A/N: Well THAT took a lot longer than it should have. My apologies…Mass Effect: Andromeda was released, and frankly it's a lot better than I expected.

Mind you, Hades will be a cheerful and balmy place before I forgive the so-called writers for the events of Mass Effect 3 following the attack on Cronos base. [Another plug for Doyce Testerman's masterful evisceration of the trilogy's incompetent and nonsensical ending goes here. Or try lucia-tanaka dot livejournal dot com for another thorough and gratifying explanation of why it's not merely a failure to be other than what it was promised NOT to be (choice A, B, or C,) it's actually bad storytelling that conflicts with what was offered as a condition of the story.]

But after investing about 150 hours in ME:A over the past few months (and only getting through 40% of the game,) I can say with conviction that I think the game is well worth your time. It's certainly commanded enough of mine. Thus the delay in this latest chapter's release.

At the time of this writing, if you're not ready to commit the necessary finances, you can download and demo it for yourself.

I have more rant about that, but I'll save it for the end of this chapter, so you can get back to this story with a minimum of distraction.

*** Therum, Debrief ***

A/N: For Miranda's smile, see the ME3 Citadel apartment "Invite Miranda up" (youtubeDOTcomSLASHwatch?v=oOK-uSp_Pa8) at 1:55, right after Shepard says, "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Sorry for the missing text earlier.

# # #

As the ship lifted away from the surface of Therum, Pressly's voice echoed through the ship, "Crash team to the hangar, crash team to the hangar. This is not a drill!"

Through the slowly-closing hangar door, the ground team could see Normandy was wheeling to port and ascending, dodging the collapsing tower; Joker's voice filled the hangar, "Please return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions, and refrain from moving about the cabin, even if you have soiled your pants like Pressly just did. Please extinguish all smoking materials, including the turian."

Garrus looked down at himself. "Am I on fire?"

"No, but you are," Wrex had a finger pointed at Shepard, "Stop, drop and roll, smoky!" He moved to tackle the black-armored man as Loadmaster Kobunde, who had also seen the bluish smoke rising from Shepard's armor, ran up with a fire extinguisher.

Shepard's ARO had notified him of damage to the SmartPak, but only after Wrex's warning did he swat releases on his belt and shoulders, and step forward; the SmartPak dropped from his back with a clatter, smoking, but not aflame. Normandy's Loadmaster doused it with the extinguisher as Wrex stomped to a halt. The lift door began to open, revealing the medical team; Silas Crosby was talking before the door was fully upen, "Crash team here! Who needs help?"

The hangar door had continued to close as the ship lifted away, so the fireteam could see the destruction continue on the ground, lava bursting out of the tuberamp; the loader catwalk collapsing as power packs and chemical storage cells detonated, illuminating the inside of the hangar with surprising colors: green, magenta, electric white.

Shepard looked quickly around the hangar, "Did we get everyone?" Kaidan, Ash, Wrex, Tali, Garrus, and the asari were all visible. He held up a thumb toward the EMT. "Good work, Crosby, but I think my almost-a-fire was the worst of it." He held two fingers to his right ear. "Joker, get us to orbit, best speed."

"Why of course!" Joker answered, still speaking over the shipwide, "Glad to be of service! And you're welcome! I've only been practicing how to do that for years!" The comm line clicked off.

"Well," Kaidan said quietly, "someone's feeling a little underappreciated."

The hangar door continued to close as Shepard opened his helmet visor and gestured for LOSI to the ground team. "Okay, everybody out of your combat gear and into the Comm Room. We need to debrief now."

Ash looked sideways at Kaidan, "Not even a shower?"

"Not even a shower," Kaidan shook his head.

"Head call," Garrus said. He studied the idiom displayed on his monocle. "Head call…trumps…meeting notice." He looked at Tali, who was standing next to him. "Did I say that right?"

The quarian looked at her own HUD. "I don't know," she shrugged, "but it looks like it."

Shepard pointed in the direction he was walking. "No whining. I'm starting the meeting now, get up there as soon as you can. I want to know what we should be doing next before I issue nav orders."

# # #

Their aircar slid easily through the city.

It had been a beautiful night, the lights of uptown venues still beckoned as they receded into the distance; the air had smelled of jasmine and expensive SVOCs, music and colored hoverlights had decorated the walking streets of Nykøbing Mars.

But Miranda had asked if they could leave early. She had "a couple of key things she wanted to get done in the next two or three hours," and their time at Golden Dragon had been only partly spent dancing and drinking. Mostly it was about Miri getting misdirections in place, planting a false trail of where they had been, and how long they had been there. Niket understood enough of what she was doing and why to be able to help proactively, running apps in other parts of the local network, distracting staff, and even cracking the TPM on a terminal.

But that was almost an hour ago. Niket turned away from the window and watched Miranda working her omnitool. "I wish I could help you more."

She shook her head. "Niket, you've done so much for me already, I wouldn't know what to ask." She looked up and smiled fondly. (See A/N above) "But I really appreciate that you say so." Her eyes flicked back to the display on her forearm. "If I have one real friend in my life, it's you."

He looked out the window again. I wish I could be more, he thought. He looked back at her, the glow of her omnitool lighting her face in orange, urban lights moving past in the background.

"Something wrong?" She didn't look away from her forearm. "You seem like you're worrying again."

"I didn't want to disturb you while you're working."

Her eyes moved back and forth across the holo. "I can talk, I just have to catch a few QKeDs before they identify us. What's on your mind?"

Niket and Miranda had known each other since they were little kids. His parents both worked for Henry Lawson, as house staff. Niket had grown up surrounded by wealth, but unable to partake of it.

Except when Miranda had started giving him some of her toys and games. She had too many to keep track of, and had begun to notice that her father (or one of his underlings) replaced them immediately. The responses she got from Niket had been so endearing, so outside her experience, that she did it just to enjoy his reaction.

But Niket had seen enough vids to know that their socioeconomics were just too different. He was an amusement, a toy for her.

It didn't make him want her any less. She was beautiful, smart, rich, and hard-working. They just didn't come any better, at least not outside of fiction or PVR companions. But he knew that if she knew he was having amorous thoughts, it would fundamentally change their relationship.

He took a deep breath, realized he was still unwilling to take the risk. "Are we really going to Arcturus?"

"Well I am. I don't know if you'll be able to get away when we finally pull the trigger on my…disappearance. At least, not without arousing suspicion, which would likely lead him right to me." She stopped, looked up at him suddenly. "Wait…we've never stopped to think about how to get you out of there. Your work at Puzzlers isn't going to keep you here, is it?"

"No chance. I'm…portable. But when could I safely move away…and how could I make it to Arcturus?"

"It's not like you're in a serious relationship that could justify it."

Don't I know it, he thought. "They probably know we're friends anyway."

"I hate to just leave you…not just for the leaving, but you'll be left to bear the brunt of his anger. You know he won't hesitate to use your parents as leverage to get the truth out of you."

"We've already worked out the 'truth' he gets." Niket looked away, to the horizon. "It gives me credible deniability. He'll only be trouble if he thinks I'm hiding something from him. Maybe it's best if I just stay."

"Seven or eight months should be more than enough. You could even say you're fed up with his harassment. What can he do? You don't work for him." Dressed in blue gossamer, Miranda frowned and shook her head. "If he weren't such a damned control freak, I don't know if I'd have gone as far to just disappear."

They continued along the airlane, intending a flyover of the Lawson Estate. In the Martian night, Olympus Mons was visible in the distance only because Niket had activated the windshield's vision enhancement.

He tried not to stare; Miranda was wearing a cream-colored bikini underneath, and it made it look like she was nude under the translucent blue. "I'd sure like to be there with you," he said.

"I'm sure you could find something to do," Miranda said distractedly. She frowned. "What the bloody hell…"

Niket turned. "What?"

"Wait...oh, you son of a bitch…" She switched to PVR; a holographic visor appeared, completely obscuring her eyes. Normally, it was just a way of letting others know why someone might be unresponsive to the world around them.

Niket knew better. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No." Miranda shook her head. "Wait. Well…yes. I think there's another…um…I guess you could say I have a sister."

"What?!"

Her visor faded quickly away, but Miranda kept her eyes on the horizon. "A little sister. I just now found out. This will…change things." There was a rush of emotion, of happiness at having a sister, of anger that Henry wanted to do to someone else what he'd been doing to her for decades.

It was no longer about escape. It was about...rescue.

# # #

Though Normandy had been launched and was now on an actual mission, upgrades and modifications continued. New chairs that had been added to the Comm/Con, and Shepard sat in one of them with two fingers to his ear. "Joker, what's our ETO?"

"Uh…we should make a 251 by 360 orbit in…about four minutes," Joker said over the intercom. "And just for future reference, that was too close. Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds, we would have been swimming in molten sulfur. Normandy might be super stealthy, but isn't equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. It's bad for our paint job, too."

Garrus and Wrex stepped into the room and headed for empty chairs.

"Thank you, Joker. Noted." Shepard put fingers to his ear again, but this time, brought his thumb up to them as he pulled them away again. The speaker chunked once as the intercom switched off.

The blue alien was indignant. "We almost died out there, and your pilot is taking you to task?"

"He did some fancy flying. This is a frigate, not an LV, but he made it work." Shepard looked toward the overhead speaker with a shrug. "And he did get us all out of there safely. I'll let him fire off a few bad jokes."

"I see. It must be a human thing." A nervous glance across the room at Ash and Kaidan. "I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there…and not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me, or dragged me off to Saren."

Kaidan hadn't taken his eyes off the asari since they'd entered the Comm Room. "What did Saren want with you? Do you know something about the Conduit?"

"Only that it was somehow connected to the Prothean Extinction." She tried to adjust herself in the chair, to get more comfortable, but she wanted to be standing. "That is my real area of expertise. I have spent the past fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them."

"Fifty years?" Shepard looked at the asari in surprise. "How old are you, exactly?"

"I hate to admit it, but I am only a hundred and six." The asari glanced down at the floor. "Using your calendar."

Ash knew from Alliance First Encounter Training that asari tended to live longer than humans, but this was much longer than she'd expected. Her mouth dropped open. "Damn…I hope I look that good when I'm your age."

"A century may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours, but among asari, I am barely considered more than a child. It would be like speaking with someone who is…about 14 or 15 years old, I think. That is why my research has not received the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other scholars tend to…dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans."

"So wait…you're Benezia's daughter, right?" Ash looked intense. "The same Benezia who's working with Saren?"

The asari looked quickly at the faces in the room. "Yes," she looked like she wanted to become invisible, "Matriarch Benezia is my mother. But I have not seen her in years. She was living near the Verinti when..."

Ash pressed, "What's her connection to Saren? What's yours?"

"I do not know Saren, but I know of him. It was only when my mother met him that she started to change. I could not stop it…so I stayed away, hoping she would…see for herself."

"If you're a Prothean expert, would Saren know that through your mother? Or is she trying to get you out of harm's way?"

"I do not know. I have always been interested in the Protheans…so my mother knew this. But…Harm's Way? Who is Harm?"

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Ash folded her arms.

"I am sorry, my omnitool has been inoperable since the Prothean–"

"Saren launched an attack against a human colony," Ash interrupted. "He was working with the geth, and he was trying to steal a Prothean artifact that had just been discovered."

"He's a loose cannon and a terrorist at this point," Garrus was working his omnitool, and sent an image of Saren to the holographic display. "That's him, there on the holo. If your mother knows what his plans are, maybe she wanted you closer to her to protect you somehow."

Shepard nodded. "Or with the Prothean angle, maybe he got something from the beacon, but doesn't know what it means. Your mother didn't know, but probably thought you might, so they went looking for you. There are way too many questions at this point, and I was hoping you'd have some of the answers."

"It seems like you don't even have any of the pieces," Wrex grumbled.

Kaidan was still focused on the asari. "So why did the Protheans disappear?"

"Gray goo," Ash interrupted, "Everybody knows that."

Tali shook her head. "No, if that were so, we would have planets with gray goo on them. Their AIs wiped them out."

"If it was AIs, then they would have come looking for us, too–"

"Wait, hold it." Shepard held up a hand for silence, and turned to the asari. "Admittedly, there are a lot of competing theories."

"With all due respect, Commander, I have heard every theory out there." The blue alien directed her comment to Tali: "The problem is finding evidence to support them. And what is remarkable is how much evidence there is not. The Protheans left…remarkably little behind. It is almost as if someone did not want the mystery solved. It is like someone came along, after the Protheans were gone, and cleansed the galaxy of clues. We have found records indicating well-populated planets, but when we got there, we have found simply no sign of them having been populated at all. As if they had been erased.

"But here is the incredible part: According to my findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began long before them."

Shepard leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Where'd you come up with this theory? I thought there wasn't any evidence."

"I have been working on this for over fifty years. I have tracked down every scrap and shred of hard evidence. Eventually, subtle patterns start to emerge. Patterns that hint at the obscure truth."

"Which is…?" Ash spread her hands as if impatiently awaiting an explanation.

"As I said, there have been other massive die-offs in galactic history. I hope to find out what the Protheans knew just as their own civilization was collapsing…"

"No, I mean 'what's your evidence?'"

"It is…difficult to explain to someone else. I cannot point to one specific thing to prove my case. It is more…a feeling derived from half a century of dedicated research. For example, the Prothean records I have examined refer to findings of their own, of past civilizations, but I have not yet found the records themselves. Just references to them."

Kaidan leaned forward. "Yeah, given enough experience, humans get something like that, too. I think it's called expert intuition."

"But I know I'm right," the asari continued. "And eventually I will be able to prove it. There were other civilizations before the Protheans. This cycle has repeated itself many times over."

Shepard manipulated his omnitool, moving the room display's image of Saren aside, waved a thumb over his shoulder at the holograph of the dig site. "If the Protheans weren't the first, then who was?"

"I do not know," the asari looked to the floor. "There is barely any evidence on the Protheans. Even less on those who came before them. I cannot prove my Cycle theory yet, but I know I am right."

Ash squinted. "Cycle? What? What are you talking about?"

"The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly, and violently cast down. Only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their empire spanned the entire galaxy. Yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of those who came before.

"Their greatest achievements – the mass relays and the Citadel – are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like all the other forgotten civilizations throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared. I have dedicated my life to figuring out why."

Shepard nodded as he thought, I know the punch line to this story. "They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines…the reapers."

The asari looked uncertainly at Shepard. "The…the 'reapers'? But I have never heard of…how do you know this? What evidence do you have?"

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime, one of our colonies. It burned a message into my brain." He tapped his head. "I'm still trying to sort out what it all means, but when Tali presented evidence against Saren, it implicated Benezia, which led us to you."

"Your brain…a vision?" The alien glanced at her left forearm; no omnitool glowed there. "But…a beacon? Yes, that…that makes sense. The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is…well, I have never heard of it. Where is it? May I examine it?"

Shepard's expression made it look like his teeth hurt. "Ah…no. It blew up." He paused, considering whether to recount the story, or simply press ahead. "It's a story for another time. But it was working when they found it."

"No wonder the geth attacked your colony. The chance to acquire a working beacon, even a badly damaged one, is worth almost any risk. At least, for an archaeologist."

"What's left of it was taken to the Citadel," Kaidan said.

The asari was still focused on Shepard. "But the beacons would have been programmed to interact with Prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would have been confused…unclear. I am…amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong-willed, Comman—"

"Okay," Ash interrupted, "This isn't helping us find Saren or the Conduit."

"Of course, you are right," the asari nodded, "I am sorry, my scientific curiosity got the better of me. Ah…unfortuantely, I do not have any information that would help you find the Conduit, or Saren."

"Hmm…" Shepard mused, "I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture, but I think we'll be a lot better off if we bring you along." He stepped forward into the center of the room, facing the asari. "Unless you wanted to try to do damage control on that dig."

"Thank you Commander. Though I have not yet inspected it, I suspect we have as much data on that area of the Therum ruins as can be had by anyone…even before the lava incursion. But I had not understood Saren's motivations until now; he might come after me again." Rising and taking a step toward him, Liara seemed just a bit unsteady. "I cannot think of anywhere safer than here on your ship. And my knowledge of the Protheans might prove useful if you intend to try to find the Conduit yourself."

"And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts," Wrex rumbled.

"Good to have you on the team, Doctor." Shepard extended a hand, palm tilted slightly up.

"Thank you, Commander. I am very grateful…" The asari stepped forward to take his hand, stumbled, lifted a hand to her forehead, seemed to turn slightly purplish. She moaned softly.

Kaidan interrupted with a sudden urgency, "When was the last time you ate? Or slept?"

"It's got to have been days," added Ash.

"Doctor Chakwas should probably take a look at you," Kaidan finished.

"It is probably just mental exhaustion…coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans' true fate. I could use some time to process all this. Still, it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional."

"Apparently you haven't met our medical professional," Ash joked quietly to Kaidan.

"It will give me the chance to…think things over," Liara finished, "Are we finished here, Commander?"

"We'll talk again after you see the doctor, and have had a chance to recover. I'm suspending this meeting until then, but in the meantime, all of you need to think about Saren. Where would he go, and what would he do?" He nodded toward the door, "Dismissed."

Wrex, for all his mass, was surprisingly quick to be up and out first. Garrus stood looking at the asari for a few seconds, until Tali rose and walked past him; the turian followed her immediately.

Kaidan stepped over to the asari, offered his arm. "If you'll come with me, I can get you down to the MedBay."

"Thank you, that would be…appreciated," Liara took his left arm in her left hand, and draped her right arm over his shoulder. Kaidan reacted with surprise at what seemed an unexpected familiarity, looking toward her. Maybe this is what asari do these days, he thought. They started toward the door.

Liara, eyes closed, looked ready to collapse. A violet glow emanated from her shoulders and head briefly. She inhaled, and stood up, looking refreshed.

Kaidan blinked, shook his head as they exited. "Wow. Neat trick. You'll have to teach me that."

"Trick? Oh…forgive me, Lieutenant—" The door hissed closed behind them, ending what Shepard could hear of their conversation. The soft rumble of the ship filled the silence.

As Shepard sat again, he looked away from the door toward Ash, who was scowling at the deck, and had not moved from her seat.

Their eyes met. "I don't like this," she shook her head. "Not one tiny bit. Be careful, sir. This asari could still be misdirection, already working for Saren and…um…Benezia. Might have been put in our path to throw us off the scent, even lead us away from Saren. Or lead us into a trap."

He nodded, glanced at the room's one exit, where the asari had just left. "Wrex said they can be really protective and cliquish, especially where family are concerned." He worked his omnitool briefly. "But it really looks like she's been without food and water for over a week, and we had to fight our way there."

Ash rose, walked to the door. "Sorry, sir. I'm not telling you your job, I'm just telling you I'm not convinced. Even with her lifting that krogan, this is about her mother. I don't know about you, but there's not a lot I wouldn't do to protect mine."

Shepard looked at the floor, nodded thoughtfully. "Excellent point, Chief; thanks for reminding me. The first step toward knowledge is doubt, so stay on the facts until we know."

"Thank you, sir. Will do." The door closed behind her.

Shepard looked around the empty room for a moment, then turned to the main holographic display, called for the team's helmetcam footage. The timelines synched as they appeared on the display; he touched points and spoke at each, "Mission to Therum. Landing. Practice fire. First exchange with hostiles. Examination of geth wreckage…"

When he finished with the mission analysis, he checked his email, his Event Scheduler, and his health VI's report.

Gladstone's voice spoke from the PA, "Spectre Office acknowledges the mission reports are filed, Commander. You want to get a message directly to the Council?"

"Hm? Oh…yes, thank you. Can you raise them?"

"Setting up the link now, sir."

Shepard selected the health report, wiped it to the side of the display.

A gold rectangle grew out of the center, quickly filling the field limits. At the center was the Citadel Council logo, rotating slowly with the words "Connecting," then "Secure" below it. An asari replaced it, sitting at a desk.

"Welcome to Council Access," she said, looking up. "Oh. You're the new human Spectre. Your timing is portentious; the Council is in session and they asked to be alerted if you called. Can you wait for just a moment?"

Shepard nodded. "Of course," he bowed his head as graciously as he could, "I work for them."

The asari cocked her head as if she'd never heard this, then put one hand to the right side of her head, gestured a command with the other. "Agent, while that is true, you are doing the work. I do not know what your species' particular customs are, but you should not waste time with formalities or 'small talk.' They do not expect groveling or deference, but they will insist upon civility and competence…because the demands on their collective time are enormous."

Shepard nodded to himself. "Thank you, that's good to know."

The asari glanced at a display to her left, then inclined her head toward him in a sort of bow. "You are welcome, Agent. They are ready; connecting you now."

The trio of aliens that appeared in the holo were all standing. Shepard unconsciously stood a little straighter. "Councillors," he said, "We have secured Benezia's daughter. It seems Saren was trying to have her captured or killed."

There was a pause as the Councillors finished reading Shepard's report.

The asari Councillor spoke first, "Benezia's youngest isn't in league with her, or at least aware of her plans?"

"Apparently not," said the salarian Councillor, "Her email records were subpoenaed. In fact," he paused as new intel was added to his retinal implant display, "it would seem they haven't communicated in almost a decade." Valern shook his head; it was an extraordinarily long time to the salarian.

"I still assume you're taking the necessary security precautions," the turian Councillor said.

"At the moment, she's in Normandy's Medical Bay, recovering from a week in a Prothean isolation bubble of some kind. However, I am fairly confident that Liara's on our side. (He pronounced it, "lee-air-uh".) The geth were trying to kill her."

Tevos frowned. "For Benezia to let the geth kill her daughter is…unlikely. Benezia would never allow her daughter…Liara…to be harmed."

"Maybe she doesn't know," Valern said.

"Or maybe we don't know her," the turian growled.

"At least the mission was a success." The salarian's head tiled slightly. "Mmh…at least, apart from the utter destruction of a major Prothean ruin. Was that really necessary, Commander?"

"The geth were crawling all over those ruins. And the site is much larger than the part that was damaged. Actually, Doctor T'Soni retrieved some data – I suspect it was all the data from that particular expedition – from the site before it was damaged. I have not had an opportunity to evaluate it."

"Of course, Commander. The mission must always take priority."

"Good luck, Commander," Tevos said. "Remember: We are all counting on you." Apparently this was their way of signing off; the display darkened.

Shepard glanced at the health report once more; his stomach growled. He waved the workspace away, and headed for the mess.

# # #

"Trick? Oh…forgive me, Lieutenant." Liara stopped just outside the door, recoiling, looked down at Kaidan's arm. "I sensed your biotic energy, and…when you extended your arm, I thought you were offering shatash. I am so sorry. Are you all right?"

Kaidan's VI scrolled a translation of the one word across the middle of his visual field: Shatash: biotic energy transfer, equalizing amounts between individuals.

Kaidan shrugged and smiled. "Sure, I'm fine. I've heard asari could do that, but I didn't know your word for it; it wasn't something they taught us. But hey, if that's what you needed, I'm glad I could help. Now…I'm sure you're exhausted, and probably hungry. If you'll follow me, I'll show you to the Medical Bay." He took another step to the door, led her down the starboard ladder to the mid deck.

"It's still a nifty trick—" he said over his shoulder, recalling this was an alien, and the word "trick" might suggest something intentionally deceptive, "…um…I mean it's an amazing thing; I've never seen it before. Shatash? How do you do it?"

"I…learned it from my mother." She reacted with embarrassment. "Oh…Lieutenant, I am terribly sorry. I am…I was…exhausted from my adventures, I did not realize…or stop to think."

Kaidan smiled reassuringly, "Hey, don't worry. I'm glad I could help. I'd like to know more about it when you have the time." As they stepped off the bottom of the starboard ladder, several heads looked up from the Mess; Kaidan turned and focused on Richard. "Hey, Rich. Big day down there. You shoulda seen it. We found the Doctor, too." He indicated the asari with a tilt of his head.

Open-mouthed, Jenkins rose from his seat. "Uh…hi. Welcome aboard. Uh...ma'am."

"Thank you." The asari stopped at the foot of the ladder, glanced at Kaidan, and then around the room. "I feel…conspicuous. Like ah…fish out of water," she said. She glanced at her left forearm in annoyance, seeing no omnitool gauntlet.

"No, it's all right." Kaidan smiled reassuringly. "Well, eating will be important, but first things first. You need a quick visit to the doc, and then maybe a shower and a change of clothes." As he led her the last few steps to the Medical Bay door, it slid politely aside. "Um…clothes which are probably buried under half a kilometer of rock at this point. Don't worry, I'm sure we can get you something you'll like."

# # #

*** Playing Mass Effect: Andromeda ***

I'll own this:
After the betrayal of ME3's ending, I was…disinclined…to like anything Buy-o-ware had to sell me.

And I have some issues with the premises.

Would a venture of this scale really let the "arks" be so widely separated that they'd lose contact with each other? Would they really not wake some people up when they were still a significant distance away to get better and more current data about their intended destinations? And did they really and truly design the helmets to have glass so far up over the top of the user's head that you'd get sunburns on your scalp? Admittedly, it's convenient as plot devices go, but…seriously?

And is everyone running to Andromeda from something? Shouldn't we have had a team of top-notch explorers instead of near-criminals and malcontents? When Elon Musk put out a request for people who wanted to go live on Mars and not come back, he got a blizzard of applicants. Wouldn't Jien Garson have gotten similar results from a galaxy with trillions of inhabitants?

Considering such scandalous initial conditions, the story is unfolding rather well. (On the other hand, the only way to go was up.)

But I have many very nice things to say about it. To start with, it is beautiful. Extraordinarily demanding for video cards, but technologically impressive. Things have actual shadows, and they're surprisingly realistic, whether on canyon walls or the ship, or whatever. Even the background NPCs are having conversations and you can eavesdrop on them…and they're credible. The aliens in the distance in one scene were play-fighting, and doing a passable job of it. Everything you see, rendered in realtime, meaning it almost all has to be designed and animated on the fly.

Traveling to another destination? Now you can see sort of what it might be like to accelerate at hair-starching speeds, watch the destination worlds grow as
you approach; they even blueshift on approach, fercrysakes.

But let's say you're in a hurry and don't want to see these spatial wonders rendered in realtime (or that you are as artless as can be, in which case you probably should stick to Wolfenstein or Doom.) Just hit the TAB key and you can zip right past it.

The Kett (and especially their technology) are as creepily alien as can be. Someone put a lot of time and love into the design of everything you see and interact with,
and they have done a commendable job. Remember how every practically base you went to Mass Effect was the same two-rooms plus-airlock recycled asset? And how about when your Ryder interacts with technologies via omnitool? Notice how the hand gestures look credible, right up to the final swipe right. Face animations? I've heard there were problems, but haven't seen any myself. And what I have seen is marvelously expressive on all counts. I'm more than a little surprised there weren't more problems with Bioware's first use of the Frostbite engine. (FWIW, I'm using a 2010 HP z800 24-core Xeon system with 24 GB of RAM and an Nvidia 1060.)

The series is still hammering at false religions (Example: The conversion facility that you can blow up showed how it seems to be the same sort of indoctrination that virtually every religion in the world uses; the bad guys even get names like Chosen, Anointed, etc.) You can even hammer one of your crew who seems to act as if there's a supreme intelligence in the universe (though it seems she's just a sexed-up Deist or Pantheist.)

I'm not a fan of some of the accents. Suvi is so over the top, she's occasionally incomprehensible. I wish both she and Liam sounded as educated and as they seem to be. A lot of the angara seem to be from Australia (it was hilarious to hear one of them talk about having gone to school in Estraaja [pronounced esTRAAya…get it?]) I've spent way too much time there (and like the people too much) to think of them as strange and alien…and apparently the developers were only
trying to recreate accents, rather than hire local talent. They could have invented a new accent…though perhaps that's too much to hope for, and too much to ask fans to realize. It is still way WAY easier than trying to learn a completely alien language, though perhaps this was done when the Initiative first encountered sapients upon their arrival.

I simply can't believe there's never a way to talk the "outlaws" down. Even when they're fighting local megafauna, and I try to help, they start shooting at us; the squad goes in and tears 'em up, and I can't tell them to stand down. As new arrivals in Andromeda, we have it even worse than the quarians…every time you kill someone, you reduce the population by .0001%. Don't think that's significant? On Earth today, with a population of seven billion, that's like killing 70,000 people.

Killing "only" seventy people and you're an epic mass murderer. Kill a hundred people in Andromeda, and you've joined the ranks of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, or Pol Pot; it's practically genocide. We're talking Rwanda here – 700,000 people – but all by yourself. Am I the only one who notices or cares about this?

It's the same with the remnant. These are service bots, performing maintenance and repairs on the terraforming systems (I'm not even halfway through the game, so at the moment, I don't know where they came from.) They waste their time by fighting non-threats. And can't SAM exert control over them as he does with non-mobile remnant technology?

Still, a shooter game has to have bad guys, and Mass Effect likes to have at least three factions.

And for all that, I'm still having a glorious good time, favorably impressed with the gameplay, the music, the multiplayer, the character interactions, the vastly more open world than ever, the familiarity, the potential growth path, and if you don't believe me, try it yourself. Give it a chance. It'll be a while before we can actually fix the original trilogy in any medium other than this one.

So the next few chapters might be a little slow coming out.

*** Glossary ***

ETO: Estimated Time to Orbit

Gray goo: A currently hypothetical, uncontrolled active nanotechnology that eats or otherwise turns everything it encounters into more of itself, thus obliterating its creators.

hoverlights: municipal lighting suspended by a combination of element zero and and electrically-powered drive; power for lights and drive is supplied wirelessly which, in conjunction with swarming technology, allows the lights to distribute light across the city evenly, or strategically as needed

LV: Landing Vehicle

NSROT: Network Silicon Root of Trust, a firmware-level security measure used on networked servers, intended to secure hardware from its point of manufacture to First Boot, and assure its integrity when restarted

Nykøbing Mars: Colony on Mars founded/funded by Danish multibillionaire Jesper Morten Bak; named for his birthplace of Nykøbing Mors in western Denmark

Puzzlers: A small chain of stores that sells omnitool games and especially puzzles for brain enhancement training

QKeD: Quantum Key Device; derived from the earlier QKarD, designed to secure a quantum-encrypted signal against interception

SVOC: synthetic- or semi-volatile organic compounds (depending on the source;) VOCs are the sort of things that give new cars that "new car smell"

TPM: Trusted Platform Module, a hardware check against software corruption, malware, or manual takeovers