2185
Derelict Reaper/Mnemosyne/Thorne/Hawking Eta

The living quarters were completely deserted, like everyone had simply gotten up and left in the middle of whatever they'd been doing. There were a few signs of life, though - a stray shirt hanging off of someone's bed, a coffee cup left on a table. It made the Doctor wonder who had left these things lying around, and if they would ever be coming back to tidy them up.

"Right, let's get what we need and get out of here," Shepard said, nodding at a terminal.

Before the Doctor could move over and start trying to access it, Tali was there, her omni-tool flashing to life as she tapped at the keyboard. "Security's a joke," she commented. "Mordin, that other terminal should be available for you to start viewing files. I'm going to try and break the security further up."

"Will do," Mordin replied. Curiosity won out over a general desire to do something, and the Doctor followed the salarian and, once again, looked over his shoulder at the terminal.

File names zipped past as Mordin activated his own omni-tool, holding a hand over the screen. Transferring the data, the Doctor realized. There was still so much that was completely unfamiliar to him. "You don't need a, physical item?" he asked. "Another computer … thing?"

"Why would I?" Mordin asked, and both Shepard and Tali were also looking at him strangely. The Doctor waved his hand and decided not to say anything more. He hated feeling useless.

"I'm not finding anything more than the local content," Tali said. "I have some encryption protocols that I've saved on my omni-tool, in case they're needed later."

Mordin leaned back from the terminal slightly. "Video log," he commented, as it started to play.

The Doctor recognized Dr. Chandana from the file Mordin had accessed back in the tech lab. He was talking about the fears of the crew, dismissing their concerns as superstitious nonsense. The Doctor couldn't help but give a snort of amusement at that. There's usually some reason for the superstitions, Chandana. I think you found that out the hard way.

"Nothing more here," Mordin said. "Trying next terminal."

That one, too, had a video log. This was from one of the Prothean experts, discussing Chandana's behavior - this appeared to be his personal terminal. It could have been innocuous. It could have been an intense scientist in an isolating environment trying to find a breakthrough any way he could.

However, the next video log - a conversation between two Prothean experts - was downright creepy. Together with the previous log, it formed a disturbing pattern.

"What the hell is this? How can we remember the same thing?"

"They were doomed," Shepard said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Everyone had turned their attention to the video when it started playing. "From the moment they stepped on the Reaper."

"How long," the Doctor asked quietly, "does indoctrination take?"

Shepard shook her head. "I don't know. Everyone I've known who was indoctrinated is dead. Most of them … I killed. But it doesn't happen in an instant. It probably takes at least a few days. We won't be here long enough to be affected."

"But they were," the Doctor said. "They came to this ship for the long haul. Did no one think of that, before they came here?" His voice grew hard. "Did the Illusive Man send them to their deaths so that he could learn more?"

"Doctor, I don't know," Shepard said, shaking her head again. "If he'd asked me, I'd have said I thought it was a horrible idea. But I found out about it the same time you did." She paused. "Next one, Mordin."

The next entry was between the same two Prothean experts, and showed that the indoctrination had progressed even further. They were seeing things, or not seeing them - either was equally likely, in the Doctor's mind.

The final log entry was the most unnerving of all.

"Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream. A god — a real god — is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does. That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us."

The words were chillingly similar to other situations the Doctor had found himself in over the years, and he closed his eyes for a moment to steady himself. The crew was gone. Even if their bodies still moved, their personalities had been completely subsumed to the Reaper.

He wanted to be out of there and back on the Normandy.

"Any idea where we find what we need?" he made himself say. "The device, the IIF."

"IFF," Shepard corrected. "Tali?"

"Checking." Tali brought up a schematic of the Reaper. "In its core. Center of the ship."

"Of course," Shepard said with a sigh. "Because nothing is straightforward when the Illusive Man is involved."

The words of that doomed Cerberus researcher haunted the Doctor as they exited the Cerberus pre-fab unit and moved into the Reaper itself. The surroundings went from enclosed to open in a minute, the ceiling even higher than it had been in the Collector ship. There were thick cables running along the wall that seemed vaguely familiar - probably something Liara had seen. As they moved along the metal walkways, the Doctor could almost feel something in the air, something waking to gaze on the intruders.

Surely, that was just paranoia.

"Someone's been here before us," Shepard said, a note of surprise in her voice. The Doctor jogged forward to her position and saw husks - or, well, parts of them. He resisted the urge to shudder.

"I don't think the Cerberus crew did that," Garrus said, stepping up besides Shepard. "I saw those files. They were scientists."

"Am scientist," Mordin put in, hefting his gun.

"Yes, but you're not normal, Mordin," Garrus replied with a flare of his mandibles. Humor, the Doctor guessed. He wished Liara had known more about turian facial expressions.

"True," Mordin said, nodding and looking pleased with this assessment.

"He really isn't," Shepard agreed. "He even sings."

The salarian's face cracked in a smile as he started humming - was that Gilbert and Sullivan?

Mordin's humming cut off abruptly as they heard gunfire ahead, a single shot followed by the sound of something hitting the floor.

"Sniper," Shepard said, sounding surprised. "Who else is here?"

"Joker said there was a geth ship docked," Tali said.

"Maybe they're shooting each other," Garrus muttered. "Would simplify things greatly."

Any further conversation they might have had on the subject was cut short by the sounds of loud moaning, footsteps moving towards them at a rapid pace. Husks. The Cerberus team?

It didn't matter. Shepard was the first to recover, flashing forward with a blue biotic corona to plow through the advancing husks, while the others drew their weapons and started taking shots at the ones who weren't killed outright by Shepard's charge. Grunt roared and smashed his head into one of the husks, sending pieces of flesh and bone flying in all directions as its head exploded from the impact.

Horrifying, but effective. The Doctor brought out his sonic screwdriver and pulsed it in the faces of any husks who made it through the barrage that the other five were putting up. Tali, he noticed, had summoned a ball of orange-red light that was shocking husks, sending them staggering back and making them easy prey for her to finish with her shotgun. Garrus stood right besides the Doctor, bringing down a husk with each shot from his sniper rifle.

Suddenly, the air was filled with a horrible moaning sound, like multiple voices mumbling in discordant unison.

"Scion!" Shepard called. She flew through one of the husks to break free from where they were trying to grab her, leaving a hole for Grunt and Mordin to move in.

"Thought I was harmless, did you?" Mordin said to the unfortunate husk that had gotten too close to him and been shocked by his omni-tool.

The Scion was still a fair distance away, lumbering slowly, but it was throwing out some sort of blue blast, uncomfortably like The Flesh that had been used to create Gangers of himself and Amy, among others. The blasts weren't yet reaching where Grunt and Mordin were battling the husks, but it wouldn't be long before the Scion was within range to hit them.

The Doctor saw Shepard unclip the Collector weapon and darted forward to her side, remembering what he'd been able to make that weapon do the last time they'd faced a tough Collector. He brought up his sonic screwdriver and turned on the light on the end.

Shepard grinned at him. "Have at it," she said, seeming to follow his train of thought.

The Doctor pressed the same buttons he'd pressed before and heard a hum from the weapon in Shepard's hand. Shepard aimed the weapon at the Scion and pulled the trigger.

The Scion screamed and exploded, the bulbous structure at its shoulder collapsing and splashing blue liquid over Grunt and Mordin. The shriek seemed to echo in the open cavern. After a moment, the Doctor realized that may have been in part because the husks were also shrieking, clutching at their heads. When the shrieking was done they started falling to the ground with a thump, all life signs gone.

"Clear?" Shepard asked, holstering the Collector rifle.

"Clear," Grunt said, shaking himself off like a wet dog, blue goo splattering everywhere.

Shepard nodded and unclipped her shotgun. "Keep on point, Grunt. Garrus, bring up the rear. We still haven't met any geth."

The Doctor was startled to see that they had been beaten to the reaper's core by a geth, and he almost trod on Shepard's foot - but corrected himself at the last minute. The geth was alone, which seemed odd based on what he knew about them. They could only see its back, which was almost symmetrical with the arrangement of thick cords running along its body - a fascinating sight, similar to machines he'd seen in the past, but like everything else in this universe, different and new. As the husks were moving towards the geth, moaning, it turned and fired upon them, giving the Doctor a chance to drink in more details.

The geth's front was even more interesting than its back. It had a single light that seemed to serve as its head, and there was a gaping hole in its chest where tangled cords were exposed. There was also a bright red stripe running down one of its arms. The Doctor cast a glance at Shepard's armor - yes, that was the same stripe. And yes, that was N7 displayed right above the hole in its chest.

The geth turned away from the console and lifted its light-head, and the Doctor noticed that the metal area around the light was not a single piece. Parts of it moved, in what seemed to be an unmistakable expression.

"Shepard-Commander," the geth said, its voice an electronic rasp, as it holstered its gun.

"You know me?" Shepard exclaimed.

The geth turned back to the terminal instead of responding, which proved to be a mistake. From its right came the sounds of moaning and foot pounding, and the geth was soon swarmed and knocked over by husks.

The sound of metal hitting the floor broke the paralysis that the unusual geth seemed to cast over the party, and soon bullets were flying into the husks, making short work of them. The Doctor walked over and started pulling husk bodies away (trying not to feel grossed out as he did so) to continue to study the geth. Second-hand memories were no substitute for being up close and personal with a new creature, especially an artificial (synthetic) being like this one.

He looked up when he heard the chime of Tali's omni-tool, and saw her walk over to what was, presumably, the IFF. "You'd think this would be a more integral part of the ship," she commented as she pried it loose without much effort.

"Okay," Shepard said, letting out a long breath. "I don't know about you, but I think the Cerberus crew is gone - I think they were some of those husks we just shot. We need to destroy this ship and get out of here."

Mordin frowned. "Could learn much, Shepard," he said, using a coaxing tone.

"We can't stay," Shepard said, shaking her head. "The geth know where this is. I don't want to leave it as a resource for them." She paused. "Besides, do you really want to wind up indoctrinated?"

Mordin recoiled from that, eyes going wide. He shook his head vigorously. "No. Correct assessment, Shepard. Destroy the Reaper."

"The core's over there," Tali said, lifting her omni-tool to point to the object in question. Or, well, not an object, the Doctor realized as he turned to look at it. Unlike the IFF, it was definitely an integral part of the ship, high up on the wall with multiple wires and cables stretching off into the vast darkness.

"Good," Shepard said. "If we all fire at once, we can-"

The room was filled with the sound of moaning and thumping as more husks pulled themselves up from below the metal walkway and started running for the group. "Same division as before!" Shepard yelled. "Grunt, Garrus - take care of the husks. Tali, Mordin, Doctor - shoot the core!"

"Got it!" Tali yelled as she brought out her shotgun. The Doctor jogged to her side and lifted his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the metal covering of the core and revealing the "soft" spot underneath. He felt the Reaper's systems resisting, wanting to close the cover. He gritted his teeth and amplified the signal to keep it open.

As Shepard plowed through the last group of husks, the core exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. Thankfully, no one was close enough to have the debris fall on them - no one but the bodies of the husks.

"What are we going to do with the geth?" the Doctor asked.

Shepard grinned, looking ridiculously happy for someone who had just been fighting for their life. "Take it with us, of course."