandy active, she pressed forward. The guards nodded to her and let her past, and the fog fell away as she wound her way through beautiful, bioluminescent tunnels that looked like they had been melted into the very bedrock. She followed the song in her mind, stepping over the myriad of swarming worker drones, around the tall and armoured soldiers and even sighting chambers filled with eggs. Finally, she found herself in the presence of Dal Segno herself, the new Overqueen of the rachni.
The first thing Wednesday did was bow. It didn't matter that she was now the head of the Addams clan, and therefore bowed to no-one. When you are confronted by a creature that's bigger than some starships, you bow. The second thing Wednesday did was whistle at the impressive size Dal Segno had grown to. She was ten metres tall at least, filling most of the massive chamber that she was in now. Wednesday wondered if she could even fit in the tunnels to escape, should the need arise.
"Dal Segno, I am pleased to see you again. You have grown much since last we met," Wednesday said proudly.
And you have wandered further than most minds can comprehend, the voice of Dal Segno replied in her head. We have heard the Yellow Note once more, but we brought you here so that we may bestow upon you a gift. War is coming, unlike any the galaxy has ever seen. Even here we can feel it. We were once tools, beasts of slaughter used by the Yellow Note, but now our song shall crescendo once more to fight against it. And to lead this song of the rachni, we would have you take an emissary of the Second Singing Planet.
At this the gigantic rachni queen made a sound, part roar and part trumpet call. It seemed to echo forever in the cavernous tunnels, before a second, higher pitched call returned. Wednesday heard the skittering footfalls of a rachni approaching, before one crawled from a place nearer the top. Wednesday could already see it was another young queen, this one even smaller than Dal Segno when they had first met. On Noveria, the young queen had already been the size of a tank. This new queen was barely taller than a horse. She came up to Dal Segno and the older queen ran a familial appendage over the younger's shiny carapace, eliciting a sound of contentment.
Child of Woe, you gave us our name, the Return. Meet the first of our legacy, the future queen, the Preceder. In the terms you used to name me, she would be called Anacrusis. The younger rachni turned her head to her mother, before settling on Wednesday. She is the first of a new breed of rachni, since we discovered that our new home is rich in the zero element. Her biotics are her own, and all her children will shape the mass effect. We have taught her all we can from here, but a true queen must lead from the front to learn how to rule. We send her with you with our blessing and our hope, that when the Yellow Note is heard no more, the rachni will have earned and learnt our place in the galaxy.
"I am pleased to meet you," came a feminine, almost childlike voice in her head. It didn't have the commanding tone that Dal Segno had, even as a younger queen, it was almost inquisitive. Wednesday also quickly picked out the use of 'I' and not 'we' when self-referring, and wondered if that was Dal Segno trying to teach Anacrusis the more common form of address in the wider galaxy.
Before that though, Wednesday had to take in the enormity of what Dal Segno was offering. She not only trusted Wednesday to care for her first daughter, but she expected Anacrusis to be able to become an ambassador for the rachni with her. It was a tall order, to say the least, but maybe the fires of war would be just the thing the galaxy needed to finally burn away old wounds and forge a new, better future. Provided any of them lived, of course.
"I would be honoured to escort your daughter. I'm sure she will be every bit as useful to the galaxy as you are here, Dal Segno." Wednesday turned to the little queen, who was glowing biotic blue in her childlike happiness. "Anacrusis, do you mind if I call you Ana for short?"
"No, it sounds… good," the young rachni said with another biotic pulse.
"Good Ana. I will tell you now, your mother has given us both a hard task. It won't be easy to do but if it works then you will have helped secure the legacy of the rachni as protectors of the galaxy, not destroyers."
"I may look and feel young, but Mother has been teaching me well. I know the prejudice I will encounter, but I am ready for the challenge." Wednesday was struck at the tone of the voice in her head now. It still retained the childlike sound quality, but the words and inflection were that of a young woman, not a girl.
"As long as you know what to expect. I won't lie and say it will be easy, but the best things never are. You should ask your mother sometime about how I had to smuggle her out into a snowstorm in a tank."
"She has told that story, and gets angry when I find it funny."
You would not laugh if it was one of your appendages that needed to be removed, Dal Segno said with what could only be a mental pout. The giant queen turned her head and pulled out another crystal, handing it to Wednesday.
Child of Woe, take this also. My daughter can speak to me across the distance of stars to act as my liaison, but should you need it yourself, this crystal can link you to my mind. Wednesday took the purple crystal and placed it in an armoured pocket, before bowing once again. She let Anacrusis lead the way back out of the tunnels, the two of them getting to know each other on the long walk back to the Normandy. During their conversations Wednesday was intrigued at the way the young rachni looked at the galaxy, and was impressed at her biotic power and control. The human was relieved to learn that Ana was not at an age where she could bear young, as Wednesday didn't think the Normandy could take it. As it was, the young queen would only be able to fit in the landing bay, because none of the elevators or access ports could accommodate her.
As they approached the Normandy, Wednesday re-initialised the audio connection.
"Shepard, thank god," came Sam's worried voice. "When we lost the audio and visual, I almost panicked."
"I appreciate the concern Sam. How went the testing?" Wednesday said, hoping to derail Sam's worry before she worked herself up too much.
"Good actually. I've got some data to work and some algorithms to refine for really long range communications, as well as some really interesting data in heavy metal interference and atmospheric refraction and static of communication signals."
"I'm sure they'll be talking about it for quite some time. EDI, can you open the main hangar door please?"
"I can. May I ask why?" EDI asked.
"Well, I've got something that won't fit in the airlock," Wednesday replied.
"It this the mysterious item that you came all the way out here for?" the AI asked.
"More or less," Wednesday replied.
There was silence from the other end of the line, but when Wednesday manoeuvred around the final outcropping, the main hangar was open and the ramp down. Wednesday waved her hand and Anacrusis followed until the two of them were safely inside the hangar, where Wednesday hit the manual controls. She knew that both of them would require manual decontamination too, but that was part of the fun of it all. Taking off her helmet, she looked up in time to see the elevator open and Sam and Joker come out. She laughed at the disbelieving looks on their faces as they switched between her and Anacrusis.
"Hello, I am Anacrusis," the young rachni projected. Joker jerked like he'd been hit with a wet fish, and Sam's knees collapsed and she fell to the floor.
"Surprise!" Wednesday said with her customary smirk.
"Are you telling me we have a rachni on the ship now?" Joker asked, his face drained of colour.
"Her name is Anacrusis, though she also responds to Ana," Wednesday explained. "She's an ambassador, for lack of a better term."
"You're really lucky I have to fly back to Mindoir right now, otherwise I would be getting blackout drunk trying to wrap my head around this. Though, I suppose I can't say I'm surprised, you've always managed to attract the strange and unusual to this ship, so it was only a matter of time until you recruited a rachni. Just warn me before you manage to find a Reaper willing to fight for you, because I think we'll need a bigger ship. So yeah, that happened," Joker said in a steady ramble, before he headed back to the elevator and tried to pinpoint the time in his life where things had gotten so strange.
Wednesday just smirked at Joker's reaction, before she turned her attention to Sam. The dark-skinned woman was still on the floor, and Ana had moved tentatively closer. Sam reached out a hand at the same time as Ana reached out her own, the two of them tentatively touching their fingers, before moving up the arms. Wednesday was a little concerned at the open-mouthed expression on Samantha's face.
"Sam, are we good?" she asked. The question seemed to break her out of whatever trance she had been in, because her face broke out into a grin that would rival a six-year-old getting told they had free run of the galaxy's biggest candy store.
"Oh my god, a real live rachni! I've been fascinated with the way you communicate since I did that xenobiology course at Oxford. A lot of the theory is that you used pheromones for short-range communication, but the long-range communication is phenomenal for an organic species, especially since it was a form of quantum entanglement millennia before any other species discovered the technique. Can I ask you about that? Can you tell me about that? So many things I want to learn from you, so many people who faces I need to smoosh with the fact I talked to a real live rachni!" While Wednesday was impressed that Sam had yet to take a breath, her chocolate skin was starting to take on a blue tinge even as she watched.
"Breathe Sam, you need to breathe," Wednesday said, placing a hand on the specialist's shoulder. As if the contact reminded her body how it functioned, Sam took some deep breaths before and managed to reign in her enthusiasm.
"I was not expecting that," Ana projected as she looked to Wednesday.
"Honestly, I wasn't either. Joker was as pretty much right on par though. I'll leave the two of you to get better acquainted and settled, while we head back to Mindoir. I suspect this will only be the start of things before the Reapers show their ugly tentacles." Wednesday was glad at the development, though slightly perturbed at the thought of the mass invasion of the galaxy that was coming. She only hoped that everyone would be prepared to fight when the time came.
A/N: Here's where things get interesting. I've always felt that the rachni were under-utilised in Mass Effect 3, so here's the beginning of me trying to rectify that.