A/N: I haven't (yet) read the Forerunner books. It probably shows.
IX. Forerunner
Juliana drove out at dawn, not waking her daughter. Lizbeth would have to handle their project on her own today.
The human Councilor had contacted her personally with a request to find the source of a specific energy signature he said had been reported by science ships in the area. But Juliana Baynham was science in this part of the galaxy; she'd have been notified if there was another science team in the system. No, Zhu's Hope was a dungheap of a colony, and after the death of the Thorian, only would - be treasure hunters ever showed up here anymore.
But that was all right. She knew there were no science ships in the area; she knew that this "energy signature" couldn't possibly exist; and she suspected the whole operation was a pretext to get her either to something, or away from something. Juliana had had experience with Council and Spectre meddling once before, and knew better than to ask questions; she was just glad to get away from Zhu's Hope for a few hours.
The monitor hooked to her sled's sensor board started beeping.
"That... can't be possible," she said to herself. But she followed the signal until it led her to the central tower of the ruined Prothean city. She glided into an ancient vehicle dock and dismounted, taking the energy monitor with her.
She'd never been this far into the ruins. ExoGeni hadn't allowed its employees to go on "sightseeing tours," before the Thorian was destroyed and the local outpost turned from psychological experimentation to medical relief.
The walls inside were covered with stylized hieroglyphs. Juliana fumbled out her camera and started filming the passage.
Tentacled monsters crawled along the monolithic walls, until they were met by a group of some sort of flying automata that burned them down. Further on, a giant ring circled what looked like a star, and later a hollow world was depicted, with a miniature sun burning at its center.
Juliana finally took a breath. Here was more Prothean history than anyone had ever previously discovered. She could imagine what her boss would say, though - it wasn't relevant to their work, therefore she would not be able to do any official follow-up.
The monitor was beeping faster now. She followed the signal further through the twisting passage.
A ship was being boarded by a variety of creatures, herded by tall, robed aliens. Juliana looked more closely at one of the figures - it was too small and worn to be sure, but it looked human.
That was ridiculous, though: there weren't any modern humans during the ages of the Prothean Empire. If those were humans, they would have to be australopithecines. Awfully modern looking humans, for being ancient hominids, though. But why would...
The ship again, this time emitting some sort of energy beam, the line of which led directly to a gap in the wall. A door. A small chamber.
She checked her locator. She was now directly in the center of the tower.
A soft glow filled the room. At its center, a crystal pyramid sat on a pedestal. Juliana hesitated, then reached for the artifact, the source of the impossible energy.
Glassy facets shimmered and moved, rearranging themselves until the pyramid became an obelisk. She held her breath, but nothing else happened, and she took the relic in her hands.
It hummed quietly, a sound like a melody she couldn't quite follow. She wrapped it in a soft handkerchief, then followed the hallway back out.
The giant ship waited beyond the door. Hundreds of tiny creatures, mysterious humanoids among them, walked off the boarding ramp. A world containing a small sun led to a ring, and the walls were once again assaulted by the unspeakable things the Protheans had been fleeing, chased away by the flying robots.
It was so clear now: The Protheans had been attacked by some kind of alien aberration; they hadn't gone extinct, they'd gone somewhere else. Maybe even to some other universe entirely!
This pyramid - obelisk, now - had played some part in their escape from this universe, she was sure of it.
Anderson would be delighted with her findings.
A Salarian STG ship recorded the change in energy readings, and briefly decloaked before entering the Theseus system's mass relay.
Councilors were never patient, but even this one would have to admit that this data was worth the wait.
"It's incredible!" Liara said. "I would never have thought-but how did you find these?"
"Would never betray my sources. Professional pride."
Liara's hologram turned the datapad over in her hands and smiled. It made Mordin uncomfortable. "I would never ask you to betray your pride, Dr. Solus. Hmm... It might be... fun to track down the source of these pictures."
"So glad I can provide you with weeks of quality entertainment, Dr. Tsoni."
"I don't know about weeks. Shall we take a wager?"
"Of course. Twenty thousand that it takes you five days."
"Thirty thousand, and it will take me forty-two hours."
