Chapter 19:
Date: November 9th, 2084.
One year after the meeting with Jenalia.
The Geth had finally joined in to help with the development of the EMDrive. It wasn't nearly as close to traveling as fast as an Element Zero based FTL drive, but it was able to go faster than the speed of light. There had been a few tests on a Geth dreadnought with the EMDrive, and from Daro'Xen's observations, the EMDrive was able to travel at least four light years per week.
Date: February 23rd, 2086.
After the development of the EMDrive Mark II, or EMDM2, ships under a kilometer in length were able to travel at least ten light years per week. Most United Rannoch Government corvettes and destroyers were able to travel at least 20 light years per week. Exploration vessels from the Geth and Quarians were sent out to the Attican Beta nebula to relocate Feros.
Later, after months of traveling to the Attican Beta nebula, the URG exploration fleet reached the Theseus system, where they found Feros shortly afterwards. A squadron of Quarian scientists and Delaki took a shuttle down to the ruins of the former Prothean world. Upon reaching the surface, they found a Prothean DNA locked bunker, full of weapons and armor, all of which were sent back to Rannoch and the Migrant Fleet for testing.
Date: July 2nd, 2087.
Councilor Tevos receives information on the Reaper threat from Aria T'Loak. She is told by Aria to keep quiet about it until the time is right, as any leaks could cause mass panic throughout the galaxy. Asari fleet production is increased by 33% from the threat of the Reapers returning less than a century from the current date.
The URG puts all of their spare resources for a project started by Ithera'Lyik. The project was called Metona-Inu, which meant, 'to find the Inusannon' in Khelish. Metona-Inu was funded with telescopes that were fitted with thermal scanners, able to detect heat signatures hundreds, or even thousands of light years away. With the EMDrive's production at an all-time high, it is estimated that the URG will encounter the Inusannon within a decade.
Date: December 21st, 2088.
A neutron star is discovered by a Geth exploration fleet that was searching for the Inusannon. One of the Geth frigates got too close to the neutron star from a false calculation, and was immediately destroyed. The rest of the exploration fleet evacuated the system before they were wiped out as well.
Date: June 29th, 2089.
Tests for an element zero infused EMDrive were conducted over an unnamed Quarian-Geth colony. When the Geth frigate sporting the prototype EMDrive attempted to jump into FTL, an EMP blasted the colony, shutting off all electronics for a couple of minutes. After many minutes had passed, and the URG was able to restore their electronic capabilities, they found that the ship was gone.
Any communication that the Quarians attempted to make with the lost frigate was futile, as the vessel had mysteriously vanished.
Date: March 13th, 2090.
Statistics from the URG showed that there were now 75,000 Quarian-built vessels, and about 80,000 Geth-made ships, all ranged from Corvettes to Dreadnoughts. As compared to the fleets in 2076, where only 50,000 Quarian ships and 35,000 Geth vessels existed, this was a major upgrade. The immune systems of the Quarians had also increased. Thanks to the Geth, Quarians were now able to walk around their homeworld without their suits, but it would still take time before they could arrive on another planet without an environmental suit.
Date: May 4th, 2091.
Construction began on a Geth space station, similar to that of the station that the Heretics resided in. It was planned to hold billions upon billions of Geth platforms at a time, as well as many ships of various builds. Defenses for the station would consist mainly of plasma and pulse based weaponry.
Date: September, 2092.
An Inusannon fortress was discovered on Favique, an Eezo rich, frozen terrestrial world. The structure was located inside of a mountain, and it contained various Inusynthetic and Inusannon technologies, such as weaponry, ancient medications, and blueprints for magnetohydrodynamic weaponry.
When a Quarian team consisting of Daro'Xen vas Moreh, three marines, and Ithera'Lyik vas Qwib-Qwib ventured farther into the desolate structure, they found a datapad containing instructions on how to make an Inusannon FTL drive. A few meters away from the datapad, there was an entryway to a larger room, one that contained an Inusannon/Inusynthetic created FTL drive. The drive was different from the untranslatable blueprints that Lyna and I found on Aite, it was older than the blueprints by hundreds of years, but it was intact. After gawking at the drive for a short amount of time, Daro'Xen found an interchangeable Inusannon IFF. The IFF was made to change between the original tags of the ship that it was installed onto, and then the Inusannon identifications afterwards. From what Daro'Xen told me, it was mainly used in the Reaper war in an attempt to fool the Reapers, this didn't work against such a force, but it did help the Inusannon reach somewhat of a small understanding on how Reapers worked.
Soon after returning to Rannoch with the technologies recovered from Favique, Daro'Xen and her team start to reverse engineer the drive. They also contacted Sirius and I to help translate the Inusannon languages. Of course, I accepted this, but I requested a few upgrades to be made to the Bermuda. I wanted to have their latest technologies for the EMDrive Mark 4, as well as one of their soon-to-be reverse engineered Vonya drives. Unlike the Pythet drive, the Vonya was much safer in terms of a hazardous event occurring inside of the drive. Where a Pythet drive would overload, it could cause high amounts of destruction through the system that it was in. With a Vonya FTL drive, it would cause the entire ship to shut down, and go into an emergency lockdown. Sure, it sounded greedy, but I needed something better than an Eezo core that could travel only ten light years per day.
Kapo'Xen approved the upgrades, which I was very thankful for. However, I did what I was asked to do by the Quarians; Sirius and I both completely translated the language barriers that were blocking the URG scientists from accessing the Inusannon technologies. As another gesture of appreciation for the upgrades to the Bermuda, Sirius developed an update for URG translators. He added Mertvalodazyk, or the main language of the Inusannon to the URG's translation software.
The Inusannon/Inusynthetic Vonya FTL drive was successfully reverse engineered after a few months, and put into mass production for URG ships. The Bermuda was also equipped with the drive. I was told by Daro'Xen that the drive should be able to travel 80 light years per day, but it needed to cool down every three days between uses. She also told me to use the EMDrive, which traveled approximately 20 light years per day, if I was to do any short trips in a system or inside of a cluster.
Before I left Rannoch, Daro'Xen told me about a cloaking device that would be used by Geth ships when they were in atmosphere. The entire visibility of the ship would be masked, but this would only work on low mass to medium mass vessels. During my conversation with Xen, she went over my head with how the cloaking devices worked. From what I made out of Xen's words, the devices were essentially a scaled up version of a tactical cloak, but they were too expensive to be put into mass use. Only a few Quarian and Geth ships were able to get the cloaking devices, and even then the vessels would have to be at most 40 meters long to even utilize half of the potential of the cloak.
Date: December 26th, 2094.
I received a text on my Nexus VI omni-tool from Nuite'Valik vas Qwib-Qwib. It was a surprise to me, as I hadn't had contact with Nuite since 2077. I was surprised that she was still an admiral after twenty years had passed.
-The Search for the Inusannon-
'[Kyle Terrah vas Bermuda,
Our exploration fleets have been equipped with both the EMDrive Mark 4 and the Inusannon Vonya drive. We think that we are close to finding the Inusannon, very close in fact. There have been heat signatures detected in the far edges of the galaxy. To be specific, in the Lidera Kop'ye cluster. We don't know what it is exactly, but our orbital telescopes have determined the objects to be at least 4,000 light years away.
There have been odd anomalies detected in that sector, such as the light of a star being blocked by large objects. Whatever is in that region, it's colossal, and our exploration teams are eager to start the journey to the Lidera Kop'ye cluster. We've narrowed the time down, and we should arrive in-system within 40 days. If you wish to come with the exploration fleets, please meet us at the edge of the Tikkun system. This is a big find for the entire galaxy, and it must not wait for us, we will be leaving tomorrow. Make your choice quickly, Terrah.
Sincerely,
Nuite'Valik vas Qwib Qwib]'
I raised my eyebrow when I read over the text, the message surprised me. I admired how far the Inusannon got away from the galaxy to escape from the Reaper threat. It was smart in their part, going to a place where the Reapers couldn't find them, or reach them in a reasonable amount of time.
A short amount of time passed as I looked through the text I was sent. I didn't even bother replying to the admiral, instead I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, weighing my options. Going with the exploration fleet seemed like a good idea at first, but what if the Inusannon thought that the exploration fleet was hostile? I guessed that I would just have to risk the chance that everything wouldn't go so smoothly, or we'd just be blown into molecular bits.
Sirius, do you have any way to guarantee that the Inusannon won't attack us?
'They probably won't attack you, but I'd say that we'd be better off with classifying the Bermuda with an Inusannon IFF.'
The Quarians have one of those, I don't suppose that you could extract the information from the IFF to the Bermuda's systems, then implement it that way?
'Do you even know what an IFF system is? I can't exactly extract information from a physical object.'
I know what it is, I just assumed that with the technology of the Inusannon, you'd be able to extract data from it.
'I can't extract data from it, but I could attempt to edit our own IFF systems to display us as both Asari and Inusannon. It would take time, but I'm nearly certain that it work. If it doesn't, we'll find another solution.'
Well, get on with editing the IFF. I don't plan on being blasted into smithereens just yet.
'So you plan on being blasted into smithereens in the future?'
Okay, smart ass. I don't want to be turned into solar dust in general, now start tweaking our IFFs.
'Got it. Be very careful with what you say around the Inusannon if we do find them. They're not very trusting of new races, especially after what happened with the Thoi'han and the Reapers.'
Plot a course for the Tikkun system as well. I'll go speak to Lyna about the change of plans.
I pushed myself up from where I was sitting in the pilot's seat of the Bermuda. Before Nuite texted me about the search for the Inusannon, Lyna and I were scheduled to a job for Aria. I turned my omni-tool off, then started my walk over to Lyna's quarters.
As soon as I was standing before Lyna's door, I walked right on into her room to see her examining a datapad of some kind. She looked up at me, clothed in her normal attire of a light grey and dark gold bodysuit. "You could have knocked a few times instead of barging in like that," Lyna blankly stated. She had a small smile across her face as well.
"I'll attempt to stop doing that, Lyna. I just need to talk to you."
Lyna set her datapad down on the table in front of her, then turned her whole body towards me. "Well don't leave me hanging. What's on your mind?"
"The URG. They've found the Inusannon about 4,000 light years away," I took a deep breath before I spoke again. "Nuite'Valik vas Qwib-Qwib sent me a text a few minutes ago, explaining that they would be leaving the Tikkun system tomorrow. If we want to go with them to make sure that the meeting with the Inusannon goes well, we can. Or we could let the Quarians be blown into pieces."
"I guess we're not doing the job for Aria then. That's a shame, 75,000 credits would be nice to have." Lyna bit down on her lower lip shortly after speaking.
I moved a bit closer to Lyna, then rested one of my hands on her desk. Staring straight into her eye, I finally began to speak. "10,000 credits pales in comparison to the discovery of the Inusannon. If we get them on our side along with the Geth and the Quarians, we'll stand a better chance at defeating the Reapers than any other species that have been wiped out by them in the past. Hell, if we even want to come close to defeating the Reapers, we'll need every advantage possible on our side."
Lyna closed her eyes for a few moments and brought her hands up to her temples. "Okay, I'll just 'casually' call up Aria and call off our plans with her. She won't be thrilled that we've denied her job to go chasing ghosts. I'll head along with you, Kyle, but if this is a big waste of time, I'm not going to be very happy."
"I trust the URG enough to know what they're doing. Sure, the Geth approached a neutron star, and their first tests of the Element Zero infused EMDrive didn't go so well, but have a little faith, Lyna." I calmly said, taking a few deep breaths as I looked on into the Asari's eyes.
"I have my reasons on why not to trust the URG, but I'll go with you," she sighed. Lyna then sighed once again, closing the tabs on her datapad. She held her hand up to me, waving at the door. "Let me work out a plan with Aria, just get us to the URG's fleet."
"Before I go. I want to know what your reasons are for not trusting the United Rannoch Government. They are our allies, and they have helped us on multiple occasions," I stubbornly commented.
The Asari looked at me for a few seconds, rolling her eyes, then setting her datapad onto the table that she was sitting at moments before. "First off, Kyle. In 2075, the Quarians were still migrants, and the Geth were obviously enemies of the council. When you came here, and changed everything as I knew it, the Quarians and Geth became our 'allies' in about a year. Even the most evident of facts are hard to believe Kyle, and to be completely honest with you, I think this whole alliance is fishy. You can't just unite two warring races in a single day, then have them coexist peacefully for a century or more afterwards. We may be more than a decade into this alliance, but I'm certain that the URG can't be trusted just yet. You and I probably don't even know half of the things that they are up to."
I raised a single eyebrow at what Lyna said, after a few moments of silence had passed, a small chuckle escaped from my lips. Shaking my head from side to side, I put my fingers onto my temples, then rubbed them lightly. Once that was all over, I studied Lyna's facial expressions. Annoyance was clearly displaying on her face, and her arms were crossed under her chest. "You're paranoid, Lyna. I've been getting yearly updates from Daro'Xen, all of the URG's progress with technology. Sure, there could be a few fights against Quarian and Geth civilians, but I sincerely doubt that the URG is going to destabilize itself. If anything, they're going to continue growing, since their economy is just booming at the moment. What I did with the Geth and Quarians in 2077, I made sure that it would stick, and that they would not fall apart. They are our allies, and that will not change for a good while. Please, at least try to trust what they're doing, and if you still think that they're 'corrupt' in a few months, I'll schedule a meeting with the Consensus and Admiralty Board to prove you wrong."
"It's not about who is right and who is wrong, Kyle. I feel that something much more sinister is occurring. The feeling sits at the back of my mind, constantly telling me that the URG is not to be trusted, and that it shouldn't even exist. I know that the feeling is not paranoia, but I just can't shake it from my mind. How do we not know that the URG is plotting something much bigger than all of us could ever imagine? How do we not know that they-"
"Lyna, I ask that you stop worrying about something so trivial. They're not plotting against us. They're not corrupt. You must stop this train of thought. Hell, I plead that you do." I interrupted Lyna, raising my voice at her.
The Asari stared into my eyes for a few seconds, she sighed and turned away from me. "I guess that we will see what happens in the coming decades. Go on and get some rest, I'll finish up what I must with Aria."
"Fine, fine. Just meet me at the bridge in a few hours. We'll need to talk with the exploration flotilla before we do anything else."
I walked out of Lyna's quarter's right after that, putting my hand on the bridge of my nose with a soft sigh following it. I could feel the tensions building in this matter. Lyna wanted to work under Aria, but we had more pressing matters than working under Aria. Sure, she was the most feared woman in the galaxy, but the Inusannon were more important. No matter, I had my own tasks.
Sirius, when will we arrive at the Tikkun system?
'Approximately nine hours. Get some rest, you'll need it.'
You know I don't sleep very well.
'Look, you need rest, especially in this situation. You're going to be meeting with the Quarians to prepare for the Inusannon. I want you to be in the best shape possible. I'll be monitoring the communications anyways, and I'll wake you up should I need any help with my tasks.'
I don't need any sleep, I just rested four hours ago. I'll be fine!
'You won't be saying that in nine hours if you choose to stay awake. This is the last time I'll say this, get some rest.'
Fine. Just alert me when we're 15 minutes out. I'll probably need to go over some stuff with Lyna.
I walked over to the pilot's seat, where I usually would rest. Even though I wasn't a pilot of a craft such as this, I still enjoyed looking over the consoles every so often. It was almost calming for me, and reminded me of how I used to fly the Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Though that time had long past, I still was sentimental about it all. I had my laptop with me, the Alienware had always sat by my side in the ship, as well as my Samsung Galaxy S4.
Now that I was in 2095, all of these things seemed primitive to me. No longer had I needed to carry those things around in my pocket, or in my backpack. I had a computer on my wrist, something that would have seemed foreign to me almost eight decades ago. Occasionally, I would open up my laptop and watch a few videos on the 1920x1080p display. I made it a goal to always keep these things by my side.
I was a weird person. Keeping things that were from the figurative Stone Age, but I liked my technology. I liked that feeling of being back in 2015, away from all of these diplomatic missions and jobs from a crime lord. It would be silly to say that I didn't want to go back, but this was my life now. Living a life in a previously thought-to-be fiction world, preparing for an unstoppable enemy.
Most of the jobs that Aria gave Lyna and I were actually tame. It was usually collecting credits from someone who was in her debt. There was resistance on occasion, but I had witnessed no casualties. Many of the people that attempted to resist paying, or delay the payments, quickly changed their minds after seeing the weapons that Lyna and I carried.
I sat down in the seat, leaning back and closing my eyes, thinking over everything that had happened so far. I had killed a man years ago. Taken a life from the dirty streets of Illium. Needless to say, I felt terrible for the first few years, but now I accept what I did. I removed some of the criminal scum of Omega. Well, less than one percent of it. It was just one Batarian, but still, I couldn't get over the fact that I actually killed a person.
Day in and day out, it haunted my mind, my very presence. Occasionally I would dream about what I did, what Sirius made me do. The Batarian's face had been burned into my mind, reminding me of what monstrous acts I had caused. His look of terror when the beam burned through his body was unforgettable. To see that expression on someone's face, to hear their screams of hellish pain and agony were terrible. I hated it all. Killing a living being for the first time in my life. It wasn't something that I could forget. It wasn't something along the lines of killing a fly or a rat, but it was so much more.
Lyna had helped me through all of it as well, even before we seriously got into a relationship, she was helping me cope with taking another's life. I had to trust every word she said. She was older than me, wiser than I was. She knew this galaxy better than I did. Where I knew of future events, she knew how to work it, all the loopholes.
We made a great team, there wasn't any doubt about that. We were almost perfect, but there were many things that we could improve upon. Lyna and I still got into the occasional argument, but for the most part, we agreed on what jobs we were given. The woman was amazing, a friend that I could cherish for the rest of my extended life. Though I would have thought that she was fictional years upon years ago, I knew that this was my reality now.
Sleep soon took over my body, letting my thoughts fade away, and my body fall into unconsciousness. I did have one last thought that slipped through my mind before I slipped away into slumber: Just how lucky I was to meet Lyna, to meet everyone that had helped me so far. If luck wasn't on my side, a lot of things would have gone differently, and I probably would have already been on an experimenting table if it wasn't for those people. Luck usually was by my side, accompanying me on every mission, every journey. I knew I would run out of it sooner or later, but I would make sure to enjoy it while I still could.
[-]
"She won't live, but then again, there is a small chance that she'll come back. Though she wouldn't be the same. Terrah, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure if we can help you in this aspect. Do you want to transfer her brain to an empty Inusynthetic shell?" A creature before me asked, his voice wavering between synthetic and organic.
"No, no! There must be something that you can do! I can't lose her, not yet! We can't do that to her either!" I yelled, the glow of the room that I was started to fluctuate a violet hue, and a pure golden rod yellow. I was angry, I was confused, I didn't even know what to feel.
The creature paced back, his body language almost seeming pitiful. "I don't know what to tell you, Terrah. You're asking us to do the impossible. We can't just bring a person back like we're some sort of gods and goddesses."
"The Federation is able to do it, Ovekhal. She may not be as great of an asset as we could have hoped, but she's still important. We need her to strengthen our ties with the Council," a secondary voice said, looking over a broken, bloodied body.
"You and I both know that bringing someone back isn't easy, especially after an injury like this. She'll have to be augmented to survive, and she might not even be the same person if we go through with this."
I finally piped in after the creatures had a little talk amongst themselves. "I don't care what she looks like, or what the Federation does to her. All I care about is that she lives. It's a tall order, but I know that she is able to be brought back."
One of the creatures turned back towards me, who I presumed was Ovekhal. "We'll try to bring her back, Terrah, but I can't promise that it will work."
I sighed, stepping away from the creatures. Both of them had a shadowy resemblance, and they were quite tall. I must have looked like a dwarf to them, even though I stood at 6'3. "I've spent too much time with her to leave her in this state. She deserves a second chance. We all do at some point."
"If she matters to you this much, the Federation will attempt to abide to your request. We'll need some room to work on her, but you'll be informed if our procedure is a success."
I nodded at Ovekhal, then exited the room with a scowl on my face. I turned around in the doorway, just to see Ovekhal and his assistant standing there, looking over Lyna's body. "Don't fuck this up. The Council will cease cooperation with us if she doesn't report for five years. If possible, have Rithari work on the project as well. She may not be medical personnel, but she knows Lyna just as much as I do."
"Are you serious about putting the URG's top nuclear physicist onto a medical operation? Do you know how crazy that is?" Ovekhal inquired, a hint of rage coming onto his expression. "Do you not trust our federation with the fragile shell of your Asari companion?"
"I trust the Inusannon with Human lives, because I know that your experiments actually worked. However, no one knows what will happen to an Asari in that process."
"Humanity has a similar genetic structure to the Asari, mostly with physical appearances. We may not know every single thing about the Asari, but I'm sure that the Protheans that somehow are a part of the URG can help us out with that. Bringing the Inuquarian into this will only create issues."
Ovekhal's assistant slowly walked to his side, putting a hand onto her commander's shoulder. "You must put your trust in us, Kyle. We are not Reapers, and we only mean the best for your fallen comrade. Teval'Rithari will not be a part of this project. Ovekhal and I have already selected the officers that will work to resurrect Ms. Rilac. I assure you that our best doctors will be working on her, but the process will take time."
I looked over my shoulder, squinting my eyes at the two Inusannon medical officers. "How much time?"
"Years. At the moment, I estimate that it will take at least four years to reconstruct her body." Ovekhal assured me, gesturing towards the charred, bloodied skin of Lyna.
"Then get to it. I'll be working on Rannoch, alert me of any new updates. I might even work with Teval, now that I think about it." I murmured, beginning to step out of the doorway.
Once I was out of the room, I could hear a muffled voice coming from Ovekhal's assistant. "Do you think that we can really bring her back to life?"
"Nadeus. I hope so…"
[-]
Date: December 27th, 2094.
I awoke with a start, gasping for breath. It was clear that I wasn't in a good shape after the dream that I had, since beads of sweat were dripping down my face. Shaking my head from side to side, I looked at the consoles before me. Sure enough, we were in the Tikkun system, specifically over Rannoch. The URG homeworld looked nice, and it was bustling with Quarian/Geth activity. The Migrant and Geth fleets floated over the homeworld in an organized formation, and cities were spiking up from the surface of Rannoch. I smiled, knowing that I helped the Quarians reunite with the Geth on their homeworld.
Coexistence was beautiful, and it was something that I thought I would never see in my life, but here it was, the Quarians and the Geth combining their technologies to protect their people from the upcoming Reaper war. There was a fleet farther away from Rannoch, slowly venturing out to the far rim. Each of the ships were new, or upgraded. In the center of the whole thing stood a highly advanced Prothean, Geth, and Quarian engineered flagship.
'Anriis Class Flagship. The only one currently in existence. It's the ship that sports the Inusannon IFF. The Quarians have named it Vekaani. It looks amazing, even from here.'
Agreed. Let's just meet up with the URG, and we can get through with this.
Lyna sat to the right of me in the copilot's seat. She looked over at me, and offered a slight wave. "Hey Kyle. I'm glad you're finally awake."
"Yeah. I didn't exactly have the best night's rest, but it's good to finally be in the Tikkun system."
Suddenly, the console in front of me pinged. A small message read out that the Vekaani was hailing the Bermuda. I glided my hand over the panel, swiping my hand through it. A display popped up of Nuite'Valik, who was in her environmental suit. A few Quarians here and there were out of them, but there were still many that kept them on. "Kyle Terrah vas Bermuda, it's good to see you again," Nuite calmly greeted.
"It's nice to see you too, Nuite'Valik. I assume that your people have all of the necessary supplies for this journey?" I inquired, a fake smile present on my face.
Nuite nodded her head, pressing down on the console before her. "Every ship has what the crew of it needs, whether that be food, antibiotics, or water."
I leaned back in my seat, a soft sigh escaping from my lips. "Good, good. We will be going into the Inusannon system first, just in case they start shooting."
"We were led to believe that the Inusannon were a docile species." Nuite plainly said.
"Let me put this into perspective for you, Nuite. If an unknown ship entered URG space, how would you feel? I'd imagine that you'd blow them out of the sky, completely demolishing any hopes of diplomatic relations with them. Especially if they had a fleet right behind them, and a heavily armed one at that." I slowly explained.
"You bring up a good point, but the Consensus would already have them flagged by the time they were even an astronomical unit away from our stations," Nuite argued, pushing herself off of the console. "I don't want to delay this for much longer. Let's just get into FTL, and find the Inusannon. Time is not unlimited, so I say we shouldn't waste it."
I nodded my head. "We know our job, but we don't know what is out there. Stay safe, Nuite'Valik. We'll see each other in forty days."
"Goodbye, Terrah." Nuite simply said, closing the communications between us shortly after she finished speaking.
Turning my gaze to Lyna, I shrugged my shoulders. I heard the main engagement process of the Vonya drive start up. It wasn't the first time that the Bermuda had used the drive, but for a journey like this, I wasn't exactly sure on how it would perform. Lyna and I both knew the cooldown times for each of our drives, but there was always the risk of one overheating.
Nonetheless, I gazed out of one of the front windows, seeing a purple and maroon build-up at the nose of the Bermuda. It was an amazing sight, the colors blending perfectly together. In just a few seconds, the first stage of the Vonya's preparation into FTL had been completed. The entire URG exploration flotilla had the same effect, and nothing would be stopping them from jumping into FTL.
Suddenly, the Bermuda's thrusters engaged, and the Dystopia Class Corvette was shot off into an unknown region of the galaxy. Red and purple particles engulfed the ship, signifying that we were now in transit to the Inusannon system. It'd be a long ride, but I was sure that our journey would be worth it.
Lyna turned her head towards me, a grin spread across her face. "That never gets old, does it?"
"No, it doesn't. The tech we have now is amazing, much more than I could have imagined when I first set foot on Thessia." I chuckled, leaning back against my seat. The maroon and purple effects of the drive calming my nerves. Something about the particles and colors caused me to feel as if I was back at Earth. I couldn't exactly describe the feeling, it was definitely an odd one.
"It's been a long time since then, Kyle. A lot has changed, and it's honestly breathtaking to be here now, on a journey to uncharted space." Lyna sighed, turning her gaze towards me.
I managed to take my eyes off of the windows, and looked over in Lyna's direction. "A lot has changed indeed, but I couldn't have done it without you."
She raised one of her eyebrows at me. "Oh?"
"Yeah, I mean you've helped me a lot, Lyna. I can't even begin to describe how much it means to me, or how much you mean to me," I told Lyna.
"I'd imagine your AI would take some credit in that field, but thank you. I'm glad that I found you, and not one of my colleagues," she responded.
I merely nodded my head, a smile creeping onto my face. "Yeah. I'm just glad that we'll have 40 days of rest before we get into the Inusannon system. We'll have plenty of time to talk, plenty of time to do anything we want."
"It would be a perfect time to train as well. Though what you say is true, maybe in those forty days, I could learn more about your past. We haven't had much time to do that, and the only time that we did, I wasn't in such a nice state of mind." Lyna casually laughed.
"I'm up for it if you promise not to force memories out of my head," I plainly spoke, recalling what Lyna did to me when I revealed my true origins.
Lyna sighed, a frown forming over her face. She looked down to her feet and shook her head from side to side. "I was angry and confused. All of this information was new to me, and I just wanted answers. What I got from your head didn't calm me down either. You know things that could cause massive wars throughout the galaxy, between my people and the Citadel races."
I turned my gaze off of Lyna, then looked back over to the window that I was staring at minutes before. "Some things are best kept a secret. I know the future events, but what we have done, and what we are doing now, will change the course of the history as I know it. I know that the Reapers will come, but I do not know how the war will turn out."
"We're changing the path of history, one that differs from what you saw in the stories of your universe. I get that a lot of things won't be the same, but we'll be okay as long as you're alive," Lyna explained, pushing herself up from her seat.
I nodded my head after a small moment of silence had passed. "I'm not a god, Lyna. I'm just a man with the answers to the future. If I died now, chances are that the Reapers would take heavy losses. You would take over for me, provide the Council with the information that you learned, and convince them to prepare for the invasion, no matter the cost."
"That's where you're wrong. I don't know what the future holds, whereas you do. The memories that you carry could destabilize the entire galaxy, or bring it together in a great union of people. You saw what the reactions were to your memories in 2077. Just think about what would happen if the United Rannoch Government, or the Council got ahold of what you know..."
"All of those statements are why I've refused to go into Citadel space. I can't risk being taken away to be dissected, or tortured for information on a rivaling clan, government, or gang," I truthfully explained, knowing just how much trouble that I would be in if any of these scenarios occurred.
Lyna moved towards me slowly, resting one of her hands on my shoulder. I tore my eyes off of the entrancing stars and exoplanets passing by the ship, and set my gaze on Lyna. "I understand your reasoning, but you must know that the only way that we can properly prepare for this goddess-forsaken war is to meet the Council. We can't do this with just the URG or the 'Inusannon,' we need the whole galaxy to help us," Lyna spoke in a slightly desperate tone.
"We'll be fine as long as we keep the conflicts to a minimum. There will be a lot of factors that will go into our victory, or our defeat. If we play our cards right, we'll only lose a few hundred worlds."
She closed her eyes, and let a sigh slip out of her mouth. "We can't afford to lose that much, Kyle. A few hundred worlds could equal to a trillion losses."
I pushed myself up from my seat so I could be eye-to-eye with Lyna. "If we find the Inusannon and have them convince the Council of the Reapers, the galaxy will have enough time to prepare. As I said before, we have decades to talk about this. For now, let's take some time to rest, and have a forty day in-ship vacation."
"Fine, I'll be resting in my quarters if you need me," Lyna curtly replied, walking off shortly afterwards.
I nodded at Lyna's departure from the ship's cockpit, then sat myself back down in the pilot's seat.
Sirius, what are the chances of the galaxy surviving if we don't find the Inusannon?
'Chances are slim. The Quarians and Geth would be the galaxy's most powerful asset, but the Reapers would put the most force on them, guaranteeing that they fall first.'
And with the Inusannon?
'I can't determine that. Their population and technology after 100,000 years of peace are unknown to me. Even my prediction would be unclear. When we finally reach the Inusannon's system, I'll be able to make a more accurate conclusion, but not now.'
Moving on, I've been wanting to ask you a question for a while.
'Don't keep me waiting, what is the question?'
Why did the Reapers attack the Inusannon and the Inusynthetics? I mean, they were coexisting, but the Reapers attacked them anyways. I thought the Reapers wanted synthesis.
'We weren't doing it correctly. The Reapers wanted to be in control of the Inusynthetics. They want synthesis, but in their own way, where they are the dominant species. The Inusannon and Inusynthetics didn't agree, so we warred with the Reapers. Consequently, when my people were down to the millions, we decided to flee to where the Reapers couldn't find us. A few Inusynthetics were left to warn the next species, but some of us were corrupted by the Reapers. Rigel had the worst of it, and now he serves the Reapers, feeding false information to the ones that find him.'
Tell me, how does this corruption even happen? Through a virus? Malware?
'Inusynthetic corruption is a very… Careful process performed by the Reapers. It takes years, maybe even decades. It starts by the Reapers interacting with the Inusynthetic, and slowly they turn the Inusynthetic to their side. Once that is done, the Reaper would gain control of the Inusynthetic, and feed off of Inusannon databases.'
Who was the first to be corrupted? What exactly did they do?
'Procyon was the first of many. Her exact designation is unknown to me, I wasn't created until after her deactivation by the Inusannon. She gave the Reapers coordinates to a heavily populated Inusannon colony named Vakysas. In this cycle, it is known as Haestrom.'
I hate to be asking so many questions, but how did the Inusannon deactivate her?
'Ask all the questions you want, it's not like we're in battle or in a diplomatic meeting with the URG. Anyways, the creator of Procyon, Sivobokal went to where her server was located. Sivobokal took a highly powerful rifle with him, and fried the circuitry in her server with it. It angered the Reapers, who in turn increased their offensive push into Inusannon territory.'
That's… A lot to think about. I'll talk to you in a few hours, Sirius. Thank you for talking with me.
'We'll be doing more and more talking as we near the Inusannon system.'
Got it.
I disconnected my link with Sirius, and activated my omni-tool. I had transferred my music from my laptop and phone to my omni-tool a few days ago, just so I could have easier access to it. Soon, the calming tune of Sam Hulick's music started to play in my ears, starting out with 'Under the Stars.'
A/N: Things are slowly heating up, and I'm desperately itching to write the Inusannon diplomatic scene.