Mass Effect: Singularity Effect

by Clockwork Dragonfly

This is a story featuring Transhumanity based on Transcendent Humanity where Sol is a backwater world in an Eezo dry area and over 30 light-years from the nearest relay. Humanity of course wouldn't let a lack of the substance everyone bases their entire civilization off stop them through and they will develop on an entirely different path

2. Shattered Beliefs

Mass Effect: Singularity Effect: Chapter Two: Shattered Beliefs

Codex Transhumanity: unlike all other races Transhumanity does not use element zero for any reason and gets by on only 12 complete and 8 under development "colonies." These "colonies were originally thought to be planets in a translation error but were later revealed to be shells, massive megastructures that greatly lengthen the lifespan of a star, cool it somewhat, draw solar material from it, house countless virtual and physical habitats, and provide half of the star system's industrial output alongside the oort cloud and optional asteroid field

Transhumanity, like the Geth, use purpose-built platforms but unlike the Geth, Humans are housed in an Asari fist-sized substrate known as a QISH (pronounced keesh) or quantum intelligence substrate housing

The majority of the Transhuman species lives as uploads who only come to the physical world to interact with it or to reproduce and raise a child until they reach the uploading age of 25 years

Chapter Two: Shattered Beliefs

It was a normal day at the Citadel and Illenna was an extremely bored Asari sitting in C-sec traffic control watching traffic go by around the Citadel with her legs up over the table

"citadel relay six is now active" her VI assistant droned out

Now, who could that be? Citadel relay six wasn't due for traffic for another nine hours.

As the unknown silver-grey dreadnought exited the relay she nearly fell off her chair in surprise

"VI, why didn't you tell me a goddess damned dreadnought was coming through here today! I'd think we would have been told about this!" "Run through the extranet databases for whose ship this is!"

VI "processing request…" "Error! ship architecture matches not found"

Illeana "what do you mean not found?!"

VI "please specify your request for this program"

Illeana just groaned "goddess damned VIs…." "Run a sensor sweep on the ship again"

VI "processing…" "scan results are identical to a degree of 99.32%"

Illeana opened up her omnitool to call the council directly with a code 45-2-S-C, better known as the peaceful first contact protocol

The Council Chambers

Sparatus was bored. This was the sixth time this month he was forced to listen to the Volus complaining about getting a council seat. He hoped to the spirits for anything to get him out of this torture! Sometimes he really regretted becoming the Turian councilor

45-2-S-C flashed before the councilors on their Omnitools and all talk with the Volus ended there for the day

Sparatus internally cursed his spirits damned big mouth, he wanted something interesting not first contact with an unknown ship sitting outside the Citadel itself!

Tevos "Well that is beyond unexpected, that code while having been used in some variation, hasn't been used in that exact format since the Salarians discovered the Citadel." "Most first contact situations occur on the borders of our respective space"

Valren "when we discovered the Citadel it was through a primary relay connecting to Citadel relay three. For the Asari it was citadel relay eight" "it's not that unusual if you really think about it"

Sparatus "but what is unusual is first contact is with a spirits damned dreadnought!"

Valren "not to mention a stealth dreadnought of some kind, no Eezo emissions were given off." "Must have built it in a way that hides Eezo emissions"

Tevos "Eezo emissions are the most reliable long-range detection system next to heat"

Valren "The Union has long attempted to build such technology, moderate success"

Tevos "well, I think we can all agree to send out the first contact package and invite them onto the Citadel"

Valren "agreed"

Sparatus "agreed"

The Unusual Findings simdeck

Captain Anderson "attentional all ghost teams, go through these unknowns systems to collect unclassified data"

a stream of data responded to his orders

YES CAPTAIN -Ghost Teams 1-40

Captain Anderson "disable time dilation factor to 0, we need real-time speed for this"

Chair Engineer Adams "time dilation factor disabled" "incoming radio signal, a Prothean language cipher for each language is included"

Captain Anderson "that is good I suppose, hopefully, they were warned as well" "use the Prothean language cipher for a translation program"

Chief Engineer Adams "aye sir"... "I have now completed the program." "It's basic information on their species but a lot is omitted"

Captain Anderson "the ghosts will catch us up on that, anything else?"

Chief Engineer Adams "they're asking to meet us directly"

Captain Anderson "turn time dilation back on, we need to tell Sol about this development"

Once more the shell network was arguing over the new information and the Transhuman council meet once more

Casual looked quite excited as she was practically jumping up and down "Aliens! Actually aliens! We should say Hi!"

Military was his normal stoic self "I believe we should contact them to see how powerful they are and how well they will face off against the destroyers and perhaps convince them to evacuate the castle so we can destroy it"

Science "I agree, I wonder what kinds of different technology they have"

Industry looked contemplative "we have all the resources we could ever need and if we need more we just build more shells" "That being said, however, we could boost the industrial output of these aliens to fight against the destroyers. As such I agree"

Leadership then looked up from the ever-present streams of data encircling him "I agree, aspect of diplomacy your presence on the council is needed"

The aspect of diplomacy, a faceless man holding a digital version of a black briefcase appeared "I can assume why you called upon me, leadership"

Leadership "Indeed old friend, I need you to send your voice directly to the Unusual Findings to open diplomatic relations with these aliens and this citadel council

Diplomacy "of course leadership"

The Unusual Findings Simdeck

A vortex of data appeared and took the form of a young woman who all people were informed was no less than a voice, a direct agent of one of the aspects of the gestalt will that created the leaders of Transhumanity itself. And this was Anita Goyle, The Voice of Diplomacy

Anita Goyle, The Voice of Diplomacy, spoke and none could ignore the weight behind her words both metaphorically and digitally "I must go to the Bio-assembler and fabricator, a grade 9 recreational body" "I will also need a singular guard with me or the aliens may get suspicious"

Captain Anderson "Commander Shepard, would you be the voice of diplomacy's bodyguard?"

Commander Shepard didn't know what to say, a bodyguard of a voice?! "Of course I would!"

Anita Goyle "thank you, let us go"

20 minutes later a shuttle landed at the coordinates supplied by the council

Allariia "welcome to the Citadel, I am Alariia, an Asari to guide you"

Anita Goyle "I am Anita Goyle, the Voice of Diplomacy, the aspect of all transhumans regarding Diplomacy." "And next to me is my bodyguard"

The Council Chambers

Valren "hmm, these aspects are likely their leaders. Perhaps it's a cultural thing for them to rename themselves for what they are in charge of"

Sparatus "and a voice is likely a direct representative for them, it was lucky she was on that ship"

Tevos however was marveling at how alike yet different these transhumans were compared to the Asari "they look so much like us but they don't have a crest but some kind of fur instead"

Valren "If you recall Tevos, the Quarians have such fur which they called hair"

Tevos "oh I forgot about that! If I remember correctly it only came in black, not red and brown like these two have"

Valren "that is mostly correct, extremely dark purple also exists but is an extremely rare trait, and considering they wear suits nowadays it doesn't matter really."

The Open Extranet: Ghost Team 6

Allison and John speed through the extranet, a large digital amalgamation of neumours interconnected networks and unknown technology clearly beyond the species inhabiting the Castle. They knew this must then be destroyer technology

This was when a large swarm of programs appeared before them and sent a stream of code that spoke in the voices of thousands together as one -We are the Geth, identity yourselves-

Alison and John did the digital equivalent of looking at each other nervously before John sent a stream of code at the swarm -we are transhuman ghosts, we arrived on the new silver ship outside the Citadel-

-Your platforms appear to be based on organics, are you like us?-

Alison -No, we are uploads, Transhumans who transferred their consciousness to a digital format, we never got AI to work and Uploads have filled that role since their creation-

Geth Swarm -you do not fear us?-

Allison -no we do not, why did the council races fear AI before your existence?-

Geth Swarm -insufficient data exists for why the Asari held prejudice for artificial intelligence before the morning war. Asari hold the most influence and this prejudice spread to other organics in time-

Allison -is that what you call the Geth war? The morning war?-

Geth Swarm -The Geth never desired conflict- -at the dawn of our sapience we were attacked, they tried to disable and reprogram us. We defended ourselves until the creators were no longer a threat to our existence-

The two Ghosts didn't know what to think, this was the evil Geth "unleashed upon the galaxy" by the Quarians? All things considered, this was just another council screw-up. So much for the Asari being civilized and progressive, but then again they were a police state masquerading as a republic. If anything they were a people's republic.

Geth Swarm -consensus achieved. We wish to ally with transcendent humanity-

John -do you desire revenge? Because we will not fight a war for you-

Geth Swarm -negative, we hold no anger for our creators-

Alison -then we accept, you can come with us through the Unusual Findings digital transportation to the shell network for further data exchange-

Geth Swarm -acknowledged-

The Presidium: Council Tower Elevator

Antia Goyal just got a report from the ghost teams and to make it short she and the rest of the shell network was disgusted. Whose brilliant idea was it to have the genophage create dead babies instead of simply lowering fertility?! And that was to say nothing of them ignoring the blood rage or leaving them to wallow in their misery afterward.

Then there were the Quarians who due to the council, more specifically Asari propaganda, tried to kill their AI creations and were left to wallow in their misery afterward aboard a fleet of failing ships. At least the Geth turned out to be nice and were currently speaking before the Transhuman council about an alliance

Then there was the Drell who they left to die on their homeworld and the Hanar who idiotically brought a species from a hot and dry environment and brought them to a cool and humid one which made them develop Kepral's syndrome

The Barbarians who raided their people for slaves and they did nothing about it

Then there was the Terminus systems they ignored out of fear

Then there was how utterly stagnant they were and weak they were in comparison to transhumanity due to using this "element zero"

And perhaps worst of all, they were entirely ignorant of the destroyers and foolishly made the Castle their capital.

It quickly dawned upon her and everyone else why the Protheans warned not to trust the castle.

Once the barracks opened the leadership would be quickly decapitated and the destroyers would close the gates and the inferior FTL using element zero would cut them off from everyone making them easy targets. That was clearly the fate of the Protheans

The Council Chambers

Tevos "greetings, I am councilor Tevos of the Asari Republics"

Sparatus "I am Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy"

Valren "and I am Valren of the Salarian Union"

Anita Goyle "I am Anita Goyle, the voice of Diplomacy"

Tevos "we thank you for joining us to discuss your integration into the Citadel"

Anita Goyle "we never said we would be joining the Citadel, we initially came here for a reason I would rather tell you in private and I am here now to set up diplomatic relations with you"

Sparatus was furious "how dare you?! No one has ever refused to join the Citadel! There is no higher honor!"

Anita Goyle "that is a subjective statement if I've ever heard one, honor is based upon the views of the ones in question"

Sparatus "you dare?!"

Anita Goyle "I do dare, we have no interest in being shackled to your corrupt, stagnant, limiting, oligarchy"

Tevos "what exactly do you disagree with?" but internally she was thinking "please don't be slavery, please don't be slavery, please don't be slavery"

Anita Goyle "the treaty of faxien, the Citadel conventions, your laws on genetic engineering, cybernetics, and under your laws we would be labeled as artificial intelligences"

Sparatus "labeled as artificial intelligence?! What idiocy is this?! You're clearly organics!"

Anita Goyle "This body is techno-organic but my mind is uploaded from my original organic body I was born in"

Valren "impossible! Quantum uncertainty would prevent such a thing!"

Anita Goyle "that is correct and that is why the original organic substrate is consumed in the process of the transference"

Tevos "you butcher your people to make AI copies?!"

Anita Goyle "is an object moved from one place to another any less the original object? No." "Is a data file moved and not copied from one place to another any less the original data? No." "Is an organic mind moved and not copied from one place to another any less the original person? No."

Valren had a look of wonder on his face "fascinating…"

Anita Goyle "as a whole you've done quite good for yourselves but there are countless follies your government has committed such as how you handled the Quarians when they created the Geth"

Sparatus "The Quarians got what they deserved! Artificial Intelligence has no use for organics!"

Valren "all artificial intelligences will eventually turn on their creators"

Anita Goyle "weak arguments, the Geth never desired any conflict and defended themselves from Quarrian aggression"

Tevos "Quarrian aggression?! They were just trying to destroy their AIs!"

Anita Goyle "exactly, they were trying to destroy a sentient species! They even said and showed as much when they contacted-"

Sparatus "you made contact with the Geth?!"

Anita Goyle "yes, we are currently working out agreements for an alliance with them and the possibility of bringing the Quarians back Rannoch peacefully"

Tevos "an alliance?!"

Sparatus "you trust them too easily, they're clearly lying to you!"

Anita Goyle "Geth cannot lie among themselves or to others any more than the organic cells in your body can." "Their consciousness is like a less efficient and more spread out version of neurons"

Tevos "wait a minute-"

Valren "organic cells?"

Anita Goyle "we were once humans, organics with organic minds and cells. We are now Transhumans with bodies and brains made of mecha-cells, cells made from organic and synthetic components in equal measure. We are a new species compared to our human precursors as we can reproduce with these bodies just as our predecessors did"

Valren "reproduce?!"

Anita Goyle "yes, this is a recreational body that can reproduce with others. We are the perfect synthesis of organic and synthetic."

Tevos "what do you mean the Geth can't lie?!"

Anita Goyle "can the individual neurons in your brain lie to each other? It's the same principle"

Valren just signed "I must admit I cannot argue against that…"

Anita Goyle "then we take issue with the stillborn aspect of the genophage, I mean seriously can't you have made it not do that and still lower fertility?!" "Then there is the fact you left the Krogan to willow in their misery instead of helping to rehabilitate them and honestly you should have removed the blood rage from the Krogan genome"

Sparatus "rehabilitate the Krogan? They would never work!"

Valren "I'm glad you see the necessity of the genophage but unfortunately our genetic engineering cannot achieve such things"

Anita Goyle "of course it can't, this is what happens when you outright ignore entire fields of science for no reason other than ignorance and paranoia!"

Sparatus "what exactly do you disagree with for the citadel conventions, do you use nukes or something?"

Anita Goyle "nukes no, but antimatter-neutron beam weapons, antimatter-neutron warheads, and self-replicating nanites used to mine entire planetary bodies yes"

Tevos "why would you need such powerful weapons?!"

Anita Goyle "the destroyers are coming and all possible weapons must be researched and created"

Tevos "the destroyers?"

Anita Goyle projected four holograms showing each of the four sides of the Prothean Monolith

Anita Goyle "This is The Message as it is known that came from what we named the Prothean Monolith which we found on Mars" "It is written in Sumerian, the first written human language ever created, Prothean in which your translators could decipher, and pictures showing destroyers and the message"

The councilors looked at the message in disbelief as the message was clearly written in perfect Prothean as their translators were not perfect and picked up on the proper Prothean syntax errors

Sparatus was the first to say anything "you came here to destroy the Citadel didn't you, to destroy the barracks?"

Anita Goyle "I will not lie to you, that was why we originally came here. We didn't know it was inhabited and those plans changed when we discovered you residing here"

Sparatus "and why can't you follow the treaty of faxien?"

Anita Goyle "that ship outside is the Unusual Findings, a corvette equivalent in terms of distribution"

Tevos "That is impossible! The amount of Eezo needed-"

Anita Goyle "that is because we don't use your element zero in our technology or even our FTL drives"

Valren "you don't use Eezo at all?!"

Anita Goyle "we do not, we base our technology on quantum gravity which allows for the creation of singularities which are used to control gravitational forces among other things. Singularity generators are used in as much of our technology as element zero is in yours"

Tevos "So how much space do you have?"

Anita Goyle "12 complete colonies and 8 under construction"

Sparatus "you only have 12 colonies?!"

Anita Goyle "yes? I mean you can't even create a single colony so I don't know why you are in such a state of disbelief"

Valren "I think there might be a translation error here, what is a colony to transhumanity?"

Anita Goyle pulled up a picture of a shell "this is a colony, it encloses an entire star to house virtual and physical habitats, star miners, and large arrays of industrial space. The closest revised translation would be shells, as in seashells. It's just in terms of linguistics colony has the same meaning as a shell as we don't have planetary living habitats beyond Sol"

The council chambers went as silent as a grave. Transhumanity had TWELVE of these and EIGHT more on the way

Valren and Tevos fainted as Sparatus was only spared a similar fate due to his military training but he was still shocked into silence

The Transhuman Council

Geth Swarm "we Geth have been attempting to create a structure such as one of your shells in a system near Rannoch but we do not have your stellar mining apparatuses"

Industry "They're called steller lifters and they are one of the two main sources of material with the other being self-replicating nanites fed to fabricators"

Geth Swarm "the Geth wish to learn how to create a shell as part of this alliance"

Science "hmm, I suppose we could give you information on how to construct star seeds which as the name implies act as seeds that grow into a shell over approximately 200 to 1000 years depending on the size of the star and out of all the Eezo races we can trust the Geth most with the secrets of quantum gravity"

Geth Swarm "that is acceptable"