I don't own either AvP or Mass Effect

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Wow, this has taken a lot of time. I'm sorry for the long wait, but I was unhappy with the dialogue and it took me several attempts to get it the way I wanted.

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Therum

"Commander, over here!"

"What is it?"

"Looks like new construction. I think this was done by the first team of archaeologists."

As Shepard walked over to join the others, she saw what had them excited. Adjacent to one of the old prothean buildings was a mass of scaffolding, culminating in what looked like a tunnel, excavated into the side of the building. It was definitely not part of the original design.

"Any idea indication what was so special about this building?"

Kaiden shrugged. "Well, it is more intact than the others. I guess they simply started with it and never got around to doing any of the others. The thing is, if this Dr T'Soni had enough time to run and hide, I figure this is where she might go."

"True." Shepard considered for a moment. So far, the geth had not returned, but Normandy was tracking several of their ships in the vicinity, so that might change at any moment. They were running out of time and the search was not going well. They had quickly found the wreckage of a shuttle. If T'Soni had been inside when it got hit, she was dead. However, that did not explain the fact that there were still geth crawling around the ruins.

"Okay, we'll go and take look. Lieutenant?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You will stay here. Find a safe spot to hide, and monitor the situation. Let me know the moment anyone shows up. I don't want to get trapped inside a tunnel with one of those big geth constructs blocking the exit."

-0-0-0-

How long have I been hanging here? The question had become an obsession. Unfortunately, she had no way of answering. Her omnitool was still attached to her wrist, but she couldn't reach it or move it to a position where she could look at it and she had lost all sense of time. By now every muscle in her body ached from lack of movement. She was hungry, thirsty and in desperate need to relieve herself. Meanwhile, the only company she had were the geth, who were still studying the forcefield that separated her from them with seemingly unending patience and thoroughness.
Now, something had changed. All three geth platforms turned around as in unison and abandoned their tasks. they started climbing up the metal stairs that the original expedition had put in place to facilitate their inspection of the prothean building and disappeared from Liara's view. For what seemed like an eternity nothing happened, then, suddenly, the entire building seemed to explode with noise that echoed through the empty structure.
Gunfire. Liara recognized the sound, but there was something weird about it. A mass accelerator gun didn't actually make any noise when it fired. What people heard was the sonic boom of the projectiles. This noise was different, deeper. Somehow it reminded her of-

A cargo hold, dimly lit, the walls and crates covered with a strange, organic substance. Her crewmates hanging from the walls, embedded in the stuff, dead or dying. And those things, dark, ugly shapes that seemed to come out of the walls, or drop from the ceiling. Then the deafening noise of multiple guns as strange, asari-like aliens opened fire.

Liara shook her head, about the only movement that the forcefield bubble permitted her. The nightmares of that day had followed her a long time, but it had been more than two decades. She could not afford to let it distract her now.
More gunfire. The wreck of a geth trooper came tumbling down, bouncing off the scaffolding that held up the stairs before it hit the ground. Then voices sounded.

"Looks like that was the last of them, ma'am."

"Good. You know, giant fire support platforms aside, I'm just not impressed with the quarian version of Skynet. Robots, robots, and more robots, and they all look the same. Seriously, by now it should be able to produce geth that look exactly like quarians."

"Then send them back in time to kill someone?"

"Exactly. I mean, where's the originality, the flair? Can you imagine what those movies would have looked like if they'd given the lead actor, what's his name, a giant flashlight-prosthesis to wear as a helmet?"

"Oh my god! Ma'am, please, don't ruin that franchise for me! Those are classics!"

A snort of laughter, then footsteps coming down the stairs.

"I know, but isn't it just a little sad? A couple of humans, centuries ago, when all the computers on Earth combined had less processing power than what I now carry in my translation implant, described a potential machine revolt with so much imagination. But when it actually happens for real it doesn't live up to our expectations. Perhaps we should send the geth a copy of the collectors' edition. Give them some ideas."

More footsteps and the group came into view. Liara stared, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. It looked like two humans, a krogan, a turian, and a quarian, which was about as unlikely a combination as anyone could imagine. Humans and quarians didn't play well with others, especially turians, for historical reasons and krogan didn't get along with anybody unless they got paid to. This group should be shooting at each other, rather than fighting geth. Still, at least they were organic and they seemed to be anti-geth. Both were major points in their favour under present circumstances.

"Hello!" Calling out was difficult with her throat as dry as it was. "Anyone, I need help!"

While her voice wasn't as loud as she could have wished, it was enough to draw the group's attention. The human in the lead walked up to the forcefield and studied her for a moment.

"Well, well. What do we have here? It's the Vitruvian asari."

"It does look like it, Commander," The other human nodded. "Though, technically, shouldn't she be naked for that?"

"I guess so, but that's nothing new. A lot of people of multiple species would argue that asari should always be naked."

There was sniggering, or its nearest species-dependent equivalent, from the others. Liara felt herself blushing. While the original comment had been incomprehensible, the rest of the conversation was not going in a direction she wanted or liked. The human in the lead studied the force field.

"I guess this explains why the geth were still around." She turned her attention back to Liara. "Dr T'Soni, I presume?"

For some reason, the second human started sniggering again.

"Okay, enough of that. So, tell me, Doctor, what are you doing in that bubble?"

Liara took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

"It's some sort of containment system. I was exploring these ruins when the geth landed." She shook her head. "Can you imagine, geth beyond the Veil! They haven't been seen in centuries and now-"

"And now they are popping up all over the place," The human interrupted. "We know. The bubble, how?"

Liara tried to rearrange her thoughts, "When the geth came, I tried to hide in the ruins, but they found me here. I just wanted to activate the force field to keep them out, but I must have hit something else as well. Because the next thing I know, I'm floating here. Or maybe they're linked somehow. The geth tried to get past it, but they couldn't. The controls are on this side of the forcefield. Then the krogan left and-"

"Wait, what krogan?"

"I'm sorry." Clearly, the ordeal of that past few hours was affecting her even more than she had realized. "There was a krogan with the geth. He actually seemed to be in charge. He left some time ago."

"I see." The human looked at her for a moment. "No, actually I don't see. A krogan in charge of geth?" She sighed. "Okay, why not? Let's just role with it. Life's crazy anyway." She turned to the others. "Alright, everyone, look around this bloody cave and see if we can find a way into that cell." She stared, clearly trying to see past Liara. "What's behind you?"

Liara twisted around. "It's an elevator shaft. It goes all the way to the top of the building. But I don't know if it still works."

The human thought for a moment. "I guess we can get Normandy to hover over the building and drop a team down the shaft to get you out, but I'd rather not bring the ship this low if I can help it. Not with the geth crawling all over the place. Anyway, while we're waiting, what can you tell me about Saren?"

Liara stiffened. "Saren?"

"Yes, Saren. Saren Arterius. Turian, Spectre, metal limb and facial prosthesis, doesn't like humans. That Saren."

This was a subject Liara didn't want to discuss. Still, if talking about Saren would get her out of the bubble, she'd talk about Saren. "I know who he is."

"Good. And would you also happen to know where we can find him? I really need to talk to him."

"No! No, I don't know where he is." She almost had to laugh at that. "Saren is a Spectre. He goes wherever he wants to go. He certainly doesn't keep me informed

"Really? What about your mother? Does he keep her informed?"

"No, I don't... Look..." Liara tried to order her thoughts, to come up with a convincing argument. "Saren is an acquaintance of my mother, yes. But I don't really know him personally. And my mother and I don't communicate on a regular basis. I don't know even know where she is, or if Saren is with her and I don't-"

"Yes, yes. You don't know. I get the picture." The human's head moved a bit, as though she was studying the forcefield, but Liara suspected that the eyes behind the visor kept focussed on her. "Alright, first things first. We'll get you out of that bubble. But this conversation isn't over. I bet you know more than you think. Besides, I've got a couple of questions that require your, eh, professional expertise." She turned away to join the rest of her group in the search for a way through the forcefield, leaving Liara to contemplate the strange turn her life was taking.

-0-0-0-

Shepard studied the surrounding area. It really was a cross between a room and a cave, part rock, part walls, all mess. The protheans had dug this building deep into the ground, then apparently covered the rocky surface with their own walls, but at least part of that had crumbled over time. T'Soni seemed to have found the only part that was still in the original state, then managed to lock herself inside.

"Ma'am?"

She turned around as Chief Williams approached.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am, maybe we should reconsider this. I mean, right now we have her contained in that bubble, it makes questioning her a lot easier."

Shepard snorted. "What do you suggest, Chief? Sure, we can keep asking her questions, but she can keep not answering just as easily. Perfect stalemate. It's not as though we can do anything to make her talk from here. That forcefield works both ways. In any case, we haven't got all day and she'll be just as contained aboard Normandy. Besides, I tend to believe what she said. Like I've said before, if you're planning to launch a terrorist attack against a major power, you don't leave a forwarding address with your kids. Now, she may know other things, like the places her mother is most likely to go to if she wants to hide, but that is going to be a lengthy conversation and one that I don't want to have here."

"You think that krogan she talked about is going to show up?"

"Together with his geth friends, yes. Krogan aren't known for avoiding battles. If he'd still be around, we'd have met him outside. So, I can only guess he went away to get some heavy equipment to dig little miss blue there out of her bubble. That would probably involve going back to whatever ship he came on. By now he has to know that we're here, so either he gives up and goes home, again not a very krogan-like thing to do, or he comes back with reinforcements. So, let's make sure we can get out of here as soon as possible."

Shepard looked around the room, again. This was taking far too long for comfort. Unfortunately, there was not much she could do about it. What she knew about prothean technology could be written on a post-it and still leave room for some doodling. Even the modern equipment, left behind by the first archaeological expedition, had been produced in Citadel Space and was largely unfamiliar to her.

She opened a comm channel.

"Alenko? Any movement?"

"Nothing on the ground ma'am, but one of those ships just popped up. It's hovering just above the mountains. Normandy's got it covered, but-"

"Yeah, I'd rather not have a naval battle while we're stuck down here. I'll try to hurry up, but we seem to have hit a bit of a snag. Keep monitoring."

She shut her comm down and considered once more to call Normandy down and try to enter the building from above, just as Vakarian looked at her.

"Commander, I think we can do something with this!"

Shepard walked over. he was standing next to a big piece of machinery, clearly not prothean in origin.

"And what is 'this'?"

"It's an excavation laser drill. They must have used it for the original excavation, then just left it here, but as far as I can tell, it's still fully operational." Garrus tapped the control panel. "It's password-locked, but we may be able to hack it. Then we can drill a hole underneath that forcefield. With a bit of luck, we can get behind the field and access the controls."

Shepard looked at the device. "What about us? I mean, the Asari is probably safe behind that forcefield. Worst thing that could happen is that our drilling cuts the power, the bubble disappears and she falls flat on her face. But we have no protection against the blast."

Vakarian's mandibles twitched. "No worries. The drill includes a mass effect field around the blast zone, so the gas cannot spread."

Shepard nodded. "Okay, let's do this. Zorah? Mind taking a look at this?"

The quarian walked over to the panel. "No problem. It's just standard password protection. Just a convenient way to stop unauthorized use, but no protection against an expert. Give me a moment." She typed a command into the drill's control panel, then switched to her omnitool, then back again. "Got it, I'm in."

"Good. How much can we adjust the aiming? I don't want to hit that forcefield if we can help it. Just dig a nice little tunnel underneath."

"That should work." Tali's fingers were a blur as they moved over her omnitool. "A few degrees down, slightly to the left." She looked up. "And I'm ready."

Shepard looked around. "Everybody, heads up. We're about to drill a tunnel, so get behind the drill, please." She waited as her team scrambled back. "Everybody ready? Fire in the hole!"

Nothing happened.

Shepard sighed. So much for multi-species cooperation. "I mean: use the drill!"

"Oh."

Tali tapped a final command into her omnitool. There was a brief, whining noise, as the drill powered up. Then, the beam struck the rock. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then the rock started to glow. Red, white, the intensity increased and Shepard was grateful for the filters built into her helmet, even as a forcefield snapped up from the drill, interposing itself between them and the target area.

The next instant, a cloud formed where the laser struck the rock, obscuring all vision. Shepard braced herself, expecting a shockwave, heat, something, but there was nothing. The drill's forcefields held, shunting the vapour away from them.

"How long?" She asked.

"Should be no more than a few minutes, Tali Zorah answered. "Drills like this are very efficient."

"So I see."

The prediction turned out to be right, within less than five minutes the laser suddenly shut down, even though the forcefields remained up.

"We've hit open air," The quarrian said. "Probably that elevator shaft. Give it a few more seconds and the vapour will dissipate."

They waited. the clouds drifted away, settling on the walls, and ceiling of the cavern they were standing in and the forcefield shut down.

"Excellent!" Shepard smiled behind her visor as she looked at the tunnel that had been dug underneath the cell. On the other side, she could see what looked like an elevator shaft. "Let's go."

The walls, floor and ceiling of their newly dug tunnel were still hot, but not enough to cause trouble for their armoured suits. It was the work of seconds to go through the hole and climb up the elevator shaft, emerging in the cell where the asari was still hanging in her bubble. "First stage successfully completed. What's next?"

"Wait, what? How? What was that? What did you just do?" The asari must have been hanging in there for quite a while because she clearly had trouble keeping up with events.

"Excavation laser," Vakarian said as he looked around the cell.

Shepard nodded. "In true Marine tradition, we achieved progress through superior firepower. The question is, now what?"

"There is a console." The console itself was to the right and slightly behind her. A small, table-like structure marked with a variety of symbols.

"Yes, I see it, but now what? I don't read prothean."

Dr T'Soni twisted her head as far as she could. "It cannot be that hard. I activated the force field, but I was in a hurry and must have hit something else as well, so this bubble appeared at the same time. Just the one button should switch it on and off."

"But you don't know which button?"

"No, but-"

"So, let me get this straight. You, the supposed expert, accidentally pushed the wrong button and you ended up hanging in a bubble. And now you want me, someone who'd never even seen a prothean artefact until two weeks ago, to start pushing buttons at random and hope for the best? I'm up for it if you are, but then, I'm not the one hanging in what may, or may not, be the prothean equivalent of a torture chamber."

"I very much doubt that a civilization as advanced as the protheans would resort to something as barbaric as torture," T'Soni said, sounding somewhat indignant.

"Right. So, they called it 'extreme methods or enhanced interrogation techniques' or however that reads in prothean. Trust me, if that same forcefield starts to tear the tentacles off your skull you won't care what they called it. Now, to be completely honest, there is a part of me that just wants to start pressing buttons and see what happens, but for all we know this thing is actually designed to carry out the prothean version of the death penalty and as we say, 'dead asari tell no tales', so that's a risk I'm not willing to take. No, let's not do that. Williams?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Get your tablet out, link to my helmet camera and show it to the good doctor. Perhaps she can figure out what I'm supposed to push."

"Yes, ma'am."

Shepard studied the control panel. As expected, she could not make heads or tails from it.

"On the right!" T'Soni's voice sounded strained. "Top half of the panel."

Shepard traced her fingers over the symbols.

"Not there, a bit closer to the centre."

She moved her hand.

"That one, can you bring it closer, I think it says..." She trailed off. Shepard bent down, bringing her helmet camera closer to the prothean symbols.

"That's the one. Just press down on it."

"Okay. Here goes nothing." Shepard pressed down. behind her, there was a gasp, then a thump. She turned, to see T'Soni crumbled on the floor beneath where the bubble had been. Chief Williams stood next to her, probably smirking, though her helmet made it impossible to know for certain.

"Well, that worked." She moved over and hoisted the asari up. "On your feet, Doctor. We're getting out of here."

"Yes, yes, of course." The asari was clearly a bit disoriented. Not surprising considering how long she must have been hanging in her cell. "The elevator, it should still be working."

"Impressive," Shepard considered the situation. "A forcefield-base cell, now an elevator. And all this stuff is fifty-thousand years old, correct? Those protheans build stuff to last."

"Oh yes," T'Soni sounded stronger now, as she walked toward the elevator shaft. "It really is quite amazing how much of their technology remains functional, when you consider how much time has passed. Why, we have found-"

The building shook, as though from an earthquake, nearly causing her to fall. Shepard reached out to steady her. "Has that happened before."

The asari shook her head. "No. At least, not while I was here. But-"

"But what?"

"We're effectively standing on top of a volcano. The ground is none too stable. And you just fired an excavation drill. It may have disturbed the building."

The ground shook again, stronger this time.

"Okay, we're getting out of here. Now."

Shepard looked around, checking her team mates. "Everyone, get on that elevator. T'Soni, get this stuff working. I'll call Normandy and-" Her comm unit beeped.

"Yes."

"Ma'am, Akenko here!"

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"The geth are back, ma'am. One of their ships just dropped its troops, right on top of the building."

Shepard sighed. "Of course they did. It never rains, but it pours. Very well. We'll assume that they'll be waiting for us topside. Either way, this building is coming down. We have no choice but to use this blasted elevator. Alenko, move in but don't engage yet if you can avoid it. I'd rather catch them between us. And relay to Normandy that they need to come down and pick us up. If that geth ship gets in the way, take it out."

She shut the communicator down. "How is this elevator coming along?"

"It's working." T'Soni tapped the control panel. "We can ride it all the way to the top. Prothean buildings usually have roof-access, so we should be able to get on top of the building. If your ship can just hover over the roof, we'll be able to escape."

"Good. Then, let's get the hell out of here. Everyone, stay sharp. The geth are waiting for us top-side. Wrex?"

"Yeah?"

"I really don't want to fight a krogan on a rooftop. Too much chance of getting tossed off. If he's up there, do me a favour and take him down. The rest of us will deal with the geth."

"You got it."

They rode the elevator in silence. As they reached the top of the building, the platform slowed down, then came to a stop in the middle of a circular room. There was no one to be seen.

"Spread out!" Shepard checked her surroundings. The room was empty, but the central area was ringed with support pillars, providing ample cover for anyone who wanted to lay in ambush. "I don't like this." She tapped her comm unit. "Alenko?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm in position on the next building. They're still on the roof. Moving now toward you. Normandy is standing by, ready to pick you up."

"Good. Everyone, be ready. Hostile contact imminent."

As she spoke, there was movement in the open arc that led from the room to the open air.

A single krogan, surrounded by half a dozen geth platforms entered.

"Surrender!" The krogan thought for a second. "Or don't, that'll be even more fun."

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A/N:

Prothean tech was incredibly reliable and built to last (Most of our stuff breaks down after a few years. Some of theirs still works 50,000 years later, even without proper maintenance.) Of all the prothean elevators you use, many of which had not been used in thousands of years, not one got stuck between floors and they always take you where you need to go. I understand that they didn't want to slow down the story with pointless delays, but man, that is some quality engineering. It does make sense though. Eezo based tech is hideously expensive, so it has to be made to last. (It would lead to a complicated financial system, though. Purchases few and far between, but very expensive, pretty much everything would be bought using extended loans like cars and houses today. It can be done, but it puts a lot of strain on the banking system. I guess that's why the Volus are so crucial. This kind of situation was described by John Ringo in his Aldenata series.)
They also must have had some insanely user-friendly interfaces, loaded with idiot-proof safeties. Everybody in the ME universe is always just casually pushing buttons and activating things and with the exception of Liara accidentally locking herself in that bubble, it never goes horribly wrong. Personally, I would be afraid to just look at that stuff, let alone start messing with the controls. Makes you wonder about the protheans. Perhaps the average prothean was as dumb as a rock, so they needed to be protected from themselves, or they were so quick to file lawsuits that the manufacturing companies went to extremes to avoid liability.

That laser drill has to vaporize the material that it drills through, but turning that much rock into gas would create a pressure wave that would kill everyone in the room. (And it would not form a tunnel, but rather a massive crater, completely destroying the building). On top of that, the temperature of the newly formed gas would be in the thousands of Kelvin, instantly burning any survivors alive. And you have to vaporize it. Just melting wouldn't help, because then you' be left with lava. So, I figured there has to be some sort of technological solution. This was one of those moments where education can be a curse. I just cannot suspend disbelieve because I know what's going to happen if you ever tried that in real life. Even on a miniature scale (laser dental drills), this is a massive problem.