"You sure you want to do this?" The woman twisted around in her seat, staring at the asari skeptically from beneath thick rimmed glasses. Her blond hair was twisted into a tight knot at the base of her skull and she adjusted her glasses with a frown.
Was she sure? She had never been more certain about anything in her life. This was the first working mass relay the galaxy had seen in almost fifty years. To be the first ship to successfully navigate through it would be monumental.
Her fingers curled around the datapad in her hand and she nodded once. The blond hesitated for a moment before turning back around with an exaggerated sigh. The asari wanted to assure them that it would be just fine and that everything pointed to the success of this jump, but she could see the doubt written all over their faces. They were scientists, researchers and skilled engineers — for them, the proof was always in the numbers and as she had already reminded them, the proof was there. She had spent many sleepless nights scouring over blueprints and charts to check for hiccups or inconsistencies. There had been none... at least none that had been an immediate concern.
She turned away from the cockpit and made her way back down to the bridge. "ETA, three minutes," the mechanical voice rang out overhead and Niali felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. In three minutes she would make history for the first time in fifty years. She and her crew would be the first to complete a mass relay jump since the destruction of the Reapers and she smiled down at the message she had read at least a hundred times that day:
Be safe, be smart and be careful. She would be so proud of you.
I will see you soon, my light.
All my love.
Niali tucked the datapad beneath her arm and watched her crew spring into action. "ETA, one minute." She was going to prove them all wrong and she could already hear their joyous shouts as they cracked open dusty old bottles to toast their own success. This was almost better than saving the galaxy — this was restoring it.
"Approaching the mass relay," the blond called over her shoulder and Niali left her post at the bridge to hurry towards the cockpit once more. She dug her fingernails in the back of the leather covered seat and gave a nod.
"Stations, everyone! Brace yourselves!" She could already feel the thrum beneath her feet and she tried to ignore the look of concern on the pilot's face as she swiveled back around in her chair to get them into position to enter the approach corridor. Niali had been waiting for this moment for what felt like a lifetime and she swallowed hard as they raced towards the pulsating core of element zero. The building suspense did little to calm her nerves and she bowed her head. "Do it," the command rolled off of her tongue smoothly and she fought the urge to close her eyes against the unknown. She couldn't, she had to see this for herself. That ship had been specifically built to withstand the inevitable instability. They could do this — they would do this.
"God help us," the blond pilot mumbled under her breath as she directed them into the path of relay. Niali watched the cabin fill with a blinding blue flash of light and she blinked. Her skin began to glow a violent shade of periwinkle and she looked down at her hand. The chair back was still solid and firm beneath her grasp and she lifted her gaze. So far, so good.
In an instant, everything changed and she heard the sounds of crunching metal and screams of agony. In a single heartbeat, the blue flashed an angry shade of melding colors and Niali barely recognized the harrowing sound that had been ripped from her own lungs. The chair back was wrenched from her grasp and she was spiraling. Her lungs constricted painfully and she gasped; clawing at her chest in an attempt to make her lungs work again on command to pull in oxygen that was no longer there.
She was dying. It was the only logical explanation for this merciless level of internal panic and blinding pain. Her body remained intact but her very soul felt fractured into a thousand tiny pieces and scattered across the galaxy. No one would ever find her. Her mother would never know what had happened.
Mother.
Niali closed her eyes and tried to picture her face and the soothing melodic cadence of her voice. Perhaps the memory alone would stop the agony to make her journey into the afterlife easier. There was no reason why it shouldn't have worked. The numbers were there and they had been fine; they had been more than fine, in fact, they had been perfect.
Her throat burned and her frantic hands grew still as her strength depleted. Something was tearing her ship apart and decimating her crew. They hadn't asked for any of it. A heavy weight settled against her chest and she could feel the universe pressing in on her from every side, determined to swallow her whole. It was a deserved death for what she had done and her dark eyes focused on the nearest speck of light in the distance, hoping that it would be enough to guide her into the goddess' embrace.
But it was cold. It was so very, very cold.