For the first time since Project Base, the nightmare of the dark forest returned to her. Again, she found herself running through that inky dark with nameless dread on her heels, and again Shepard startled awake with her heart pounding in her chest, not recognizing her surroundings. Around her, her quarters were empty and quiet; She was back on the Normandy. Groaning, she rolled over and leaned her head into her hands.

The buzzer on her door sounded. Slightly disgruntled, she rose to her feet and walked over to the portal. When it opened, Liara was standing there, waiting for her. "Liara? Can I help you?"

"I've been forwarding the turian councillor information on the Prothean device," the asari informed her, "It can't be built without Council support, but he's not budging until their primarch is safe."

Shepard sighed tiredly, still drowsy from the rough awakening. She rubbed her face to massage some wakefulness back into herself.

"Are you alright?" Liara asked, noticing her less-than-ideal condition.

"I… didn't get what you'd call a good night's rest."

Liara observed her with her own blue eyes, keenly assessing her state. She had seen Shepard sleep-deprived before, but this seemed deeper. "There's more to it than that, isn't there. What's really bothering you?"

Shepard blinked a few times, trying to lose the acrid feeling of the dream. "When the Reapers hit... I could hear people screaming in the streets below me. We left a lot of them behind."

Liara nodded slightly, empathizing. "There's no way for you to save them all. But I know you're doing everything you can, and you'll get back there in time to help."

Shepard was glad being the Shadow Broker didn't dull her friend's sense of optimism. "I hope you're right."

"Don't blame yourself, Commander."

"Commander Shepard?" interrupted an Alliance servicewoman, strutting into view, "I'm Specialist- Oh. I beg your pardon. I thought you were alone."

"That's okay. I was just leaving." Liara nodded to Shepard and took her leave.

"Commander Shepard?" The human woman saluted rather stiffly. "I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, with Alliance R&D. I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy after you turned it over to the Alliance. There weren't many of us aboard when the Reapers hit…"

The Specialist was obviously not accustomed to serving in the field, and her nerves were apparent in her voice and movements. Shepard held out a hand to reassure her. "Slow down, Specialist Traynor. You're doing fine."

"Ah, thank you. I worked in a lab. I never thought I'd be serving on a ship."

Shepard motioned her to follow her into her cabin, both having been standing awkwardly outside the door. "Why don't you tell me about the retrofits?"

"The ship's in line with Alliance regs now, and it has new top-of-the-line quantum entanglement communicators. In fact…" Traylor took some not-so-subtle glances around her cabin, practically ooh-ing and ah-ing at the non-standard amenities. "...Admiral Anderson had intended to use the Normandy as his mobile command center."

"That's no longer an option."

"Yes, I heard he chose to stay and fight… In any event, I'm honoured to serve under you, Commander. For as long as you need me, that is. They only sent me here to oversee the retrofits…"

Unexpectedly, EDI's voice joined the conversation. "Shepard, some of our systems require further testing, and Specialist Traynor has been extremely effective during installation. I would prefer that she remain."

"Got it, EDI."

Specialist Traynor, visibly confused by the input from the ship, looked back toward her. "Wait... since when does a virtual intelligence make requests?"

"Oh, right. I should probably tell you EDI's an AI. Fully self-aware."

"Oh, I knew it!" Traynor exclaimed, jubilant to have her suspicions proved, "I knew Joker was lying!"

"Jeff requested that I pretend to be a simple VI to protect myself." the AI responded. "I apologize for the deception."

"Thanks, EDI. And I apologize for all those times I talked about how… attractive your voice was… Anyways, shall I give you a tour?" she asked, breaking from her abrupt apology. "I think you'll be impressed by the new upgrades." The Specialist held out a datapad with images of around the retrofitted areas of the ship and flipped through them. "In the CIC, you'll find the galaxy map, where you can set the Normandy's destination. You can also check your messages at your private terminal. The War Room houses a strategic command center for mission-specific intel and war analysis. The shuttle bay contains an armoury, where you can modify your equipment between missions. Arius has set himself down in the starboard cargo hold. And Liara just set up a lot of hardware down in the old XO office on Deck 3; I think she's claimed that room. And… there you are. Still the same ship as before. It just flies Alliance colours now. Speaking of which… I believe Admiral Hackett would like to speak to you at the vid comm." The Alliance Specialist grimaced. "I probably should have started with that."

.

The new vid comm was a far cry from its previous version when the Normandy had flown under Cerberus colours. A fully holographic render of Admiral Hackett materialized in front of her, life-sized and directly from his command center.

"Commander," he addressed her. "Udina updated me on your meeting with the Council. Sounds like they're running scared."

"We did present them with a lot of unknowns," Shepard reasoned. "They're feeling threatened and want an immediate solution, not theories."

"Theories are all we got right now. What's your plan?"

"I'm trying to get the turian primarch for a summit meeting with the asari and the salarians. I'll bypass the Council and appeal directly to their leadership."

"That's good. I like it. This is where we start laying the groundwork for our counterattack."

Shepard shrugged. "Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot to back it up right now."

"Then build alliances. Gather everything and everybody you can for the cause."

"What about the Prothean device?"

"Find me people who can build it. And if you can't, I'll take ships, soldiers, supplies… whatever you can get. We need to keep hitting the Reapers across every theatre of war they open; buy us time to figure out the device."

"And when it's finished?"

"Assuming it ever is, we pool all our resources. Think of it as a giant armada for delivering the device when the Reapers are most vulnerable. The stronger you can make that armada, the better its chances of punching through."

This was all well and great, but the fact was they didn't have time to go around gunslinging. Earth, as they spoke, was getting razed to the ground. "What about Earth, sir?"

"We'll just have to hope Anderson - and what's left of the Alliance forces - can hold out until we've dealt with the enemy."

"I understand."

"Good. Then make it happen, Commander. I'll be expecting regular updates on your progress. Hackett out."

The admiral's form grew fuzzy and dematerialized as the call ended.

.

Shepard noted that the interior of the Normandy was much darker now and in its standard blue and black colour palette, in typical Alliance fashion. It reminded her very much of the Normandy SR-1, even though it was twice the size and now chock full of equipment to turn it into a base of operations.

She started at the bottom of the ship, the hangar. In it, she was introduced to Alliance pilot Steve Cortez. Shepard learned that his husband had been abducted by the Collectors at Ferris Fields shortly before her own tussle with them months ago on Horizon. The news further solidified her belief that her decision to destroy the Collector base had been the right one. Cortez had since been assigned to the Normandy SR-2 retrofit team, responsible for overseeing cargo bay modifications. Besides being an excellent Kodiak pilot, he was also responsible for maintaining the Normandy's armoury, which he shared with Lieutenant James Vega.

Nearby, Vega was in the middle of a series of pull-ups. He didn't stop when she approached him to talk, which seemed like slight disrespect toward a superior officer, given their level of meagre familiarity, but she didn't push it.

"Hey, Shepard. How'd it go with the Council?"

"Same as usual. Noncommittal. Unhelpful."

"Bet they still wanted you to help them out, no?" he guessed, groaning from the exertion of the exercise, developed muscles bulging under his short-sleeved crew.

Shepard crossed her arms. "Yeah. We're going to rescue a turian primarch from Palaven."

"Sounds like fun. Never been to the turian homeworld." He pulled himself up again with a grunt. "You come down here for a reason?"

"Not really; I thought I'd come down to chat."

"Not sure what there is to talk about. You already know my service record."

It was clear to Shepard that he was subtly dismissing her, and she wasn't sure why. "I don't, actually," she reminded him, "I didn't have access to personnel records when we met."

"Right... forgot about that." Vega casually let go of the overhead bar and dropped down. He rolled his head on the shoulders back and forth, stretching his muscles. "Well... think you can dance and talk at the same time?" he challenged her, cracking his knuckles.

Shepard had taken it as a jest, but there was no snide smile on his face when he turned toward her. So that's how it was going to be, Shepard thought. He had beef with her, and from what she knew about him, he wasn't the type to give his thoughts over easily. For people like him, sometimes the only way to uncork the bottle was a good old-fashioned fistfight. She was more than up for the challenge. "Oh, I can dance."

"Okay, Lola, let's do this."

The two of them raised their fists.

"Don't let my good looks fool you, Vega," she warned him, "I've got my share of scars." To get the ball moving, she struck first. Left and right hook, both blocked. The throws weren't serious, but enough that he needed to protect himself, or it could bruise.

"Ha! You sound like my old CO," Vega said as he jabbed with his left twice. Shepard leaned backward out of range.

"Oh yeah, and who was that?" Uppercut with her left. Vega evaded it.

"Captain Toni. He was a hard-assed son-of-a-bitch. But a good leader." He gave left and right hooks, which Shepard both blocked.

"What do you mean 'was'?"

"Died," Vega told her, circling her, "with most of my squad - protecting a civilian colony from a Collector attack." He went for a right which she deflected out of the way, but the follow-up was only narrowly escaped.

"And the colony?"

"It was either them... or the intel we had on the Collectors." He pushed. "Intel we could've used to destroy them. I chose the intel." He swung his fist in a wide arc, but she jumped back out of range.

"Sorry. It's a tough call."

"The best part was we didn't really need the intel in the end…" Vega's complexion darkened. "Because you were out there saving the galaxy by taking down the entire Collector homeworld."

There it was. Vega resented her because she had rendered invalid a heart-wrenching choice he had made, and on top of that, she was now his CO. Vega let loose a jab, an uppercut, a left and a right in succession.

"You didn't know. You can't blame yourself, Vega." He wasn't stopping his attacks, and she kept up with her blocks and evasions.

"Who says I'm blaming myself?" he asked, placing more shots on her.

"Just a guess."

"You a shrink, too?"

It was her turn. She switched from defence to offence. "No. But that stunt back on Mars was reckless." Shepard stepped forward with a few shots of her own, pushing him back. "You're lucky to be alive."

"So?"

"So... maybe you don't care if you live or die." Straight jab.

Vega gave pause; she had hit the right button. "Or maybe... I'm just willing to do whatever the fuck it takes to end this goddamn war!" he said, lashing out at her.

Alright, playtime was over. Shepard evaded his jab, grappled him and easily flipped his larger frame onto the hard ground at their feet. He had not been expecting it, and the air was knocked out of him. "Maybe you are," she said, ready to defend herself if he jumped to his feet, "but if you're half as good as I think you are... we need you alive."

James Vega was stifled and got to his feet slowly, having been bested on more than one front. He stewed in his thoughts for a few seconds, then backed down. It was over. "Thanks for the pep talk."

"Anytime."

With their wrinkle resolved, Vega's personality's lighthearted, flirty countenance returned. "Hey. Thanks for the dance, Lola."

Crewmembers called Shepard more than a few nicknames, and Lola was a first. "Lola, huh?"

"You kind of look like a Lola."

"As long as you remember who's in charge, you can call me whatever you want."

"Oh, I won't forget. Commander."

.

When Shepard visited the engineering deck, she was not expecting the familiar face that greeted her. "Engineer Adams?"

"Commander!" He turned away from the console and saluted her. "Welcome back to the Normandy, or maybe you should be saying that to me."

Lieutenant Gregory Adams had been hand-picked by Anderson to serve as the Chief Engineer of the original SSV Normandy. He was an exceptionally even-tempered person; she had never seen him in an emotional outburst, and he had been the only crew member to remain completely unperturbed when she had stolen the Normandy and headed to Ilos. Aside from being on good terms with the rest of the crew, he had been a personal mentor to Tali after her inclusion, helping the quarian integrate with her exclusively human coworkers.

"Engineer Adams." She smiled broadly, glad to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was put in charge of the drive core retrofits," he explained, leading them both toward the open doors of the engineering deck to the impressive Tantalus drive core. "My experience on the Normandy SR-1 made me an obvious choice."

"So, what do you think of our SR-2?" Shepard asked, nodding toward the massive, pulsating, globular core.

"She's incredible. If there's one thing I can say about Cerberus, it's that they know how to build a ship." The Chief Engineer turned to her. "And about that, Cerberus I mean, I owe you an apology."

"How so?"

"Back when you got this ship, Dr. Chakwas contacted me. Asked me to help with your mission against the Collectors." He shook his head in regret. "I refused. I didn't have your back, and I'm sorry for that."

Shepard waved away his apology, understanding. "Don't be. You made the right choice. You're Alliance first. That's the way it should be."

Adams straightened up as if the guilt had metaphorically lifted off his shoulders. "Thank you, Commander. Glad to be aboard."

Shepard nodded. Adams had always been very enthusiastic about discussing the original Normandy, and she was curious about his take on this one. "How does the new Normandy stack up to the old SR-1?"

"Stack up? It blows the old ship away. The Tantalus drive core has been completely overhauled. The SR-2 might be near twice the size, but the new drive core is three times bigger. This ship can fly!" The chief engineer tapped out some commands on his console to bring up some stats. "That said, Cerberus isn't too high on safety. If pushed past her limits, this core would vent into engineering. Guess it gives my team an incentive to keep her well-balanced during a firefight."

"Ha, 'Do your job or get vaporized.'"

"Pretty much." He made a few more taps. "I noticed you upgraded the kinetic barriers with cyclonic technology. Should help reduce the draw when under missile fire."

"Hopefully, that means fewer vaporized engineers?"

He nodded. "The IES stealth system is significantly improved as well. It can handle a higher blue shift of our emissions."

"And that means?"

"We should be able to drop out of FTL without triggering every sensor in range. Very handy for stealth reconnaissance. All in all, the Normandy is a marvel of engineering."

It all sounded good, and it was clear he knew the Normandy's systems inside and out. Shepard decided to ask about the figurative elephant-sized AI in the room. "What do you think of EDI?"

"We had a good talk during the retrofit. A little strange at first, talking shop with an AI," he told her, as unfazed as ever.

Shepard raised an eyebrow, not expecting such a casual reaction. "AI? I thought EDI posed as a VI to keep the likes of you from unplugging her."

"Yeah, but I saw through her. Have you seen her hardware? Processing power is off the charts. And then some problems kept fixing themselves. If I hadn't had her pegged, I would have sworn I was losing it."

EDI, ever-present in the Normandy, chimed in. "You never expressed any skepticism, Lieutenant Adams."

"I figured I'd better play it safe with the Cerberus AI, EDI. No offence."

"None taken…" the AI responded, "as long as you keep your fingers out of my cognizance processors."

Adams, realizing Shepard was out of the loop, filled her in. "In the beginning, I tried disconnecting her from key processes without giving myself away. Easier said than done. But Joker seemed to trust her, and in time I saw her advantages. Even grew to like her."

Understanding, Shepard nodded. "It's good to have you on board again. Carry on, Adams."

.

The starboard cargo hold had changed significantly since she had last visited it. It was much darker now, with the white and orange of Cerberus changed to darker blue and greys. A few large desks were set up with various screens and computing hardware stacked upon them. Next to one of the viewing windows was a large board with notes, photos, and linkages. A partition of ship hardware blocked her sight down to the end of the hold on the left, but she could see that a full-sized bed had been installed on the far right.

She knocked at the door frame to announce her presence. "Traynor told me you set yourself up back in your old room."

Arius had been typing away at an interface and looked up and over toward her. His face lit up, happy to see her. "Shepard! Yes. I've chatted with her a few times now - she's very sharp, that one. Have you a minute? Got an update for you. Here." He grabbed a datapad on one of the desks and handed it to her. When she took it, she saw a series of lists and graphs on it, each tracking particular assets they had accumulated for the war. The list's contents ranged from weapons and people to potentially valuable technologies.

"Over the last six months, while you've been on Earth, I've been working on getting the galaxy ready for war. We're faring far better than we were, but we still have a long way to go. Moving forward, I'll try to move or connect every war asset you claim, every ship, every body, every piece of technology or equipment in the best way to support the war effort. You'll be able to track this anytime from the terminal in the war room - Traynor graciously helped me wire up a feed."

Getting this involved in the workings of the galaxy meant that Arius could no longer skirt the edges of visibility. "So you're official now, no more hiding?"

"Mmm, not quite. 'Arius Farren' officially exists; he owns property and pays taxes. But outside the Normandy, he only plays the part of a human with wide connections. Thankfully, you've indirectly seen to that - most everyone who passes through your ship has risen to a leadership position within their respective circles at one point or another. I may not have the power to give anyone orders, but I know who to talk to and what to nudge. Sometimes, all you need is someone to see the bigger picture and connect the dots."

Shepard looked back down at the data, and it made her head swim. She knew how to run a ship - the success of the Normandy was a testament to that. Threading together the galaxy, however, was a logistical and operations campaign of a far grander scale. Curiously, when she looked up, she saw in Arius' eyes the relish of a worthy challenge and the self-assuredness of someone who was no stranger to the complex task. "You seem very eager to dive into what most people would imagine to be a nightmare."

He grinned slightly and shrugged, but Shepard felt it was only modesty on his part. "It's just like building a city…" he answered, "or an empire. Building something to more than the sum of its parts, then using increases in one part to further increases in others. I've always found this sort of work to be highly gratifying. Anyways, aside from this, I have something for you, a welcome back present."

"You really shouldn't have."

"On the contrary, I'm sorry it took so long." Arius pulled up a metallic case sitting under the desk he worked on and offered it to her.

Shepard took the case from him and then set it on an empty spot on the table strewn with equipment. She clicked its clasping and opened it. Inside was an M7-Lancer, an assault rifle introduced right after the First Contact War when human armament technology had jumped ahead with cutting-edge galactic expertise. It was now a relic, but it was the precursor to the modern M-8 Avenger rifle, whose own reputation held it as one of the best rugged, reliable, and upgradable weapons in the galaxy. She lifted it from the padded interior of the case and hoisted it to her shoulder. It was much lighter than she expected, and when she went through the motions to use it, she found that it did not have any port for heat sinks.

"It's a genuine M7-Lancer," Arius proudly explained to her, "refurbished to use the higher velocity rounds of today's weaponry. It does not need heat sinks, instead utilizing the heat-dissipation mechanisms from the previous era. Most of the internal assembly has been fabricated using the most cutting-edge frictionless materials I could find - you can fire just over a hundred rounds continuously before being forced to cool down. Provides greater damage than today's M-8's, yet is just as accurate with the stability damper I've added. It's also the lightest rifle you'll probably ever have in your arsenal; it should take a load off when using your powers."

The weapon's specs absolutely dazzled her, and she ran her hands over the assembly to take it all in. The metallic chassis of its construction looked and felt unequivocally solid in her hands. Next to his personal manufacturer emblem was a newly added N7 logo.

"I wasn't sure if you'd object to me adding an N7 logo on what is essentially a collector's item, so it's been printed on with a polymer that can be easily removed later."

Shepard was nearly speechless. "It's… perfect, Arius. I literally cannot think of a better weapon. You thought of everything."

He nodded appreciatively, relieved to have gotten it right. Then, as he had for all of his works, he expressed his fondest wishes: "I'm glad. May it serve you well." He took back the datapad and placed it with the others on the desk. "So, what's the plan?"

"Palaven firstly," Shepard informed him, lowering the weapon back into its case and clasping it shut with satisfying clicks. "Rescue the turian primarch so they can have their war summit, hopefully bypassing the Council. Then we'll see what comes after. At this point, we're just tying fragmented resources together."

Arius nodded to himself, pleased to hear that she already had a plan. "I think that's the long and short of it. I know this doesn't need reaffirming, but as I stated the first time I came aboard, I will do my utmost to support this crew and the war effort. I may be a bit busier now with this," he said, motioning to the data, before his eyes darted back to hers, "but please - call on me any time."

It wasn't the words he said, but it was how he said it - Shepard knew Arius to be very deliberate in his speech and movements, and she noticed an edge on the directness of his entreaty. It was more than an offer; it was a hope. Unlike the first time he had come aboard, this time, it was personal.

"Duly noted," she remarked earnestly before breaking into a delayed grin, unable to resist a quip, "but can those hands of yours alleviate my Reaper-induced existential dread? If so, I think we'll all be needing you soon enough."

He chuckled in response. "Regrettably, they only heal the physical. The best I can do is help ease the inevitable hangover."

"Then I will be in touch the next time I hit the ship's bar." She hoisted the weapon's case off the desk. "Seriously though, It's good to have you back, Arius."

He nodded warmly, and then Shepard saw the hint of a demure smile play on his lips. "One last thing - and I may be out of line here, but I can see you haven't wasted any of the time spent on Earth. You look good."

While sitting on her hands under guard, Shepard could do nothing but prepare for what she had known was coming. She had studied intensely, trained hard, ate well and slept fully. With six months exclusively devoted to herself, she was probably in the best physical shape of her life. His observation was not lost on her. "Dangerously flirty, but I'll let you get away with it. For now." Then as she moved to leave and began crossing the threshold added, "Thank you for noticing."

"Anytime. Commander."

.

Shepard walked into the med bay. Now back aboard, Dr. Karin Chakwas was standing behind her desk, checking something on a datapad in her hands. The doctor put down the pad and turned toward her when she entered, giving Shepard her undivided attention. "Commander."

"Everything okay down here, Doctor?" Shepard asked, wondering if everything had been accounted for.

"The Alliance team cleaned up and restocked," Chakwas informed her, glancing around at the new equipment in the bay, "but it's still my old med bay. Feels like home."

Even with the Doctor's relatively tempered personality, Shepard heard more than a little bit of joy in her voice. "Good. Welcome back."

"Thank you. Let's waste no time. If I may, I'd like to examine you." Not wasting a moment, the doctor had already started up a medical diagnostic application on her omni-tool to passively scan her.

"Um, nothing wrong with me, is there?"

"No," Chakwas answered her, "but we should keep an eye on all those cybernetic implants Cerberus grafted into you." The Doctor's eyes darted back and forth, reading the outputs of the scan. "Let's just make sure everything is okay."

"Guess a checkup never hurts. Just no scalpel this time, doc."

"Alas, to my great disappointment, it is nothing invasive," the doctor stated in her typical dry humour style. "I'm just going to run some diagnostics on your implants, and it'll take a few readings." Chakwas dragged her omni-tool scanner over her, making a second pass to check her implants. Stats scrolled down the tool's readout.

"Good. Your implants are showing little sign of rejection. Just keep up that positive outlook of yours, Commander, and your scars shouldn't return…. and that's it. You're the picture of health."

"Good to hear. How's our inventory of meds? Anything that we still need to stock up on?"

"The med bay was fully stocked before you left Earth. We should be good for a long time… even given the amount of fire you take each day."

Shepard couldn't hide the grin. "I'll see you around, Doctor."

"Take care, Shepard."

.

"Hey, Commander," her helmsman said, swivelling around to greet her in his pilot's chair with a snide smirk. "You know, I had my doubts about the Council… But after years of ignoring your warnings, they're finally willing to step up and tell you that they just can't help."

Shepard crossed her arms and shook her head, glad to hear Joker's sarcasm again. "Ha. They've spent years denying the threat. You think they'd be prepared now?"

"I was kinda hoping that maybe they were planning in secret and just not telling you about it because, you know, Cerberus." He spun his chair back around. "Well, let me know if you want me to get them on the channel and hang up on them. You know, for old time's sake."

.

Her last stop was the old XO office, the long room now occupied by Liara and packed with hardware. Along the right wall was a tight array of screens, each on a swivel and set to track eye direction. Along the left were various blocks of equipment that looked like they had once found a home on the Shadow Broker's ship.

"Commander Shepard! It's a pleasure to see you again!" a perky, spherical, floating VI chimed as she entered the office.

"Ah, you're the drone from the Shadow Broker's ship."

"Dr. T'Soni now refers to me as 'Glyph' instead of 'info drone' 95 percent of the time," the VI informed her as it bobbed in the air around her.

"You brought your little helper with you?" Shepard posed to Liara, who had turned away from the console she had been working on.

Liara nodded. "It helped sort through all the data that led me to the archive on Mars. Glyph's interfaced with the datafeeds. Its analytical software should come in handy."

"Looks like you brought more than just that drone from your ship."

"A few things were necessary. I'd be a very silent Shadow Broker without datafeeds. The old Broker's ship? Impressive, but it was never meant to be space-worthy. Which meant that Illusive Man eventually tracked me down on Hagalaz."

"What happened?"

"I knew he was coming. Feron and I loaded as much of the ship's specialized hardware onto a shuttle as we could. We got away from Cerberus's ships after arranging an appropriate distraction."

Shepard couldn't hide her smirk. "An 'appropriate distraction'?"

"Sending the Broker's ship exploding into a Cerberus cruiser. I don't think the Illusive Man expected me to give up my resources in such a spectacular fashion."

"Oh, wow. Neither did I. Can you still operate as the Broker without the ship?"

"Well, I couldn't let the Illusive Man have it. I saved what was crucial. My network of agents is intact, although the Reapers have taken a toll on their numbers. It's taking a while to reestablish contact. Still, I'll take what I can get. We'll need them to research this Prothean device." The asari researcher walked over to a desk and gently sat in the open chair. She typed a few things on the interface bringing up blueprints. "Until we understand precisely what it does, it's far too dangerous to use."

Shepard glanced at what was displayed, but the schematics were utterly indecipherable to her. "Did the Protheans actually complete this weapon?"

"You mean, 'Will it work?' They wouldn't have poured their last resources into this device if they thought otherwise. But we really need to find out just what kind of weapon they left us."

"Agreed, it'd be nice to know we're not kids playing around with a loaded gun. What do we know about it? Has Arius been any help in deciphering it?"

"We know very little. We're fortunate enough data survived to piece together the blueprints. Arius has helped with translations and some cultural contexts on its periphery, but its operation or purpose eludes even him. Decoding them will take as many specialists as we can find."

"It's that high-tech?"

"I'd have killed for a glimpse of it during graduate school."

"I guess that says enough. I'll leave you to it then. We'll talk later, Liara."