Yes, I copied and pasted his first two chapters. But from here on it's all me.
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo, I don't own Mass Effect, this story was made fore entertainment purposes only.
(((H,ME)))
When the probe arrived inside the system again, he wasted no time in studying what it had recorded.
The data from the probe proved interesting.
The device, which he had later named 'transfer relay', utilized a series of emitters, as well as intense amounts of energy, to project an energy 'tunnel' of sorts.
Incredible amounts of energy was first directed into the element at the center of the relay, creating mass reducing fields, which was then captured and contained by the gyroscopes in a small area. Then, the emitters came into play focusing the fields into a small point and then sending it along the 2 'forks'. The forks shaped the field and applied direction to it, forming a tunnel of energy where there was little mass. After that, even more energy was sent to the core element, bolstering the fields, and removing mass inside the field entirely. Following that, its 'partner' relay would intercept the tunnel, creating an exit point where anything passing through exit safely.
In truth, the sciences involved were not that advanced, and the only reason the entire thing worked was because of the element in the core.
He really needed to find a name for that element, calling it 'element' all the time was not exactly specific.
Had the entire thing worked without the use of some special element that manipulated mass, he would have been significantly more impressed. He would have also been more impressed if the elemnt was artificial, but as far as he could tell, it wasn't. Everything that his own species used had been created by them, including the Slipstream Core from which Slipstream Flakes were chipped off.
On that note, he did manage to figure out where the element came from.
He went through many tests, and had sent hundreds of scout ships to the various solar systems in every direction. One of the ships, which had been sent to a star that had went supernova a few hundred years ago, came back with positive results for the element.
He noted, from the probes readings, that the planetoids closest to the star had the largest amount of the element, relative to their size. The probes readings also indicated that the area around the deposits of the element had only been moved a few hundred years ago.
This gave him an idea. Since the planets closest to the star had the most of the element, and it seemed to only appear in solar systems that had, at one point or another, gone supernova, did that mean that the stars going supernova ended with the creation of this element?
To test the theory, he directed the probes to systems that showed signs of having gone supernova.
Considering just how many stars there were in this galaxy, and the fact that one went supernova every 100-40 years or so, there were a lot of places that he could send probes too, however, there were only so few that were relatively close enough for him to get the results quickly.
'Quickly' as in, a day or 2.
As it turned out, he hunch had been correct, the systems did prove to have an incredible amounts of the element.
Did that mean that this element was created when the matter inside of a star system was exposed to the energy released from a supernova?
There were only a few ways to test if that was true.
One of which was to go to a system with a star about to go supernova, and then monitor the system from a safe distance. That could take years however, as he would first have to find a star that was going to go supernova, then monitor it until it exploded.
Or, he could just make a miniature star then set it off.
Far less time and effort.
Probably prove more interesting too.
No reason not to do it, he had more than enough resources.
(((H,ME)))
It had only taken a few minutes, to build a miniature star.
'Miniature', as in a 50 centimeters across.
Why would he waste resources building a larger, completely unnecessary star?
To observe the effects without danger to himself, he was going to contain it within a slipspace field.
It did not have that much mass, and the explosion wouldn't be very grand, but it would still damage the station if it exploded.
It was, after all, a star.
A miniature, but a star nonetheless.
To simulate a solar system, he created some miniature planets, about 10 centimeters across.
The only reason they hung in a single piece was because of the modified gravity inside the slipspace field.
Oh well, it wasn't like they were going to stay together for long.
Anyway, it was time to detonate the star.
He wasn't going to be looking at it when it exploded.
That would be stupid.
Stars were known to outshine entire galaxies when they went supernova. It was most certainly not a good idea to to be staring straight at it when it exploded.
He pressed a button on the solid-light panel in front of him, then waited as the glass in front of him instantly dimmed to black.
A few seconds later he saw a small light source behind the glass. The star had become very, very, bright.
The light didn't dim.
It wouldn't dim for a while yet.
However, he wasn't that patient.
He reached out to the panel again, a gesture not truly needed, as his suit connected him to the station itself, and pressed another button.
Instantly, the light source vanished.
No surprise there, he had just reverse time-locked the entire area, aging everything inside by thousands of years in a second. He could have aged it billions, but that was unnecessary.
He wasn't dealing with nigh immortal precursors that simply refused to die.
He was dealing with an exploding star.
Big difference.
He sent a sentinel inside the room to collect the matter.
It returned, carrying everything that had been inside the room, it turned away and headed off to the labs.
(((H,ME)))
His theory had been proven correct.
The element was created when normal matter was exposed to the energies of a supernova.
Interesting.
That had not happened in his own galaxy.
Something was different here, something that changed the nature of the galaxy itself.
Perhaps the clue laid with the element itself?
So, he studied it, perusing ideas and theories whenever they came to him.
So very few lead to anywhere, and only a few were useful to him at all.
That changed nothing.
He had all the time in the universe to study to his hearts content.
In the end, he ended up studying it for 527 years, right up until a wild theory crossed his mind.
The elements very nature influenced and created dark energy, but why could it do that?
He turned his attention away from the element, and towards the universe.
And he found what he was looking for.
Dark energy had influenced the slipstream.
In normal space, there was about as much dark energy as in any other point of real space.
In the slipstream however, there was an interesting phenomena, and nothing but the most finely tuned sensors could detect anything different about it.
The interaction between the slipstream and dark energy had created a 'pocket', so to speak.
This 'pocket' existed at the center of the galaxy, inside the black hole at the galactic core, the only place where such a pocket could be permanently stabilized without any assistance of technology.
Inside the pocket laid enough dark energy to almost utterly cover the entire galaxy.
Since the black hole existed in normal space, and the pocket existed in the slipstream, there was an odd effect on the dark energy contained with the pocket. It did not have the same effect on normal matter as dark energy inside real space, which was probably the only reason the entire galaxy still did normal things, and not things that would normally be associated with incredible amounts of dark energy.
The black hole also had an interesting effect on the pocket itself. That is, everything inside the pocket was getting flung out, not into normal space, but into the slipstream.
When he had noticed that, he had wondered why the energy hadn't yet exhausted itself entirely.
So, he sent probes to the edge of the galaxy, noting that the dark energy inside the slipstream vanished there.
He spent a few days studying the slipstream at the edge of the galaxy, and found why the dark energy had not yet escaped.
At the very edges of the galaxy, past every star, there existed a very unique phenomenon in the slipstream.
A line.
Not a typical line.
This line existed directly where the dark energy would have transited into normal space had their been nothing holding it in the slipstream.
Instead of exiting normally, the line captured the dark energy, and flung it back to the pocket.
As it turned out, the line existed on the edge of gravitational field that was generated by the entire galaxy.
Truly an interesting phenomenon.
This was why the element was generated when the energy from the supernova collided with normal matter.
Whenever a star went supernova, the amount of energy released around it disrupted even the slipstream temporarily, releasing (relatively) small quantities of dark energy from the slipstream.
That energy was then caught on the stars supernova, and combined with the energy of the star itself, altered the matter it touched, changing it into an element that converted normal energy into dark energy.
On top of that, during its formation, it transformed a tiny amount of the energy that was a part of the supernova into dark energy, which was then transferred into the slipstream because of the slipstream disruption caused by that very supernova.
If he didn't know any better, he would say that somebody had created this entire process on purpose.
He froze at that thought.
It was not beyond the capabilities of the Precursors to create something like this.
The Precursors were fully capable of traveling between galaxies with ease.
They were fully capable of forming this entire process, in fact, it would be easy for them to do so.
Had somebody actually created this process on purpose? And if so, why?
He stopped.
Now was not the time to be thinking about 'what ifs'.
If somebody had created this process, he would have to find out why. Later.
Right now, he more important things to worry about.
He paused.
He didn't actually have that many things to worry about.
That wasn't a feeling that he was used to.
Ever since he had first become the Didact, and quite a while before that, he always had something to worry about, whether it was the flood, or simply trying to stay alive.
But now? What was there to worry about now, besides all the science work had been doing?
Very, very little.
He was alone.
The last of his species.
In a different galaxy entirely.
Why was it, that he had survived, when all else died?
The only things he had to keep him company were the Ancillae, and the Huragok.
There was nobody else here.
No other species. (None that he had encountered anyway.)
Nothing.
Perhaps, it was time to do something new.
He had entirety of the knowledge possessed by his species at his beck and call.
Perhaps, he should test the knowledge squired from past life workers, and create a species on one of the shield worlds he had built.
As good a plan as any.
But did he truly want to?
(((H,ME)))
I'm not making any species.