Chapter 25
A short time later found Shepard, Liara and Traynor in their red-stained armor standing in the cockpit of the Prothean ship. Two heavily armed guards towered menacingly nearby. Shepard leaned back against the consoles and crossed her arms as Liara and Traynor brought up their omni-tools.
"How's EDI?" Shepard asked Traynor.
Traynor made a face, "This bloody red dust isn't the ideal environment for a high functioning VI but she appears undamaged despite her disconnection from the bio-leads."
"Good, first priority is to get her hooked back into the sensors of this ship and run detailed diagnostics and stress test scenarios. Lets find out how bad the structure is before we start speculating on how to fix it." Traynor nodded.
Shepard continued, "Liara we're going to need to find the most secure places on the ship for the Prothean population to be during the flight back. Someplace compartmentalized that could provide some protection if parts of the ship's structure fails."
"I'm certain they will want to bring along a great deal of their equipment as well and the catalog of memory shards," Liara added.
"We have to limit it to essentials. The less we can burden the ship the better. Compromises will have to be made for safety. Once we have our structure fortification plan in place I'm counting on you to handle those delicate… negotiations."
Liara nodded before going back to her omni-tool and making plans.
###
In another area deep in the caverns, the three Vanguards watched the planning in the cockpit on a vidcom with grave interest. Goren's massive arms were crossed over his chest, his expression still glowering with disapproval.
"How far do you expect to entertain this charade?" his deep voice grumbled.
"If the human Shepard can indeed find some way to get our entire populous safely off of this planet then it is hardly a charade at all. She is motivated by our impending attack. We have seen how… resourceful she can be when properly motivated," Yarus said evenly.
"And lets just say she is successful and we arrive at the Citadel before the attack takes place. What then Yarus? You don't seriously intend to stop after all we have sacrificed."
Yarus didn't answer. Instead he looked back at the image of Shepard and the others in the heart of their great ship.
###
"Bloody bullocks damnit all to hell!" Traynor let out her latest in a string of frustrated explicatives. She rubbed her head, the ache only increasing. She was tired, hot, covered in the infernal red dust, and mentally exhausted after hours upon hours of failed simulations. They were running out of time. Every sim she ran with EDI so far had ended in the Prothean ship breaking up before reaching the Sol system. The lack of materials and only basic knowledge of the ship structure not to mention the mass effect field dynamics created by the ship were beginning to seem insurmountable.
She felt a hand grip her shoulder and glanced up to find Shepard. Traynor took a deep breath and blew it out hard. Shepard dropped down on her haunches to meet Traynor at eye level, seeing as how she was sitting haphazardly on the cockpit floor with datapads and wires scattered about. "No luck, huh?" Shepard asked quietly, her blue eyes looking compassionately into brown.
"If it were one problem we were facing it would be fine, but there are so many variables."
"Why do the sims fail ultimately?"
"Structural failure. We're all crushed into tiny bits of space dust, kind of structural failure. It's just so big, this ship. It's really a miracle we made it back here alive to be honest."
Shepard nodded. A sudden rumbling and shaking all around them made Shepard grab the console to steady herself. The ship groaned and the sound of falling rock and debris littered the structure above them.
"And then there's the fact that this volcano seems to be under duress as well," Traynor added.
Shepard nodded, her eyes traveling the cockpit, ear tuned to any more debris falling as the rumble and shaking subsided. "They do seem to be happening more frequently, stronger too. At least it's given the Protheans more motivation to get out of here beside the promise of good will."
"Captain I'm not sure they're still not intent on galactic domination." Traynor dropped her voice to a whisper, "I mean how can you trust them? After everything they've done? What if they don't hold up their end?"
"We could have said the same about the Krogan or the Geth for that matter." Shepard stood and held out her hand, pulling Traynor to her feet. "Lets go check on Liara."
As they walked through the tunnels their ever present guards dropped back. Traynor's forehead was creased in thought. Shepard glanced over at her as they walked. "Go ahead and ask whatever is on your mind Traynor."
Traynor glanced up, finding Shepard's crooked smile waiting expectantly. "It's just that the Krogan and the Geth situation had something we don't. Back then we had the Reapers, a common enemy. It was logical to look past the centuries of distrust and make a change for their own survival, if not everyone else's. In this case, all we have is each other."
Shepard smiled to herself. "Traynor all we've ever have is each other. We have to reach a point where that's enough, or any chance at galactic peace is lost. To do that, someone has to take the first step."
"Like, extending an olive branch?"
"Yes, you extend the proverbial olive branch with a smile and hope your arm doesn't get blown off."
"Comforting," Traynor smiled weakly.
Just then they reached a part of the tunnel that seemed to have partially collapsed in the earlier quake. Several Protheans were working to clear the passage.
"Are you two alright?" a familiar voice beyond the rubble called.
"We're fine Liara. Are you?" Shepard responded. Liara's head appeared beyond the rubble and she waved in greeting.
"Yes, I was in the room with the shards speaking with Kovas at the time."
Shepard and Traynor climbed over the low side of the rubble and joined Liara. Shepard cast her a gentle smile to assure her they were unharmed. Liara couldn't help but return the gesture. She turned to Traynor as they made their way further down the corridor together. "Any luck with the sims?" She frowned at the frustrated shake of the head she got from the Specialist.
They entered the room with the walls covered in memory shards. Despite the chaos outside and in the tunnels, this room remained pristine, nothing out of place and for the first time Shepard realized that the red dust that coated virtually every other surface was not present here. She rubbed her scar in thought. "It looks like nothing was even disturbed in here. Not even a layer of dust."
Kovas looked up from the table where he was studying a shard. "We have fortified the tunnels below this room to protect it from the tremors. These shards are very delicate."
"Fortified how?" Traynor asked.
A few minutes later they were standing in the catacomb of tunnels and caves below the shards room. The entire space looked like a glowing blue honeycomb as energy barriers hummed between arches and gaps.
Traynor's eyes studied the layout eagerly before settling on Shepard and Liara. The Specialist looked suddenly infused with energy. "I have to run another simulation. I have an idea that just might work."
###
The Vanguards, several other leaders amongst the Protheans, Shepard and Liara all sat in rapt attention in one of the larger sub-chambers as Traynor ran her latest simulation.
"So as you can see, with the addition of these support fields strategically placed throughout the structure of the ship we can maintain the hull integrity throughout the mass effect leap." The sim showed the Prothean ship interior aglow with blue barriers sprinkled in doorways, hallways and other strategic areas. As the sim ended, the ship emerged in the Sol system in one piece.
Murmurs of cautious optimism rippled through the crowd.
Traynor looked to Shepard who gave her a subtle wink.
"These power fields are everywhere. They limit access to the ship, they bisect rooms. Where will the people be?" a Prothean asked, some skepticism still in his voice.
Liara stepped forward and using her omni-tool rotated the hologram of the ship interior navigating through several decks to a larger, open section. "This is the most structurally sound section of the ship, made so even further by Specialist Traynor's structural support plan. It's space is sufficient to hold the entirety of the Prothean populous."
"But they will be trapped there," another voice interrupted.
Shepard stepped forward, asserting a calm, clear voice. "Once the fields are active everyone will be confined to this area, that is true. This is critical to maintaining balance and therefore hull integrity."
"They would have us caged and lead us to the slaughter," Goren erupted, waving his arms aggressively. "Surely Vanguard Yarus, you can not allow us to be vulnerable in this way," he appealed to elder Prothean.
The old, wise Yarus stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It is not ideal," he said slowly. "But it seems a sound plan." He looked to Kovas, who nodded, seeming impressed with the plan that he was unable to conceive of himself.
"But we will be at their mercy when we reach the other side," Goren continued.
Yarus raised his hand for silence. "Goren your volume grates on my nerves. Calm yourself." He took a moment then stepped forward slowly. His gray eyes studied the hologram of the ship as he circled it. He stopped in front of Shepard and studied her in silence as well. Finally he turned back to Goren and the others. "We will proceed." He held up his hand to stop Goren before he could begin. "It is not ideal. Nothing about our situation is ideal. But Shepard and her crew have shown us a way out that we ourselves were not able to conceive of and that is no small feat." He turned towards Shepard and met her blue eyes with his gray ones. "So Captain, we will follow your plan."
"I sense a but coming…" Shepard said.
"Indeed," Yarus said. "Vanguard Goren and myself will join you and Specialist Traynor in the cockpit. Dr. T'soni and Vanguard Kovas will remain in the holding area with our people."
Shepard grimaced, knowing Liara would be the Prothean's insurance policy. She believed in Traynor's plan but she would rather have her bondmate with her. Despite this she nodded curtly in agreement. "And assuming we are successful how will we go about stopping the attack once we arrive?"
Yarus clasped his hands behind his back and narrowed his eyes. "That information will be revealed if and when we arrive, Captain."
Shepard watched him carefully, judging his sincerity, an odd tingle at the back of her neck making her cautious. Finally she nodded once again, "Agreed, Vanguard Yarus."
His gray eyes twinkled, "Then let us begin…with haste."
###
A few hours later Liara was completely engrossed in the organizational plans, tapping quickly on her omni-tool and shuffling screens this way and that to get them in some kind of order. She was so focused on her task that she didn't notice her admirer until a voice spoke up from behind her.
"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are covered in red dust?"
Liara raised an eyebrow but didn't halt in her work or turn to look at Shepard. "Is that supposed to be an apology for agreeing to make me a hostage?"
Shepard moved to sit next to her. "No, it's an apology for what I'm going to ask next."
This caught Liara's attention and she promptly closed her omni-tool and met Shepard's steady blue gaze with her own.
"We have to get a message back home or they'll blow us out of the sky before we have a chance to explain. There are no shields, no weapons, no defenses on this ship. They could practically throw a rock and destroy us."
"And how do you purpose we do that without a quantum entanglement communicator?"
They we alone in the alcove but Shepard still shielded her hand from the door with her body as she opened it, revealing the small disk Miranda had given her. Liara's eyebrow raised and she couldn't help the hostile glare she settled on Shepard.
"Your eyes are a stunning shade of blue when you're angry," Shepard whispered, her lips tilting into an endearing grin.
Liara pinned Shepard with a glare but cracked a small smile in spite of herself. She took the disk and slipped it discretely into her omni-tool. After a moment of examination she glanced back at Shepard, a chagrin of respect on her face. "Impressive. It appears to be a micro communicator capable of quantum entanglement projections."
"So can we get a message out with it?"
"It will have to be very brief and we will likely only get one burst from it. It's very possible that the signal will be too weak to get picked up."
Shepard nodded, "I think I know just the thing to get her attention."
###
Miranda was sitting with her legs crossed in their usual fashion at her desk but instead of having her attention focused on her screens, they were staring unfocused out of her massive window at the swirling gasses of Jupiter's surface below. The turbulence in the atmosphere of the gas giant was a perfect reflection of the turmoil of her thoughts. She grimaced, one of many in the weeks since they'd lost Shepard. Since then it had been a whirlwind of meetings, vid calls, and explanation after explanation as to the how, why, who, when and what she had to answer to since Shepard, Liara and Traynor had disappeared inside the ancient Prothean ship. The hardest question came in the form of 'how could you let this happen?' and it came from neither the Alliance nor the Counsel. It was the question she asked herself over and over.
She sighed heavily, grimaced again and began running over the events in her head for the thousandth time. The subtle beeps of her console behind her were long lost to background noise. The Galactic Unity Celebration was less than fourty-eight hours away. Every dignitary in the galaxy was expected to make an appearance as a show of solidarity one year after the Reaper conquest. Despite having secured the Redeemer bomb, Miranda still felt an unease over the celebration.
A chime of a distinctly different timber sounded behind her. It was higher pitched than the rest and reserved for one thing only.
She turned back to her desk, frowning. She tapped a few screens and brought up the secure communication terminal. One incoming message. The signature originated from the communicator she had given Shepard at their last meeting. The only one of it's kind in existence. She quickly applied the decoding software, her heart beating faster in anticipation. Finally after seconds that seemed like hours, a short text based message appeared. Four words, twelve letters, but they sent a smile shooting across her face and made tears well in her eyes.
She slapped her com, "Lieutenant Arulian, prep my shuttle for departure to the Citadel immediately. And contact Commander Williams and Ambassador Vakarian and tell them I need to meet with them as soon as possible. And discreetly, Lieutenant."
"Yes, Ms. Lawson, right away."
Miranda stared at the screen, eagerly reading it over and over, a grin spreading with each moment.
On the screen the message flashed: ARE YOU WITH ME