This chapter is a bit shorter but I felt it was a good place to stop it there. Also it's nearly midnight here in UK so I would like to go to sleep. I hope you like it and as always please review. OR feel free to PM me.

Edited 29.05.2021 for grammatical, stylistic and logical errors. Added a codex entry at the bottom.

Seeing Erinna's face cycle between puzzled and horrified as she took in the scene sent us into another bout of laughter. A few minutes later we managed to calm down and Kal'leena led us back to the middle of the warehouse where she sat down on one of the crates there.

"So what was this about?" I asked curious

"The contents of that container." Kal'leena said gesturing towards an open container that had several crates already pulled out of it. "Two weeks ago we got word that some batarian officials got in touch with one of the more radical hanar Enkindler sects. Usually we wouldn't have bothered with this type of thing but this time was different. Unlike the usual offers to sell ancient prothean trinkets as religious artifacts these batarians wanted to sell active prothean tech. One of them included a glowing ball that supposedly granted visions. There was a problem however."

"Anyone who touched it went mad." I said and Kal'leena nodded

"Yes. We know prothean tech sometimes gives you mental images or feelings but visions was unheard of. Whether it's biological or mental difference between us and protheans we are incapable of fully interfacing with prothean tech, maybe it is some kind of safety mechanism at work. IF these orbs didn't have them then the knowledge that they could grant if safely harnessed..." Erinna continued

"You can't harness it. We have to destroy them. Now. Which crate is it in?" I said and checked the shotgun hoping that it would be enough, it was never made clear in the games how tough those Leviathan mind control balls were.

"They have already unpacked it, it's there on the ground." Kal'leena said and looked puzzled at me as I rushed around the small pile of crates that hid the orb from me. It looked exactly as the ones from Leviathan dlc, translucent shining with soft white light.

"I hope this is enough." I said and leveled the shotgun on it.

"You can't! Prothean knowledge inside them could catapult the galaxy into a golden age. So far all that every species in the galaxy has dealt with has been scraps, bits and pieces of prothean tech. An intact, unlocked repository of knowledge could provide insights into technology that we could only dream about." Kal'leena stopped me

"That is not prothean." I said thinking what I could reveal to them. I couldn't let this thing remain active. Indoctrination be it Reaper or Leviathan in origin was as far as I knew a one way street. Once it's done there was no way back. Even now it was likely affecting us.

"How do you know?" Kal'leena asked and I could see a faint biotic glow around her healthy arm. I sighed. This was the last thing I needed right now, a fight with the people I actually came to rescue over a damn Leviathan indoctrination orb.

"You, I know you can hear me. I know you are watching. I know who you are. I know what you do. And I know what you are hiding from. We are all going to end up fighting them soon enough. Now let's agree to stay out of each others way. After all fighting each other only helps them. Do we have a deal Leviathan?" I said addressing the orb. For a moment I thought my gamble had failed but the light within the orb winked and then it started to dim, switching off, until it was just a dull obsidian glass ball. I took that as a yes.

I let out a breath I had been holding, relieved and then sat down on a nearby crate. Talking a Leviathan into abandoning it's attempts to indoctrinate people. That was already an achievement. I knew that Leviathans preferred secrecy and anonymity but they were also gigantic cuttlefish aliens with preference for mind control and slavery.

"You know I didn't really think this would work." I said putting the shotgun down

"Sam, can you please explain this?" Kal'leena said her voice shaken, she walked up to me and gingerly put her healthy arm on my shoulder as if afraid that touching me might somehow be dangerous. Considering she just saw me address a glowing ball that she believed was prothean in nature and the ball listened to me I could understand her reaction.

"Let's get somewhere secure first. My ship should be safe enough." I said not wishing to discuss the things I knew within an earshot of the Leviathan ball. Who knows if Leviathans could still hear through it even in it's passive state.

"But you will explain when we get there?" she persisted

"Yeah, fine. Let's just get out of here. We should also probably call the cleaners." I replied and tapped my omni-tool copying the warehouses location into the message and sending it on. They will know what to do with everything that's here. There was just one last thing I had to to first. My initial response to shoot it was stupid. I had no idea if it would just bounce the projectiles back. Looking around I dug into a few opened crates and found some kind of metal bar. I took this bar and then swung with all my strength at the Leviathan ball. The first strike bent the bar slightly and made a tiny crack in the ball. I struck it twice more until the ball was covered in cracks. That should stop it from getting activated again.

After borrowing an aircar that belonged to the batarians we took a short and silent ride to my ship. Once we got inside and I did my best at first aid for Nel'leena we sat down in the cargo bay. The only place big enough for everyone really in ship like this.

"Now, tell me." she said and I could hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes that she won't be distracted this time.

"I think it's easier to show you." I said and taking her hand put it against the side of my head. Touch is not necessary for a meld but it does help and I guessed that considering what she has been through earlier and the painkillers in her blood now, she needed that extra boost. And it was easy to understand gesture. Mind melding despite what some extranet articles will have you believe is still quite a private thing for asari. It's an implication of trust, to let someone into your mind.

"If that is your wish." she steadied her breathing with eyes closed and then opened them again, this time totally black."Embrace eternity." I knew this was coming but it was still a bit creepy to see. Cool, but creepy.

What most asari don't want you to know is that they can't really read your mind unless you allow them. Only the strongest of matriarchs could even attempt to rip the knowledge out of someone's head and even then it's a risky proposition for both parties. Between two asari it is easier as both share the workload needed to initiate and hold the mind meld. With one asari and a non-asari all the stress and effort is shouldered by the asari. The recipient of the mind meld needs to be relaxed and allow the asari to look into their mind.

I hoped that I had enough control to direct Kal'leena only to what she needed to see. Leviathans. Reapers. Reaper war. I did kinda see it through the eyes of my Shepard but since I looked a lot like my custom version of him now I wasn't that bothered for her to see a few glimpses of him. He was me after all in a way, standing alone in the face of everything the universe threw at him. I was in the middle of showing her protheans when something changed. I could feel the connection get stronger, as if a wave had just crashed against the cliff of my memory. Then the memories of our previous meeting floated up. Along with my thoughts and feelings at the time. And a few memories that were definitely not mine. Focusing on the kiss we shared. My feelings and memories of the moment blending into her memories and feelings of the moment. Then the connection broke and I was back in the cargo hold. Kal'leena slumped against me, her head on my shoulder, her breath hot and ragged. I was faintly disoriented, one of the side effects of mind meld breaking abruptly. But remembering a simple meditation exercise from my old universe, I inhaled, held my breath for a second then exhaled centering myself.

"Did you see?" I asked and she simply nodded in reply

"What's wrong?" I asked concerned

"Your mind is too strong, it's like riding a storm that keeps throwing you at the cliffs. Your emotions, feelings are too strong. Too much." she said breathlessly and fainted

"What?" I asked puzzled looking at Erinna, who seemed to be blushing for some reason

"She must have been too tired." Erina replied

"I see." I said, not that I could actually say much more about this. Asari for all their centuries of sharing their culture with the galaxy somehow managed to keep more than a few things private. Things that you can't find even on the extranet like the Ardat-Yakshi. I guessed this was another thing like that but more embarrassing rather than life-threatening.

"It's very embarrassing, that usually happens only with maidens or inexperienced. Your mind must be exceptional." Erinna said and blushed even more confirming my guess

"Thanks I guess? Anyway let's get her somewhere more comfortable." I said and lifted Kal'leena in my arms and walked towards the small crew area that was tucked away right at the front of the cargo hold. I put her on my bed since the other one was still turian standard and I doubted that sleeping on something that hard is actually restful. No doubt that turians were so stiff. I rolled my eyes at myself for making such a bad joke.

A few hours later Kal'leena walked out of the crew quarters and saw me and Erinna re-arranging the cargo hold. There wasn't much else to do as we waited so might as well do something useful. I had been lucky and whatever that SMG was the hanar had used it wasn't high powered and it didn't penetrate deep. So while it wasn't comfortable I was more bothered about my now destroyed jacket. It had been such a nice one too and now it had holes in it, front and back. Frankly I wasn't quite sure what would I do if I got a round stuck somewhere important, going to the standard medical clinic was useless and finding someone with industrial strength cutting instruments and medical background didn't seem like a likely option. That gave me an idea to contact Ray Shepard and ask him a few questions about that. He knew I was still alive, he had been one of two doctors here that have actually examined me and I felt that Ray was a trustworthy man. Otherwise Hannah would have never married him. That was the impression I got from meeting them. Not like I had any other options at the moment for qualified medical help.

"How are you?"I asked when Kal'leena got closer

"Fine, next time I will be more careful." she said

I decided to ignore the bit about next time. I remembered the last thing swirling in the mind meld before the connection broke but I wasn't going to mention it.

"Did you see enough?" I asked

"More than enough. I am not sure I can even believe it but I know you do. I don't know how but you have seen it but you have and once you know where to look it's impossible not to see the connections. And we saw that orb react. I believe you. The question is what do we do now?" Kal'leena said her eyes determined and looking straight into mine

"We?" I asked

"Yes, we. After showing me all that you can't expect me to simply ignore it." she replied

"What are you talking about?" Erinna chimed in confused

Kal'leena looked at me but I shrugged, Erinna was her associate, I didn't know anything about her so it would have to be Kal'leena to decide how much to tell her.

"Sam showed me evidence that there is danger to the whole galactic society. We have time to prepare but we can't make it public. Not yet anyway. Not without very strong evidence. So we have to prepare for a war that is coming covertly while not arousing enough suspicion that the Spectres and C-sec would come down on our heads, not to mention STG, asari huntresses, turian Cabals or human N7's." she explained and Erinna fidgeted nervously

"That's a lot of people to avoid alerting." she said

"I know but I also know a few people we can trust with this and will help us. However it's not time for them to know yet. So we will have to do this as covertly as possible. We will have to mask our intentions." I said

"Erinna, I need you to contact our friends on Lusia and get in touch with Jarrg. We will need his expertise." Kal'leena ordered and Erinnia rushed out of the ship.

Looking back at me Kal'leena had lost some of that spirit that she used to command Erinnia just now.

"Was this your plan from the start? Is that why you joined the Unit in the first place?" she asked

"Well, I needed the experience and I needed the training. I also needed connections no normal person could get. This seemed like a good way to get all three." I answered

"How do you even live with this? Knowing this? How do you even sleep at night? I don't remember most of it but even the few things that remain in my mind are enough to make me want to crawl into a corner and sob. End of everything. Death of billions. I am 432 years old. I was there for Geth war. My gene-mother was a quarian and my mother simply could not leave even after he died. So I was there for the beginning of it. I saw the kind of war synthetics could unleash upon us. That was 278 years ago and it still haunts me. What you showed me was orders of magnitude beyond that. How do you deal with it?" Kal'leena said her voice full of pain. I had not known this but it explained her easy camaraderie with Knorr back when she was one of my instructors.

"As I was told by the person who recruited me into the Unit, I have an appropriate name for my task. To serve as the sword and shield of humanity. I am here to do this. Hopefully not alone." I replied. What else could I say? That I was inter-dimensional soul and mind transfer and I was sent here to prevent the flow of history as I know it from a series of games? My thoughts strayed for a moment towards Shepard. I needed to check up on the future Commander and see what she has been up to. After all she was the only one I knew for sure that could fight against Reapers and win.

"Not anymore you are not. As I said you can't get rid of me now." she said and smiled, "so what's your plan?"

"I need money. Loads of it. I also need people I can trust. Need weapons, supplies, ships and bases to operate from. But first I think I need better weapons and armour." I said listing off things. Really my plan was to create a good version of Cerberus. No illegal experiments and no assassinations of Alliance admirals.

"I have contacts that either can get you the supplies you need or know someone else who can. I am afraid I can't help you with money. I have been a huntress for the past three centuries." Kal'leen said

"Don't worry, I have a plan for that." I said and a smirk formed on my face. The ship I was in gave me an idea. I knew the things that I needed, I needed supplies, bases and ships. I also knew who had all those things. Pirates, slavers, mercs. Keep what I needed and sell the rest.

"I don't know why but seeing that expression on your face makes me worried. I will go try to find something to eat." Kal'leena said and walked away leaving me alone to my thoughts.

There were several things I needed to do before starting my plan. First I needed armour and weapons modified for me, cooldown based weapons were useful but heatsinks allowed to for more firepower. Maybe there was a way of merging two and creating a hybrid. I needed to make sure that I wasn't actually working for Cerberus. I was quite worried about that at the start but when half of my instructors were not human and there was not a Cerberus logo in sight I had put it out of my mind. Now I needed to make sure. I also needed to contact Ray about a few medical questions and check up on Kate Shepard. Well I could do the last two at the same time. I didn't have a doubt in my mind that I was going to be quite busy for the foreseeable future so I wanted to enjoy this bit of downtime as much as I could given the circumstances. I followed Kal'leena towards the crew quarters, there was a small galley in there and I know I had stashed a few packs of instant coffee there. A few minutes later I sat down with a mug of steaming coffee and started to type a message on my omni-tool.

Secondary Codex Entry/Small Arms/Heat sinks

Currently in the galaxy two ways to manage your weapons excess heat are used. Most common one is using a large internal non-removable heat sink that absorbs the waste heat generated by the weapon. The heat sink continuously passively vents heat into the environment however if the weapon's rate of fire exceeds the passive cooling rate an active heat vent is engaged in a form of expelling some small percentage of the cooling medium as steam.

The second approach is to have a single use detachable heat sink, commonly known as a thermal clip that is capable of storing only a certain amount of heat until it fuses and is incapable of absorbing any more heat requiring replacement. Smaller than a traditional non-removable heat sink it is also much cheaper as it can be constructed from cheaper materials and low grade omni-gel using the simplest flash forges.

Each approach has it's advantages and disadvantages but the large internal heat sink is currently most popular method. It simplifies the supply lines for active combat units, forces the soldier to be careful when aiming, discouraging the spray and pray tactic. It rose to popularity during the Krogan Rebellions among the turian troops as it allowed for units even totally cut off from supply lines to continue fighting. And as the turians remain the galaxy's largest armed force they are also the galaxy's largest customer for armaments of all kinds. They set the standards for various Citadel small arms regulations. With that in mind companies that make small arms prefer to design their weapons with the internal heat sink as standard.

Asari huntresses have been known to use thermal clip based weapons but as with all asari combat units it's a matter of personal preference. Thermal clip weaponry is slightly more popular in Terminus systems, mostly due to their lower complexity and the ability to convert any weapon with a broken internal heat sink to use thermal clips. Several arms dealers buy broken or worn out weapons from Citadel space, retrofit them to use thermal clips and sell them on. Such weapons are not as reliable as Citadel standard and generally are not as effective but the decrease in cost is a satisfactory exchange for their customers in Terminus.