A/N: Okay. Now, here we go with another chapter in the next part of the Mass Vexations saga. We already know one thing about these coordinates, but... well, you'll find things out about what is actually there. Just know that this will actually take some time before we really know what's happened there.

So yeah. I actually have to thank ValentineDiverseOptics once again for providing some much-needed plot doctoring. It actually also helped shape the direction of the next few chapters, so for that, you'll be seeing quite a few things. As to what goes down? Well...

Let's get going with it, shall we?

Chapter 35: The Unknown Part 1: Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures

In the three hours it takes the ShockPoint jump to get us to our destination, we end up just killing a lot of time as best we can. We end up just talking amongst ourselves in the small space, even as Ellie and Isaac remain at the controls. I look outside the window every so often, wondering exactly how fast we're going in this small little craft. I mean... it's FTL travel, sure, but I can't imagine how quick it is. I know that with most relay travel it's instantaneous, but when it's not instantaneous like this...

I sometimes wonder about that, I really do. And then... my thoughts turn to Madison, Garrus, and the others on the Citadel. I don't know... I don't know if they're okay. I doubt most of 'em are, I mean... Fuck. The Reapers have probably overtaken the Citadel by now, and now they're just playing cat and mouse with the citizens of the Citadel. Oh... I doubt they're alive, but if they are... God help 'em all.

And what about Earth? I don't... what if the Reapers have already gone there? I mean... They probably have, and they're just starting the harvest there. I just... Oh, God... Shit, this is gonna be hard. I mean, we have to free an entire galaxy. I just hope that whatever is here will do it. 'Cause if it doesn't...

I hear a beep, looking up from my brooding as Isaac and Ellie both look ahead. "All right," says Ellie. "We're nearly at the destination."

Shepard stands from where she was sitting, walking right up to Isaac and Ellie. Shepard's game of Skyllian Five with Kaidan and Kal is immediately forgotten, and we all stand up. Eventually, we walk right over to the cockpit, Tali, Mordin, Kal, and I all standing back to give Isaac and Ellie a bit of space. We all look at Isaac and Ellie as they begin moving around to some control mechanism.

"How soon do you think we'll get there?" asks Shepard.

"Less than a minute," says Isaac as he punches up a screen. I then watch as the screen that comes up gives a countdown... "According to this, we'll leave the ShockPoint jump in about fifteen seconds. Fourteen."

I look ahead. "Oh, boy," I say. "What do you guys think is going to be here?" I ask.

"I don't know," says Kal. "I'm not gonna guess that just yet."

"Could be anything," says Mordin.

"Well, we're about to find out," says Ellie. "I would hang on to something if I were you. ShockPoint exits are not always clean." She then grips the control mechanism, as does Isaac. They both look at the screen as the countdown decreases. "All right, we exit the ShockPoint jump in five..."

I notice that everyone seems to realize that we need to brace something. I simply take a step or two back, bracing against the chair. I notice that Tali has done the same thing, and that Mordin and Kal are also gripping another chair.

"Four... three..." Ellie continues.

And that's when the craft begins to shake a little bit. It's not too bad, though, because it doesn't feel like this ship will disintegrate. That is a good thing.

"Two... one..."

Here it comes...

After a very brief shake, the light of the ShockPoint jump suddenly dissipates, and now there is no grayness around us anymore. The shaking quiets down, and I'm relieved to find that we're still in one piece here. I look out the window, and...

...

"Holy fuck..." I say, walking towards the window.

Nobody else says anything as we behold what's in front of us. I... what the hell is that? That looks...

That looks like a giant ship... Whoah... I can see what little lighting there is around us outline a massive shape in the distance, a shape that looks something like a massive dreadnaught that would make the Destiny Ascension look like a damn tugboat. I just... holy crap... And it looks ancient. As we get closer to it, I see that the small amount of light does in fact shine on the ship, revealing that the ship is rather plain-looking in design. Still, the sheer size of it...

"Keelah," Tali says. "That ship..."

I simply see Isaac shake his head. "Great," he says. "We're going right to a large derelict ship in the middle of nowhere to begin searching it for something we need." His hand clenches into a fist as he leans forward. "There is no way that this can end well."

"What, and you really think that there's gonna be a zombie apocalypse on a ship that's likely fifty thousand years old?" Ellie asks. "It's a large ship. I think we're going to be more annoyed searching through it."

"That we are," Shepard comments. She looks the ship up and down. "The protheans really constructed a dreadnought of this size? And they were able to get it here?"

Tali looks at the ship. "Hm..." she says. "I don't know, Shepard... Not even the Rayya is this big. This ship could easily dwarf the largest ships of every fleet in the galaxy..." I look to her as she shakes her head. "Obviously, this ship is some kind of an anomaly. I may not be an expert on the protheans, but to construct a vessel this size with the resources they must have had during the Reaper wars..."

"And what does it have in there?" Kaidan asks. "If they spent that many resources to build a ship of that size, it must be important..."

"Either way, I think we know just how important whatever is in there is," I comment. "Or else they wouldn't have expended as many resources as they did creating a ship this size. I have to ask how the hell it got out so far that it can't be accessed with the mass relay network, though. I mean..."

"I think there are two possible theories at play here," says Tali. "The first is that the protheans somehow found their own alternate manner of FTL flight. And it would make sense for why this ship is here."

"Unlikely," says Mordin. "Prothean scientists likely not concentrated on alternate FTL drives. Most efforts sought different purpose."

"And besides, if I know the history of the ShockPoint Drive, the protheans probably might've had some issues with vessel size even if they had tried," Isaac comments. "So if they were discovering something similar to the ShockPoint Drive, I doubt we'd see the drive get used in a ship that's this size."

"Which leaves the other theory," says Tali. "And I can't confirm it until I see how this ship dealt with the static discharge that occurs when a mass effect field is used for FTL travel."

"You mean there's a theory behind how they could get this ship this far away from the mass relay network without inventing a new FTL drive?" asks Kal'Reegar.

"Yes," says Tali. "But it would likely be unwieldy due to the nature of mass effect fields. I would have to see the set-up this ship has, but if we had tried the set-up I think the protheans might have used it likely would have taken us many years to get this far, even without accounting for the time it would take to build a ship this size. Again, I would have to see the ship itself."

"And to figure out what set-up that is, we have to get in," says Shepard. "Ellie, Isaac, bring us in. And start circling around the ship. We need to find a way in."

"You got it, ma'am," says Ellie.

With this, Isaac and Ellie steer the ship around this massive dreadnought. Isaac leans over, and immediately turns on the scanners on this ship. When he does this, a screen comes up, and we all look as we approach the ship.

It takes a while, but we find an airlock right there on the outside of the ship. Thankfully, everyone took helmets and/or a breathing apparatus, so we ended up docking right next to the airlock in question. We were able to open the airlock from the outside, and now we're sort of just standing in the airlock, with Tali pulling Kal into it. Shepard and Kaidan yank Mordin in, and then I turn to Ellie and Isaac.

"I thought I might be able to hack into the airlock," Tali says as she finishes pulling Kal into the airlock.

I simply shake my head. "Why is it that the airlock is always the only functional part of a derelict ship, even when there's no power?" I ask.

"It just happens that way," says Isaac. "We wouldn't be able to go into the ship, would we?" Isaac looks up. "I don't even know how a ship still has power after 50,000 years."

Mordin's feet touch the floor of the airlock, and then the door of the airlock closes behind us. "The protheans built this ship," says Shepard. "They built things to last."

I nod at Isaac. "Trust me, she'd know," I comment. "We actually talked to a 50,000 year old prothean AI once."

I can't tell if Isaac blinks from under his helmet, but he still looks rather surprised. "You did?" he asks. He then looks up. "Well, in that case..."

"It's not a bad point, though," I comment. "I mean, this is a ship out in the middle of nowhere. It's not like Ilos where it was potentially a resource-rich planet, you know?"

"This dreadnought is large enough that they probably did have room to store lots of element zero in here," Kaidan points out. "I'm still trying to figure out how they got this ship in the first place."

"Well, we'll need to find the engine room for that," says Tali as the decontamination cycle begins. "Maybe we could attempt to turn the power back on while we're at it."

"But where exactly is the engine?" Kal asks.

I shrug as the decontamination cycle ends. I look right at the male quarian, my hands coming to my helmet. "Probably in the back of the ship somewhere," I comment. "That's if I know my ship design around here especially well."

"Not bad place to begin looking," says Mordin. "Restoring power should be top priority. Could open parts of ship, reveal more information... Possibilities endless."

"You heard the doctor," Shepard says immediately. "We're going to look for the engine room. Keep your helmets on: we don't know if there are any hull breaches on this ship." We all approach the opposite door as it opens to... blackness.

I open my omni-tool almost immediately. "Yeah, this definitely looks like back-up power to me," I comment, turning my flashlight on and shining it into the ship. "No ship in existence should ever be this dark."

I hear a sardonic chuckle from behind me. "You don't have to tell me twice," Isaac replies as he steps forward. He picks up his plasma cutter, and then aims the thing down the hall. A second light shines, and then several more join in as light shines down the hallway. Hm... well, it looks relatively empty. I point my flashlight down at the ground, seeing that it's stable there. I take a tentative step.

And immediately, a rather small plume of dust shoots up from the floor, all around my foot. I blink in surprise as I see this, and I think everyone noticed it too for soon everyone else is looking at the ludicrous amount of dust here.

I blink. "Well, I'm sure glad I'm not taking my helmet off in here," I comment.

"Curious," says Mordin. "Large amount of dust, could be absurd amount of dust. Either way, amount of dust illogical. No maintenance in this hallway? Unused parts of ship?"

Tali looks at the rest of us. "Unused parts of ship..." she comments. "Hm..." She shakes her head. "No, it's not enough."

"You'll need more to figure out what happened here," says Shepard.

"Yes," says Tali.

Shepard nods. "I'm glad we brought you along," she says. "Your knowledge of engineering could come in handy here."

"We'll see," says Tali.

"Come on," says Shepard. "Let's find out what else is here."

And with this, Shepard leads the rest of us down the hall. We soon follow along, shining our omni-tool flashlights at the walls around us as we walk through the dark hallways.

Several minutes later, the interior of the ship hasn't changed much. We simply move around in empty hallways that are incredibly dark. Occasionally, we'll see a colored light that looks a little different. I'm assuming they're door controls since they're hovering right in front of what I assume would be doors, but it doesn't look like any door control I know. Actually, they don't look like they're functioning all that well, either. I see them flicker in and out of existence, with a noticeable preference for being out of commission. I simply walk on with the others, walking down the hallway.

Eventually, we get to a dead end, though we see a doorway there, given that the light is there again. It flickers like the others do, but this one seems to actually be working, since it's actually lit more than it is not. I see the only light we've come across so far, but it looks like it's been broken. Now, three or four sparks fall to the floor from the light fixture, which illuminates the door in front of us in a faint light. I blink, noticing that the door looks like it's been sealed shut.

Shepard steps closer to the door, looking at it. "Damn," she says. "It's a dead end."

"Not quite," says Tali. "There's a door here. Maybe if I could hack into it..."

"It's not a hacking issue," Isaac points out. "It looks like a hardware issue. The power seems to be malfunctioning here."

"Hm." Mordin walks forward. "Odd pattern of light fixture, presence of sparks sparks even in power outage notable... Possible hull breach nearby?"

"It didn't look like there were any hull breaches when we approached," Kaidan points out.

"In that lighting?" Ellie asks. "I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see a hull breach or two on the way in."

"And besides, it's hard to tell if there are hull breeches from a certain distance," Isaac comments. "Trust me on that. There were several hull breaches on the Ishimura, and I didn't actually see any of them until I had to fight my way out of the ship."

I nod. "Sounds familiar," I comment. I frown, looking at the door. "Well, it's the only way to the back of the ship, so we need to get this door open."

Shepard walks forward. "Hm..." She looks down at the flickering door control. "Well, there's still power being routed to it, so it can open..." She then opens her omni-tool. "I wonder..."

She then manipulates a few menus, and then touches the flickering door control with her omni-tool hand. The door jerks open just a little bit, shifting slightly there as we all watch some more sparks fall from the ceiling.

And then, one end of the door completely flies off. I feel my armor's magnetic boots kick in as suddenly, the door blows out. I see the vacuum in front of me right as the air gets sucked out of the hallway. I glance over to Isaac, seeing that he's hanging on to Ellie as they both hold on to the ship. I look out into the vacuum, feeling the last few pieces of air rush past me. I look at everyone else, noticing that they all look just a little surprised at what just happened.

As for me, I simply take a step forward. I look out into the vast vacuum before us, looking at the ship's hull. Wow, that is one messed up looking hull... I see outcroppings that at one point must have been walls and windows, and they all look twisted. Then there are the bits of debris just floating there: shards of glass and pieces of metal and glass that is bent in unnatural ways. Everyone else gets close to the door, and we see the way the hull has been twisted and burned. And not only that, it stretches down as far as we can see. The hull of the ship around us looks as if it's been absolutely decimated, with holes just about everywhere. I see a few lights flickering beneath us, and I can sense that those are doors as well. Literally, it's like someone gutted this ship with a giant hook hand, except that all the metal looks like it was super-heated and twisted. And some parts of the bulkhead... some parts of it look like they were fused together. Either way...

"Well... this confirms one part of my theory," Tali immediately comments. "This ship definitely used a conventional mass effect based FTL drive to get here. It was built to completely ignore the mass relay network, and to go distances that would be unsafe for a ship that is even slightly smaller."

"And without going through any atmospheres," Kaidan adds as he looks outside. "The static discharge definitely would have caused damage like this to the hull." Kaidan turns to Tali. "If the hull got destroyed by the static discharge, then why do you still need to see how they dealt with it?"

"Parts of the hull are still intact," says Tali. "If they had left the static discharge alone, then it could likely have destroyed the ship in a way that nothing would be left. I think there may be something else they did to keep the ship from being completely destroyed."

"Size should be sufficient to keep ship from disintegrating," Mordin points out. "Potential grounding points also possible. But lack of completely disintegrated hull, puzzling. Unless..." Mordin sniffs, suddenly realizing something. "Ah. Potential theory obvious. Surprised I didn't see it earlier."

"Yes," says Tali. "They could have grounded some of the static discharge to attempt to draw some power from it."

"Wait, wait," says Ellie. "So the size of the ship isn't because it has something huge on it?"

"At this stage, that's not likely," says Tali. "What's more likely is that the ship was huge to account for the static electrical charge that is left over from conventional FTL, and that the payload of this ship is actually much smaller than any of us might think. The protheans must have known that there would be nothing at these coordinates, so they built this ship in this size to account for the static build-up being discharged into the hull."

I frown. "Small payload..." I say. "Do you think...?"

"What we need might be in the direct center of the ship," says Tali.

"That... yeah," Shepard comments. "If the ship's size was to account for hull damage caused by the static discharge, then it would make sense to keep what we need as far away from the hull as possible; where better than the center of the ship? They'd probably have to take a few precautions to make sure that the static discharge didn't affect the very center of the ship, but since there are parts of the hull that are intact..." She shakes her head. "We still have to head to the engine room, though: the power might not be on in the center of the ship, and whatever solution is waiting there is useless if we can't get to it. Restoring power is still our top priority."

"If we can," says Tali. "If the engine was located close enough to the very back of this ship, it's likely we may not be able to power it back up."

"Let's also assume that any other electronics we find are fried," Kaidan adds. "The static discharge would likely have fried all the electronics closest to the hull. The fact that the doors are still functioning this close to the hull is a miracle."

"Right," I say. "So... we're still looking for the engine room."

"And now we need to find an area of this ship that hasn't been affected by this static discharge," Isaac comments. "I don't know about you, but the air supply in my suit is not limitless.

I chuckle, briefly remembering the zero-g bit with the asteroids on the Ishimura. "It's not limitless for us, either," I comment. "Come on. Let's go find the next part of the ship that isn't hanging out in a vacuum."

With this, we begin to file through the door, making sure we stay glued to the ground. As I do, I look out of the hull breach, seeing the stars off in the distance and getting a better picture of just how extensive the damage on the ship really is.

I climb along the debris, looking to the stars occasionally as I carefully traverse the debris. I look around us, seeing the vacuum of space surrounding us. I look at a nearby hole, gripping the wall as... damn it, no, there's another dead end there. I swear I can see that the quality of metal changes as I begin to move away, but... no, that can't really be real. That's gotta be my eyes playing tricks on me.

I climb away from this hole, looking out to the others. We've spread out a bit to see if we can find this thing faster. I can see Kaidan shimmering along above me, with Kal'Reegar climbing down the side of the ship close to where I am. I look above me, to see Isaac floating around there. I'm almost jealous of him, really: those thrusters he's got in his suit make life really easy for him, and he can just apply force if he gets too far from the ship. I shake my head, climbing across the ruined hull and being careful not to accidentally push myself away from the ship.

As I climb across, I hear a little something in my headset. "Hey Art," says Isaac.

I raise my eyebrow. "Isaac?" I ask. "What're you doing on a private channel?"

"I just... it's weird seeing you all crawling along the ship like ants," he says.

I roll my eyes. "Believe me, Isaac, I'm sure we're all really jealous of you right now," I reply. "If we only had your thrusters, this would go a lot quicker." I frown. "Uh... you are searching, right?"

"Yeah," says Isaac. I see him look into the ship. "I haven't had any luck so far."

"Well, we need to keep at it," I say. "Maybe we'll find something eventually."

I can feel that Isaac nods from the other end of the line. "I..." he pauses. "It's actually weird, that I'm not just being sent alone out here. I'm actually working with people here."

I shake my head. "Of course," I comment. "You're not just some kind of guinea pig, you know. You're a friend."

"I've never had someone say that to me when I was on the Ishimura," I comment. "Even my hallucination of Nicole had me do things. I guess it's just nice to finally be part of a group of people who aren't just using me."

I nod. "The Ishimura and the Sprawl were tough times for you, weren't they?" I ask.

"They were," Isaac comments. "These are actually harder if you ask me, but... I don't feel so alone anymore. I've got you guys watching my back." He pauses, and I can see him hovering in front of another part of the hull. "Thanks."

I blink. "For what?" I ask.

"For bringing me to the Brotherhood," Isaac replies. "I know it's fractured by now, but... After years of being in the mess I was in, it was the best thing anyone could have done for me. Thank you, Art."

I nod. "Hey, you just needed someone to trust," I comment. "I think you've found that."

"That I have," Isaac says. He pauses. "Hm... I think... no, there's no door on the other end. It just stops, too..."

"Keep looking," I say, approaching another hole in the hull that looks... Damn it, there's no way we can go deeper in that hole either. "We'll find something eventually."

With this, Isaac cuts the channel. I shake my head, climbing on the hull again. Come on, where is there a way into this ship?

Eventually, we find a door that's miraculously still working, and not a moment too soon, either. As soon as the door closes behind us, Isaac and Ellie are able to take in a very deep breath as the air returns to us. I look at them as they shake their heads, looking around there.

"Damn," Isaac says. "It's too bad the protheans didn't think to leave air canisters for us."

"Air canisters?" Kaidan asks. "I guess that's another thing that exists in your universe?"

"Yes," Isaac replies. "Normally, they're left floating around in space. If we need air, we just go up to it and breathe in." He shakes his head. "We can't worry about that now. We have to find the engine room."

Shepard shakes her head. "We've moved around the outside of this ship, and there's still no sign of it," says Shepard. "Well, at least we know to avoid the very back of the ship. There's no way anything survived that."

"We can agree on that," I say, turning my omni-tool's flashlight to the hall. "But if we managed to find an open-able door here, then that has to mean..."

Tali walks forward, shining her flashlight. Almost immediately, we see something that looks like a blast door. Tali walks up to it, shining her light as everybody else looks at it. I blink in surprise, shining a light down somewhere.

"Huh..." says Tali. "Well, this looks like a blast chamber of some sort."

I look up at the blast doors, blinking in surprise. I place a hand on it, looking at it as the others approach. "You think this might have been proofed for static discharges?" I ask.

"It's likely," says Tali. She then gestures to the door. "See? The door panel has power, and it looks like it's functioning perfectly. It's the only door that's been functioning perfectly since we got here."

"Which means that we've hit the area with our payload," says Kaidan. "So we're making some progress here." He looks up. "We just need to enter through this door here."

"This door which is quite possibly the only thing that houses what we need," Shepard comments. "Tali, can you hack into it?"

"I can try," says Tali. "I may be a bit out of practice, though, what with not having done this in a while."

"Out of practice? You?" I kneel next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, querida, you can do it. Believe me."

Tali nods, opening the suite. "I guess it's possible, if I've hacked into Collector firewalls," she says. She then walks next to the door panel, and I look over to the others as she begins to work. Isaac, Ellie, and Mordin all walk forward, with Mordin taking the briefcase off of his back. He then holds it with one arm, and nods.

Kal looks up around us. "Well, I have to say, ma'am, I didn't think I'd step onto a prothean ship," he says, looking at Shepard.

"Neither did I, Kal," Shepard replies. She places a hand on a wall. "I wonder what must have been going through their heads when they built this. I mean, this looks like it was completed quickly."

"Possible," says Mordin. "Most ships don't disintegrate from discharge. Bulkheads fused. Must have been made in haste."

"I'm getting that feeling too," Shepard comments. "I wonder what must have happened for this ship to be the solution they thought would help a future cycle. And when was this ship made? It just seems weird..." She sighs. "If only Liara was here. She'd have this place figured out almost immediately."

"I wish she was here too," Kaidan says. "I imagine she would've appreciated seeing something like this with her own eyes."

"How could you not?" asks Ellie. "This is a fifty thousand year old vessel. This has probably been the longest a vessel like this has ever existed."

"Not in one piece, though," I comment. "You saw the hull as we explored it just now."

"Still, a part of it is intact," Ellie points out. "I've yet to see a derelict vessel in such good shape." She then looks back at Isaac. "And hey, nothing has jumped out trying to kill us just yet."

"I guess not," says Isaac. He looks up. "It could still happen, though. I'm not putting it past anything, especially if there's anything alive on this ship."

I glance at Isaac. "Isaac, this ship is fifty thousand years old," I reply. "If there was anything living on it when we came in, they're all probably dead by now."

"So were the people on the Ishimura," he comments.

"And I highly doubt we have a strange alien artifact that turns people into zombies on this ship," Kaidan says. "If that was their solution to beating the Reapers, I'd seriously have to question the protheans as a people."

"We all would, Kaidan," I comment. I cross my arms. "Well, so far, we haven't found what we came here to find yet, but I wonder if-"

I then hear a gear move from where the door is. I look over, seeing the door begin to move. Tali stands up, closing her omni-tool and looking at the rest of us. I notice the way her eyes glint from behind the mask that she's feeling pretty triumphant. Which means...

The door behind her opens immediately. Once there, we see Tali shrug. "You were right, Art," she says. "I could do it."

I smile as Shepard walks past her. "Well, we're about to go into the important part of the ship," I comment. I look behind Tali. "I wonder what..."

I pause immediately, with Tali looking behind her instantly. All of us just walk forward, and... no, there's no way this is real... This is... what? What the hell is...

"Holy shit," I hear Shepard say as we walk into the area of the ship where things are actually contained. There's no way... this can't be possible!

As we walk inside, we see that this part of the ship... There are certainly dark patches, sure, but it's actually not that badly lit. Honestly, it's kind of like the Hydroponics deck of the Ishimura, only just a little brighter. The terminals are still on, too, and they actually shine green. I look around, seeing the walls that are colored a deep shade of red... it looks like several parts of the walls have rusted over. I'm not sure how it's keeping the vacuum out, but I won't concentrate on that, because if we can still breathe in here... Jesus Christ, this is incredible! I look at Shepard as she looks at the terminals. She approaches one in surprise, her fingers gracing the physical object before she begins manipulating it a little.

"Jesus Christ on a pikestaff, how the hell is this ship still functional?" I ask.

"I... this isn't possible," Ellie comments.

"Tell me about it, ma'am," Kal replies. "How the hell...?"

Tali looks around us as Shepard walks up to one of the terminals. "I don't know," says Tali. "But if this part of the ship is powered... it could confirm what we postulated earlier."

I look over at Shepard, watching as she approaches a terminal. Isaac immediately turns to her. His helmet peels away, and I see that he's looking at her in surprise. He blinks, and then nods after half a minute has passed.

"I think it's safe to breathe in here," he comments.

I shrug, bringing my hands to my own helmet and moving to remove it. "Indeed," I say, removing it a few seconds after. Hm... the air smells a little too sterile in here, but it's better than being in poisonous gas. "The power's on, and there's relatively fresh air in here."

"Who would think that such a combination would appear in a derelict ship thousands of years old?" Kaidan asks as he walks in, his own helmet in his hands.

"Potential limitless," Mordin comments as he pulls off his own breathing apparatus. "Possible that static discharge used to power ship. Fascinating. Unknown variables, must study! Perhaps Tali'Zorah's original proposition correct. Must know-"

"Relax, Mordin," I hear Shepard say. She's actually standing at one of the consoles there. "I think... yes, Tali was right. It mentions it in one of the logs here." She then brings up a green screen that forms right there at the terminal. We get close, crowding around the terminal as... wait...

Oh, hell, these are Prothean characters! And they're... what the hell?

Isaac leans forward. "Shepard, I don't recognize this," he says. "How do you read it?"

Kaidan steps forward. "It has to be the Cipher," he comments.

"The Cipher?" Ellie asks.

"Long story," I comment. "Let's just say that it's a little something she's got in her head that allows her to think like a prothean."

"We do not understand it completely, but it is useful, so we don't question it." Kaidan then turns to Shepard. "You can understand all this, right, Shepard?"

"I can," says Shepard. "I can read all this." She takes a few seconds to actually read the information in front of her. "It mentions things about the schematics of this ship, about how it was built quickly... about how most of the crew didn't expect to get this far into space alive."

I blink. "Really?" I ask. "Ship schematics?"

Tali walks forward. "Do they have anything specific in there?" she asked.

"Hm..." Shepard's fingers begin flying all around the keyboard. She concentrates, and I see Mordin, Kaidan, and Ellie hover around her shoulders. Kal, Tali, Isaac, and I all sort of hang back, looking at the Commander as she navigates menus. She looks at each one, taking a second to read it, and then going over to the next one. She takes a minute or two to do this, and then looks up at us, nodding.

"Well..." She then selects something, and I see something come up on my terminal as well as hers. It's written in the prothean language again, but this time I see a diagram come up. I watch as the diagram comes apart in front of us. "There's that," she says. I look at Tali as she leans forward. "Had to do a bit of digging, but..."

"Yes..." says Tali. "I can see that." She looks at it. "I don't understand the text, but the graphics they have here... They actually look pretty detailed." She then leans forward, bringing her fingers into it. To our surprise, it responds to her touch, and then she nods. "Yes." She then zooms in, and I see... what the hell is that weird little rod-like thing that's visible there? It goes out, and... "Ah..." Tali nods. "So my theory was correct. They attempted to draw some power from the static discharge."

"Did it work?" asks Ellie.

"I don't believe so," Shepard says. "It says here that the rod was fried." She shakes her head.

"Then the alternative is that they had a stockpile of eezo here," Kaidan comments.

"That could also be true," says Tali. "But that would mean there would have to be a crew on this ship."

"I dunno, Tali," Kal mentions. "It looks like this place was designed to host a crew."

I nod. "It looks like it," I comment. I then look back to Shepard. "Well, we have some idea how the ship got this far, and we know that it's still running. Now what?"

Shepard rubs her chin, and then begins scrolling through more objects on this terminal. "We still don't know what's actually in here," she comments. "For all this speculation of how it got here, we keep forgetting about what is in here that's so damn important in the first place."

"So now the next step is to find out what we need, and go on with that," Kaidan comments.

"Exactly," Shepard replies. "The Protheans went through a lot of trouble to try to get this ship this far away from the rest of the galaxy. We can't leave until we know what we're supposed to take with us. If there's anything to take with us at all, anyway."

"Small payload," Mordin points out. "Likely that package can be moved onto Satie with reasonable success. Take it with us."

"And then there's the matter of what we do with it," Shepard says. "Maybe there's something on this terminal that..."

She then pauses, her hand hovering over the screen. She looks down at it, and then reads something on it. I blink... wait, why'd she stop...?

"Shepard?" Kaidan asks. We all lean closer to her.

She blinks, looking at us all. She then takes off her helmet (wait, her helmet was still on?), and it's then that I see the shocked expression on her face. She... she literally looks like she just saw a ghost here... She simply looks at us, and...

"You're not going to believe this," she says.

"Believe what, ma'am?" Kal asks.

She looks down at the terminal. "According to this, there were stasis pods positioned in the center of the ship," she says. She then looks down at the terminal. "According to this screen..." She blinks, her expression still shocked. "According to this... some of these pods are still fully operational."

...

Say, what!?

I lean forward. "You mean we've got a live prothean in there?" I ask.

"Maybe more than one," says Shepard. She looks at there. "There were twenty-two stasis pods active when the ship first came here. There... Most of them have powered down. According to this, it says seventeen of the pods had to power down permanently to save power." She shakes her head. "I get the feeling that whatever was in those seventeen pods is dead..."

"Five still alive," says Mordin. "Remarkable even still. Five beings from prothean era..." He pauses, looking there in thought.

"That's... that's incredible," says Tali. "If only Liara were here. She would be thrilled."

I look over. "So... yeah," I say. "How do we get to these stasis pods, anyway?"

"They're in the center of the ship," Shepard comments. "But according to this terminal, the power to the central chamber's entrance had to be rerouted to preserve power. So we can't get in."

"So we find the engine room and reroute the power," says Isaac. "Unless there's something else here?"

"Not that I checked," says Shepard. "I suspect there might be an AI on this ship if the power was rerouted from the central chamber."

"You suspect?" asks Kal. "How do you know that?"

"The same thing happened on Ilos," Kaidan comments. "Except that on Ilos, there was nobody left alive to tell any tales." He looks at Shepard. "Here, though..."

"Wait, if there's an AI here, why hasn't it made itself known?" Ellie asks.

"It's likely that it's trying to save power," Shepard comments. "Or it could be that the AI is monitoring our communications the way Vigil did on Ilos. It would be pretty dumb to talk to a group of people when they can't understand you, you know? We need to get to the engine room." Shepard opens her omni-tool, and looks at it. "The terminal came with a map. It says that we need to take an elevator down to the next level. It's close."

I nod. "Then let's get going before any more of those pods go off-line," I comment.

Shepard nods. "The elevators are this way."

With this, we follow the commander to a set of doors on the far side of the room. I look over at Tali, who's looking quite pleased with herself. I shrug, following Shepard as we all get over to the elevator.

When we step off the elevator, we find ourselves in a hallway. We quickly walk through this hallway, noticing that everything looks sort of... well, reddish, really. We continue to walk down the hallway, eventually coming to a door. Shepard opens the door, and almost immediately we walk into what looks like the engine room. Hm... This engine actually looks pretty similar to the Normandy SR-1's engine. Actually, the whole room looks similar to the engine room on the Normandy SR-1

Isaac simply looks up. "Why does this look like the Normandy's engine?" he asks.

"Probably because most people in this galaxy got their technology off the protheans," I comment. "Some people probably still believed that the Protheans created the mass relay network right before the Reapers came in."

"We can't worry about that now," says Shepard, gesturing to Tali. "Besides... we have to reroute the power." She then brings up a menu, all done with prothean text. She then looks at Tali. "I'm not an expert," Shepard continues. "Tali?"

The quarian walks forward, looking at the menu. "Well, I can't read it," she says. "But if this is similar to how a drive core would work..."

Shepard nods, and then the commander and the quarian both get to work on it. I simply look up at the engine, leaning over the railing.

Ellie is the one who then walks up to me. "Is this really safe?" she asks.

"The original Normandy had something similar to this," I reply. "It's nothing new, believe me. And as long as we don't get too close, we should be okay." I frown. "I wonder when our Vigil expy will show its face."

"Hopefully before we have to manually reroute the power," Ellie comments. "I don't know how AIs work in this galaxy, but back home..."

"Well, that's a poor point of comparison, since most AIs in this place aren't really treated all that well." I shrug. "Anyway, if I knew Vigil, it's just monitoring our conversations so it knows how to talk to us."

"Let's hope it doesn't go any further," Ellie comments.

"It has not."

The voice interrupts all of us, and suddenly we look right at the central terminal in the room. There, we see some holographic thing that appears, and it causes Tali and Shepard to look up from where they're standing at the terminal. I blink in shock, stepping closer to that terminal. I look at it, and then glance at the geometric shape that is hovering right there.

And from there, the room is filled with a very pregnant silence. We simply look at the AI in shock for what feels like a very long time. It simply hovers there above us, the light of the drive core tinting the otherwise orange vessel so that it looks like a shade of brown. I look over at the others, before turning my attention back to what I can only assume is the prothean AI.

Finally, Shepard steps forward. "I'm guessing there was a reason you didn't appear earlier," she says.

"There is," says the AI. "I was monitoring your communications. It would be foolish to attempt to communicate with a species when they cannot understand you. There are many things that I must say. Many things, indeed, that I know about. But, if you assume I am an artificial intelligence... yes, that is correct. My behavioral patterns are based off of one Thurn Tarkaris." It pauses. "Some people in my time knew him as the Oracle of Mars."

"The Oracle of Mars?" I ask. "How'd that happen?"

"This vessel was constructed on Mars, many, many years after the Citadel had been taken," the AI continues. "This is not important. You may simply call me 'Nuh'."

"Nuh?" Kaidan looks up at the AI. "What name is that?"

"It is a name," Nuh replies. "Names are only trivial in the small scheme of things. I was created to watch over this vessel, and to ensure its operation upon your arrival." I hear the AI... sigh in relief? "It is fortunate that some of the crew still draws breath even now. Perhaps you will be able to ensure their survival."

"Of course," says Shepard. "You let people die, though."

The AI's tint changes, and now it's very blue, which is not helped by the backlighting from the drive core. "I had very little choice in the matter," Nuh says solemnly. "The large number of stasis pods made powering the ship difficult. The entire crew boarded this ship knowing that many of them would not survive the full fifty thousand years. Even if I were to keep all power off and concentrate my power on the pods, I would only go for a thousand years before I would need to refuel the ship which rests in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes... I had no power to allow them to return to the stasis pods without killing the rest of the crew before your arrival."

Shepard looks down. "So they starved to death..." she says. "And you let them die in here."

"Not likely," says Mordin. "Not many died on ship. Would have seen corpses. Also, smell." He sniffs quite loudly. "Smell, very unpleasant."

"He speaks the truth," Nuh adds."Many preferred not to face such a slow, painful death. Many chose to give themselves to the vacuum. I allowed them: I had no resources of my own to give them. Even military rations spoiled after a thousand years being stored in vacuumed spaces." The AI's hue changes again. "Aside from that, keeping food cold would have eaten at my resources. I only allowed enough food to last the journey to here."

"Wait: did you kept all the doors running?" Kaidan asks. "Doesn't that sound counter-intuitive?"

"I returned power to some of the ship's functions when the ship's scanner sensed the energy signature from your vessel," says the AI. "Before then, I kept power running only to allow the pods to run, and to allow the scanner to scan the area immediately surrounding this ship." The AI pauses. "The amount of energy released from your vessel... I have never seen anything like it. Nothing in my calculations could have predicted such a method of travel. It was just as Thurn predicted... A group of sentient beings would come to this last testament to the prothean empire to save their own cycle. I cannot help but think he would be most pleased to see you here."

Shepard shrugs, turning towards Isaac. "Well, you can thank this guy here for that," she says. "He imported a different FTL drive from somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" Nuh asks. "The Oracle mentioned that it might come from a different reality altogether..."

"It was," Isaac comments. "It was from a reality where there were no mass relays." He shakes his head. "What does any of this have to do with anything?"

"I apologize," Nuh replies, and I see it turn a shade of green. "I am afraid I am lost in the wonder of the moment." The AI then turns back to its original orange color. "It... It is quite lonely here. And I fear that I shall be left alone when your inevitable departure comes."

"You're not going to try to keep us here, are you?" Tali asks.

"There is too much at stake," says the AI. "I may wish to maintain company, but... I am but the last remaining fragment of a great race that has been torn to pieces." The AI pauses at this again, before changing colors. "You seek to reroute the power to the door leading to the stasis pods. I will do this myself. But before you go, there is information I must tell you. The stasis pods..."

"What about the stasis pods?" Shepard asks.

"It has been many thousands of years," Nuh replies. "Nearly all of the stasis pods have been kept closed, but... it will take the occupants many hours to get acclimated to the ship. Some of them have been in there for longer than ten thousand years."

"I see..." says the commander. She then looks at Kal. "Kaidan, we have rations on the Satie, right?"

"We packed them just in case, Shepard," Kaidan replies. "I don't know if there's enough for five other people, but..."

"We'll go hungry for a day or two," I reply, waving it off.

"What the serviceman said," Shepard replies. "Kaidan, go back to the Satie with Ellie. You should get the rations."

Kaidan nods, saluting. "Of course, Commander," he says. He nods to Ellie. "We'll be back as soon as we can get back here."

"And for us..." I say, looking at Nuh. "Where do we go?"

"The stasis pods are on this floor," he states. "Though I feel the Commander knows the way."

"I do," says Shepard. "Follow me."

And with this, we follow the commander. Ellie and Kaidan break off at the elevator, and we go through a door that had previously been powered down. With this, we walk through it, and begin walking down a pretty narrow hallway.

Eventually, we reach a door. I notice that there's a small little box by this door, and before long I see Nuh appear before it. The door opens of its own accord, and then we all look at the artificial intelligence.

"There are the stasis pods," says Nuh. "They will have much to tell you. Once I have woken up the remaining survivors, I will have enough power on this ship to run for another day according to the prothean calendar."

"And how long is that?" asks Shepard.

"Twenty hours," says Nuh. "Prothean days are... relatively short, compared to the day cycles of some other species."

I blink. "Well, twenty hours is still relatively long," I comment. "I mean, in the grand scheme of things it's not that big, but still..."

"That is true," says Nuh. "But time is so fleeting when we are at the end of existence. Tell me: do I dream, though I am not organic?"

I pause, looking at the AI. It's Tali who steps forward, looking at the AI. "I..." Tali looks down. "I don't know if anyone can answer that question. But for what it's worth? I believe it's possible... Anything is possible..."

"I hope so..." says Nuh. "In any event, I shall know soon when I lose power, never to be reactivated. But... this must be done." The AI pauses. "The sequence to wake them up should not take long. Even now, I have begun the initiation to wake them up. Hopefully, they will be with you soon."

Shepard nods. "Thank you, Nuh," she replies. "We'll go from here."

And with this, Nuh simply falls silent. We look at the open door, and one by one we all file through it. I feel my heart rate climb just a little bit as we enter the room. I wonder what...

...

Whoah...

As soon as I enter, I look at the room around me. There are numerous strange things that lay all around us in a circle. I can sense that they were definitely meant to hold bodies in them, but... Jesus. Most of them are powered off, and they stand there like black coffins standing upright in a green haze. But there are some that are powered on, and I just see strange designs on these things. There is a white light that shines along various lines on these stasis pods, and I notice that one of them is slowly powering down in a most unusual way. I step close to this pod, glancing up and down at the pod. This is...

"Well," I hear Kal say as he approaches. "I didn't expect this."

"Join the club," Isaac comments as he too looks at another stasis pod. All of the stasis pods together just seem to power down immediately, and we all walk up to the stasis pods that were functional.

And then, at the same time, we hear a collective hiss from all five pods. Their doors open outwards, like a coffin would, and then we see the beings there in the position they must have been in when they first went to sleep. Their arms are crossed, and they all sort of look a little perturbed. Four of the beings I actually recognize, because they look quite a bit like Orange. Hell, one of them even has that slight feminine tilt to her head that I recognize from Orange. The fifth person, though... I don't recognize what species it's from, though it's odd that he has horns that are kind of like a ram's horns, only not as curvy. He looks remarkably mammalian, too, especially with that white hair that flows over the back of his head. Certainly, it's quite different from the protheans in the room, but...

I step forward, looking at the prothean in the stasis pod in front of me. He... I'm assuming it's a he anyway... he groans softly, and I look at him as his eyes open. It looks like it takes real effort for him just to open his eyes, but after several seconds, he eventually has his eyes half open. He then moves his body, slowly taking a step out.

And that's when he falls over. I quickly rush towards him, catching him just in time as I sling his arm over my shoulder. He groans tiredly, and I can feel that the feeling of his limbs returning to him must be an odd sensation for him indeed. It takes several more seconds for him to fully open his eyes, but when he does he looks directly at me almost immediately.

"W... what...?" he asks, his voice incredibly raspy. "What...?"

I nod, looking at him. "Don't worry," I say. "You just woke up. It's been... well, fifty thousand years..."

The prothean I'm holding simply blinks in surprise. "We... did not..." He pauses, blinking heavily.

I nod. "We'll explain soon," I comment. I then look at the others. I see that everyone else is supporting one of these beings, with Tali and Mordin both doubling up on one of them. "You've been asleep for a long time."

"I am... aware of that..." the prothean says to me. "The empire... Nuh..."

Nuh's avatar appears at a terminal right next to one of the stasis pods. "I am here, Varkano," Nuh replies. "The empire... it is gone."

"Long gone," I add. "Look, let's get you somewhere where you can sit down, okay? We can talk about everything that happened there.

The prothean nods weakly, and then we all look to Nuh. The avatar changes color. "There was a seating area close to this room," says the AI. "Allow me to redirect the power in that direction."

We nod. "Thanks," Shepard says. There's a door on the other side that then opens, and then Shepard nods as she slings the strange horned guy's arm over her shoulder. "Come on, let's get these guys refreshed."

And with this, we all file out of the room, getting our new friends out of this place. I look to the prothean I'm supporting... wow, I can't believe I'm actually supporting a prothean. I just... wow. I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier...

I shake my head, simply coming to a room where there are various chairs at empty tables. I seat my prothean there, at which time he simply leans over his legs, looking down at the floor as he catches his breath.