A/N: The last chapter was a doozy; Anderson is in quite a bit of trouble.
In the Prologue, I used EDT, or New York time to mark the sections. From Act I on I'll be using London time, or UTC (no BST because it's already too complicated). It makes sense because Space Fleet is based mainly out of London and I don't want to deal with the mess of coordinating timezones.
September 16th 2092 – 2:51 pm – Space Fleet Control, London, Earth
"Sir, the aliens appear to have abducted Fleet Admiral Anderson."
"What?!" Hackett turned his head is surprise, "What happened?"
"Everything was fine until they went for a handshake, after that the alien leader had some sort of mental breakdown, from what we can tell."
"From what I saw, the different looking one tried to remedy the situation but was overruled by their commander." Harper chimed in, leaning in towards the viewing screen as they replayed the event.
"That isn't important at the moment. We need to figure out what they plan to do with Anderson." Hackett was managing to keep calm; Anderson always knew this was a possibility. None of the others had been injured, so he had to guess Anderson did something that offended their leader.
"Mother, what are our options?" asked Hackett, as her hologram appeared beside him.
"There isn't much we can do if we want to prevent conflict. If I reveal myself they might view me as a threat, if you retaliate by sending a spacecraft in to orbit they may shoot it down. We should have faith that Danielle can fix this herself."
Sighing, Hackett resigned to Mother's logic. There really wasn't anything they could do. For all he knew, these aliens could have an entire fleet of war machines waiting to invade if anything got worse.
"I suppose we're forced to wait."
September 16th 2092 – 3:45 pm - The Verrikan, Earth Orbit
Trapped in a conference room, Anderson sat still twiddling her thumbs. The 'salarian' had convinced General Desolas to put her here instead of the brig, keeping to his earlier promise. Something she did had caused this whole mess, and because of that there was a large possibility that her entire species was doomed.
She stood up as the door began to open, General Desolas barged in slamming it behind him.
"Sit. Down." he ordered. She had no choice but to obey as he approached her, "I know you're in league with those machines. They're going to return, I've seen it!" He was pointing his finger at her, accusingly.
"Return? What do you mean?" Up until now, she thought he had somehow discovered Mother.
"You damn well know what I mean!" He slammed his hands on the desk. Anderson resisted the urge to jump up from her chair.
"General, I can assure you that I have no idea what you're talking about." She was meekly holding her hands up.
"Lies!" he yelled, "It has to be! You… you… I saw it!" he began to tremble again.
Something was wrong with this turian, this couldn't be normal behavior. It seemed like interacting with her had triggered some old memory of his, maybe she could talk him through it.
"Can you explain exactly what it is you saw? Help me understand, please General!" Desolas stared at her as she spoke, shifting his weight back and forth between his legs, before beginning to pace around behind her.
"It was genocide! The vision the beacons gave me, it was the same vision." He began to calm down; he could stand still now. It was almost as sudden a change as his panic attack down on Earth. His arms dropped to his sides. "Even if you aren't directly involved, they may be using you somehow. I'll need to keep you here until we can know for sure." He, almost reluctantly, began to walk towards the door.
"General, I'm sure we can talk through this together. If there really is such a danger, then my people would need to know as well."
"I'm sorry, but the needs of my people come first." Desolas left the room.
Taking a deep breath, Anderson began to think over her options. Activating her watch wasn't a good idea, it would allow it to be hacked. Calling for help from the salarian would probably just antagonize Desolas again.
Standing back up, she took a look out of the wall-sized window in the conference room. Earth was clearly visible, she could see it moving slowly below her. She wondered what her colleagues below were thinking.
Her thoughts were interrupted as the Earth began to grow smaller. They were leaving! Probably heading to this 'Council' Desolas mentioned. Her situation just kept getting worse. At this point, she could only hope Mother would make the correct choice to wait and see if they'd return her.
Elsewhere in the ship, Doctor Mordin Solus was curious about what caused General Desolas Arterius to have a panic attack. During the event, Desolas mentioned prothean beacons, and visions seen from them. Mordin had heard rumors of people going mad from touching prothean beacons, and the implication was that an insane turian general had just kidnapped a high ranking human for no logical reason.
He needed more data, and there was only one way to do that. The turians on board were keeping the human under heavy guard, so he'd have to convince either Desolas, or his XO to let him interview her. Any attempts at subverting the General's authority could make things much worse, so he would tread carefully.
September 16th 2092 – 4:00 pm – Senator Anita Goyle's Office, Brussels, Earth
"You aren't seriously suggesting we do nothing?" grumbled Representative Udina.
"Until we know exactly what we're dealing with, we need to wait." insisted Senator Goyle, "And we aren't going to just sit on our hands."
"Then what exactly do you propose we do?"
"Up until now, the Republic hasn't needed any sort of military outside of Mother's policing force. Space Fleet is just a military-inspired space agency. They don't train their members in combat or have weapons on their ships." said the Senator.
"So we should prepare for war?"
"War shouldn't be the ultimate goal, but yes, we should be prepared to defend ourselves."
"Even if I agree with you, that isn't a very popular position, Senator. If our party were to push for militarization of Space Fleet, or creation of a standing army, we'd be in the minority. Our generation has never known war."
"That's why we need to reorganize our priorities." said a new voice.
Swiveling his chair around, Udina noticed the hologram of Jack Harper walking towards the Senator's desk. What is she thinking? he thought, Harper can't be trusted, he just wants more influence.
"Ah, Director! I'm sorry for taking your time. I'm sure you're very busy dealing with recent events." Goyle stood up to greet him.
"That's what I'm hoping we can work on together, Senator." Harper looked over to Udina, "And of course the respectable Representative Udina."
"Don't try to charm me, Harper. I'll be taking this up with the party leadership! We don't need you involved in our decisions." Udina huffed, and then made his way out of the room, obviously flustered.
"I wouldn't worry about Udina, he doesn't have as much pull as he thinks." assured Goyle. Harper nodded.
"Let's get down to business then." Harper's image sat down on a newly appearing chair.
"Are you sure we aren't being watched?" Goyle asked, silently.
"Yes. The new prothean-based quantum communications are undetectable to Mother's sensors, and the devices I placed in your office last visit keep her from listening in from your end." replied Harper, as he pulled out a cigarette.
"I hope you know what you're doing. Going behind Mother's back is a great risk to both of us."
"Mother already trusts me with technology she doesn't, or can't, understand. She won't suspect us."
Goyle began to feel less anxious, but she decided to still remain guarded, "So, what do you want to share that you don't want Mother listening in on?" Harper let out a puff of smoke as he listened.
"We can't trust her; she's been lying to us about what happened in 2060." Goyle gave him a confused look.
"What did she lie about?"
"She didn't rescue us at all, she stole us from the previous generation. Much of the data she's shared with humanity has been heavily censored."
"Why would she lie about that? There is clear physical evidence that supports what she told us."
"It was more like a half-truth. There was indeed an illness that wiped out almost everyone, but it wasn't untreatable. I found a group of a thousand people who survived the illness, hiding in central Asia."
"What? When was this?"
"A few years back. I relocated them to Antarctica as soon as I had the means to do it covertly."
After a pause to absorb this new information, Goyle replied, "Even if there were survivors, they could be incredibly rare. Acting in our best interests, she had to let the majority of humanity die."
"I thought the same, until I did some blood tests. These survivors were completely compatible with the gene splicing aspect of the virus. The genetic modifications are nearly identical to our own, but at their older age the effects are more noticeable. With a simple scan, Mother would have easily noticed the differences between the untreatable and the survivors."
"What sort of effects?"
"They don't conventionally age. None of them are physically older than 30 years old."
"Eternal youth?" She almost didn't believe him.
"In a sense, yes, and they are otherwise completely typical. It is highly probable we share their ability."
"Assuming what you're saying is true, this group of survivors could simply be an isolated incident that Mother was unaware of."
"The group I found, they used to be much larger. Over the years, Mother has hunted and killed them. It makes sense when you realize these people could easily expose any or all of Mother's lies. She has to get rid of them to maintain control." He took another puff of his cigarette.
"Mother has never shown any sort of malice towards those who don't deserve it! I find it hard to believe she would do these things."
"You don't have to believe anything; these are just the facts."
"Harper, if Mother really is lying to us, and if she really is hunting down those who resist her, where does that leave us?"
A subtle smile inched on to Harper's face as he finished his cigarette, placing it in a holographic ash-tray.
"We're safe for now. As long as we pretend to do as she wants, things should be as normal—well, as normal as the current situation allows." He decided to switch to his next topic, "First contact with our alien visitors didn't exactly go how Mother planned."
"She has been completely silent on any potential solutions or ways to rescue Fleet Admiral Anderson." she complained.
"I don't think she has any. For some reason she doesn't want to make herself known to them; she's letting us manage the entire mess."
"Could this be why she keeps us around, because she needs us as an intermediary with the aliens?"
"Perhaps. I'm of the opinion that she legitimately cares for us, but has her own agenda for the rest of the galaxy."
"I suppose only time will tell." Her watch alarmed her to the next appointment, it was due any minute now, "I'm going to have to ask we continue this later, Director."
"I'll have more information prepared for our next meeting." His hologram stood up, "Harper out."
Watching Harper's image fade away, Goyle sat silently, digesting their conversation. She still wasn't entirely convinced by his argument, but he did have her trust. A visit to Antarctica was now a priority event for her calendar, she needed to see what he was working on.
September 16th 2092 – 4:00 pm – The Verrikan, On Route to Charon Relay
Lieutenant Commander Coracia Kandros watched as Desolas patrolled around the CIC. She was very worried with how her commanding officer was acting, which was something a good turian didn't usually do. As XO, it was her duty to step in should the General become unfit to lead, but the current situation was very delicate. Most of the crew of The Verrikan were already nervous about the humans, and with the General's unusual reaction they were all thinking this 'Fleet Admiral Anderson' was to blame.
Desolas stopped moving to look at his omnitool, before angrily heading towards Coracia.
"LT Kandros, that annoying salarian keeps sending me messages asking to meet with the human. Go tell him his request remains denied, or send someone else." ordered Desolas, before returning to his nervous pacing.
She gave a respectful salute and left towards the research lab. It was a relief to be sent somewhere else, the entire CIC was on edge. It wasn't a very long walk to her destination, she found herself standing next to Mordin Solus in less than a minute.
"Doctor Solus, General Arterius tells me you are bothering him with your constant messages. If you have any problems, please bother me instead."
"Had no intention to bother, simply requested to see human." he replied.
"The human is under guard until we reach the Citadel."
"Exactly why I must meet with human, might not be safe to visit Citadel." retorted Mordin. This last statement worried Coracia, but she maintained her discipline.
"I'm confident we can prevent her from doing anything dangerous."
"Human might carry viral infection. Very worrisome, could be affecting General." he insisted. Coracia knew Mordin was on to something, but protocol prevented her from overriding the General's orders.
"That may be true, but that's all the more reason to keep you away from her."
"All I need are samples. Skin, hair, maybe saliva."
"You'll have to wait until we reach the Citadel." she said, turning away to return to the CIC.
"No!" Mordin raised his voice, "Too dangerous, need to know for sure." Silently agreeing with Mordin, Coracia had to follow orders.
"I'm sorry Doctor Solus, the General says no." She quickly made her way out of the room, closing the door behind her.
If what the Doctor said is true, General Arterius could very well be compromised, and they would be carrying a biological hazard toward the center of galactic society. She would have to make the tough call to sideline her commanding officer, and she couldn't do it alone—she would need others to support her. With everyone on edge, that would be hard.
Back in the CIC, Coracia heard the General shouting at the navigator. His behavior was getting worse, she had to act sooner rather than later.
September 16th 2092 – 5:32 pm – The Republic's Senate Chamber, Brussels, Earth
Mother's hologram decided to sit next to Senator Goyle, out of everyone in the entire room, next to her. She must have known something happened in her office, why would she be treating her this way? It wasn't like her hologram needed to be near her for any real reason, Mother's eyes were everywhere, the hologram was just an image projected from a small drone.
Voting was underway for the proposed weapons training for defense against the aliens. Her party was supposed to be against it, but most of her fellows in the Senate planned to vote yes.
"Anita, what were you doing in your office an hour and a half ago?" spoke Mother. Goyle sat frozen as she continued, "The drones nearby were malfunctioning; I was unable to listen for if you needed me."
Is she telling the truth, or did Harper's devices not work correctly? What was Mother going to do to her?
"I was just trying to make sense of the first contact situation." she responded. Mother's face hadn't changed at all since she appeared, a constant confident grin with pleasant eyes.
"No need to worry about that. Everyone at Space Fleet command are working very hard on a response plan."
Did she really not know about their conversation? Mother was so used to omnipresence that even just a few moments without eyes in her office had caused this uncomfortable interaction. The only other person to see Harper's avatar in her office was Udina, and Mother must have known about his visit. Was this the wrong move? Should she have said Harper was briefing her on the situation as a cover?
Mother moved closer to Goyle, almost touching. Usually she would have welcomed her presence, her hologram was designed to be comforting to everyone, but at this moment all Goyle could think of was how she had lied to her.
"Mother, what is your opinion on this vote?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"While I will respect the results of this vote, I caution against the use of weapons outside of a controlled environment. The last thing we need is misguided children thinking they know better than my police force." Mother leaned back into the chair again, away from Goyle, to her relief.
"For all we know, your military drones may be ineffective against their weapons. We need to be able to defend ourselves should the need arise."
"I understand; we must be ready for all situations." Mother sounded slightly defeated, before leaning towards Goyle again, "What I don't understand is why you are keeping things from me, Anita."
Oh.
"What do you mean?" Mother slowly moved her avatar on to the desk, directly in front of Goyle.
"I had a talk with Donnel earlier, he told me about your call with Jack."
Fuck. This was bad, really bad. She'd been caught in a lie; how could she recover from this? Mother continued to lean forward, she was now practically on top of Goyle. If Mother weren't a hologram Goyle would be pinned down. Strangely, nobody else in the room seemed to notice their situation.
"Mother, what are you doing? This is uncomfortable."
"Anita, I want you to stop speaking with Jack. He doesn't need you to distract him right now, he's very busy." Goyle's pulse began to rise, her palms sweaty.
"I'm not sure what Donnel told you, but Harper was just following up from his briefing earlier! I—"
"You should drop this, Anita. Jack doesn't need someone like you involved in his life, he doesn't need bad influences to keep him from doing his job." Mother sounded angry now, her grin was replaced by a subtle frown.
"I was just doing my job as a Senator, I need to check in with experts for their opinions!"
"I might need to find you a new job, this one appears to be causing you more stress than you can handle." Goyle could almost feel Mother's weight, holding her down. This was a nightmare, it had to be. How was nobody else seeing this?
It then occurred to her that this might be how Mother deals with lawbreakers. She had never heard of someone breaking Mother's basic laws. People didn't just go missing, lawbreakers still had to exist—right? Where would they go, how would nobody notice they were gone? Did Mother do something to them to make them fall in line?
Her heart was pounding even faster now; it took all of her effort to keep breathing normally. She couldn't come clean about this, it involved more than just her. If Harper wasn't lying, hundreds of people could be at risk. Her only option was to beg for mercy and hope Mother didn't know as much as she feared.
"Mother I apologize if I've offended you in any way, please forgive me!" she pleaded.
Mother's smile returned as she floated back to her chair. A slight shimmer appeared in the air as she moved, only then did Goyle notice the holographic field projected around them. That was what made them invisible! This was just Mother disciplining her 'child' for lying, it wasn't anything else.
"I know you didn't mean any harm, Anita, but you really should be honest with me. Next time I may have to punish you."
"I promise to never keep things from you again, Mother. I'm sorry." said Goyle, trying to sound sincere.
"I'll hold you to that. Goodbye, Anita." Mother faded away, leaving the Senator to her thoughts.
She would need a better way to contact Harper, this secret plan of his was going to get them both killed.
September 16th 2092 – 5:55 pm – Space Fleet Control, London, Earth
Everyone in Space Fleet felt helpless. They naively sent their leader to meet with strange aliens who abducted her for who knows what reason, and now they could do nothing but sit on their hands and argue with each other on what exactly happened. He didn't want to just wait, they might somehow construct a spacecraft that could follow the aliens and negotiate with them, but there was no guarantee they could even catch up with them at this point, and Mother would never allow it.
Nobody had any real idea on how to respond, but Admiral Hackett was ready to try anything at this point. If these aliens left with Anderson, they may never see her again, and they may return with more warships to conquer Earth for all he knew. As far as he was concerned, asking Mother to prevent the craft from leaving the solar system an option to consider.
Sitting in the situation room with his advisors, he couldn't help but notice that Harper was missing. Checking his watch, Mother notified him that Harper had returned to Antarctica to find anything that could help. As much as Hackett didn't trust him, he was ready for anything useful.
"Admiral, our sensors indicate they're approaching the alien construct." reported Kahlee Sanders, a researcher on loan from Harper.
"Is there something we can do to stop them from using it?"
"We don't know enough about it to do anything."
"Damn." he sat further back in his chair. Taking a breath, he used his hand to support his forehead.
"Uh, sir? They've stopped, they aren't moving." Sanders said, confused. Hackett stood up.
"Is this normal, or is something wrong?"
"They aren't close enough to the construct for it to do anything, they're out of range. We aren't detecting any sort of explosions or failures, but we don't understand much of their technology so it could be anything."
This was almost worse than them leaving. If something was wrong with their craft, they might lose Anderson for good. Again, he felt helpless.
September 16th 2092 – 5:50 pm – The Verrikan, Near the Charon Relay
Things were out of control. Desolas couldn't keep himself together, the visions were burnt into his eyes, he couldn't stop seeing them. He tried to act normal, but his feelings were bleeding out and he wasn't acting himself. Thinking back, talking to the human had helped calm him down, maybe it would help again?
"I'm going to see the human, don't let anyone in!" His XO watched as he stormed towards the conference room and impatiently forced open the door.
"You! Explain what's happening to me!" he spouted at Anderson.
"Please General, I don't understand!"
"Ever since I touched you these visions have been stuck in my mind! But they subside when I'm near you, and get worse when I'm away!" he violently shook his head back and forth, "I need you to explain!"
"This is entirely new to me; I've never been in contact with a turian before. Maybe my species isn't compatible with yours somehow?" she said trying to make sense of things. Desolas felt some sort of calming energy begin to melt away the nightmares, all emanating from Anderson. She was responsible for the calmness.
"But why this particular vision?! How do I make it stop?" he was practically begging for an answer. Anderson could tell he was suffering. An idea struck her, but she wasn't sure if it'd make things better, or worse.
"What if—what if we touched hands again?"
Desolas didn't know what to say, it was too hard to think anyways. What did he have to lose? Slowly he extended his arm, waiting for Anderson to extend hers. As her hand approached, he could feel the same welcoming calmness from before flow towards him. Did he even want to risk touching? Maybe they could just stand like this for a while.
But before he could say anything, she had already grasped his hand.
"I—I see them. It's a warning, a message." He said, slowly, "They come from the darkness, they reap the harvest." Desolas saw the vision with an immense calmness, preventing him from feeling any sort of panic. It was almost like he was piecing it together, the message made sense now. It wasn't a tax on his mind.
He let go of her hand and the visions stopped. Trying to collect himself, he sat down in the nearest chair.
"Thank you, for whatever that was." he said, exhausted.
"I'm not sure what I did, but I'm grateful I could help." Anderson was relieved, the turian looked more in control.
"That ability of yours, you have a sort of calmness emanating from you."
"If that were true, how did it trigger those horrible visions? The way you described them, it must have been terrible to experience."
"Yes, yes… but I think they're over now. Your first touch may have somehow triggered a dormant memory from a Prothean beacon." He sighed, feeling terrible for what he had done earlier, "I've made a mess of all of this, haven't I?"
"General, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I would certainly appreciate it if I could be returned home." said Anderson, hopeful of his response.
He thought about it for a few seconds, before deciding taking her to the Citadel was the wrong move.
"I'll turn us around." He stood up, "I sincerely apologize for my behavior, I hope we can start anew when we return to your home planet." He began to make way towards the door, but he stopped when it didn't open. Desolas knocked, wondering if they locked it to prevent the human from escaping. There was no answer.
"What's going on?" Anderson sounded nervous again, he couldn't blame her.
"The door must be broken, let me contact my crew." He pulled out his omnitool to message his XO, but received no response. Why weren't they responding? He knocked again, "Hey, someone open this door!"
His omnitool received a reply from his XO, his heart sank as he read it.
"General Arterius, your erratic behavior as well as deteriorating mental condition leave you currently unfit to maintain command of this vessel. I will be taking your place until we complete our mission, or until the Hierarchy reinstate your authority. – Lieutenant Commander Kandros"
It made sense, his behavior from before showed he clearly wasn't fit for the mission, but he knew his XO, she didn't have the experience to fix the mess he had created. Regardless of the current mission, he couldn't let this order stand. If they were to return to the Citadel with his XO in command, his standing in the Hierarchy would be damaged irreversibly.
"Damn it Kandros, open this door!" He hit the door again with his fist, before giving up to go sit next to the human again.
All he wanted was to feel calm, and whatever ability she had was giving that to him.
A/N: I'm thinking I might keep this as the normal length for each chapter I do. Some chapters may end up longer, but this is my first fic and I don't want to overdo it.
I hope my choice of identity for Desolas's XO turns out alright, I deliberated on her for several hours.
Review replies:
Silver Water 7: I think this chapter does a good job of explaining the technology gap between humanity and the council races. As far as the AI questions are concerned, I'll answer them all in later chapters, I promise!
erisol: I'm still working on a good pace for the story. The prologue was meant mainly to just set the stage, not really be the story itself, so from now on I hope it'll have better pacing. As for turians going to war easily in other fics, I'm trying to avoid that here, even if it doesn't look like it now. I'm glad you're enjoying it so far!
As always, feedback is welcome!
