Persecution Complex Ch. 9
Thealon sat calmly in his chair in the bridge as he saw the phantom disappear from view under the ship. He returned his attention to the holoscreens in front of him as he examined the data Mia had sent, as well as study the star maps to try and get an idea where any major system was or the location of the nearest fueling depot.
He held a hand over his jaws in thought as he looked at the equation that supposedly was going to assist in turning the fuel used in this galaxy into something they could use. "Ruby?" upon hearing her name, the AI appeared on the pedestal beside him, "Will this work? Do we even have the equipment capable of such a feat?"
His voice was etched with desperation behind all the calm, not that she could blame him. AI as she was she understood the survival instinct, for himself and his crew, this was their only chance at knowing if they'd be able to get out of this.
She raised a hand and shifted the equation, correcting several mistakes, "In fact, yes," she said intrigued as the numbers and symbols shifted. "While it was a rough guess and made by a younger individual, it provides the grounds of a more sophisticated and efficient way of altering the fuels properties and usage." After approximately .48 seconds after she had began altering the formula she had it figured out, she scanned the systems for anything that could be used to alter the basic fuel into their more advanced fuel. She found it in 1.023 seconds, "It is possible," she said at last and Thealon let out a relieved exhale.
"What is required?" he asked examining the equation, making a copy and sending it to Dr. Frey.
"Time, this galaxy's form of fuel, and this," the AI said pulling up a 3D model of a small can shaped device with tubes and electrical devices all over it. Thealon raised an eyebrow and looked at the crimson woman that was the ships AI with a generally confused look. "This is a YTF-9085 matrix converter, it was a very common piece of equipment in this universe, and with enough tinkering it can be used to sterilize and alter the properties of the standard fuel…"
"Into something we could use," he said quietly.
"Yes."
Thealon stared intently at the device floating in front of him, studying it carefully. Then, without taking his eyes off of it, "It's the 'was' that concerns me," he said glancing at the AI.
"I figured as much," she said with a small smile and closed her hands together, the image disappeared, when she opened her hands an image of the hangar opened up and Thealon looked confused as Kamau stepped out the Phantom in the hangar and was handed a small device by one of his troops. Kamau held it up to the light, it looked like a small can with tubes and small electrical devices covering it, though fairly rusty looking. "I heard them over their comms speaking of salvage they found," Ruby said with a grin and Thealon breathed a sigh of relief yet again. Kamau had yet again saved his skin and saved himself a trip back to the station.
"Tell him to bring it to Dr. Frey, see if you could help her 'tinker' with it," he said and the robed AI bowed and flickered out. Thealon sat back in his seat and rested his arms on the arm-rests as he thought. Frey and Mia were the only ones aboard with any real tech expertise, sure there was Romanouv, but Thealon wasn't sure if he could use…what was he thinking, Romanouv had installed one of the most complicated drive known to man at the time. He activated the intercom for the engine room, "Romanouv, report to the labs and meet with Dr. Frey, you'll be briefed when you get there."
"On my now right now sir," his response was and Thealon released the button and sat up straight. His eyes once again studied the bridge, several of the crew seemed like they were tired, Corporal Forress' neck seemed to be made of rubber as he fought to keep his eyes open, his head just spinning around lazily as he tried to make it look like he was just stretching his neck. Even Drex stretched his neck a bit and shook his head respectfully taking the cup of coffee Lieutenant Deatass offered him, she smiled and offered another to Haroum who declined, he was never one for caffeine.
Thealon took another minute or two to survey the bridge before standing, "Alright everyone," he said and everyone looked at him, "It's been a rough day or so, and I'm sure you're all very tired. Why don't you all go get some sleep. That's and order," everyone, despite their sleepiness, groaned and reluctantly got up and left, he checked to make sure the intercom was still on and smiled as he turned it off and filed out after Lt. Haroum. He saw everyone filing from their posts and going to their quarters besides essential crew members, who swapped positions with those who changed shifts with them.
He laid down in his bed, which was in his own private quarters not too far from the bridge, and stared at the ceiling. He thought, for that was all he felt he could do, his eyes were not heavy, his mind was still fully active. After several minutes he got up and walked down the hall and took the elevator to the mess hall and got a cup of water and sat down at the table. He rested his head in his hand as he swirled the clear liquid around in its container before taking a small sip of it. His advanced hearing picked up very quiet footsteps in the otherwise still room, he looked over and saw Ellenor walking up casually and saw him.
"Thealon," she greeted with a salute.
"At ease," he said tiredly, "What are you doing up, it's late and it's been a long day?"
She shrugged and sat down beside him, a single light overhead being the only light in the entire large room, "I could ask you the same thing."
He shrugged, "Thinking too much. As I am fond of saying, never leave a man to alone to think when he knows the situation he's in," he said and took another sip of the water.
She watched the cup in his hand as he drew it to his jaws and lowered it, she seemed in thought. "Worried about getting back?"
Thealon exhaled, "Isn't everyone?"
"Well of course," she said looking him in the eye calmly, "but not everyone thinks they are in charge of getting everyone back safely. Not everyone is you," she said and he glanced at her as she stared at him, she raised an eyebrow as he watched her.
He closed his eyes and sighed, "It's not easy, but someone has to do it, I doubt anyone envies me," he said opening his eyes and looking into the clear water. "You still have yet to answer my question," he reminded her with a small smile.
The Spartan shrugged, "Guess it could be the same reason, thinking too much, but I just don't feel tired. I don't think Vlad and Sloan are sleeping either but they stayed quiet when I got up. Not that I blame them, no one will be sleeping easy these first couple days," she said.
Thealon nodded, "I know…"
Ellenor frowned and looked at his cup, they were silent for a couple moments, she smiled a little and chuckled a little to herself in amusement. Thealon looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Just kinda funny, I was listening to two of the marines today, it appears some of the crew think we have a fling going or something," she said.
Thealon chuckled a little and shrugged, "Gods only know what makes people think such things," he said and finished his water. He paused and looked into the paper cup before setting it down, he smiled and shook his head. He looked at the Spartan and stood, patting her shoulder as he crushed the paper cup in his hand, "They're just jealous is all," he said and she laughed a little as he tossed out the cup. "Good night Ellenor, try to get some sleep, Gods only know what lies ahead, and we'll need all the energy we can spare."
Shepard lay in his far too comfortable bed as he looked up at the stars through his skylight. He didn't feel tired, so what to do, what to do. He got up and walked over to his desk and thought a bit, first about the crew and Cerberus and all that. If there was one organization he didn't want to be working for it was Cerberus, but one thing was for sure, they had money, they had resources, and at the moment they were the only ones doing anything about the Collectors. They had given him his friends back, his ship, hell they had even given him his life back, Lord only knows how they managed to pull that one off.
Speaking of his ship, while he liked the ship, he loved it really, he couldn't help but feel how…civilianized it was…if that was a word. Other than the giant gun battery and armory on the ship it just felt like a glorified civilian ship, a freaking cruise liner really were it not for its size.
Shepard took a deep breath, they had so far recruited Mordin and Garrus and were on their way to the Purgatory to pick up Jack the super biotic, after that they'd get Okeer. But there was something picking at his mind, two things really, one was what in the blue hell did they come across on Omega, something had managed to kill a whole group of Blue Suns and had escaped him. If he could find them, and they were willing, he bet they could be a valuable part of the team, that is if they weren't their own splinter group of some sort.
Only time could tell really, and then there was the other thing, he couldn't really put his finger on it, just an emptiness in him. Was it these god-forsaken cybernetics in him just making him feel this way? Then it hit him, what about Liara, he hadn't seen her on any of the dossiers, where was she, at the moment she was the only thing he felt he needed in all this crazy shit.
He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes with the pads of his fingers, shifting them to pinch the bridge on his nose as he lowered his hand a little and looked at his private terminal. A thought crossed his mind, he lowered his hand and opened his extranet browser and searched her name. There were articles of her being one of the youngest archeologists to date, interviews about her finds, more articles about her finding new Prothean ruins, a couple about her teaming up with Shepard and helping stop Saren. Nothing about where she was.
"Well damn," he said giving up the search and closing the laptop, "you're a real hard person to find when you wanna be dear," he said with a laugh and sat back in the chair. He let out a relaxed sigh and closed his eyes, now this was comfortable, he thought as drifted off thinking about what he would do next, who freaking knew what kind of things would be thrown his way and who knew just how bad they would be.
Thealon opened his eyes looking right up at the ceiling, it was a moment before he blinked his eyes and looked around his quarters, nothing had changed, not that he had expected it to. He swung his legs off the bed and sat there with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands as he tried to fully wake himself up. He shook his head and stood, stretching a bit and fixing up his bed before putting on his armor. He looked at himself in the mirror and paused what he was doing, he felt the spot where his scar was on his chest, a long slash went diagonally from near his right shoulder to his left side.
He thought back to all those years ago when he got this scar, many years ago when he was just an Ultra, leading a squad under Fortha Treltamee, his ship master. They went to a human colony and Thealon and his squad had shut down the perimeter defenses. Many aboard Fortha's ship were hesitant about his style of fighting and when he got groundside when the defenses were down is when all things went to Hell.
Thealon remembered it like it was yesterday, there he stood in the thick rain, watching the dark grey sky as rain pelted his armor and his men, but he stood his ground waiting for Fortha to land. It was time he was confronted about his ways, he was too merciless, to the point where it just dishonorable to watch and do nothing, he felt the humans deserved nothing like the filth they were. He didn't see them as the honorable foe that was resisting them with all their strength and survival, sure they fought dirty, but they fought desperately and to the last man, worthy as any Sangheili enemy, so why must they be treated less? If they went down this path it would lead to nothing but mistakes, terrible and impacting mistakes, so he had to be taken care of.
But he was guarded by some of his best and most trusted warriors, but Thealon had his own squad, his own friends and trusted warriors that saw his beliefs and the day before they had gathered together with the others who saw the way they did and it was decided. When Thealon gave the word they would fight and kill Fortha and the ones aboard the ship would kill those who were not willing to see the errors of their ways and leave Fortha.
Thealon watched the Phantom land and drop its occupants onto the ground, Thealon straightened, their men were evenly matched in numbers and strength, he knew and as Fortha walked forward, Thealon went to meet him.
"Ah Thealon, wonderful job taking care of the defenses, I hope the humans died slowly, yes?" he asked with a smile, Thealon kept his face straight as the rain pounded his mask and obscured anything that wasn't ten feet away practically.
"No Fortha," he said clenching his hands into fists, "they did not, they died quickly and honorably like the honorable foes they should be," he said taking his sword off his hip and pointing his finger at his Ship Master. "Any Sangheili can see that they are strong and have fought off the strength of the Covenant for five years. Why cannot they be allowed to join the Covenant, they fight for their survival, why should their fate be dictated by the words of the Prophets. Your tyranny ends tonight Fortha, I will not allow you to turn us away from the path of the Sangheili, what you do is not honorable, and I will not allow both of us to step onto that phantom," he shouted over the rain and Fortha stared at him. All joy that was in the Sangheili's face was gone, he had nothing but a stern, disappointed look on his face.
He took a deep breath and sighed, closing his eyes and shaking his head, "Of all the spineless wimps aboard my ship I never expected you to mutiny Thealon. But I always thought if I were to die by anyone's hands it would be yours," he said taking his sword off his own sword out. "But if you want to die defending these filthy dishonorable creatures then so be it," he said snapping his arm down and activating his blade, "I will be sure to kill you quickly, that is the least I can do for you."
Thealon snapped his arm down and activated the blade, his friends behind him doing the same as well as Fortha's men. The swords hissed as the rain hit the blades and turned to vapor, Thealon raised his sword and circled with Fortha as he saw the blades of his men and Fortha's close in on each other.
And then Fortha struck, stepping in and backhanding the blade, Thealon deflected it and spun around the stab, coming up behind him and swinging down. Fortha blocked it and the blades sparked and sung as Thealon heard more blades ringing out as the men clashed around them. Fortha pushed up and followed it up with a swing that Thealon blocked, they each made their own attacks, each blocking and deflecting. They spun around each other, swinging and blocking even when their backs were turned to each other. Fortha ended it with a sweep kick, Thealon fell on his back and rolled away from the stab, pushing himself up rolling back away from the steaming blade. They ran at each other and clashed swords they held them against each other as sparks flew, each pushing harder and harder, each blade lighting the owners face it was so close. Fortha quickly removed his hand from his sword arm and punched Thealon in the gut, his strength faltering for a moment, it was all Fortha needed.
He shoved forward and Thealon stumbled back, Fortha swung his blade, hard, and when Thealon blocked it the sword flew from his hands. Fortha smiled and moved in for the kill, he made a downward diagonal cut, Thealon hopped back but not far or fast enough, the blade cut through is armor and skin. He hissed in pain as blood began pouring from the wound, he grabbed his chest and sank to his knees, time seemed to slow as he looked around, his men were watching, his men. He turned his head and saw Fortha approaching and raising his sword, he closed his eyes and took a relaxing breath and opened his eyes.
Fortha swung the blade down and Thealon snapped his wrists out, activating his wrist blades, and drew his hands up to his head, the sword hissed on his blades. Fortha's eyes widened in shock and Thealon pushed up with all the strength he had left. His leg burned but he pushed up, he cried out as his chest did with him, he threw his arms up and out, effectively throwing Fortha's blade up. Thealon swung his arms around behind him and shoved them into Fortha's chest, the Sangheili choked and slumped onto Thealon's shoulder.
Fortha coughed up blood on Thealon's shoulder as he leaned on him and dropped his sword. He laughed with a hoarse throat, "Well done lad," a deep cough, "well done, I guess I had it coming huh?" he said weakly.
Thealon deactivated his blades and caught his Ship Master, "I did not hate you Fortha, only your ways," he said quietly and he felt the Sangheili nod.
"I know…I know, you'll make a fine leader some day Thealon, a fine one indeed," he said calmly. Fortha let out one last breath, "It's a fine planet this one you know," he said as Thealon set him on the ground gently looking up at the sky as the sun peeked through the clouds. "Quite beautiful indeed," he said closing his eyes.
Thealon rested on one knee, his knuckles in the mud as he breathed heavily, one hand clutching his bleeding chest as he said a silent prayer for his former Ship Master. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked back, he only had four men left, but they had won. "Come on Ship Master, we need to get you medical aid," his friend said and wrapped an arm under Thealon's and assisted him to the phantom.
"No," he said heavily, "I'm no Ship Master, Gods help me if ever I am one. Maybe another time in another life, but not now, I do not deserve such a title. We'll sort it out once we're on the ship," he said and his friends nodded and bowed to him as the phantom doors closed and the ship took off.
Thealon felt the wound and sighed as he put his armor on, thankfully it had been a very minor wound, it had only cut the skin and didn't even get through the ribs. He had to stay bedridden for over a week though while the wound healed, his skin sewing itself back together and the ribs, what didn't heal on its own was filled with an ancient mix that replaced the lost bone when hardened.
He walked over to his desk and grabbed his helmet, he held it in his hands, looking at it blankly for a few seconds before turning it around and placing it on his head, it snapped into place on his head and Thealon took a deep breath as he looked at himself in the mirror. His crew was counting on him, he had to find a way for them to survive, death was no excuse, they had come too far to give up now. He took a deep breath and walked out of his room to check up on Dr. Frey and see how far they had gotten with the device.
It seemed that Romanouv proved invaluable in the altering of the device, between Ruby, Frey, and Romanouv they had come up with a flawless way to use the device in the fuel system to convert the basic fuel into theirs. And after they had used what fuel was recovered they tested it to find it worked perfectly. They had just enough to get to another fueling depot and after a long, troublesome conversation with the ones running it, they sent humans aboard to get fuel, which they put on the phantom, brought to the Nero and filled it fully and still had enough to fill an extra tank to full, just in case.
And so over the course of the several days it took to sort that out they planned where they would go next and was decided that it was best to visit this Citadel and meet with the Council. If Thealon could get everything right, hopefully they'll go completely unnoticed and unrecorded. It was a two day journey through Slipspace and they made sure they were still well out of sensor range before activating their stealth systems and sending this Council a message.
It was long before they got a reply, decrypted and –coded it said that they would agree to a meeting if first they were to reveal themselves. So they organized a meeting area that was chosen by the Council with which they would meet.
"Zakera Ward? Where in the Prophet's ass is the Zakera Ward?" Thealon asked aloud slightly angry as he was getting frustrated with this Council. It was like trying to have a casual conversation with a glorified San'Shyuum. Ruby had a smug smile on her face as she watched him and looked at a 3D map of the Citadel and pinpointed the place on which they were to meet. "Thank you," he said chuckling a bit as he felt stupid for getting angry. "Inform the Spartans, Kamau, and Dr. Frey to get ready to go to the Citadel, Drex, you too, let's go," he called up front and Drex nodded. They walked out together and Thealon met everyone at the hangar as a Phantom was prepped, he saw the huragok Too Light going about his business and asked him to join them, he happily obliged. He stepped aboard and looked at everyone in the ship as he nodded and banged on the door to the cockpit. The ship pulled up and Dr. Frey, small as she was and unable to grab the handholds, stumbled, Kamau placed a hand on her shoulder without looking. When the ship had left the hangar and began its smooth ride he looked at her and patted her shoulder before moving his hand.
After several minutes the ship slowed down and slowly lowered, Thealon nodded to everyone and stepped over to the gravity pad.
Tevos, the asari Councilor, sat with the ever impatient Sparatus, the turian Councilor and Valern, the Salarian Councilor, Anderson was awaiting Shepard in his office but until they were done here Shepard would have to wait. They had been there for about half an hour after leaving the Citadel tower to meet this supposed 'new species' but they wanted to keep their presence hidden so this meeting was to be in an isolated area. They had, of course, arrived with a small task force to keep them safe, but the only reason they had come here was due to the nature and description of the message.
"This had better not be a hoax, there wasn't even a ship on the sensors," Sparatus said with crossed arms, it wasn't too often the Council left the Citadel tower either, only on rare and important occasions mostly. Tevos understood his frustration but they had to be calm and patient.
"Patience Sparatus, I'm sure if they wanted this to be a public matter then they wouldn't have cared if they appeared on sensors. Just give them time," she said and the turian scoffed a little as he looked around. Valern seemed to squint as he looked at something, Tevos noticed this, "Do you see something Valern?" she asked looking at where he was.
He remained quiet for a moment, "If I know stealth as well as I think I do, then maybe…" he said and before any of them knew it, a large purple ship faded into existence where before there was nothing but air.
All three Councilors seemed shocked as the ship lowered closer to the ground but was still a good 25 feet or so off the ground. The guards all tensed and some raised their guns, Sparatus signaled them to ease up and they did.
"Still think it's a hoax?" Tevos asked rhetorically as they watched a light form on the bottom of the ship and all three of their eyes widened as a figure dropped slowly out of the ship with his hands behind his back. When he landed, the alien looked up and two more like him came down followed by three tall armored figures that looked spookily human. In truth all of them were armored, all about seven feet tall, and all very intimidating as the five behind the first alien carried weapons. But the first one seemed confused and continued looking up the light beam, then two more figures came down, to all the three Councilors surprise, a human in a lab coat paired with a creature similar to a Hanar.
The bulbous creature however floated above the ground and had six eyes, three black orbs on each side of its long head, there was no apparent mouth on it. The first alien that had come down nodded when the two landed and he walked over to them, they expected a long time spent on the language barrier, but they were shocked when he placed a fist to his chest and bowed.
"Councilors I would presume, I am Rioc'Thealon. My friends call me Thealon," he said with a tough voice, but they understood him to their shock. "I am Shipmaster of the ship the Nero and my intentions here are non-hostile I promise you."
Tevos looked at her fellow Councilors in shock and opened her mouth, she was half expecting him to understand but I couldn't hurt, "Greetings Shipmaster," she said calmly. "I am Tevos, the asari Councilor, this is Sparatus the turian Councilor, and Valern the salarian Councilor," she said watching him carefully and he nodded to each one of them. "If you don't mind me asking," she began.
"How is it we understand you and you us?" he finished with a cocked eyebrow, she nodded. "I will get to that, these are my companions," he said waving to the group behind him, one reminded Tevos of a very tall quarian. "This is Kamau'Orthel, Drex'Yulta, Vlad, Sloan, Ellenor, Elizabeth Frey, and Too Light," he said introducing them in the line they were standing in. The human, the normal looking one at least, seemed very excited and was trying and failing to contain it. "Drex, Kamau, and I are all Sangheili, Vlad, Sloan, Ellenor, and Dr. Frey are all human, as I assume you know, and Too Light is a huragok, an engineer race very skilled with technology. I apologize for the lengthy introduction but I feel all who are with me are worthy of being named," he said and the three Councilors nodded.
"Now I believe you asked how it was we understood each other, yes?" he asked and Tevos nodded. "I would assume you all know English, a widely used human language?" he asked and again they nodded, "Well as you can see we have humans with us, I promise you that while this may be lengthy and hard to understand or comprehend do trust me." He almost seemed to be pleading, hoping they would understand something, again, they nodded. "As of one week and two days ago we entered your…galaxy and were attacked by a synthetic species you call the geth, is that right?" they looked among themselves cautiously and Tevos nodded. "After this attack we were contacted by a race you call the quarians, upon meeting with them we acquired a universal translator for all known languages. That should hopefully answer several of your questions," he finished and waited them to say something.
Sparatus spoke up, "How is it you know the humans then?" he asked suspiciously.
Thealon took a deep breath, touchy subject maybe? "It is a complicated story, and as I have said, while it is confusing and will be hard to believe I hope you can put enough trust in me to believe it," the councilors nodded again and he began. "Where we came from humans were at war with a power of several races under one pact, this power was the Covenant, my race was the leading military power and all followed under the Prophet's word, our leaders. The humans were considered filth, an abomination and we were told by our 'magnificent' Prophets," he said with disgust in his voice, "that they were unworthy of the Great Journey, the religion for which we followed. And so for many years humans fought against galactic genocide, each world which was found inhabited by them was glassed until we reached earth. There the Prophets betrayed the Sangheili, and our Arbiter, a very powerful religious figure important to our kind even before the joining of the Covenant, lead us against them.
"We learned that the rings, the Halo's as they were called, once sacred to us, were really super weapons designed by a long dead race to wipe out all life in the galaxy to protect us from the parasite known as the flood." As he finished he turned and held up his hand to Dr. Frey, she put a small device in his had and he held it up, a blue hologram grew from his hand and showed a small diseased looking animal as it skittered around. "This is the Flood, it is a parasite that has one goal, to further its species, and to do that, they killed everything in their path and brought the dead back to life," his face was dead serious and his tone was full of content as the creature shrunk and multiplied. The small bulbous things jumped onto a human and he panicked, flailing his arms as the things overpowered him and he fell to the ground dead. Suddenly one of the things buried itself in him and he started to flail about, his skin turned pale and growths grew on him and burst and kept grew until it grew a giant claw from its arm and three little antennae stuck out of his chest. His head was limp and lifeless in a look of pain as it was pushed away from where it was, the head resting on the shoulder at on awkward angle, the creature turned and jumped with its claw held in the air, Thealon turned off the hologram.
Tevos felt her stomach turn, "As you can imagine we made it our priority to end this threat and upon finding the control house for the Halo's known as the Ark," the hologram appeared to show what looked almost like the Citadel except with more arms and it appeared to have water and land at the base. It also looked much bigger, "There the Arbiter and a famous figure known as Spartan John-117 killed the last and most powerful Prophet." The hologram showed three figures, one looked like Thealon in silver, old looking armor, another looked somewhat like the people he had with him and the third was a small looking man and the one like Thealon grabbed what they assumed was the Prophet and stabbed him through the chest, it ended.
"And the war was over upon the destruction of the Ark, we tell you this to let you know of our different histories and our stories so as to make what I am about to tell you more believable. We were testing an experimental SlipSpace drive, a reverse-engineered Forerunner drive that is, and upon making a jump the drive…" he hesitated and looked back at his crew for a moment before looking at the Councilors again. "Malfunctioned. We dropped out of SlipSpace and that was when we attacked by the geth. We have pieced together that we are in a completely different galaxy, your galaxy. Sangheilios, our homeworld, is gone, there is nothing here that is familiar other than earth. All I wish is for your cooperation in the future, a place to stay should we require one, and…your trust."
The three Councilors looked among themselves, it was a lot to take in, but all things considering they weren't asking for much, they weren't asking for a seat on the Council, they weren't challenging them to come fight them. They just wanted to survive and while the trust may be hard to just hand out, it will certainly be earned more and more in the future, they weren't threatening them and they definitely didn't look like the betraying kind. They reached a silent consensus among themselves.
Tevos looked at the Sangheili, "Shipmaster Thealon, we welcome you to the Citadel, as long as you are cooperative with us and promise to never harm an ally unless truly necessary then we welcome you with open arms," she said with a smile and held out her hand. The Sangheili, while it was hard to tell with the four mandibles, looked like he was smiling and grabbed her hand with his powerful four fingered one and shook it, doing likewise with every other Councilor and bowed.
"I appreciate your cooperation, I understand that it was hard to comprehend it all, we still haven't gotten over the shock truthfully, but we need allies in this foreign place and I appreciate all that you are doing for us. What we asked for I hope was little in return for your kindness, and I do ask that we keep this secret, when we wish to fully reveal our presence we shall, do not expect it to be long though." He looked among his companions and nodded, several of them, Drex, Sloan, Vlad, and Ellenor all walked back to the ship and were sucked in through the beam of light. Tevos marveled at the technology, and she thought the asari were far along in technology.
"If you don't mind me asking," she said shifting her gaze to Thealon, "do you operate on mass effect technology, you were speaking about Slipspace and I think it's safe to say we don't know what that is?" she offered and the other two Councilors nodded.
Thealon looked among them, "While I know how our history differs, where we came from it was 2592," they seemed visibly shocked at this. "I apologize if I withhold the specifics of our technology. But I will tell you now, no, we do not use what you call mass effect technology, what we achieved in space travel and advancement in travel were all on our own, not all of it was reverse-engineered, only most of the later advances. Such as the technology that unwittingly got us here," he mumbled. It was something of a shock to hear, they didn't know just how advanced they truly were, but what they have they achieved on their own. "But if you have any more questions myself or Dr. Frey here will answer, if not I would assume she has some of her own." And so for the next half hour or so questions were asked and answered in the best way they could be, if the question was deserving of an answer or not.
The huragok, Too Light, drifted around and picked up a gun that was against a wall, it belonged to one of the C-Sec officers who had set it down and was talking with some of his buddies. The officer turned and was about to say something to the huragok as it picked up the gun with its tentacles, but then it dismantled the gun in only a few seconds, the parts lying about neatly. Everyone watched as it picked up some pieces and examined them, it constructed the gun several times in several different ways before purring to himself and reassembling the gun the way it was and handing it to the stunned officer.
"Thank you again Councilors, I appreciate your cooperation and I hope we can do this again some time," Thealon bowed and everyone with him walked up to the ship, Frey thanking and shaking the hands of each of the Councilors before practically skipping back to the ship. Thealon watched her suppressing a chuckle and shrugged to the Councilors before stepping into the beam himself and being lifted off the ground into the ship. Which after a moment rose and simply faded from sight as it activated its stealth systems, even those seemed more advanced than theirs. From what they could tell by the refracted light they watched it take off and leave until it just became impossible to see where it had gone.
"That explains why we couldn't pick them up on radar," Valern said with a shrug before turning and walking back to the shuttle-car.
Tevos and Sparatus followed when her omni-tool buzzed, she answered it, "Yes Anderson?" she asked.
"Shepard has arrived whenever you're finished with that…thing, you know," he said and Tevos nodded as she climbed into the shuttle-car and buckled.
"We just finished up here, we'll be there shortly," she replied as she felt the vehicle rise and take off.
"We'll be here," he said and ended the call.
"Well, time to take care of another problem," Sparatus scoffed and Tevos shrugged.
"I would think dealing with a supposedly dead Spectre that now works with Cerberus might be more interesting than just a problem," she said and the turian shrugged.
"Whatever it may be, it should definitely be interesting to see what he has to say for this one."
"That we can all agree on," Valern said and Tevos shrugged as she looked out the window at the rushing traffic.