This Chapter was removed and resubmitted due to an error in the websites formatting that has now been corrected.

June 12th -2155 - Noveria - Peak Fifteen Rift Station - Secure labs

"Will you be ok?" was the first thing Uno asked Isika when she returned to the group in the partially flooded lab.

"I will be." Isika said, taking a deep breath. She rubbed up against Uno. "Thanks for worrying."

Uno smiled and gave her a one armed hug.

Out of respect, Ishi waited a full two seconds before poking fun. "Ok that's enough lover girls, we've nearly finished up, so let's focus on clearing the primary objective."

The pair reluctantly parted, before walking up to the raised catwalk right up against the containment cell that had escaped the carnage from earlier, and was remarkably intact. Where the rest of the girls were examining the Rachni queen, which seemed to be in turn watching them wearily.

"You can say that Ishi, but honestly I don't even know what to do with her." Uno said, "We already got the intel about what Saren was after from Vasir, along with the intel itself."

"Plus, the intel is probably useless, as Saren is already under siege on Virmire.' Ishi added, thoughtfully. "So what we have here is a massive loose end."

"Is it just me, or does it seem unusually… docile?" Jessamine said. "Compared to the others in this facility?"

"Yeah, I would have expected it to... ya know, be throwing itself against the glass, making horrible noises at us… Spitting acid… something." Ika said, tapping the glass with a finger.

"Yeah, it almost feels like it's more scared of us than we are of it." Isika said, tilting her head.

"I mean it doesn't look like it's gonna attack us. Should we just let it go?" Uno asked.

"These things did kind of ravage the galaxy two thousand years ago, is that really a good idea?" Isika supplied.

"And now it's the last of its kind," Ika said softly.

That seemed to puncture the conversation for a moment as people really considered the implications.

"...Finishing a genocide does not really sit right with me." Jesamine said, breaking the silence.

"I feel kinda dirty for even considering it." Ishi agreed.

"Isika is right though, we can't just let it run free, even ignoring the risks to the people on this planet, the minute someone finds out it exists, they will probably hunt it down." Uno said, frowning.

"Can we take it with us?" Ika said. "Like a pet or something?"

"Even if we could fit it on the Daydream, the ship has no holding cells, we'd have to squeeze it in the cockpit." Isika said. "Hardly secure, especially considering this one is acting much smarter than the others we encountered."

"Not that that is particularly difficult." Jesamine added

As they sat contemplating their options, Isika slowly became aware of a very strange sound. It was low at first, and Isika couldn't quite make out what it was, or indeed where it was coming from.

She looked around, nobody else seemed to be hearing it, with the exception of Uno who also seemed to be looking around confused.

Their eyes briefly met. And they exchanged confused thoughts and gazes.

"Do you guys hear something?" Isika hazarded.

"Nope."

"Nada."

"Not really."

"Of course they can't." Was Desida's sudden contribution. "You two are receiving a psychic impulse, you two are just more sensitive to it because your minds are tethered together, making you more receptive."

"Where from?" Isika asked, as the other girls nodded in understanding.

"Take a guess." was Desida's response.

All eyes moved in unison to the queen.

"Wait, this thing is Psychic? How, it's not magical as far as I can tell." Ishi said, confused.

"Well Neither are Asari, and they reproduce by mindfucking." Desida supplied.

"How many times do I have to ask-." Isika groaned, before she was distracted by the impulse suddenly became more insistent.

"I think it's asking to come in?" Uno supplied hesitantly.

"Well, at least it's polite…" Isika said, she thought for a moment, before saying. "I'm gonna let it in."

"You sure that's wise?" Ishi said.

"Please, my mental defenses were the best in class. Nothing wrong with seeing what it has to say." Isika said.

The girls all looked at each other, before shrugging. "I guess it couldn't hurt." Uno said. "But I'm gonna pull you out if it starts doing anything weird."

"Sure thing." Isika said, facing the queen. Whose visible demeanor seemed to change to being somewhat expectant.

She let it in.

And heard the music of the Rachni for the first time.

It was the most surreal, wondrous, otherworldly, and beautiful thing Isika had ever heard. Even Uno who was hearing it second hand through Isika felt weak in the knees as the ethereal music brushed across her senses.

And there was meaning there. It carried colours, emotions, impulses, even time itself seemed to be contained within the formless music. And despite it being Alien to her, Isika could feel nothing but total comprehension as the music struggled to bestow words into Isika's feeble tongue which suddenly felt painfully inadequate compared to these ancient verses.

"You can hear our song… it has been long since we heard the music of another … we beg you… hear us out."

Isika was so blown away that she nearly forgot to think back. "Uh yeah, I'm listening."

"Your Songs are strange to us… There are colours we have no name for... So forgive us… if we are unclear… But please… We need your aid… to free our children from their own madness."

"Madness? What's wrong with them." Isika thought back.

"Those Needle men… They stole our children before they could be taught to sing… to try and raise them as tools of war… the silence… drove them mad… and our song can no longer reach them."

"Thats Horrible!" Isika said, accidentally speaking aloud.

"What are they talking about?" Ika asked. "It's weird just watching them stare at each other."

Uno briefly spared a second to explain. "It's saying the scientist stole its eggs, and thus they never learned how to communicate, and went feral."

"That actually explains a lot." Jesamine said.

"Pretty messed up though." Ishi added.

While this conversation went on, Isika continued speaking to queen. "Is there anything we can do to help them?"

"If it were so we would be overjoyed… but no song you nor we could sing could ever reach them… But we cannot leave them as is… for in their current state... They pose great risk to every being to cross thei h… They must be… ended."

Isika was taken aback, but she could feel the deep sorrow and heartbreak in the music. The queen truly thought there was no hope for them, and the only salvation she could offer was release from their madness. And lacking any alternative, Isika was forced to agree.

"I'm sorry…" Was the only thing Isika could think to say.

"It is not your fault… Those Children's futures were gone from the moment the Needle men took them … Anything more is just a mercy."

Isika nodded sadly.

"But before such grim business… we have to ask… what will you do with us… Will you let us go free?"

"What will you do if you go free?" Isika said.

"We do not know… we wish for a home… away from this place… Where we can raise our children in peace."

"Do you intend to restart the Rachni war?" Isika asked. She didn't think so, but she wanted to check.

"No… We do not know why the war was fought… we were but an egg… hearing our mothers song in our dreams… We remember Oily voices from the stars… an entire people silenced… We are the last Rachni."

"I see…" Isikia had to think long and hard about this. She was vaguely aware that the Rachni queen was currently privy to her surface thoughts, but for the moment she didn't really mind. She could just let the queen go, she clearly had very little animosity to anyone, even her former captors, and the Rachni were a space faring race, so they could probably make it offworld without too much fuss. But maybe…

"Queen, if you were interested. How would you like to come back with us to the Alliance? We have no history with the Rachni, we were not part of the galactic community at that time, so there will be no bad blood. We even gave core membership to the Quarians, so perhaps the same could be given to Rachni as well."

"You… Your Alliance would do that for us?"

Before Isika could give any sort of confirmation, tentative as it might have been, she felt her back tattoo flare.

"Now hold up just a little bit there you two." Desida said, resting her arms on Isikas head, squashing her hat and dropping the brim over her eyes. "No offense, Isika. But this decision is a little bit above your current pay grade."

"But Desida~" Isika whined, lifting her hat But Desida cut her off.

"Not disagreeing with you. I just feel that as your acting superior, I should probably handle this point in the negotiations." Desida said. "Sorry, kinda my job, just gotta ask a few questions myself. Why don't you handle your little favour to the queen while I talk to her highness?"

Isika extracted herself and fixed Desida with a pout.

"Look Ise. I just gotta make sure she is safe before offering her things, once I've ascertained she is no threat to the Alliance, I have no problem bringing her back with us." Desida said. "Now why don't you take your friends and…" Desida paused as she tried to think of a euphemistic way of telling someone to go murder someones elses insane children. Decided that that was too tasteless even for her and instead settled. "Well you know, just try and be respectful about it."

Isika, somewhat placated, looked once at the queen then nodded at Desida, before gesturing to her friends, who after a confused look between Desida and Isika, followed her to the exit.

"Oh and girls?" Desida called out before they left the room, and they all turned back to her. "I doubt this will give you any trouble, more cleanup then anything, so I feel safe in saying… Good Job, Mission clear."

The collected Operatives-to-be blinked, slowly one at a time as the meaning of those words sunk in, with varying levels of intensity, all beamed with pride.

"Now hurry up, I wanna leave within the hour. I don't know if they are still gonna glass the facility after you restored functionality, but I don't intend to stay and find out."

Getting the hint, the girls all rushed out of the room.

Desida nodded before turning to the Rachni queen, before letting her mind open enough to let the Queen in, which they did so tentatively. "Now as you may have gathered, I need to ask you a few questions before we can discuss Isika's offer. Before we begin though, I feel it is fair to inform you that as the single remaining member of your species you will be ineligible for membership status in the Alliance at this time, however we will be able to offer you political asylum as a refugee, with the possibility of citizenship further down the line. If this does not seem appealing to you, we can always end negotiations and then you will be free to leave by your own means." Desida thought dryly, as if reading from a legal document.

"Even this is more than we could have thought to hope… We are willing to proceed."

Desida nodded. "Very well… Hell with how fast your kind seems to breed, membership may be not that far off anyway." Desida thought, before calling up a mental list. "Now, first question, how attached is your kind to Element zero technology…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Authors notes:

Touhoufanatic : Alright here we go, second last chapter of these specials! Telepathy makes a much raider segway into talking with miss queenie, no dead bodies wandering about. Not that would be any left around the queen anyway.

XYZDreadnought: other than that not much to say other than that Rachni might be integrating into the Alliance in the near future. Although that in itself is an interesting concept, with their sudo-hivemind, Rachni appear to be individual but they have strong psychic bonds, (with the normal Mass effect space magic). I also realised that we never actually see a functioning Rachni colony in the game, we only ever hear the Queens message in two, and see the Reaper breeding facility in three. Maybe at one point when the plot bunnies start nibbling at me again, I'll try and create a short one shot focusing around giving the Rachni a culture, maybe an alliance xeno-sociologist visiting the budding colony. I imagine they would be a very artistic species free from Prothean tampering, although their art might be hard to understand for those with less sophisticated sensory organs.