Liara walked through the lab toward the underground room where the archway stood, talking intently into her omni-tool. Del had gone down to help with the preparations half an hour before, but Liara'd had other work to attend to quickly before she joined them- not the least of which was informing the two turian ships still watching the dreadnought as to their efforts. The chief science officer on one of the ships had proven most helpful in their estimates of both Osco's capabilities and their workable time frame. Unfortunately, it seemed they'd be cutting things close.
"Understood. We have a plan that may help to disable or at least damage the ship- hopefully we will have Osco well tenderized for the fleet by the time they arrive. What is the estimate on her power levels?"
{We believe the dreadnought is now at full capacity, but if this Antenna is as big as you say, it's going to drain her stores quickly. If she decides to dump all her ship's power into it, my guess is she can have that Antenna extended and drawing its own power within two hours.}
"It is unlikely she will do so. It will mean deactivating her shields and weapons, and it would leave her incredibly vulnerable to the fleet."
{Then chances are she's going to use that dreadnought as a conduit and not a battery. She'll take in solar energy and transfer it to the Antenna without depleting her own systems. If she does that, the process will take significantly longer…hours, at least. I'll have to crunch the numbers. However it will keep her with the power she needs to take on the fleet if they attack and minimize her risks. If what you said is true, she knows she can hold against them with little chance of defeat or even damage. Once she's got that Antenna up and charged, that's it. She'll start opening Folds and redirecting power toward Ilos.}
Liara nodded grimly. "All right. Right now you are just to observe, and report any deviance in her activity. Have your captain stay back far enough she has no reason to target you, and wait for the fleet. We will be implementing our plan here within the next half hour. T'Soni out."
She switched off her omni-tool, taking the last few steps down into the archway room beneath Osco's 'official' lab. Several Alliance marines, heavily armed and armored, turned to face her. Near the deactivated archway, a handful of eggheads were working, Shepard among their number.
Ashley stood with Sam near an unfamiliar marine, spotting Liara almost the moment she entered. Lifting a hand, she waved her over.
"This is our Davy Crockett, Captain," she said as Liara drew near, gesturing to the five foot long launcher the marine was holding. "317-A rocket-mounted tactical pocket nuke. It's the biggest one we were able to get in the time."
"Yield?" Liara asked.
"Fifteen tons," the N7 replied. "On one of our dreadnoughts, that'd be more than enough. Detonated anywhere inside the ship, it would split the thing in half and compromise the eezo core…which would take care of the rest. On her ship, the most we can hope for is for the radiation and electromagnetic static energy to seriously throw a shit-fit in her systems…and for the physical damage to put her in a fuck of a lot of pain. If we're lucky, we disrupt shields or weapons, maybe break her integration with the vessel or cripple it."
"We're going to have to time things just right," Sam said. "The moment our people are back through that archway we need to get this fired and shut down that Fold. If we don't close the Fold the instant the rocket's passed inside, we could be looking at part of the detonation blowing back right into this room. Depending on how close to the other arch this thing is when it goes off, that could be anywhere from a light radioactive breeze and some shrapnel, to half its yield energy blasting back into our faces."
"Sam, I trust you to make sure that timing is precise. Ash, you and I will lead the team going in after Tali and Delphine. Sam, that Davy Crockett is yours. The moment we return, you fire that rocket into that Fold. Del will have to make sure that the Fold closes the moment it has passed through."
"Understood," Feris replied with a nod.
Shepard had broken away from the team near the archway and now approached, eying the menacing looking launcher with hesitation, before looking at Liara. "May I speak with you?"
"Of course. Ashley, have them bring Ruth down now and get the men ready to go through."
"Aye, ma'am."
Liara stepped to the back of the cavern with Shepard, not missing the worried set to the woman's brows. "What is it, Merah?"
"This is the best idea we have," Shepard said softly. "I know it is. I've spoken with Pio again, and it seems very happy to help, but we have a slight problem. Pio opens the archway and then goes to Ruth, and back to that dreadnought. It has said that it can open the Fold in such a manner that Osco cannot close it again on her end…a little failsafe the brasa put in so that their high command could open Folds from to enter rebelling colonies or ships without risking the Fold being shut down in their faces by those hoping to prevent them coming through. Until we close it down, that Fold stays open, no matter what Osco wants."
"I admit, I had thought of the possibility of Osco simply terminating the Fold from her end- it is good to know she will not be capable of doing so. Where does the problem come in?"
"The problem comes in with Pio. It's going to open and direct that Fold, then it's going with Ruth back onto that dreadnought. We still don't understand a tenth of what makes this tech work- and we won't have Pio on hand to help to close it again."
"Can we simply cut power?"
Shepard shook her head. "No, unfortunately. These pylons around the room hold thermal energy to charge the archway. Right now, the Alliance scientists estimate they're charged with enough power to keep that Fold open for a week, and they don't exactly have a cut-off switch. Again, the brasa didn't want anyone on a stolen ship or slave colony from closing down the process on their end easily. I can close it, but it won't be instant. It'll take about twenty seconds, possibly slightly more, and I can't really start the process until everyone has passed back in and that rocket has been fired. The Fold will be open but it may be unstable during shut-down and fluctuate- and we can't risk that rocket going anywhere but directly onto her ship. We could theoretically keep Pio behind to enact an instant shut-down, but I doubt it would take that kindly."
"No," Liara shook her head. "The last thing we need is for that Pio to decide you have lied and are the enemy while it is still attached to you. Does it know some way we can more quickly shut this arch down on our end without its help?"
"It is working to shave a second or two off that time but we have to operate under the assumption it will take the full twenty seconds to close this thing after the rocket is fired. I just wanted you to be aware of the risk."
"If that Fold remains open when the pocket nuke detonates, it could be catastrophic," Liara said with a thoughtful frown. "Some portable barrier generators could be set up around the archway…when the team passes back and the rocket is fired, we could activate the barrier in case the Fold does not close before the nuke detonates. It should contain the force of the blast and any debris moving at speed. Those that remain here will have to be fully hard-suited against high radiation exposure."
"Would hard-suits be sufficient?"
"Against levels of nuclear radiation to the amount we can expect, yes…more than sufficient. They are designed to resist eezo radiation to levels relatively far stronger than what we will encounter from a single pocket nuke."
"That…that may work then, buy us a bit more time to get the Fold closed," Shepard said. Liara scrutinized her expression.
"You still look troubled."
"We're just dealing with so many unknowns," Del told her. "If that nuke detonates with the Fold still open- even if we are protected in hard-suits and behind a barrier-it may destroy the archway on the other side. There's no telling what will happen to the Fold if one of its anchor points is eliminated while it's still active. It may just collapse and shut off. It may attempt to link to another anchor point. It may do something we can't even begin to fathom."
"Pio does not know?"
"Pio is a single weak mind away from its kin," Shepard said. "It knows the tech, how to switch it on and off, and what mission records are stored in its memory…but the physics behind the tech are a different story. Perhaps if we had a thousand Pio, or a million…their collective experiences, coding, and brain power would be able to impart that information- but this Pio alone? It just doesn't know. It wasn't important."
"What is your feeling? From a logical, scientific point of view…what do you believe is most likely to happen in such a situation?"
"I'm not a physicist, but some of the men here are. They seem to think the chances are greatest the unanchored Fold will simply collapse and close. Creating a Fold is creating an artificial structure through the chaos of not only our space and time, but that of possibly an infinite number of multiverse Hubble volumes. You can sink a sealed container of sufficient strength deep into the ocean, to enormous pressures, without a problem…but break it open, even the tiniest bit-"
"And the pressure crushes it. You are saying that the 'pressure' of reality and space/time itself will simply crush the Fold and eliminate it should its anchor be compromised."
"That's the theory, at any rate," Shepard said. "But we can't know for sure. We're like three year olds trying to understand an FTL engine- we just don't have the experience or knowledge necessary to even begin to comprehend all possible variables."
"And we do not have the time needed to find those answers," Liara said, taking a deep breath. "What is the worst case scenario?"
"Worst case? The other archway collapsing creates a dynamic energy explosion, dispersing all of the Fold's static energy back at its other anchor…here. Like a rubber band snapping when one end is released and transferring its potential energy directly into whatever it hits. Near as they can calculate, the explosion will be strong enough to destroy this room and everything in it, but the damage to the rest of the facility should be fairly minimal."
"So everyone within this room dies."
"Incinerated, instantly," Shepard said. "There won't even be time to realize what happened. Fortunately, the physicists think there is only a .3% chance that will happen. There is a much greater chance- at least 4%- that the Fold will seek out and find another archway, and link to God can only guess where. The heart of the Brasa empire, one of their conquered world's or galaxies, there's no way to tell. Still, even if that happens, if anyone is actually on the other side they'll likely be taken by surprise. Given the size of the Fold, we wouldn't be risking an armed invasion force suddenly rushing through, guns blazing- not in the short amount of time it would be active- but someone could still theoretically come through. Also, we would potentially be linking this room with an unknown environment. If it finds an old archway as a new anchor that sank to the bottom of some primeval sea a thousand years ago, we could find millions of gallons of sea water suddenly rushing in on us. Or toxic gasses from some deadly atmosphere. The reverse is also true- our atmosphere would shift through into their environment. That shouldn't happen on a wide enough scale to harm us, especially if we're hard-suited- but for whatever hapless and potentially innocent being on the other side, our atmosphere may be the most deadly poison."
"If properly placed, the barrier should be sufficient to keep out water or toxic gasses- and keep our atmosphere in. If necessary, we can program it to prevent anything of any weight or momentum from passing through- that should halt any curious creature or invading soldier as well, rebound them back through Fold."
"Barrier won't stop the rebound explosion I described."
"No, but at a .3% chance of such occurring is acceptable odds given the circumstances. All right. We will restrict only necessary personnel to this room for the operation. Everyone will be in hard-suits and we will prepare the portable barrier generators for activation the moment the rocket passes back through onto the dreadnought, just in case we are not able to close the Fold before it detonates. They will be set so that the barrier will be flush with the edge of the archway…nothing will get through it short of a cataclysmic event. All we can do at this point is our best to minimize casualties in case of the unknown, and hope that Fold merely collapses if the arch on the other side is damaged."
Del nodded faintly. "It's the best we can hope to do. If we had more time…but, we don't, and lamenting over it isn't going to change things."
She looked over as a pair of guards entered, leading Ruth along with them, then back at Liara. "I should finish getting set up."
"I will have the barrier generators brought in and set up," Liara said, then reached out and gently took Shepard's shoulder. "We go in ten."
"You went on that ship once before," Del said. Liara also had died on that ship once before. If it had not been for Del's lucky find of her body and her quick use of the black tech…she shuddered to think. This time, there would be no such saving grace if Osco got hold of the Spectre. "Just…you make sure you come back, ok?"
"I will," Liara said, as firmly as if she had given an order she expected obeyed. "I will find Tali and Delphine and I will come back. I promise you, Merah."
Shepard was once again wearing a full combat hard-suit and feeling dragged down by the weight. Her helmet and one glove were off as she looked from the VI console hovering beside the archway to Liara, hoping her nerves didn't show.
Liara and the troops were lined up, prepared to move through the Fold the moment the signal was given. In the center of the room, aimed at the archway, the tactical nuke launcher- what Liara and the others had called a 'Davy Crockett'- was planted firmly on its tripod, Sam at the controls and fine-tuning its aim. Ruth stood nearby, arms folded and glassy-eyed, only half-watching Del work. Everyone else had been cleared from the room, the cavern sealed from the lab- it would not be opened again unless Liara signaled the personnel in the lab proper.
Looking back at her work, Del finished her adjustments, then turned to Ruth. "Keep your omni-tool on but on stand-by power," she said. "I can pick up the readings through the Fold, and the moment we know that Osco has engaged you Liara and the others will go in to find the girls. Your vitals stop or we cannot determine integration, we send that nuke through, shut that Fold, and that's that."
"You will be killing those you want to rescue at the same time," Ruth pointed out, though she sounded mostly disinterested.
"I know, but we have no other option. That nuke will still help to disable the dreadnought, even if we can't risk finishing the rescue. Liara will abort if she thinks it's necessary."
"I'll do my part, Shepard. Everything else is on your head."
"We're well aware," Del said dryly, linking Ruth's idling omni-tool to her display, then looking over as Liara came up.
"Are we prepared?"
"All set. I just need to power the Fold and get Pio transferred over to Ruth."
Liara nodded, her face perfectly schooled. "Do it."
Shepard nodded, then took a deep breath. Stepping over one of the barrier generators near its flank, she reached her arm out toward the edge of the archway. As it neared that black material, the sunburst on her wrist came to life, spreading and then reaching out its metallic threads. The threads touched and then sank into the side of the arch, and a moment later, the Fold was open.
It was just that quick. One moment the arch was empty, the next filled with impossible black. There was no slow fading in, no formation of the connection…it just was.
Pio withdrew its threads and Del shifted her arm over, holding her hand out to Ruth. Without hesitation, the other woman took it. The threads whipped around her wrist, drawing in and pooling against her skin even as the starburst on Del's skin shifted apart and retracted. More threads appeared down Ruth's shoulder as her implants reacted to Pio's addition, and Pio seemed to almost reach eagerly for them a moment before it settled into its normal starburst shape. Del drew her now bare hand back, rubbing at the spot the implant had rested.
It was a little red, but otherwise there was no trace left.
As she picked up her glove and pulled it on, she took a deep breath and tried not to let her nerves get the best of her.
This will work. This has to work. Too many have died already. This bitch doesn't get to win.
Glove set, she picked up and secured her helmet, before she nodded at Liara and took her place back at the console. "We're green on this end."
Ruth, now standing directly in front of the Fold, could not suppress a shudder. Going back through that thing, facing the abomination that had taken Gellian's place…she was not looking forward to any of it.
She only let herself hesitate a moment. The longer they sat here with that Fold open, the greater the chance of some Orthrus clone or alien trooper bursting through. She had to get in and get into the systems before that could happen.
Steeling herself, Ruth Wyatt wordlessly strode forward into the black and the unknown that awaited her beyond.
