Chapter 10: Space Dust
"As you can hear, the clapping continues. Shepard is now being led into the Council Chamber. You can still chants of 'Shepard' in the background. For the moment, the galaxy is finally breathing a sigh of relief. We have defeated the Reapers, and Shepard is alive. This is Diana Allers reporting for Alliance News Network."
Miranda turned off the monitor screen. It seemed no matter where she went, Shepard was there. Miranda lied down on her bed. She had come to the Citadel to escape. The Citadel was deserted. There were only a handful of soldiers patrolling the different levels. There was a maintenance crew that was busy doing repairs. And of course, there were the Keepers, busy doing their own thing.
Miranda thought about the last time she was here with Shepard. She had told Shepard about the chip. She had felt so guilty about it. But Shepard said he didn't care about what happened and that it was in the past. He asked her about Oriana and how he can help. At that moment, she wanted to have him hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. It took all that she had not to tell him how she truly felt about him. She already knew he had visited Ashley in the hospital. She also saw him kissing her in the court yard down below. Miranda closed her eyes when she thought of that moment. It brought her pain even thinking about it. Why can't I stop loving him? Why?
They all entered the Council Chambers. There was a single large glass oval shaped table. The Council Members sat down. Sparatus motioned for Shepard to sit next to him. Shepard walked over and sat down. Ashley and the rest of the team followed Shepard and sat next to him. The rest of the dignitaries came in including Admirals Hackett and Hannah Shepard, Primarch Victus, Admiral Zaal'Koris, and Jondum Bau. Before the doors closed, a female scientist slipped in. It was Brynn Cole. Shepard looked over and nodded. She smiled back at him. The doors were closed, and two Asari Commandos stood guard on each side of the doors. There were two more Commandos that stood guard outside the doors.
Councilor Tevos began the meeting, "before we begin the discussion about the mass relays, I want to announce that we've decided to hold a single large memorial service tomorrow afternoon in London at the location of the Crucible Conduit. We want to honor Admiral Anderson and the many lives that were lost in the attack. "
"Now, we will begin our meeting. This is Dr. Brynn Cole," Councilor Tevos gestured towards the doctor. "She is ex-Cerberus. She left Cerberus awhile back after she found out their true intentions. She hid in a secret research lab along with her team continuing their research. But Cerberus found them and tried to eliminate her and her team. Shepard and his team rescued them. Dr. Cole and her team have been instrumental in creating the Crucible. The Council has tasked her to be the lead scientist on the Mass Relay reconstruction efforts. Dr. Cole, please proceed."
Cole stood up to speak, "Thank you, Councilor. Now if I may turn your attention to the hologram in the center."
A hologram appeared in the middle of the room. It was a hologram of a mass relay.
"When the Crucible fired its beam, it sent the beam to the mass relay. Then the mass relay exploded. Immediately after the Crucible had fired, we did not know the status of the other relays in the galaxy. But then we have received news from Palaven and Thessia that the relays in their systems were destroyed."
Dr. Cole can hear the murmurs and whispers around the room.
"How is this possible? Does this mean all the other relays are destroyed? How were you able to communicate with the other planets" Asked Prmiarch Victus.
"We are currently using Quantum Entanglement Communication devices. This was originally developed by Cerberus. Alliance got hold of the technology couple of years ago and they shared it with a few allies. The trouble is, you have to have a QEC device on both ends to talk. So far, we only have been able to hear from Thessia and Palaven."
"What news do you have from Palaven?" Asked the Primarch.
"I'm sorry. I have not had much time to talk to them. But they said they sustained a loss of over 60% of the population. I am sorry."
Primarch Victus looked down, "Palaven. My people..."
"What about Thessia," asked Liara.
"I'm sorry, Liara, Counselor Tevos. They reported over 75% loss." There was a collective gasp heard in the room. They all knew the Reaper invasion was going to cause a lot of casualties, but these numbers are just devastating.
"Dr. Cole, as much as I want to hear more about Thessia, please go on with your report," said Councilor Trevos visibly shaken.
"We do have an idea how the Crucible may have worked. When we were constructing it, we all wondered what it was going to do. It was missing all the conventional parts for any sort of guns or cannons. It was more like a large antenna much more akin to then ones used by broadcasting stations. After compiling data gathered before and after the relay destruction, we think we know what happened. Mass Relays work by creating a mass-free corridor of space-time between each relay. This can propel ships of different sizes. However, what is the one thing all pilots must do before entering a mass relay?"
"Tell the relay the amount of mass it will transit," answered Liara.
"That's right. After the relay receives this information from the pilot, it then uses the element zero core to activate the relay"
"How does this explain the Crucible?" asked Admiral Hackett.
"Up until now, we did not know if there's a limit to how much mass the relay can handle. Some have theorized it maybe infinite. Looking at the fact that we can transport our entire fleet thought the Charon Relay in such a short period of time might lead some to truly believe in the infinite capacity of the relay. But let us suppose there is a limit to the capacity of the relay. Then it changes things. Sure, this imaginary limit may be a very large number, and perhaps so large, the original designers thought it would never be reached. Therefore, they never built in a failsafe protocol to protect the relay against a very large mass."
She was seeing a few puzzled faces around the room and decided she needed to get to the point.
"What the Crucible fired was a wave of energy that contained electromagnetic energy as well as streams of data. This data is similar to the data that a starship pilot would enter. The difference is that this data gave the mass relay a number that exceeded its capacity. However, because there was no failsafe protocol built in, the mass relay does not recognize it as a problem. So therefore, it activates trying to push through the presumed mass. This overloads the relay, but not before it transmits the data and energy to the next relay and so on. A chain reaction occurred, effectively destroying the entire mass relay network."
The room was silent. There was a hologram animation playing in the center of the room showing a simulation of the mass relays being destroyed from system to system.
After a long silence, Admiral Hackett spoke up, "Dr. Cole, your science team initially believed the relays can be repaired."
"Unfortunately, we were wrong. We can't fix the relays. They are made of an unknown substance material. We currently have no way of manufacturing those arms from the debris we've gathered," replied Cole.
There were more whispers and murmurs in the room.
"But there is hope," said Cole quickly. The room became silent again.
"As you know, there are many relays out there. Many of them are dormant and have not been discovered yet. They cannot be scanned by conventional means. Even our own Charon Relay was stumbled upon. It was dormant when we found it. We used the Element Zero found on Mars to activate the relay. We have a theory - we think there's a strong possibility that the dormant relays are not destroyed."
"Doctor, I mean no disrespect. But how could you possibly know that?" asked Councilor Valern.
"It is because of the Citadel. The Citadel itself is a Mass Relay. However, it is dormant and therefore the Reapers could not come through. In the same way, because it was dormant, it was not destroyed by the Crucible. Let's assume this is correct. Then all we have to do is find the dormant relays in the galaxy and activate them. Once activated, we will have mass relay travel again."
"Dr. Cole, but you just said earlier we cannot scan for these other dormant relays and we don't know where they are," said Garrus.
Admiral Zaal'Koris answered, "We Quarians have been traveling in space for a long time. We do have records of a few dormant Mass Relays. At the time, it was more of an intrigue rather than anything of significance. I will ask the Fleet to compile a list for you, Dr. Cole. I don't know how reliable the data is, but it's a start."
"Thank you, Admiral. This is good news. In addition, there is another lead that I'm working on," continued Cole. "I've been studying Dr. Amanda Kenson's work. She was theorizing that many mass relays pre-date Protheon time. She came to this conclusion by analyzing the composition of dust trapped in the vicinity of mass relays and comparing it to the dust clouds in the same system."
"While she was using this to date how long the gate has been there, I've thought about using this theory to scan for gates. If there are particular types of dust that tend to gather around the relays, then we can scan for the concentration of dusts rather than relays. This may help us narrow down the search area for the relays. My team has already dubbed this the 'space dust theory.'"
"I may have something even better," added Liara. "While looking through the Mars research center, there appear to be Prothean data on mass relays. Again, at the time this was overlooked because it did not hold significance when all the existing relays worked fine. But now, it is very important. If we can go back to Mars and search there, there may be helpful data on the relays. If the Protheans knew about Charon relay, and its location, it's entirely plausible they knew where the other dormant ones are."
"Dr. Cole, Liara, you both have given us a lot of hope. And hope is exactly what we need," said Shepard. "But I do have one question - even if we know the location of the dormant relays, and have access to element zero, how do we get to the other relays on the other end to activate them?"
Dr. Cole answered, "That's a good question. We may get lucky that some relays are close to space faring civilizations with FTL capabilities. Even at FTL, they may have to travel several months or years to get to the gate and activate it."
Admiral Hackett spoke up, "Well Dr. Cole, this is something. Just twenty minutes ago it would appear that we would lose the mass relays forever. But you have given us hope and a plan. Thank you for your work. You keep at this and report back to us with updates. Outside the immediate humanitarian need, I believe the mass relay is the most important mission. What does the Council think?"
Councilor Tevos spoke, "I agree with Admiral Hackett. The mass relay missions are top priority for all of us. "
Councilor Sparatus then slowly spoke, "In addition, we must also face the reality that it's very likely we'll be in the Sol system for the next few years. So we need to start planning accordingly."
"Our Alliance government is ready to work with the Council to help draw up plans to find temporary and more permanent settlement for everyone in the fleet. Earth had a population of 10.5 billion before the invasion. Current estimates show our population is around 3 billion." Admiral Hackett paused for a moment holding back his emotions. "You came to Earth's aid in her hour of need. We will not forget what you've done here. We welcome each of you to settle here. This is your home now for as long as you'd like."
"Thank you, Admiral," replied Councilor Valern, "We appreciate your assistance and will move quickly to work with your government. In the meanwhile, may I suggest we ask Admiral John Shepard to overlook the mass relay missions?"
Everyone at the table enthusiastically supported that suggestion.
When the meeting ended, Hannah Shepard walked up to Ashley, "Hello Captain Williams. Congratulations."
The last time Ashley saw her was at John's funeral, "Thank you, Admiral Shepard. Commanding the Normandy will be a big change for me."
"Oh. I didn't mean that. I meant your ring. John told me about it before he asked you," smiled Hannah. "Please, come give me a hug."
Hannah gave Ashley a hug, "I am proud of both of you."
Shepard walked over to Admiral Hackett, "Admiral, thank you for everything. But may I talk to you about -"
"Shepard," Admiral Hackett interrupted, "I know what you're going to say. You're going to tell me that you're a solider and you belong on the ground with your troops not in a chair in the sky, especially a dreadnaught. Am I right?"
"Well. It's not that I don't appreciate it... but yes, that's what I was thinking," said Shepard.
"You may not have a choice. Admiral Mason died last night of wounds sustained on the final assault. We lost another good man. It left me with a vacancy on the Kilimanjaro. We are desperately in need of experienced officers in senior positions. You may be a Spectre and a Council member, you are still Alliance Military. Given your new titles and roles, I thought the Kilimanjaro would be fitting."
John looked over at Ashley talking to his mother.
"If you're worried about the Captain, the Normandy was assigned to go with you. So you can still attach the Normandy to your battle group. How you and Williams work out where to see each other, that's up to you. There's only so much I can do," smiled Hackett.
"By the way, I would like you to say something at the memorial service tomorrow."
"I will. Thank you, Admiral."