...
"It's an irritating reality that many places and events defy description…seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. In the end, you're just happy you were there- with your eyes open- and lived to see it."
(Anthony Bourdain)
…
UCV Saint Luke, March 26th, 7:12 AM, 2186
…
I walked through the corridors with a big smile on my face, carrying my morning coffee along with me as I made my way to the CIC. I was still glowing from the results of yesterday's mission, and wanted nothing more than to keep it rolling as long as possible.
Yesterday was the most successful mission we had ever pulled off, and morale was through the roof throughout the flotilla. We not only secured the entire facility's stockpile of stored information, fought off a massive ground incursion, and suffered no casualties, but Dixon, in coordination with the ship Captains, managed to fend off a Cerberus battle group that had outnumbered our flotilla two to one. If Dixon's report was to be believed, after the Saint Luke, Discovery, and Endar had carved up the ship at the head of the Cerberus battle group with their particle lasers, the rest of the enemy ships flew into disarray, apparently thinking they were under threat of further laser fire.
They had no idea those lasers took several minutes to cool off, leaving themselves completely open to attack. Dixon and the other Captains pressed their advantage, shooting apart the battle group as some attempted to jump away from the battle, clearly broken. Two smaller frigates managed to charge their drives and jump away, leaving seven destroyed and three dead in the water. Two of the ships initiated self-destructs with no escape pods launched, but in a surprising turn of events, the last ship, a Nelson-class destroyer called Iquitos, completely surrendered and submitted to Confederation custody.
Some of my crew were already calling it the "miracle above Imaneya", and other titles with similar levels of religious terminology thrown in for good measure. I wasn't in any position to correct them even if I wanted to. I was just as ecstatic as they all were. That alone was clear just from walking into the CIC and looking at the faces and body language of my crew.
"Mornin', sir." Dixon greeted with a salute, smirking as I returned the gesture. "Sleep well?"
"It's funny you bring that up, I slept better last night than I have in months." I replied, placing my coffee cup on the edge of the holographic display as I straightened my jacket. "Anything interesting to report?"
"Not really. Most of the repairs have been finished, and we're still processing the crew from the Iquitos." He answered, handing me a datapad and pausing as I attempted to take it. "Sir, uh… your neck?"
He pointed at the lower part of my neck, where Mara had "made contact" with me last night after a hot shower. Immediately knowing she must have left a mark behind, I slowly and calmly adjusted my jumpsuit's collar as Dixon continued to smile like an idiot.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything." He reassured, letting go of the datapad as I rolled my eyes.
"Have any of the prisoners been giving us trouble?" I questioned immediately afterwards, glancing up at him for a moment before looking back to the datapad.
"According to the guards, a few acted a little "rowdy" when first brought aboard, but other than that they've stayed pretty quiet." He shrugged, not that worried about the new "guests" we now kept on the ship. "They were all scanned for cybernetic implants, but all tested negative."
"Interesting… I'm starting to wonder if all of these people are actually on the same level as those commandos." I mused, crossing my left arm as I stared at the datapad.
"We weren't." He pointed out, getting a small huff of amusement out of me.
The seventy-eight surviving crewmen were all being kept under heavy guard aboard our ship while we transported them and their disabled vessel back to Reach. We were hoping we'd be able to reuse the ship and add it to the Fleet, but first we'd have to run extensive tests on it to make sure it wasn't bugged or rigged in any way. It would also need a new coat of paint, but that went without saying.
"Any progress on that data Lydia recovered?" I pressed on, wanting to change the subject to keep things moving.
"Not yet, but we have people working round the clock to find anything juicy." He reassured, getting me to nod in approval. "We've never recovered this much information before, so there's plenty to analyze."
"Good, good." I continued to nod as another, less-important thought popped into my head. "Hey, can you get the captain of the Discovery on the horn? There's something I promised him before the mission yesterday."
"No problem." He agreed, picking up the phone and punching in the channel as I continued to read the datapad.
According to what we had managed to piece together, those scientists on Imaneya had been working on some... nasty experiments. They had kidnapped various people from all around the galaxy and subjected them to the artifact's indoctrination signal, similar to what that rouge SPECTRE Saren had been doing in that facility on Virmire, but much more… invasive, at least if Shepard's original reports were accurate. In addition to the signal itself, they also forcibly implanted the victims with their Reaper-derived cybernetics in an attempt to refine and observe their growth process. According to the most recent logs they had recorded, the science team had begun acting strangely after receiving the last shipment of test subjects, and everything was cut off there.
It could take us over a week to sift through the finer details of this data dump and find anything truly useful, there was no way for us to categorize this much raw information without manually reviewing each file. Sure, we were utilizing keyword searches and other methods to streamline the process, but we knew from previous experience that even something as innocuous as a personal log could point us in the right direction.
"Sir, Captain Firma is on the line." Dixon announced, getting me to refocus my thoughts.
"Thank you." I replied, picking up the other phone as I cleared my head. "Hey Lenlo, how're you doing?"
"Doing good, sir. I'm happy to report we've successfully fired our P.L.S. in anger for the first time." He said, getting another smile to cross my face.
"Yeah, I watched the recordings. That was an impressive lightshow you and the other ships pulled off." I congratulated, mentally recalling the image of that Cerberus cruiser getting bombarded with four bright violet laser beams at once. "Anyways, I seem to recall making a very specific deal with you yesterday."
"I was just thinking about that, sir." He remarked with a small hint of humor in his voice. "I figured after the successful mission yesterday you'd be calling back soon."
"You've already prepared him to move over, haven't you?" I guessed in a coy tone, knowing the answer already.
"He's looking forward to discussing his new theories with you in person." He answered in a dull tone, clearly sick of having him talk his ear off.
"Fine, fine." I agreed with a sigh, knowing there would be no way to put this off any longer. "I'll give you Cradle 7. Dock before I start having second thoughts."
"Yes'sir." He finished, cutting the line as I felt another smile creep onto my face.
"Dixon, tell them to prep Cradle 7 to receive the Discovery." I ordered as he nodded, walking off as I picked up my coffee and drank deeply, savoring the warm liquid.
Knowing it might be a while until something useful came up, I decided to instead check for any updates with the Crucible Project. As I scrolled through the summaries of the numerous reports, my suspicions over there not being much yet were quickly confirmed. The primary supports were slow, but steady, and the current projected completion date on that component alone was still six to eight months. There was one interesting report, however.
Dr. Petersen, one of the xenoarchaeologists Admiral Hackett had brought onto the Project, suggested there is an element in the Crucible's design that is missing, something required for the device to do… whatever it would do. We had no way of knowing if he was right or wrong at this point, but the possibility of him being right worried me to no end. He believed this "missing" element was known as the "Catalyst", but whether it was a specialized component, a concept of some kind, or some kind of mistranslation, we didn't know. With all the work we were putting into it already, it would be… disappointing to see the Crucible become the galaxy's largest paperweight.
"Discovery is en-route, ETA seven minutes." Dixon said, snapping me back to reality. "Oh, I almost forgot. Did you hear about the movie night I'm hosting tonight in the Rec Room tonight at 1800?"
"No, that's news to me." I replied with a smirk, leaning on the center console as I quickly took a sip of coffee. "When did you come up with this?"
"Last night, while I was talking to Morgan." He stated bluntly, putting down his datapad. "I was originally going to host it in the Arboretum, but I didn't want to piss off those botanists again."
"Yeah, the setting is nice, but they're very anal about keeping those plants safe." I nodded, understanding where he was coming from. "What are you guys watching?"
"We're doing a double-feature of Kill Bill, volumes 1 and 2." He said much to my surprise, growing my smirk into a full-blown smile. "I've been thinking about it ever since Largos put those Cerberus commandos in the ground."
"Kill Bill… wow, I haven't watched those movies in years." I shook my head, remembering the nights I spent long ago watching those movies with my Dad while my Mom was out of the house.
"Then you'll attend?" He pushed further, letting another smile creep onto his face. "Come on, I've even got the restaurant fight in full color."
"I don't know… I've got a lot of work to do." I jokingly declined, taking a much bigger swig from my tin coffee cup.
"Front row seats for you and your wife." He immediately threw in with the subtlety of a used car salesman, getting me to laugh.
"Fine, fine. I'll be there. Six o'clock, right?" I asked as I started walking towards the door, wanting to meet my "new" crewman in person.
"1800 hours, sir." He corrected in an annoyed tone as I smiled, knowing it bothered him when I didn't use the proper time format.
It felt good knowing I wasn't the only one happy over the results of our mission, and that a positive atmosphere had spread through the ship like wildfire. It was certainly a massive improvement over our first outing, especially considering the circumstances behind it all. Even so, I knew the positivity wouldn't last forever. The Reapers were aware of us, me specifically, which was more than I had expected when all of this kicked off. Richard had warned us a long time ago about these things, and it was… strange thinking back on it all. Even now, we barely knew anything concrete about the Reapers themselves, but they had made their capabilities abundantly clear.
That level of knowledge wouldn't be enough to beat them in a war, at least a conventional one. If that facility was anything to go off of, Cerberus certainly knew more than us, and that was quite the persistent problem. Even so, it might not be a problem much longer if we play our cards right. While they had a massive lack of morals that allowed them to do almost anything, we had the sheer tenacity to keep chasing their asses across the galaxy.
My thoughts were interrupted as I felt a gentle thump through the deck plates, the Discovery making its connection to the ship. I knew I'd have to mentally prepare myself for what was coming.
The airlock door opened, revealing Biss. He carried two duffle bags over his shoulders, and his hands were occupied with a stack of folders he was trying to keep together.
"Oh, uh… hi Captain!" He greeted in his usual, wobbly tone, moving to offer me a handshake, only to drop several of his papers. He quickly crouched to retrieve them, completely forgetting the gesture.
"Its Admiral now, Biss." I corrected, slowly lowering my hand back down to my side. "It seems your Captain was quick to… expedite your transfer."
"I think I've gotten on Lenlo's nerves a bit the last few weeks." He admitted, picking up the last piece of paper and standing back up. "It's just... this whole Crucible project has confirmed so many of the theories i've postulated over the last few years."
"Well, I'll make sure to read your study later. First we need to get you set up with a pod down over in the Crew Quarters." I urged, motioning for him to follow me.
"Um...ok sir." He nodded vigorously, following me as we began walking deeper into the ship. "I heard we did pretty well yesterday. Something about "total victory" or something like that?"
"It wasn't easy, but we pulled it off." I replied, allowing myself to smile as we made our way through the corridors. "I'm surprised you even heard about it, with you keeping your head buried in the sand all the time."
"I'm not sure if that's some kind of human euphemism, but I can tell you it's difficult to avoid overhearing people on a ship that size." He shot back, sounding uncomfortable. "I'd imagine that, on a ship this large, things aren't nearly as… claustrophobic."
I knew he was afraid of crowds, so that didn't surprise me.
"If it's space you're looking for, we have an Arboretum you can visit when you aren't performing your duties here." I suggested as we entered the Crew Quarters, opening one of the unoccupied capsules for him and entering the new log info.
"Sir?" He questioned, sounding confused.
"Listen Lenlo, I've given you an immense amount of leeway these last few years, letting you pursue these projects of yours with little oversight." I began, holding both hands behind my back as he dropped both duffle bags on the deck. "Right now, we're at war. I need crewmen who are willing to do their jobs first and foremost, and you've been known to be lazy and unattentive when it comes to performing your share of basic maintenance tasks."
"I don't understand, sir." He shook his head, sounding confused. "My research here is important to the Fleet, I thought you understood that."
"It's not that simple. I don't expect you to sit down here all day toiling away on research that has little practical use to the Confederation." I reiterated, knowing how thick-headed he could be. "We need manpower, and you need to be willing to put more... hands on work into your day-to-day routine."
"Cap- Admiral, this is important. At least let me show you my latest results." He insisted, holding his folders tightly as I looked back at him, sighing before waving him towards my quarters.
"Not to sound callous Biss, but you've had many theories before." I said, walking in and taking off my jacket. "If what you're about to tell me isn't going to help us-"
"I know what the Catalyst is." He immediately replied, getting my eyebrow to shoot up in interest. "Now are you willing to listen?"
"By all means, you have the floor." I confirmed, taking a seat on my couch as I turned to face him.
"Q-balls." He started, putting his folders down on the coffee table as I leaned forward. "A type of non-topological soliton, it's been theorized by hundreds of quantum physicists that they've existed since the beginning of our universe."
"Uh huh." I nodded, wanting him to keep going as I drank some water.
"If my research is correct, I think they circulate between our dimension and the quantum background layer of the universe, reappearing in locations that have higher gravity, like stars. Places where the gravity is strong enough to warp space, almost like a… quantum magnet." He went on, pulling out several of his papers to look at. "If the concentrations are high enough, they can cause the gravitons to destabilize and disassociate with one another, like with Haestrom's star. If the star goes supernova, it leaves behind the Q-balls as trace elements."
"Are you telling me these Q-balls form Element Zero during a supernova?" I asked, sitting back in my chair as Biss fumbled with his papers.
"While that's mechanically true, there's something here you're failing to take into account." He shook his head quickly, pulling out a specific paper and handing it to me. "Element Zero is formed in certain quantities when a star collapses. In Haestrom's star, I observed this process, but in an accelerated form. I believe a… quantum stream of sorts, fed by the decay of Element Zero, is feeding into gravitational masses such as stars and planets. In a planet this is harder to notice due to the presence of solid matter and heavy metals, but with stars the effects are far more pronounced."
The paper detailed his notes into this specific phenomenon, giving a rough sketch depicting what he was trying to say. It showed his theoretical q-ball inside the star, its growth being accelerated by a quantum stream.
"As the Q-balls grow in number, they sap the energy of the star, killing it prematurely while accelerating its growth." He went on as I was finally getting what he was saying. "I believe the Crucible is a device designed to extract or "capture" these Q-balls, allowing it to be redistributed somewhere else while restoring synergy to the star."
With that, all the pieces clicked together in my brain. I finally understood.
"I get it! I get it!" I jumped up in excitement, holding the paper in my hand towards him. "There was an old human film with a similar problem, called... Sunshine, I think it was. In the movie, these astronauts attempted to destroy a Q-ball inside Sol's star with a massive bomb after it began accelerating the age of the star. I get it now!"
"So you understand what I'm trying to explain then?" He continued, pulling out another paper to show me. "This "Catalyst" Dr. Petersen mentioned, it's not a physical object or some kind of theoretical concept. It's the combined Q-balls inside of a dying star! That's why the Crucible has all these heat sinks, mirrors, and other heat-deflecting materials in its construction. It's meant to go within close proximity of a star to retrieve them!"
"Even so, how close would that have to be?" I asked, thinking back to the image of the Crucible's schematics in my mind. "Nothing, no matter how advanced, can physically go INTO a star. There must be another component to this, something that extracts these Q-balls from a distance. Almost like a giant… vacuum cleaner."
I resisted the urge to chuckle as the less-serious part of my mind remembered Spaceballs for a few moments.
"I've figured that out too." He remarked, hopefully smiling under his mask as he pointed at the paper. "This large "device" on the front is connected to the vessel's entire power grid, even the non-vital systems such as lighting. Based on the shape and what I already know, I think this, when activated, may form a sort of "artificial gravity well", concentrating a massive stream of generated gravitons into a single point. From this point, I believe it casts a "beam" of these gravitons towards the location of the Q-balls, drawing them out of the star into the inner sphere of the Crucible."
"So this outer sphere is there for what purpose then?" I wondered out loud, knowing that if there was any reason we didn't need it, it could help cut down on construction time.
"I believe the outer sphere is there for two reasons; protection and stability." He pointed out, opening his omni-tool to show me a 3D model. "If the inner sphere were to be damaged in a way that released the Q-balls, the results would be… not good."
"Define "not good", if you don't mind me asking." I insisted with crossed arms, seeing him slouch slightly.
"If this outer layer wasn't there, and the inner sphere was breached… well, according to my rough calculations, there could be one of two possible results." He stammered, fumbling with his papers. "The first possibility is that of a massive explosion, releasing all the Q-balls instantly at the speed of light. Without the gravitons containing them, this would likely be equivalent to the explosive force of a type 1a supernova, and would… obviously kill everything in its path, destroying a radius of space somewhere within 39.5 to 56.2 AU depending on the number of theoretical Q-balls."
"That's larger than an entire solar system." I said with widened eyes, pushing the side of my hand into my forehead. "Uh… so, what's the second possibility?"
"The s-second possibility is a cascading effect where the Q-balls break down, creating a black hole as the fabric of space attempts to correct w-what it would see as an "error". He stuttered, holding and examining one form closely. "Currently, I have no idea how quickly this cascade would occur, or on what scale, only that it would continue to grow until every Q-ball has "shifted" back to the quantum layer of the universe."
"So we need the outer sphere." I said with renewed understanding, stating the obvious. "Am I the first person you've talked to about this?"
"The first person willing to listen to my full explanation." He nodded quickly, moving to keep the papers organized in his folder. "I've tried to get ahold of some of these engineers and physicists involved, but I can't get in contact with them without going through military channels first. I don't think anyone but you has taken me seriously."
"Well, I think it's time we changed that." I remarked, standing up and grabbing the phone on the wall. After waiting for a few seconds, I got a connection. "Dixon, something just came up that needs my immediate attention. I need you to take care of the CIC until further notice."
"Understood, I'll keep your spot warm for you." He joked, getting me to smile as I quickly switched the line over to the priority Admiralty channel.
This would be an interesting conversation, that was for sure.
…
Serenity Valley, March 28th, 10:59 AM, 2186
...
After nearly two days, we had finally returned to Reach. Our new trophy, the Iquitos, was now being worked on in spacedock while we transported it's seventy-eight surviving crewmen to a special holding facility outside Camp Dolor. In the past we'd give them over to Alliance custody, but they were in no shape to handle any POW transfers, so the job fell to us.
They'd be our esteemed "guests", the codeword we decided to go with for Cerberus prisoners of war. We weren't locking them up in cells like animals, at least until we finished combing through each of their backgrounds first. Those who we believed had been misled or coerced into joining the organization would be put under strict observation and counsuled to determine whether or not it was safe to offer them work in the Confederation. Those suspected of being genuine followers of The Illusive Man, such as the Captain and her command staff, would be moved to CASTLE Base to undergo further interrogations.
The Captain of the Iquitos, Kira Hyams, was a particularly interesting character. She reminded me a lot of Shepard in a few ways, down to the way she stood when addressing groups of people. We knew from accessing Alliance records that she had fought during the Skyllian Blitz, most notably at Torfan, but there was almost no mention of her after that point.
Considering her connection to Torfan, I was considering consulting with Dimitri regarding her specifically. As Captain of that ship, she likely knew more about Cerberus and its operations than she may have been willing to let on. It was a very fine line to walk, trying to get information out of Cerberus higher-ups.
"The accommodations aren't that bad, all things considered." Dixon mused, putting his hands in his pockets as we walked through the holding facility.
"If you say so… it still gives me a strange feeling seeing something like this." I remarked with mild discomfort, still not sure how to feel about the whole thing.
"Not sure why, but I'm sure this place will be agreeable." He replied, sounding rather calm about the situation.
It was fairly simple, some stripped-down colony prefabs similar to the ones we live in up the valley, surrounded by both a sensor fence and an actual physical one. Like Dixon, his friends, and the defecting scientists before, they'd all be given ankle bracelet trackers to monitor their movements if they attempt to leave the compound. The prefabs had basic amenities, including running water, bunk beds, and central air. It was more than some of them probably deserved, but that was to be determined of course.
As someone who grew up watching WWII documentaries every week, anything that even remotely resembled a prison camp made me incredibly uncomfortable. I understood the need for it, sure, but it didn't make the thought any easier.
"Well, here they come." Dixon announced, snapping me out of my thoughts as the transport ship began landing in the clearing outside of the camp.
As the dust settled, my Marines stood tall in their positions as the doors opened and the Cerberus crew walked out, forming a line. Somehow, the images going through my head made this feel incredibly worse than it really was. Once they were all out in the open, Captain Hyams walked away from her group, meeting me and Dixon in the middle.
"Hm… pretty nice for a prison camp." She joked, smiling for a moment before reverting back to a scowl. "I assume these ankle trackers don't come off in the shower?"
"Unfortunately not." I shot back in a similar tone, holding both hands behind my back. "As of this moment, you and your crew are now confined to this facility while we go through and process each of you individually."
She stared long and hard at the gate, the wind blowing against her short black hair. I couldn't tell what was going on behind those eyes of hers, but I failed to detect any hints of anger of malice in her face.
"Does it have a name?" She asked with a sharp breath, pursing her lips.
"It's called Lambda Site." Dixon answered for me as I nodded in confirmation.
"Well then… I guess this is home now." She said in a somber tone, sighing deeply. "Just do me one favor, Admiral."
"What would that be, Captain?" I listened closely, focusing on her eyes.
"Don't do too much to the Iquitos, we've called it home for months now, and if word came that something happened to it, we'd be quite… demoralized."
"While I can't guarantee anything, I can assure you it'll be well maintained." I promised, getting a reluctant nod from her.
"Well, I guess that's better than being told she'll be ripped apart for scrap or something." She lamented, turning to look at her crewmen. "Alright, you heard the man! Let's go."
Silently, they all walked into the camp, slowly finding their way around its interior as the gate closed, locking them inside.
"Well, that's that I suppose." I shook my head, covering my face as the transport took back off to rejoin the Fleet. "Nothing left to do but wait."
"You could still try getting Dimitri involved, see what he might be able to squeeze out of that Captain." Dixon suggested, forcing me to retreat back into my thoughts.
That certainly was an interesting idea. A military woman like Kira obviously didn't take eggheads like me too seriously, but Dimitri… that might be a different story.
It was a possibility that I had to explore, but for now I wanted nothing more than to dive into the arms of my wife, and relax for a night after spending so much time with Biss and these guests on my mind.
It would have to wait for another day… at least until tomorrow. I owed myself that much.
…
A/N: I'd like to start off with an apology to all of you regarding how long it's taken for this chapter to come out. Ever since this epidemic hit, I've been back in another peak season at work as an essential employee, and with all the constant, non-stop news coverage, everything's become quite uncertain in my eyes. While I can't complain about the money, it's left me with very little time to write between games, sleep, and work. It really does say something when you'd rather have a full weekend off work rather than make overtime, and part of me feels as if that's very sad. The last thing I want is to leave people hanging longer than they need to, and I felt this apology was more than warranted.
I also apologize for the lack of any action in this chapter. It'll definitely lead to something interesting in the future, but considering the time it took for this to be finished, I feel like it could feel potentially underwhelming. Please forgive me. Either way, I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter, I certainly created more questions than I answered, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It won't be that way for too much longer.
As always, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Please leave a review telling me what you think of the story so far, and stay tuned!