"I have seen the dark universe yawning
Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded,
Without knowledge, or lustre, or name."
H.P. Lovecraft
December 19th, 2187
Lt. Commander Susan Rizzi: Executive Officer, Normandy SR-2
The port observatory doors slid open and Susan stepped through. General Vakarian, drink in his hand, was staring out the window, apparently lost in thought. He chuckled to himself, looked down into his glass, and swished the contents about before he drank it down.
"She let me win," he mumbled.
"Sir?" said Susan.
"Sorry, Commander," said the General. "I was… lost in a memory."
"Care to elaborate?" asked Susan.
Vakarian laughed. "Everything on this damn ship runs on Earth time. All the logs give Earth dates. Cerberus saw to that when they built it, and the Alliance never thought to change it. It's taken awhile, but I'm adjusting to it, especially since I've been going through Shepard's old personal logs. She made notes every morning and evening. Liara passed a copy of them on to me for some reason. I didn't touch them for a while, but, ah, well, I don't have to explain the tedium of this trip to you, Rizzi. Anything to pass the time, right?"
Susan snorted. "I'm envious of you, General. I wish I had old logs to go through."
Vakarian sighed. "It's been bad, hasn't it?"
"The situation isn't good," said Susan. "I'm surprised Aznir Company hasn't managed to chew through the Normandy's hull. They're on edge. Krogan aren't meant for small places for too long. They need to get out. All of us could use some solid ground, a little sky above us—even the old spacers. Yesterday, Joker told me he was bored with porn."
Vakarian shook his head. "Well, now I'm officially worried."
Susan laughed at the dry joke. She'd learned to always laugh at the jokes of superior officers, but with Vakarian it wasn't a chore at all. The Turian had a great sense of humor, and an even better sense of timing. He was also personable enough to allow his officers to do a little digging here and there on personal matters if the situation called for it. She read his commentary as just such an opportunity, and she took it.
"About those logs, what sparked the memory you were lost in?" she asked.
The General clicked his omni-tool and a woman's voice spoke. Susan recognized it as Commander Shepard almost immediately. She had watched all the interview vids a dozen times over.
"December nineteen, zero eight hundred. I didn't sleep well again last night. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to get a good night's sleep again. Well, no sense in crying about it. I've got a list of things to do today. . Got a note from Miranda—going to have to track her down. Looking forward to seeing her, but she sounded desperate. I hope I can help. After that more meetings—endless meetings.
Some C-Sec officer named Noles has been buzzing me—something about illegal Batarian diplomatic codes. Today, of all days, I would rather not have to deal with anything involving Batarians. It's my brother's birthday today, or would have been. He would have been thirty years old today—fucking Batarians. Ah, there I go again, the old me coming out. One step forward, two steps back.
On the bright side, there's two highlights on my schedule. I've got Ash back on the Normandy, damn that feels good. Best of all, I have a playdate with Garrus. I wonder what he has lined up. Guessing that we don't have enough time to get good and drunk today, a damn shame, still looking forward to just hanging out, taking some time. I get so little of it these days.
Thinking about my brother again; when we were kids, Turians were still thought of as alien invaders, the enemy. We used to pretend to be soldiers in the First Contact war, my brother, sisters, and I, and the other kids. Johnny always wanted to play the Turian. We used to tease him about it. Everyone else feared or hated Turians, but my brother? He was fascinated by them. He learned everything about their culture, and knew all their weapons and ships.
I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to introduce him to Garrus. The strangest thing is, I think Garrus is more like Johnny than anyone else I've ever met in my life. What was it that dad used to say? The universe taketh away, the universe giveth. My brother is gone, but I have a best friend who is just like him, except he's an actual Turian instead of a human pretending to be one. It's the little things that keep me going, keep me believing.
One final note—still trying to work out the proper way to propose marriage to an Asari, but I can't do an extranet search without EDI finding out. It's not a good time to bring this to Ereba, and no way in hell do I want to ask Aria or Tevos. Dammit, I wish Samara were here."
Garrus silenced the omni-tool, sighing deeply. "Spirits, I miss her—more and more every day that passes. It feels like there's a hole in me, Rizzi, a hole that I'll never be able to fill again. I suppose it's going to take some time before it finally goes away."
It was a rare moment of candor, even for an officer as personable as Vakarian. It also hit home for her. Susan decided to drop her walls for once.
"It won't ever go away," said Susan. "Not when it's someone who made your world brighter. I lost my father as a teenager. It was especially difficult considering my circumstances."
"You've touched on this before," said the General. "But you never told me how he died."
"Killed in an armed robbery," said Susan.
Vakarian was intrigued. "He was a law officer?"
Susan shook her head. "No, a criminal."
The General shifted his stance uncomfortably.
"We were poor," explained Susan. "My mother was exposed to element zero when I was in the womb, heavy dosage. It eventually killed her. I didn't fare much better—cancer of the brain. The standard medical procedures didn't offer much hope, so my father broke rules to get the credits for advanced treatments. He became a criminal. At first it was schemes, long cons, but as I got older the treatments became more expensive and his crimes became more serious.
He never targeted the poor, or what he considered good people, but that made it more dangerous. He stole from red sand dealers, from money launderers, and eventually attracted the attention of a crime boss. They set him up. I was sick again, and he needed a big score. He walked into a trap. It wasn't a good death. They made it last, even recorded it on vid and circulated it on the dark corners of the extranet as a warning.
It was such a gruesome death that it attracted the attention of a high ranking police officer who learned about my plight and discovered I was a strong biotic. He passed the info along to his friend, an Alliance Admiral named Marco Silva. My father died thinking he failed me, but he didn't. His actions are the reason I'm still alive. The Alliance took over my medical care, and here I am."
"Spirits, Rizzi, that's a hell of a story," said General Vakarian.
"I keep him close, honor him with my life," she said. "Always get the job done, even if the work is dirty. That's what he used to tell me."
"An interesting philosophy," said Vakarian. "Very human, I suppose."
"Turian military doctrine isn't that different," observed Susan. "You don't question orders, you do what you're told."
Vakarian nodded. "Yes, though, truth be told I've never been a particularly good Turian. I have a habit of questioning orders."
Susan had come to that understanding only a few weeks into the mission. Perhaps that's why Hackett had assigned her to the Normandy, to ensure that Vakarian fulfilled his orders, as unpalatable as they might be. She hoped that the Turian could uphold his end of the bargain. She wouldn't like it if she had to put him down, and it wouldn't be easy either.
Susan put the thought aside. "Sir, not to change the subject, but why did you ask me here?"
"Ah, business at hand," said Vakarian. "Have you noticed that we are off course?"
"Yes, Sir," said Susan. "Nearly a hundred light years off course by my last calculation. I assume we are avoiding the S'eryan Star Cluster?"
"No, we are not avoiding, we diverted to the Kesh Star Cluster," explained the General.
Susan remembered the name. "Didn't that have something to do with the Krogan Rebellions?"
Vakarian nodded. "Yes, but long before the Rebellions there were old rumors, stories that the Kesh Star Cluster contained a Mass Relay. A team of Salarians went in search of it once and never came back. For some time it was nearly as much of an enigma as the Omega Relay, but when the Rachni War broke out, all notions of looking for new relays were abandoned."
"A reasonable decision," said Susan.
Vakarian continued. "During the height of the war, the Krogan were pressing us back on all fronts. Intelligence came in that they were looking for the Kesh Relay. They sent a significant scout fleet out into deep space to find it. At the time we didn't have the resources to spare, so we dispatched just a few ships ourselves, hoping that we could reach the relay before them. Thing is, none of those ships reported back, neither ours, nor the Krogan fleet.
In the wake of the Genophage and the end of the war, they were all but forgotten. A few ships set out to that area of space from time to time, but none ever returned. Ships go missing all over the galaxy, so no priority was ever given to Kesh in particular. So, I bet you are wondering why we are out here?"
"Yes, Sir," said Susan. "It doesn't seem important considering our primary mission."
The General agreed. "True, but when we were fueling a few days ago something extraordinary happened. You were bunked down at the time, but our com expert picked up an old signal."
"From the lost Krogan ships?" asked Susan.
"No," said Vakarian. "Something older than that. In the early days of Asari space exploration, there were twenty-eight matriarchs that went out into deep space, a sort of pilgrimage if you will. They were obsessed with obtaining ultimate knowledge. Only six of the matriarchs ever returned. Of the other twenty-two, only the ship and remains of Matriarch Dilinaga were found, until now."
Susan was intrigued. "A beacon of some sort?"
"Yes," said General Vakarian. "It's an old radio signal, so we're lucky we picked it up at all, but Specialist Sachs is damn near as capable as Traynor. He was scanning the last system we were refueling at and he picked up some background noise. He ran it through the ships VI. An inverse square calculation with a gamma filter logarithm determined the signal strength and origin. It was a three hundred thousand watt signal, just over four hundred seventy-three light years distance.
Sachs matched it to an Asari ship named the Andan-Taril'shar, which was a deep space explorer commanded by Matriarch Amosa. It was pure luck, really, that we picked up the signal. We're near the origin system now, but it's no longer broadcasting. It probably hasn't been for several centuries."
"So we caught the tail end of its broadcast wave, lucky us. Still, Sir, why have we gone off course for this? These are not our orders," said Susan.
"It's only x minus fifty-four and z minus ninety-six off our travel path—just under four days. As a Council Spectre, I'm allowed a total a deviation of ten standard days for anything I feel is important, and I'm required by interstellar law to divert to any category one coordinates within the same range," explained Vakarian.
"I imagine the Council considers lost matriarchs category one," said Susan.
"Exactly," said the General.
"How is Wrex handling this?" asked Susan.
General Vakarian snorted. "Much better than I expected. He was damn near enthusiastic. He's hoping that finding this Asari ship will help solve the mystery of the missing Krogan fleet as well, or at least give us a clue. In his best case scenario, he finds a lost Krogan colony."
"One that would never have been exposed to the Genophage," said Susan. "There could be billions of hostile Krogan in this cluster."
The General shook his head. "Unlikely, we would have seen something by now, or picked up a signal. The only thing that Sachs has discovered is a series of frequencies at the hydrogen line, perhaps some primitive society searching for life out there for the past few centuries."
"Well, they couldn't have picked a worse time to broadcast," said Susan. "If it was an alien race, the Reapers would have picked up that signal and determined they were advanced enough to harvest."
Vakarian sighed. "You're a morbid person, Rizzi, but you're probably right. In fact, it's my suspicion that there's a Reaper stronghold out here, something similar to the Collector Base we found at the center of the galaxy. It's the most likely explanation for all the missing ships."
"The thought had occurred to me, but if there is a relay, then they would have been hit by the Destruction Virus as well," said Susan. "If there isn't a relay, then we could have a Reaper stronghold that survived the war. That is not a good thing."
"Which means, it could start all over again," said the General. "Another reason we should investigate. Have your team ready by 0600, Rizzi. I've already informed Lieutenant Sallikus of the same. Wrex has put Aznir Company on standby as well. We'll draw lots for priority designations.
"Yes, Sir," said Rizzi. "Finally, some action."
"Spirits, this is nothing to be enthused about, Commander," said Vakarian.
"Sorry, Sir, anything at all to break this monotony, even a stranded Reaper," said Susan.
"Dismissed," said the General.
Susan made her exit. Just before the door closed, she thought she heard Vakarian curse at her under his breath.
The eezo core on the Kodiak shuttle throbbed with a familiar resonance as it slipped ever closer to their destination. Susan was looking over the deck plans of the ancient Asari vessel while her team worked out their nervous energy on each other. Lieutenant Ito, who had proven herself to be a competent if not inspired shuttle pilot, was at the helm. They were running in stealth as a mere precaution. Judging from the early scans, the Andan-Taril'shar's eezo core and fusion reactor had been offline for centuries.
Most peculiar though, at least in Susan's mind, was the complete lack of eezo readings. The ship's core might have been ejected into space following an accident, still, there should be some traces of it in the star system. There were six planets in the uncharted system. The crew of the Normandy—Human, Turian, and Krogan, were arguing over what to name the star and the planets. Susan had a notion that the Krogan would win out, especially if Aznir Company confirmed that the abandoned structures on the second planet were indeed Krogan in origin.
"Did you see the look on his face? Sallikus was pissed," said Biggs.
"Can't blame him," said Farrell. "An Asari ship, lost for thousands of years, and humans, not Turians, will be the first to step foot on it."
"I'm just glad that Wurn and the rest of the Krogan are going planet-side. They need to let off some steam man, they were getting freaky as hell. I thought one of their warriors was going to eat Snow White yesterday," said Biggs.
"Can you blame them?" wondered Farrell. "I mean, look at her, she's so tasty!"
Baclanova shot Farrell a faux angry glance. "Zhatknis blyat!"
"Sorry, Snow White," said Farrell. "My translator is set to filter out harsh language, and I don't know Russian."
"Flag, Tank, that's enough," said Lieutenant James. "You've had months to pick on the rook, no more. Time to get serious. This is our first real mission as a team. We need each other's backs in there. You've all seen the old vids, ancient derelict alien ship, squad of marines, and two of us in red gear."
"Shit, redshirts! Flag and Snow White are totally fucked," said Chun.
"Vat is red shirt?" asked Baclanova.
Susan had yet to figure out if Baclanova's Russian accent was authentically thick, or the Lance Corporal was just laying it on for an extra sexy effect. One thing was for certain, she knew how to play the boys as well as Maggie Chun, the other woman in her squad. She'd been working them for months. She was even getting to Lieutenant James. Susan was keeping an eye on the situation. No lines had been crossed yet, but she didn't like Baclanova's game.
Biggs bit into the Russian woman's question with zeal. "You know, lasers on stun, beam me up Spock! It's that Star Wars shit, late nineteenth century science fiction."
Chun started laughing. "You don't know shit, Tank. Star Wars was twentieth century, not nineteenth. There was no science fiction in the nineteenth century. Also, it's phasers, not lasers."
"What the fuck is a phaser?" asked Biggs.
Lieutenant James shook his head. "Who knows, and Chief, you're wrong. There actually was science-fiction in the nineteenth century. Ever heard of H.G. Wells or Jules Verne?"
"And you say I don't know shit, Wind," said Biggs. "Even I know about Verne. Twenty thousand fucking leagues man—giant squids and shit!"
Farrell laughed. "I saw some giant squids on an Asari dancer one time, they were huuuuuge!"
Chun ignored Farrell's joke and went after Biggs. "You bèndàn, how am I supposed to know every old white man from the west? Have you ever heard of Zheng Wenguang?"
"Who the hell is that?" asked Biggs.
"My point exactly, smart ass," said Chun.
The shuttle gave a slight bump, indicating that they had aligned with the old airlock. Lieutenant Ito waved back at Susan.
"I can't get a seal, so I'll have to hold position with docking thrusters. You'll need to move fast. This big old Asari bitch is really spinning, and you never know what it might hit out here. There's meteors everywhere and it's already beat to hell. I'd rather not get kicked by the thing."
"Ok, team, enough with the bullshit," said Susan. "Button up, coms on, double time through the hatch on my mark. And guys, be careful. We've got breaches everywhere, don't fall out."
A serious mood took over the team as soon as the last word came out of Susan's mouth. They went in by the numbers. Soon, all six of them were on the Asari ship.
"In the belly of the whale, Ito," said Susan.
The com crackled. "Ok, Commander, bugging out. I'll be on standby just a few clicks off."
James took point. He lit up his shotgun torch, illuminating the passageway ahead. He gave a signal and the rest of the team turned their torches on as well. James moved forward, Chun followed close behind. Their mag boots were silent as they picked their way through the debris-strewn airlock. Soon, they stood in an old corridor than ran forward and aft along the starboard side of the ship.
"Ok," said Susan. "Sticking to the plan. Flag and Snow White are with me. We'll make our way to the bridge and the Captain's Quarters to grab the data. Striker, take Wind and Tank, find Engineering and the Cargo Bays. Watch for breaches, keep your armor clean of debris, and watch for floating reactor coolant. You get a gob of that shit on you, we'll have to peel your armor off and float you in a decon pod for a week. Also, as we get to our destinations, the rotation will create gravity. Try not to fall on your asses, please."
"Ok, moving out," said James. "See you on the flip side, Commander."
"I see what you did there," said Chun. "Flip side, very clever."
"Secure the bullshit, Wind," said Susan. "Coms are open channel to the Normandy."
"Hey ho out there, General Birdman, SIR!" said Biggs.
"Shut it, Tank," said Susan. "Move out, people."
Susan's team made their way forward, carefully picking their way through the damaged corridor. They passed several closed doors, avoiding the temptation to take a peek inside. From what she had gathered from the plans, both doors they passed led to the Galley and the Mess Hall. The instrument room would be the next door.
"Fucking freaky in here," said Farrell.
"I hear you, Flag, but you should see this shit," said Biggs. "We found an Asari space mummy down here, and there's something really weird about it, man. You are NOT going to like this."
"What's going on, Striker?" asked Susan.
"Tank is dead on," said Lieutenant James. "We have an Asari in a closet, she's been dead for centuries, but what's peculiar as hell, is that she's in some sort of cocoon."
"Did ancient Asari weave cocoons?" asked Chun.
"That don't look like no cocoon to me," said Biggs. "It looks like a fucking spider web. Holy shit, I'm officially freaking out. Some big space spider wrapped her up in webs and sucked her dry man, her corpse is all shriveled up."
Biggs made a slurping and a screeching noise for effect.
"Knock that shit off, Tank!" said Chun. "I really don't need that image in my head. I'm going to have to run tests on these, I imagine."
"Roger on that, Wind," said Susan. "I need to know how she died, or where they died if you can find more."
"Commander," interrupted Baclanova. "You should see."
The engineer pointed her torch at a bulkhead. The scars of small weapons fire were evident, and a lot of it. Further up the corridor, Farrell was poking at some discarded weapons.
"Ancient Asari stuff," he said. "They're similar to Disciples, but cruder, bulkier. Looks like they used a liquid nitrogen cooling system."
"FFC's," said Susan. "We used to use them on particle weapons about a hundred years ago."
"What is FFC?" asked Baclanova.
"Flash Freeze Canisters," said Farrell. "Pressured canisters that docked onto hand held particle canons. They'd flood the heat sinks with liquid nitrogen. It wasn't very efficient—couldn't sustain fire for long that way."
"And the whole cooling system was heavy as hell," said Susan. "But that's beside the point, what the hell were these Asari firing at?"
"Shit, Commander, you won't believe this," said Lieutenant James. "The whole engineering compartment is full of bodies. Looks like half the crew of the ship was back here."
"And they're all fucking webbed up man, this is some seriously creepy shit," said Biggs.
"Settle down," said Farrell. "It's probably Rachni, and they're on our side now, remember?"
"Wind, can you examine the corpses and tell me if it's an early Rachni encounter?" asked Susan.
"I can examine the corpses, Ma'am," said Chun. "But I can already tell you it's not Rachni. The webs were a Reaper mutation, like the Banshee screams, or the cannibalism of the Batarian husks. Rachni in their natural state don't use webbing."
"Well, maybe the Reapers fucked with them a thousand years back or so," said Biggs.
"There's no record of it," said Chun.
"Just examine the corpses and tell me what we have," said Susan. "I'm taking my team to the bridge."
As Susan moved forward, the plane of gravity shifted. She soon found herself climbing down a vertical passageway. Baclanova and Farrell followed. The structure was not as sound, in fact the climb was quite precarious. It took them nearly an hour to reach the command center of the ship, which was empty, save for several smashed consoles.
"Ok, Snow White, you're on. Find whatever passes for a black box on this thing, and let's get out of here. This whole place feels like it's going to fall apart at any moment," said Susan.
"Yes, Ma'am," said Baclanova.
"Commander," said Chun. "I think I know what happened down here in Engineering. Are you read to hear this?"
"Save the dramatics and just tell me," said Susan.
"These Asari were all dragged here," said Chun. "There are indications of toxins in their systems, so they were poisoned, then brought to this place, which was warmer than the rest of the ship, and then they were drained."
Susan struggled to understand. "Drained?"
"As in blood," said Chun. "Their organs, bone, skin, it's all there still, but the blood was drained from their bodies. I believe we are dealing with a hematophagous species."
"What the fuck is hema… whatever?" said Biggs.
"It means they feed on blood, like some earth insects or larva," said Chun.
"Like mosquitoes," said Farrell.
"Or like vampires," said Biggs. "Man, first coffin I see, I'm going to blow it to hell."
"Settle down, Biggs," said James. "There are no vampires in space, or anywhere else for that matter."
"Yea, just like we believed there were no zombies, until our whole fucking planet was crawling with them," said Biggs.
"Those were husks, made by advanced technology. They weren't undead," explained Chun.
"What fucking difference does it make?" said Biggs. "They looked like zombies, sounded like zombies, and in a way, they did eat our brains with all that indoctrination bullshit. We had a great big zombie apocalypse on earth, just like all those old vids. I'm telling you man, it's like every fucking nightmare or scary story you've ever heard—it's all out here in the universe somewhere."
Farrell laughed. "So we should be looking for bats, wolves, and clouds of mist, right Tank?"
Susan was about to respond, when a call came in from the Normandy.
"Commander, this is General Vakarian. Aznir Company found dozens of Krogan bodies in the same condition down on the planet. Until we know what we're dealing with, I'd rather not take chances. I'd like you to get your people out of there, so wrap it up."
"Yes, Sir," said Susan.
"You heard the General, let's move out, people."
"You don't have to tell me twice," said Biggs. "Fucking space vampires, man, this is not good."
"I wouldn't worry too much," said Farrell. "If these things feed on blood, it means they're alive. If they're alive, we can shoot them."
"There's that," said James.
"Asari tried to shoot them," said Baclanova. "Did not seem to work."
"This happened thousands of years ago," said Susan. "I doubt whatever did this is still around."
What she said made sense to her, and hopefully to the rest of the squad. Even so, Susan kept her hand near her pistol as they slowly made way out of the Andan-Taril'shar.
Up Next: Jack meets up with an old crew-mate who is even more broken than she is.