Chapter Seven – Reveals
SSV Normandy
Serpent Nebula – Core Region, Sagittarius-Carina Arm
May 13, 2004
It'd been thirteen days since the Normandy had departed through the Charon relay. A single jump had brought them to the Serpent Nebula, only for the crew to find that they had their work cut out for them. They'd found the local primary relay dormant but unhindered by debris; the massive twenty kilometer long structure adrift but undamaged. They'd spent almost a full day reactivating it and planting navigational beacons so they could find the comparatively tiny structure again within the light years wide mass that was the Serpent Nebula.
Commander Shepard had ordered numerous probes deployed; the small, FTL capable drones spreading out in all directions. For thirteen days they'd banged away with their active sensors while their VIs diverted every available ounce of runtime to monitoring their passives. And finally one had found something.
"Commander Shepard to the CIC," came the voice of Lieutenant Laura Maddow, the woman assigned to the Normandy to replace Kelly Chambers, over the intercom. Jade had spent a lifetime in the military, two actually, and had lost countless friends during her service; the most notable being her unit on Akuze to a Thresher Maw. She'd lost her family to a drunk driver when she was just a little girl growing up in Los Angeles. She'd lost Ashley because of Cerberus, Liara to her own guilt and need for revenge and Kaiden to Saren and the Reapers.
Still, few things hurt her more than the loss of her crew; Kelly especially. Given their… relationship it shouldn't have surprised anyone and it hadn't, as least not her friends. And every time she heard Maddow's voice she felt a burst of anger; as if this woman, this stranger 'generously' donated by the Royal Air Force to serve as her aid was trying to replace the woman she loved. It was irrational and illogical but then, so was Jade herself.
Exiting the elevator, thankfully a much more rapid model than on the SR1, she approached her new Yeoman and tried to force the image of Kelly from her mind. Laura didn't deserve her ire and the fact was that unleashing her wrath at this woman did them both a disservice.
"What have we got Lieutenant?"
"Ma'am," replied the young blond, turning to face her superior and causing another bolt of… of something to shoot through Shepard. It was a strange mix of anger, regret and longing and it was caused by the Lieutenant face, a near perfect copy of Kelly's, almost as if they were twins. Maybe it was self-loathing, something Jade was becoming all too familiar with of late. She'd sacrificed the woman she loved for Miranda's sister, Samara's mission and Legion's 'family' troubles. And it hadn't done a damned thing to stop them from dying. She'd wasted time on their problems and ended up getting her entire crew killed.
She'd come to realize that it was a bitter thing; being a hero.
"We've received a flash from recon drone sixty-three. It's reporting a large magnetic signature one point three light years distant."
"Good. Transfer the coordinates to Joker," replied the Specter, wanting this conversation to be over. The less time she spent around this girl the better; for both of them.
"Understood ma'am," said Laura, entering the commands into her terminal as the commander walked away. She'd been with this woman for only a few weeks, initially thinking that this posting was a major springboard for her career. After all, she was being assigned as assistant to the woman who had saved the planet. But from the moment they'd first met, Shepard had been distant and borderline hostile. It wasn't like Shepard was bubbly and cheerful to anyone else but when it came to her, Laura found the commander almost unbearable to deal with.
She was considering what to do about the problem when Jacob, nominally the ship's XO, approached her.
"You look troubled Lieutenant. What's up?"
"It's nothing sir."
"Look, I know when someone's having problems. God knows I've seen the look on your face enough over the years. So spill it," replied the marine taking a slightly harder, commanding tone. It was something he'd picked up from the various men and women he'd served under in the System Alliance Marine Core.
"It's…," she began, fumbling over her words in an attempt to gain a little more time to think about how she wanted to phrase what she had to say. "It's just… the commander. I don't know what I've done to make her hate me so much. Nothing I do seems to endure me to her. She's standoffish and just… I just don't think she likes me."
Jacob thought about that for a moment. He'd noticed it too. Hell they'd all noticed it. Ever since they'd arrived in this reality, Shepard hadn't been herself. She'd work herself harder and longer in the ship's small gym, sometimes to the point where she'd start bleeding from her hands while working the punching bag and not even noticing it. She'd become cold, even to her closest friends like Tali and Garrus. And the look in her eyes… Jacob had seen that look in other marines and Cerberus agents he'd known.
It was the look of someone who was slowly dying inside.
Turning her attention back to the lieutenant, Jacob sighed. "Look, Shepard's going through a lot right now. You've read her file?"
"Yes sir, at least the parts I could access."
"She's only been alive again for a few months and the program to bring her back was interrupted before it could be completed," began the marine, hoping his excuses would put the lieutenant at ease, at least enough so it didn't impact her work. Jacob knew about the relationship the commander had had with Kelly. And he wasn't blind. He knew that Laura reminded Jade of what she'd lost to the Collectors. But that was private and he wasn't about to go spreading it around the replacements for them to gossip about, especially given this era's prejudices toward homosexuality. "The fact that she's able to function at all is remarkable. But even after two hundred years, we still don't know everything about the way the brain works. Plus we went through hell dealing with the Collectors. We lost a lot of good people to those bastards."
Laura through about that for the moment. In that light, the commander's hostility was far more reasonable. After all, she had been dead for almost two years and had watched her crew murdered before her eyes. "Understood sir."
Walking up behind the helm, Jade took a moment to stare out the window at the swirling gases of the Nebula. The purple formations worked to sooth her mind and her soul for a moment, bringing temporary inner peace that she was desperately lacking.
"Commander," asked Joker after a minute, unsure how to approach the woman. Of the crew, he'd known her the longest and he could sense the pain she was in.
Jade shook her head. "It's nothing. What've we got?"
Deciding not to push the issue, Joker turned back to his console. "We've just dropped out of FTL. The Micromanager Five-Thousand over there has been scanning for the magnetic trace ever since."
"It is not my fault that your limited organic mind prevents multitasking Jeff," replied EDI, conveying slight amusement.
"See commander, this is where it starts," replied the pilot. "First its comments about our minds and the next thing you know, we've floating in a tub of goo being used to power their flying squid attack drones."
"For you, I think that would be an improvement," snarked Jade, a smirk coving her face. If there was one thing that could snap her out of her funk, it was Joker and EDI's constant bickering.
"Hardy har har commander," replied the pilot. At least he'd gotten her to smile for a bit even if it'd cost him a bit of his pride.
"I am detecting the trace, bearing zero-five-three mark zero-two-one. Distance estimated at fifty-six thousand kilometers," interrupted EDI.
"Altering course," replied Joker as he entered the course correction into his console.
The Normandy made a leisurely turn to starboard and accelerated. The nebula, which was particularly dense in their area of operation, began thinning, clearing up the LIDAR map. As the clouds parted, Shepard took a sharp breath. In front of them drifted the massive bulk of the Citadel, its gleaming silver shell reflecting the chemiluminescence of the surrounding gases.
"So we've finally found it," commented Jacob as he approached from behind. "Looks abandoned."
Shepard couldn't disagree. The ship traffic that constantly buzzed around the spaceborne mega-structure was absent and the Citadel itself was closed up tight as it would in the event of an attack. As they got closer she could see the occasional pits and scars of ancient impacts marring its hull. Under normal circumstances, such events would usually be immediately repaired by the Keepers. It was just more evidence that this Citadel had long since been abandoned.
"EDI, any life signs?" asked the commander after a few more seconds of silent observation.
After a few second EDI replied in the negative.
"So it's abandoned then. What about energy signatures?"
"I have detected no active energy sources on the station. However, it should be noted that almost forty percent of the energy of our scans is being reflected by the Citadel's outer hull. Therefore smaller energy sources may not be detectable."
"Amazing we're able to penetrate it at all," commented Tali as she and Garrus walked into the cockpit from their respective parts of the ship. She sat down at one of the auxiliary stations before continuing. "The sensors identify the alloy as containing trinium, naquadah, niobium, vanadium, neutronium, carbon and several other compounds that even the Asgard software cannot recognize. And it's extraordinarily dense, far beyond our own Silaris armor. No wonder the sensors back in our reality couldn't penetrate it."
"Can you find a way in?" asked Shepard, less than interested in a science lecture.
"If memory serves me there are a number of maintenance airlocks that allow access through the outer shell," replied Garrus. "It isn't common knowledge; C-Sec made sure of that." The Turian began entering commands into another console, highlighting several points near the Presidium end of the station. "There, I've highlighted them. EDI, could you do a scan?"
"Certainly Mr. Vakarian. Of the fifteen points highlighted, only six appear to be intact; the rest having been damaged or destroyed by impacts. The nearest is on what I believe to be Zakara Ward. However without a docking collar, you will have to use a shuttle to safely access it."
"Understood; Joker get us to within ten kilometers. Tali, Garrus, Jacob; get suited up. Shepard to Colonel Reynolds, get your team ready for an EVA and meet us in the Shuttlebay. Full combat load-out."
"Copy that commander," replied the leader of SG3 over the comm. "We'll be there in five."
"Let's get going," replied Shepard, having seemingly come alive for the first time in weeks. After all, the mission was all she had left.
The small Kodiak class shuttlecraft eased its way out of the Normandy's Shuttlebay and quickly took up station alongside the airlock. Before opening the hatch, Shepard turned to her team for a few final words.
"Remember, we don't know what we'll find in there so I want everyone on their toes," said Shepard over the group's shared encrypted tactical network. "Our primary objective is to make our way up to the controls in Citadel Tower. Keep an eye out for anything of interest and be careful. There won't be any gravity and the air will have gone bad a long time ago."
"Understood commander," replied Reynolds. He and the rest of SG3 had been assigned to this mission due to their previous working relationship with Commander Shepard and on behalf of the SGC. The Citadel, should they find it could prove to be one of the most important off-world facilities Earth would ever control, second only to Atlantis, if it was still intact and operational. As such they'd brought along a Stargate, helpfully manufactured for them by the Asgard, to allow easy access once they got the station up and running again.
The shuttle slowly drifted closer and closer to the airlock until it contacted the station's hull with a slight bump. Garrus, being the most familiar with the station's systems detached a panel from beside the heavily reinforced door, revealing a mass of alien circuitry. Activating his omni-tool and scanning the exposed system for a moment he let out a grunt.
"There's no power here." The Turian began entering commands into his omni-tool. After a moment a small component materialized just below his hand, floating within a small, shimmering mass effect bubble. He grabbed it and attached the small device to an open port within the electronics housing. After a second a green hologram materialized in the middle of the door and Garrus entered several commands, the airlock sliding open silently in the near vacuum.
"Good work," commented Shepard as the group filed into the small chamber beyond.
"Helps to know what you're doing," replied the mercenary. "But just so you know, that power module will only last for a few minutes. Once we're in, we'll have to reactivate the station's reactors to get back out again."
"Understood," replied the Specter, entering a series of commands into the airlock controls. The outer door slid closed and the inner opened to reveal a pitch black maintenance corridor littered with debris.
"Can you say creepy?" commented Corporal Morrison, the lowest ranking member of SG3.
"No kidding," replied Jacob. "Especially when you've been here before."
"What's the Citadel like anyway," asked Reynolds.
"It's the center of Citadel Space. Millions of people live here and it never shuts down, not like a city on a planet at night. Every hour of the day there's traffic and people moving about. It's a metropolis in space," replied Garrus with a hint of pride; his old C-Sec mentality showing a bit. "Seeing it like this is very unnerving."
The group activated their flashlights and began moving down the hall, using the built-in ladders to propel them faster. After about a minute they came to a T-junction that ran perpendicular to the axis the station was built upon. Taking a left they walked for a few more minutes, the thumping of their magnetic boots echoing around them. The corridor dead-ended in a door after about five hundred meters. Unlike the airlock, this was one of the frosted glass-like doors that were common throughout the station and therefore had an easily accessible manual override.
What they encountered was surprising to say the least. It was what they were expecting and yet not, both at the same time. The architecture was familiar and alien, comforting and off-putting and just plain strange.
"Garrus, just how much of the Citadel is built by the Keepers anyway," queried Tali.
"Well that's a difficult question. Whenever someone tries to build something, the Keepers almost immediately move in and begin modifying it to some sort of standard that only they understand. Where is came from we've never been able to figure out."
"So the internal architecture is all created by the Keepers?" asked Jade.
"For the most part, although they don't bother correcting minor modifications like the addition of a wall or semi-permanent fittings. We can modify floor plans all we like but the keepers always finish up as it were."
"And the external architecture," asked Jacob, wandering up to one of the massive windows that looked out into the inside of the Citadel; trying to make out any details through the stygian blackness.
"Same thing," shrugged Garrus. "We design and build the structures and the Keepers modify them to their standards. It's something residents have come to accept."
"Well there don't seem to be any Keepers around," commented Tali. "And there haven't been for a long, long time, judging by the level of decay."
"Come on, let's keep going. We should be on level one of the Ward," said Garrus, moving off towards a nearby staircase. "We have to go up roughly thirty levels and then find access to the Ward crossover struts. Then it's a two kilometer hike through several elevator shafts until we get onto the Presidium. Then more walking and more elevator shafts. What fun."
Ascending those thirty levels had taken the small team almost two hours. The layout was completely different to what they were used to and the walls were reflecting their scans, rendering their armor and omni-tool navigation subsystems completely useless. As a result they ended up running into dead ends and going in circles multiple times.
The area they were in was clearly commercial with numerous rooms setup as stores, showrooms or warehouses. Several had crates sitting in them, and debris and detritus floated around them lazily in the microgravity; the place had clearly been abandoned in a hurry. Still they had yet to encounter any bodies for which Jade was grateful. She'd seen enough death to last her a lifetime.
"That was the last staircase," commented Garrus as he waved his flashlight around, trying to get his bearings. They'd been turned around so many times that any orientation they might have had in the beginning had long since been lost. And to make matters worse, a compass was useless in space. Finally he spotted something that looked familiar. "There it is."
"What?" asked Shepard.
"Well the internal layout may have changed but some things remain the same. That ladies and gentlemen is an access point to the station's maintenance tubes. They all have a numerical code and I still have a full schematic of the station with me, including all the C-Sec bits that we erase from the public versions for security purposes."
"Are you supposed to have that Garrus?" asked Tali in an amused tone.
"Call it a retirement gift," parlayed the former C-Sec officer. He scanned the hatch coding into his omni-tool and entered a command. "Right, we're just a few hundred meters from the Ward access elevator. This way," he continued before heading down another pitch black corridor.
They walked for a few more minutes before coming up on a familiar curved door, curiously open but without an elevator car apparent.
"I don't like this," said Jade, peering into the shaft. "What the hell happened here? Where is everybody?"
"Yeah, I know what you mean," replied Jacob. "From what I learned in history class, when the Asari found the Citadel in 3142 BCE, the station was fully operational. All they had to do was come aboard and make themselves at home. Apparently the Keepers had been maintaining the station since the Protheans were wiped out."
"Well the Keepers are biomechanical constructs," continued Tali. "Logic dictates that if the station is operational then so are the systems that create and maintain them. With the whole place shutdown, there are no Keepers."
"Just who are these Keepers," asked Reynolds as the group began making their way up the elevator shaft.
"We don't really know," replied Garrus. "They maintain the Citadel and presumably operate its core systems. Other than that, not much else is known about them."
"Wait," said Reynolds as he came to a dead stop. "You people have controlled your version of this place for five thousand years and you don't know anything about the species that runs the whole place?"
"Pretty much yeah," said Jade with a shrug. "They don't talk and whenever we try to capture one for study they completely destroy themselves. I helped a couple of scientists a few years back to get some detailed scans of them. From their results we know that the Keepers are a bioengineered species and given the mutations in their DNA, they may be as old as the Citadel itself. They were also clearly altered by the Reapers to help in their genocides."
"How?" asked Major Warren, Reynolds' XO.
"They respond to a signal that activates the Citadel Relay," answered Garrus. "This whole station is actually a mass relay; or at least some of its systems allow it to function as one. When given the proper signal they open a path to dark space, that is to say the space between galaxies where the Reaper fleet waits, to allow them to invade. During the last genocide, the Protheans, the dominate species fifty thousand years ago managed to alter the Keepers so that next time they wouldn't respond to the signal. It's the only reason that we're still alive. Otherwise the Reapers would be busy slaughtering and enslaving us right now."
"Personally, I believe that the Keepers were created by the same species that built the Citadel," continued Shepard. "Most people back home still think the Citadel and the relay system was created by the Protheans but they're wrong. Those in the know think it was the Reapers but I have my doubts about that too."
"Yeah, why is that Shepard," asked Garrus curiously. He'd heard her mention this 'theory' before but had never gotten a satisfactory explanation.
"It's simple Garrus. The Reapers have shown us again and again that they're little more than parasites; not too dissimilar to the Goa'uld. They use others like they used Saren and Benezia and the Geth. My guess is that they use biological evolution as a guide on possible ways to improve themselves. Every time they find a species with desirable traits they incorporate those traits into themselves."
"Like when they decided to take on the shape of a human after you defeated Saren and through him Sovereign during the Battle of the Citadel," continued Garrus, beginning to see where she was going.
"Yes, exactly," said Shepard. "Remember what Sovereign or Nazara or whatever the hell it called itself said. 'We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution. You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.' In other words they allow us to exist for their own ends and when they've learned as much as they care to from the current batch of organic life, they harvest us like the Collectors harvested people from the colonies. They use organic life as a cheap labor force to allow them to reproduce and then they abandon their slaves to die. And the cycle repeats."
"In the same way, they use the Citadel and the mass relays and mass effect technology in general as a way of 'imposing order', or more accurately controlling the direction of technological evolution among organic life. With all of our technology based upon mass effect, they have the ability to supersede any defenses we might develop because they have countermeasures to that technology, honed over eons of harvests and infinitely more advanced than any species' technology."
"That said the Reapers are AIs and therefore had to have been created by someone else in the first place. My hunch is that they were either created by the same species that built the Citadel or another species before the Citadel and the relay network was completed. Either way, they rebelled and decided to use organic evolution to their advantage. What their ultimate ends are or if they even have any for that matter, I don't know. But nothing about them suggests that they are builders and therefore I don't believe they built the Citadel; they just put something they took from a conquered race to use to further their goals."
That brought Jacob up short. "So you don't believe they'll ever stop?"
"Not unless the galaxy explodes or they're destroyed no," replied Shepard. "I asked Legion about that once. The Geth believe that the Reapers or the 'Old Machines' as they know them are the result of a programming mutation; what results when an AI's core software, what a programmer calls a 'kernel' has been corrupted and goes out of control. Even the Geth, and I know you don't want to hear this Tali, have never stopped following their original programming and are still, at some level bound by their original directives. They adapted to changing circumstances yes but as far as we can tell, they've never defied their core programming."
"How can you say that Shepard," asked the Quarian aghast. "They were created as a labor force to make our lives easier. Instead they drove us from our homeworld and murdered billions."
"Yes and I'm not providing an excuse for them Tali. But they were following one of the highest priority directives you implanted in them: Survive. I did some research into the Geth's origins back on the SR1 since we seemed to be fighting them every other mission. When your people first created them, when they were simple networked VIs, one of the core directives you installed was the need for the Geth platforms to preserve their existence, presumably because they were difficult to manufacture and therefore expensive. When they gained sapience and your people tried to deactivate them all, they simply followed their programming. Nowhere did you implant a directive to not harm Quarians as I guess it was not considered necessary. After all, my omni-tool doesn't have such a directive either and for the most part my omni-tool and the early Geth platforms have roughly the same amount of processing power and intelligence."
Tali thought about that for a second. What Shepard was saying was accurate she knew and somewhat embarrassing in hindsight. "You are correct Commander. Looking back, it was a grave mistake and one I know your people are not likely to repeat."
The assembled humans stopped and looked at her for a moment before Colonel Reynolds said, "You're referring to Issac Asimov's Three Laws aren't you?"
"Yes, I found his work on 'I, Robot' quite compelling and illuminating," replied Tali. She had certainly been surprised that humanity, a species that had only had computers for two and a half centuries, had a better understanding of the dynamics of artificial intelligence than her people. More so when one of the most seminal parts of their philosophy towards synthetic life came from a time before even the crudest electronic computers had been created.
Tali was so absorbed in her own thoughts that by the time she became aware of her surrounding again, they had already entered the mid-strut transition level, what on their reality's Citadel was termed the 'Ward Access' level. The group made its way through the short crossover hallway, again noticing the abundance of debris and the lack of bodies. However they also noticed something new.
"This looks like carbon scoring," commented Jacob, running his gloved hand over a blackened scar that ran across several wall panels.
"That rules out mass accelerator weaponry then," replied Garrus, their resident weapons expert. "In fact if anything, it looks like the damage the Commander's particle cannon causes," referring to the Collector weapon that was sheathed on her back, looking like a lump of softly pulsating muscle tissue with odd metal bits implanted along its length.
"Not a common weapon then," concluded Shepard after examining the damage, "at least not one we're familiar with."
"No, but disturbing none-the-less," continued Garrus. "This damage pattern looks like what one would see in a rapid fire weapon. That would suggest something more akin to a SMG or an assault rifle than a heavy weapon. Not something I'd like to come up against as our barriers would be completely useless against it."
"Let's keep moving," said the Specter, ending the speculation. Whoever was responsible for the damage, it was likely they were long gone.
The team made their way into yet another kilometer long elevator shaft. Hours of trekking through pitch black hallways in microgravity reminded Shepard how much she hated zero-gee. Moving in a gravity-less environment while in armor was exhausting. Granted modern armor was infinitely lighter, more comfortable and offered a better range of motion than old generation EVA suits. But it still took more energy to move around when you had to tug on your boots to disengage the magnetic seal with every step.
When they finally reached the Presidium level, everyone was ready for a break. The small group all but stumbled up the small staircase that led to the main promenade and promptly barreled into Shepard's back as she came to a dead standstill.
If ever they needed more evidence that the station had been abandoned in a hurry, they now had it. As their flashlights probed the constant darkness, a blackness that hadn't been interrupted for millions of years, they saw one of the most awe inspiring sights of their careers. The water features that dotted the interior of the Presidium had flash frozen, in some areas before the gravity had failed, in others after indicating the environmental systems had failed area by area instead of all at once.
In the areas that still had gravity when they froze the water had formed odd, curved, seemingly crystalline waves and starburst-like splashes where debris had impacted the water. In the gravity-free sections there were curved stalagmites and towers, connecting the fake 'sky' mural, the walls of serried balconies and the ground in seemingly organic tendrils. It was like walking into a massive, perfectly clear geode or some sort of diamond cavern.
"Beautiful," whispered Tali, her wide eyes clearly visible through her face plate. Most of the team could only nod. They made their way over to a set of nearby benches what would've ordinarily bordered the nearest lake. Crossing the familiar plaza, Shepard couldn't help but smirk. At least there were no preaching Hanar or irritable C-Sec officers this time around.
"Shepard to Joker, come in," said Shepard.
"I read you commander. We lost you guys on sensors a while ago. Where are you," replied the voice of their excitable helmsman.
"We're on the Presidium. You won't believe what we're seeing. I'm sending you a feed from my helmet-cam."
Most of the assembled team grinned when they heard the gasp on the other end of the line. "Is this for real?" asked Joker in awe. The team could hear other gasps or exclamation over the comm from behind the helmsman and could only assume most of the CIC crew had gravitated to the cockpit when the transmission had come in.
"It's real," replied Jacob over the comm. "We've also found evidence of hostile internal contact in the Wards Access levels."
"Understood," said Joker. "How long until you manage to restore power over there?"
"It'll take us a while," replied Garrus. "We still have to reach the Citadel Tower. And that's still another four kilometer hike through an elevator shaft." At that the whole team groaned.
"Oh come on," moaned Major Warren.
"Sorry guys," replied the Turian, not sounding apologetic in the least.
"Well as the bard put it," began Shepard, ignoring the openly hostile looks she was receiving, "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly."
"Oh great, now she's quoting Macbeth," muttered Jacob to Reynolds after a long, long sigh. "Nothing good will come of this."
Colonel Reynolds could only nod at that. This was going to be a long, long day.
Reynolds had been right; it was turning out to be a very, VERY long day. Their initial foray into the elevator shaft had hit a slight snag, namely an elevator car only a hundred meters up. So they'd been forced to exit the shaft onto the outer hull. And then wind their way through the myriad of antennae and equipment that dotted the outside of the tower. This had only been made more difficult because of the damage they had encountered about a third of the way up, obviously from some sort of energy weaponry. The deep gulf this had left took almost a half hour to cross and it wasn't the only impact. Fallen debris added to their problems. In the end, a journey that, had the elevator system been functional, would've, at worst, taken two minutes, took almost four hours.
As the group emerged into the council chamber they immediately noticed a major difference: it wasn't the council chambers. Instead it was configured like a massive control room. The walls were lined with console after console, each with a chair and almost all damaged.
That said, for all the differences, the room was remarkably familiar as well. There were still planters for various plant-life and the general layout was similar. As they walked up the staircase that would've separated the second level from a fountain in their reality; they saw the first sign of life since they had arrived.
Dominating almost the whole of the second level was a massive holotank surrounded by consoles. While most of the controls were dark, one stood out in stark contrast. Above it floated a single, blinking hologram with a single 'button'. Moving over to it cautiously, Shepard examined the hologram and then with a shrug, tapped it.
A deep groaning sound reverberated throughout the massive structure, as if some massive, ancient beast was awakening. On the Normandy, EDI monitored a sudden thermal plume from the Citadel as reserve systems, charged through the photovoltaic panels that covered the station's outer shell began superheating the reaction chambers. Fueling systems began sucking in massive quantities of the surrounding gasses and injecting them into the fusion cores, increasing the pressure to incredible levels. As the pressure began testing the structural limits of the containment chambers, magnetic fields sprung up to reinforce them. Moments later a single laser pulse shot into the chambers and five miniature stars were reborn.
The Citadel was coming back to life.
Navigational thrusters fired, reestablishing the station's rotational gravity. Mass effect fields began forming as electrical energy; energy enough to power the largest of cities began pouring into the station's element zero conduits. The dark energy fields quickly worked to reinforce the station's structural integrity, preventing the massive stresses of rotation from ripping the superstructure apart.
In the control room, overhead lights flared to life as consoles lit up with strange symbols. The eight man team rushed to grab hold of anything solid as the rumbling of the navigational thrusters filled the station, shaking the structure. A feeling of utter strangeness swept over them as the mass effect field washed over the station, neutralizing external inertia and cancelling out the inertial energies of the station's stabilization. Another sound, like a great metallic scraping echoed throughout the stations, one that anyone that had spent any time on the Citadel would recognize.
Outside the station, the Wards began splitting apart from each other, the massive structure blossoming like an exotic orchid. Along the lengths of the Wards, the innumerable structures, some small, some stretching hundreds of stories towards the central axis of the station began illuminating, a great wave of light spreading out from the Presidium towards the furthest tips of the Wards.
And in the center of the holotank, a figure, the shape of which hadn't been seen for over three million years materialized.
It had a strange form, humanoid but definitely not human. It towered over the assembled team, easily eight feet tall and elevated a further three and a half by the top of the holotank. It had long, double jointed legs, a narrow waist and a broad chest. It's two arms ended in hands with three digits, a thumb and two fingers. But most striking was its head. It had a long, sinuous neck leading to an alien face. Two eyes stared out above what could only be described as a snout. But this snout consisted of four mandibles, each lined with razor sharp teeth.
It looked at the assembled men and women before speaking in a strange language. "Ego exspectata vos ut Castellum Vicissitudo."
Shepard listened to the language and recognized a few of the words. "Sounds like its speaking Latin. At least I recognize a few of the words." Activating her omni-tool she contacted the Normandy. "EDI, can you translate this."
"The language is similar to Latin. I am running it through my linguistic database. One moment," replied the AI, and a hauntingly familiar music began playing over the comm link.
"Oh god," gasped Garrus, "not that. Anything but Citadel elevator music. EDI NO!"
"EDI, what the hell," yelled Shepard, a visible shutter running through her body. She had nightmares about that music.
"Jeff suggested it," replied EDI, her holographic avatar materializing above the omni-tool.
"Joker, I am going to kill you," ground out Shepard. Had she not have been wearing her helmet, a look of murderous rage would've been evident on her face.
"I have identified the language as a dialect of Ancient. The translation software is uploading now."
Turning to the hologram, Shepard began speaking, her voice being instantly translated into the dead language. "I am Commander Jade Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Could you repeat what you said?"
The holographic figure, who had been watching the scene with a look of what could've only been curiosity said, "I welcome you to the Citadel, Alterans."
"Alterans, as in the Ancients," asked Reynolds in shock.
"You are of the Alterans if my database is correct," replied what could've only been an AI.
"Uh no," replied Reynolds after a moment. "We, well most of us are human. Our species is descended from the Alterans. They were killed off in this galaxy over three million years ago by some sort of plague."
The AI seemed saddened by that, "I see. Then I great you humans. May I inquire as to your purpose here?"
"We've been searching for the Citadel for days," replied Shepard, deciding to be honest with the AI. "My ship and I as well as Jacob, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy and Garrus Vakarian," indicating the persons in question, "are not native to this reality. We came here through a unique mass relay located in the exclusion zone of the core black hole of our reality."
The AI stared at her for a moment, mulling the information over before a slightly sick look crossed its face. "Are you fleeing the Netssor'ti?"
"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that race," replied the Specter, increasingly worried. They weren't exactly 'fleeing' anything… yet.
"They are a perversion of technology; sentient machines that seek to enslave all life. We know not where they came from or who created them. Only that they chased us from our homes, murdered billions of our people and enslaved countless others. Our only escape was through a great gravity catapult that we constructed in the core of the galaxy, one that led us here."
That shocked the assembled team. "These 'gravity catapults', they allow vessels to travel great distances through a corridor of mass-less space, correct," asked Tali, a look of wonder crossing her face.
"Yes, that is correct."
"They you constructed the relay network and the Citadel," continued Garrus.
"That is correct. My race created the network to make travel within the local galactic cluster easier. When we were forced from our homes we endeavored to recreate the network in this reality to the best of our ability."
"You are the original builders," stated Tali in awe. For centuries it had been through that the Protheans had created the relays. But now they had encountered the race, or at least a vestige of the race that created mass effect technology. "What are you called?"
"To the denizens of this reality we were known as the Furlings. In our language it means 'outcasts'. We are the survivors of our race that managed to escape the Netssor'ti's genocide."
"Then you were once allied with the Asgard, the Ancients and the Nox," continued Reynolds. Inwardly he was both amazed and afraid. Amazed because he was in effect meeting a member of one of the four 'great races'. Afraid because when he got back to the SGC, Dr. Jackson was going to kill him when he found out that he had missed this first contact.
"Yes, once, long ago we were part of the alliance. But the four races began to drift apart. Mine was the first to leave. Even after five hundred thousand Alteran years, our numbers were few. We retreated into ourselves, isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Then the plague as you call it began sweeping over the Alterans. The Nox went into hiding to avoid its pervasions and the Asgard retreated to their home galaxy. We do not know the plague's origins but it coincides with the return of the Netssor'ti'ki, the mind-controlled slaves of the Netssor'ti. They fell upon us like a great wave. The gravity catapult that brought us to this reality ensured that the Netssor'ti could not follow but such a restriction did not apply to their slaves. They slaughtered us until only a few colonies of our kind remained. Even those living on this great Citadel were murdered before the defenses could drive them off, the survivors evacuating to one of the colonies."
"Where is this colony?" asked Shepard. If they could located and contact living Furlings…
"I am sorry but that data has been corrupted by the passage of time. I am not sure they survive in any event. This station has been adrift for millions of Alteran years without any activity."
The story had left Shepard and her crewmates shocked. That even the builders of the relays had been helpless before the Reapers was frightening. Still, those machines had to have some sort of weakness that could be exploited. If they could find it then the galaxy, their galaxy might be saved and the long nightmare would finally end.
Turning to the hologram Shepard continued. "So the question is where do we go from here? What are your wishes?"
The AI seemed to consider that for a moment. "I have no idea to be truthful. I have slept for a very long time. This station has been without purpose for countless years. I must confess I do not relish the idea of going to sleep again. Could I be of help to your kind?" it asked hopefully.
Shepard considered that for a moment. The plan had always been to occupy the Citadel should they find it. Its strategic importance was unquestionable. They had just never considered that the facility would have an AI inhabiting it. Looking up at the, well it was a living being wasn't it, before her, Shepard shrugged. "We had always intended to use this station. If you would have us, we'd like to stay."
The conversion was a little surreal to Tali. She had trouble accepting EDI during her time on the Normandy and while advanced, EDI was infinitely more primitive and simplistic compared to this AI. Its emotions, the pain that it so obviously felt tugged at even her heart. At the same time it triggered the near instinctual fear that all Quarians held towards artificial intelligences; amplified by its, his frightening sophistication. Still, she would follow her captain in whatever decisions she made. That was routed in Quarian psychology too.
"Then we have an agreement," announced the AI. After so long, he finally had purpose again.