I sat in my quarters at my desk with a bottle full of serrice ice brandy as well as a half filled glass. I picked up the glass a drained it down then sat it back on the desk with a sigh. Finally the comm system came to life.
"Captain! Lia requested you to get down to the cargo bay immediately. It's the beacon..." I was already up and in the elevator which was headed down to the cargo bay.
The door opened as I ran out looking around.
"Lia?" I almost yelled out.
"Shepard over here!" I heard her voice to my right. I ran over but suddenly stopped beside her.
"Lia..." I couldn't manage the words but she nodded as though she already knew what I was trying to say. Before us was the beacon fully restored. Lia continued to scan it with her omni-tool as Jella stood beside her doing the same.
"I...did it." She whispered as though amazed with herself more than anything. But I couldn't hear her. There was a pulsating coming off of it much more intense now that it was repaired. I heard a silent whispering in my head as I slowly began stepping forward attempting to hear it better. Before I knew it I was being pulled towards it by what seemed like an invisible hand. I winced trying to pull against it but to no avail. Then I was pulled up off the ground with my arms held straight out to the side.
"Shepard!" Lia yelled reaching out but her hand was grabbed by Jella.
"No, we must wait until it releases him." Suddenly visions began flashing before my eyes. They were being forced into my head in a rush I couldn't identify, my brain struggling to absorb them. I winced from the horrid pain the visions caused trying to get jammed into my head. The veins in my head stuck out along with in my neck as I tried to breath but couldn't manage even that. Then the beacon exploded sending me flying back across the cargo hold on my back. I gasped for air and began coughing as I rolled on my stomach.
"Are you alright?" Lia yelled running over. I continued to cough until finally I could at least breathe again. She kneeled next to me putting a hand on my shoulder. After a moment I stood up and turned to see the once again broken beacon.
"Lia...the beacon...can we..." She shook her head.
"I'm sorry Shepard...Keelah this is all my fault! I should've scanned it more or-" I turned to her and put my hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about it Lia, there's no scan that could've told you I'd be…brain probed. In fact it's probably a good thing you hadn't; I don't know what would've happened if it was you in my position." She looked down a moment then nodded.
"But are you alright Shepard? It looked…painful." I thought a moment to myself.
"Yeah I'm fine but that was...very painful." I sighed.
"What'd you see?" Jella asked turning to face me typing on her omni-tool.
"I...don't know...it was forced in my mind and it's all just a jumbled mess." I answered shaking my head. She narrowed her eyes then finally stopped tapping on her omni-tool.
"Is there any way to make the visions make sense?" Jella asked looking down at me as I thought back to John's omni-tool.
"My brother john used something called 'the cipher'. It cleared up his visions to where he could make sense of everything." I explained as Lia nodded.
"Then all we have to do is find this cipher." I shook my head.
"The only way to get that is to receive it from the thorian." Jella nodded.
"So let's find this 'thorian'." I shook my head once more.
"We can't John killed it." Jella sighed.
"Your brother is reckless." I felt the urge to fight her but shook it off.
"But there may be a way. He received the cipher from an asari." Jella narrowed her eyes.
"I don't know if you know this human but there are many asari." I growled silently.
"Yes I know Jella. Her name was Shiala." Jella blinked one eye at a time as though surprised.
"Well then that narrows the search now we must find-" I held my hand stopping her.
"She's on Feros." Jella stopped surprised again.
"Well...to Feros then." She said as I nodded. She went into the elevator as I turned to Lia.
"Thanks." I said with a smile rubbing my forehead. The damn vision didn't help with my migraines I already got from my implant. She blinked in confusion.
"F...For what?" She asked as I walked with her to the beacon which sparked out the top with the exposed wires.
"For being concerned." I said with a chuckle. She was silent for a moment.
"Well...I was unsure if you were injured or..." I chuckled again.
"Also thanks for doing the impossible and fixing the beacon. That was really amazing to see it accomplished good job." I turned and went into the elevator which began to ascend to the command deck leaving Lia down in the cargo bay fiddling with her pouches around her waist.
I stepped out as Luci came on over the comm.
"Jella told me about our next destination. Approaching the relay now. Also I assumed you wanted to talk to Anderson so I sent him through to your omni-tool." I nodded to myself and activated my omni-tool. Anderson's foot tall hologram came off the back of my hand.
"Greetings Shepard, I received your report." I nodded.
"We had fixed the beacon." He nodded looking down at his datapad which contained my report.
"Yes you acquired the materials from crashing a turian mining station into a hanar owned moon? This has caused quite a stirrup." He said looking up.
"Actually a woman named Jack crashed the station I attempted to stop her but...I couldn't." I muttered looking at the floor.
"Don't worry Jack's been detained and sent to a special prison, no one has any knowledge of your involvement. The station was also owned by the blue suns wasn't it?" I nodded.
"Then no harm done. Now about the beacon..." I rubbed the back of my neck with my right hand.
"I just got back from it. It did work." Anderson thought a moment.
"Did?" I nodded sighing.
"I was...lifted by it. Then I was shown...a vision." Anderson narrowed his eyes.
"What was this vision of?" I shook my head.
"I'm not sure it was too jumbled up. We're on our way to Feros to get the cipher so it'll make sense." Anderson was silent a moment.
"Just like your brother. Alright be careful." I nodded then the line was cut. I sighed rubbing my eyes.
"We have a while until we get there, you might as well rest up." Luci announced over the com system.
"Thanks Luci, I assume you've everything from here." I said hitting the button in the elevator for my quarters. "Ofcourse Captain."
