35 Days ASR
"So, this could be going better." Nihlus pulled himself across the floor to lean back against the door frame. A sharp hiss and groan accompanied the movement, his face twisting with pain as he stretched out his leg.
"Shut up, idiot." Shepard hit the floor between his feet, taking cover behind his thigh as she finished off the third of the shambling, screaming things. Once sure the tunnel was clear, she launched Droney to warn them of approaching enemies and turned her attention to Nihlus's leg. "Where'd she get you?"
"Right hip," he gasped, listing to the other side. Pain cracked through his subvocals, the ice too thin to hold its weight. "It's okay, the damned knives on her hands glanced off the bone. Just hit my medigel, and I'm back in it." Despite his words, he made no attempt to get up, just leaning propped up between the wall and his elbow.
Shepard hit his medigel twice and turned up his heater, then tackled the seals on the armour covering that quarter of him, setting the pieces aside, except for the girdle, which she just cracked open and pulled out of the way. The sheer amount of blood squeezing out through the weave of his under armour called him a liar. "I believe my words were, shut up, idiot," she said. Growling a little, she pulled her knife and cut a long slit down the hip of his underlayer.
Blood poured over her fingers. Oh fuck. "Damn it, Kryik. I can't take you anywhere." Rooting through her hip pack, she pulled out a couple of bandages. Wadding them into a thick pad, she pressed the handful against the three long, jagged tears through his hide. One or more of them had bisected a vein. The medigel would seal it as long as they stemmed the flow long enough for the miraculous goo to work.
One of these days, you're going to take that field medic course you keep saying you want to take.
"Sure," she muttered under her breath, "I have nothing but spare time." Still, she missed Sparky's expertise. The amount of blood stickying up her gloves and puddling on the floor meant a major vein. He could lose his damned leg if she didn't get them the hell out of there.
The familiar pop-sizzle of Droney firing off a rocket slapped Shepard back to the floor. Leaning over Nihlus's leg, she peered up the long slope. More Collectors. At least they died a hell of a lot easier than the fucked up masquerade of asari zombies. She grasped Nihlus's hand and pressed it over the bandages.
"Hold this," she said, her words a hiss between clenched teeth. "As much pressure as you can apply." Picking Ingrid up off the floor, she used the Spectre to steady her shot as she sighted down the odd, insectile face in the center of the massive head. Two shots took it down with some help from Droney's rockets. Three more followed, the time it took to kill them pressing her into the floor until she heard her ribs popping from the weight.
They needed to get somewhere they could set up some sort of damned defense. Not that cover would do anything against the asari abominations that could charge biotically. That last one had closed in a half second. just appearing right on top of them. A giant of a thing, it had picked Nihlus up by the neck like he weighed as much as a freaking Shih Tzu. He only still drew breath thanks to her massively overclocked overload. While the creature stood, stunned, she snatched the Spectre's shotgun out of his hand and shoved the muzzle right in the damned thing's spine. At that range, the gun ripped the monster right in half.
"How are you doing?" she asked, casting a quick look over her rifle before focusing on taking down the last couple. Droney finished off one. Thank the ever-bleeding fluffy baby Jesus.
"Feeling tired. We need to find somewhere defensible, Jane." His voice told her more than his words. He'd lost enough blood to slow him down. They needed somewhere he could rest, drink, and eat.
She took down the last Collector, waited a few seconds to be sure that wave had stopped, then relaunched Droney. Scrambling onto her knees once again, she focused back on his wound. Lifting the bandages, she peered beneath. The bleeding had slowed to where she could use topical medigel to hold the wounds together. Setting the bandages aside, she looked to the pile of discarded armour, searching through for Nihlus's belt.
"Here." He dragged one end of the belt out of the pile, holding it out in a hand that dipped and swayed with weakness.
She snatched it from him. "Just lie there and rest. I'm not carrying your fragile bod out of here, you hear me?" She popped open all the pouches and dumped their contents. Shaking fingers rooted through until she found his topical medigel. "I'd better call Eis before I do anything."
Lifting her hand to her radio, Shepard opened a channel to the Ypres. "Doc, Kryik got himself clawed by a mutated asari. I estimate he's lost about a half litre of blood." She listened for a second. "I gave him two shots of medigel and applied pressure." After another second, she shook her head. "I don't have a medical scanning program on this tool."
"You do," the chia spoke up, activating the scanner. "Installed by General Garrus Vakarian four hundred twenty eight days ago.
"Well excellent." Shepard ran the scanner over Nihlus, then sent the data to the doc. A moment later, Eis came back rattling off instructions. "Wait … slow down. Stims to get his blood pressure up? Okay, yeah, we have those." She dug back into the stuff she'd dumped out of his belt. "Two? Okay." A short cry of victory accompanied the discovery of two ampules, which she administered through his armour port.
"Okay, Doc. That's done." She started shoving things back into his belt pouches. "Water?" She could have slapped herself in the head for that one. "Right." She twisted the cap off a bottle and held it out. "Drink, as much as you can guzzle down." Turning her attention back to Eis, she scowled. "I'll do the best I can to get him up there, but we're trapped down here. There have been a hell of a lot of bad guys, and I don't think we're done yet. He needs to be able to move."
She eyeballed the bandages. "Okay, so the internal medigel should have sealed the tears in the vein while still letting some blood flow through?" Looking up at Nihlus, she asked. "Does that leg feel tingly at all? Like it's asleep?" When he shook his head, she let out a sigh and reported that back to the doc. "Okay, so bandage it, stims every hour, as much water as he can drink, and food as soon as possible." Taking a deep breath, she nodded. She could handle that. All she needed was a plan.
"Thanks, Doc. Shepard, out." She grinned when she saw Nihlus had half the bottle of water down. "Feeling any better?"
He pushed himself up a little straighter. "Yeah, the stims helped push back the fog. Let's get moving." The Spectre reached for his armour. "You owe me a new underlayer."
She clenched her fists a couple of times to stop their shaking then packed the bandage back into place after checking to be sure the bleeding had stopped completely. Using wet wipes to clear away some the blood from around the wound, she swallowed a huge stone of sudden terror. A little more bad luck or a couple of more minutes would have seen her stuck down there alone in the dark.
"How's it coming, Miranda?" she called as she bandaged the Spectre's hip.
"Half the team are still working on bringing the barrier down, Shepard. The rest of us are following the asari commandos down the mountain, hoping that they'll lead us to another entrance." The operative paused. "Spectre Kryik is stable?"
"He is," Nihlus spoke up. He checked his bandages, then began putting his armour back on. "Just get us the hell out of here before we have to fight our way through this entire mountain."
"You heard the torin," Shepard said, a thin chuckle running beneath the words. "Keep this channel open. Shepard, over."
She gathered and stowed all the casualties to her scavenging and got up, checking the tunnel before offering Nihlus a hand. "Up you get, Spectre. Let's find somewhere defensible." Slipping an arm around his waist, she supported him until he found his feet and his gait leveled out.
A shrill, gut-freezing wail shrieked down from above. "Oh fuck me," Shepard said, a sigh sliding out of her, dirt rolling into a fresh grave. "You okay on your own?" she asked, fighting back the chill that froze her in place as she looked up into Nihlus's eyes. 'Get yourself into the tunnel on the far side of the chamber and stay in cover the best you can."
He nodded and pulled his rifle. "I'll cover your back."
"Okay." She clenched Ingrid in gelid hands. "As soon as she's in range, I'll launch Droney behind her and try to keep her away from you." Couching the rifle tight against her shoulder, Shepard took cover at the door. "If she gets in the room, I'll try to lead her back out."
A flash of blue against the black set Shepard's jaw. "She's a closer." A spiked grin yanked one corner of her mouth back as Nihlus cursed. Yeah, that about said it. After priming Droney, she lifted Ingrid to her eye, lining up the asari zombie's head. Each of the monsters coming at them had been different, almost as if the Collectors were sending their trial runs, saving the better versions until all the weaker ones had been destroyed.
The current banshee—for lack of a better way to describe their cries—stood over seven feet judging by the amount of room she took up in the tunnel. Lights glowed along the heinous mockery of everything feminine that formed her body. Shepard waited for the thing to charge, then fired.
More of it appeared in her flashlight beam. Nude, skin black and dessicated, her huge pregnant-looking belly and large breasts sagged and swayed as she moved. Shepard fired. Fuck that whole 'about to give birth and suckle hell at my breast' shit. Even the creature's hands and feet—elegant and long—moved like a dancer's, beckoning victims into her embrace. Shepard waited for the next charge then fired again. The thing teleported in Droney-range. Shepard launched him behind it, grinning a wild, fierce grin as it turned to engage the little guy.
As Shepard lined up her next shot, she caught sight of the monster's fingernails gleaming black and slick in the light. Sweet baby Jesus, this one's were twice the length of the one that nearly gutted Nihlus. They'd slice right through someone. After squeezing the trigger, she primed the heaviest overload she could manage without burning it out, then waited.
"Come on, you ugly bitch," she said, her voice a low, guttural growl. "I've got my partner at my back, my best girl in my hands … bring your worst."
Do you pray to the darkness that new battles fought against your old enemies will strip the taste of grave dust from your breath, Shepard? As long as you are surrounded by enough of the old faces and use the old weapons, can you believe that you are alive?
The voice roared like thunder, stopping Shepard's heart for the barest of seconds. She glanced over her shoulder toward the tunnel that led further into the mountain. Nihlus stood against the wall, ready to fire once the banshee entered his sights. A slight mandibular tremor betrayed that he'd heard the voice, but he remained solid.
Another unearthly shriek ripped through the room, shredding the air and clawing into Shepard's head through her ears as it pulled her back to her target. The monstrosity closed another ten metres, her horrific body wreathed in blue lightning, then flung a warp. Shepard triggered her overload, then ducked and rolled clear. When she got back to her cover, the banshee had charged out of reliable sniper range.
"Fuck," Shepard cursed as Droney went down. She hesitated for the barest of second to choose between relaunching him or cuing up another overload. Shepard opted for the extra firepower, and the little ball of light blinked into existence behind the banshee. Using the monster's slight hesitation as it adjusted to two assailants, Shepard switched out for her assault rifle and then emptied the heat sink into the creature's head.
"Keep right," Nihlus called. When she nodded, his sniper rifle let out a sharp bark, staggering the monster just as she set to charge, buying Shepard time to replace her heat sink.
Shepard backed away from the door as the banshee closed on her position, keeping the thing's empty, milky stare riveted on her. Amazing how a constant barrage of rounds pelting something in the face kept its attention. Whenever she paused to change heat sinks, Nihlus hit it from the flank, but it just kept coming.
"Fucking die, already!" she screamed, edging her way around the perimeter of the chamber. How the hell was it soaking up the rounds? She'd seen its barrier come down back in the tunnel. Circling around the side, she saw the holes Droney's rockets had torn in its back and legs. Then, she gulped in a breath so sharp that it formed a soft bleat that echoed, bouncing around her as she stared, watching the creature's dessicated flesh rebuilding itself.
"Shepard!" Nihlus shouted, the sharp crack of sound startling her into action. His shotgun fired, its roar huge in the cavern … and close. Very close. Too close.
The banshee stood closer still. It turned and with a rubbery, thunderous thwomp that compressed the air in front of it, the thing charged, stopping less than a metre away.
"Nihlus, keep back," Shepard shouted, even as she launched Droney right in the thing's face to buy her some getaway time. Spinning, she aimed for the tunnel back to the surface and bolted. Before she reached the opening, she heard the buzz-crack of Droney dying then the smaller biotic whomp of a warp. When she felt all the hairs on her back stand on end, Shepard threw herself into a roll and prayed.
Nihlus's shotgun blasts roared closer and closer, each emphasized by the drag and then quick step of his limp. Damn him for not listening. She flipped onto her back in time to see the warp sail over her head. Bringing up her Mattock, she opened fire on the creature's head.
"It's regenerating! We have to do a lot of fast, catastrophic damage." She launched Droney between her and the closing banshee. "Shotgun point blank, Droney's rockets, and I'll hit her in the head with Ingrid."
The Spectre grunted his reply, moving sideways to get directly behind the monster. Shepard scrambled backwards, trading guns while Droney kept the banshee busy.
"As soon as she starts to arm her charge," Shepard hollered, priming her overload. At the level she set it, it would take half an hour or so to cool down, but she needed to flambe every circuit moving that corpse across the floor.
Shepard waited until the aura crackled around the thing and it began to shimmer, ready to teleport itself, then hollered, "Now!" as she unleashed her overload. The energy arced and sizzled along every centimetre of the banshee, even between its teeth as Shepard brought Ingrid up, aiming for the zombie's right eye.
Ingrid's recoil slammed into Shepard's shoulder, her round tearing half the dessicated head away, at the exact moment Nihlus began pumping shotgun blasts into the banshee's spine. It wavered for a second, then crumpled. The Spectre moved in, tearing it apart with round after round. One last shot tore what remained of its head from its neck and the body crumbled into dust.
Allowing herself a half second of relief, Shepard collapsed against the left hand wall, Ingrid sagging to rest muzzle-down on the dusty stone. She met Nihlus's mandible flick with a nod and a weary grin, then pushed off and limp-shuffled down the tunnel to his side.
"Nice shooting, Tex," she said and wrapped an arm around his waist. "Let's get moving while the coast is clear." As they hobbled toward the chamber's exit, she dug an ampule of painkillers from her pound and injected it.
The Spectre sagged against her a little, his arm heavy around her shoulders. "It can't be much further, can it?"
"No. I don't imagine it can, even if our entrance was the back way—" Scuttling, shuffling sounds cut her off. Damn it. "Okay." She settled herself against him more securely, gripped his belt in her fist, and started for the far tunnel entrance. "We're going to have to make some time. You all right?"
Nihlus lifted into a rough, shambling jog alongside her, leaning even more heavily, but he nodded. She applauded his choice to save his breath for the run. Despite her assurance, she didn't possess the first clue how much further they had to go. And a set of teeth gnawing away at her guts warned that wherever they were headed … the monsters were herding them there.
"Your language has gotten a lot … saltier since you came back," Nihlus said between panting breaths when they stopped twenty minutes later. "I think I preferred the constant glorification of the Enkindlers." He chuckled, harsh and breathless, and sagged against the wall. "Never thought I'd say that."
Shepard heaved his weight up higher on her shoulder. "Shut up, Kryik. Save your air for escaping." She glanced behind them, the sound of pursuit closing fast. How long could the fucking tunnel go before it gave them a room … somewhere she could put up a defense? She pulled a bottle of water from her belt and drank a quarter of it before she passed it to him.
While he drank, she dove into her belt pack for a stim ampule. It might not have been an hour, but Nihlus was weakening too fast. She couldn't carry him, and—her heart let out a sharp, stabbing pain as her brain spat out a vision of her back running away from his prone form—she couldn't just leave him behind. Keeping him on his feet was her only option. She shoved the meds into the port in his armour.
"Here," he said, his voice hoarse and flat, "I can't drink any more."
Accepting the bottle, Shepard drained it, tossing the container. "You ready?"
After a couple of heavy breaths, he pushed off the wall. "Yeah." He wrapped his arm around her, then bent and nuzzled her hair. "For luck," he whispered.
Shepard listened to their pursuit , trying to judge how close they were. Close, but at least she didn't hear any of the banshee screams. She dug her shoulder into his side, hefting his weight. "We're going to need it. Come on, partner."
A guillotine blade hanging from a strand of spider silk, the feeling of being herded loomed overhead, the air vibrating with tension: strange music that whistled along the pitted ceiling. They ate the ground at a decent clip, Nihlus pushing himself hard enough that Shepard knew she'd have a crisis on her hands once they did manage to stop. No rose coloured lenses tinted the reality that from then on, she'd be fighting alone. Thank the Enkindlers' glowing hemorrhoidal asses for Droney.
Note to self: when you get back to Omega, get the turret upgrade.
At last the tunnel opened into another small chamber, that one lined with what looked like cramped cells made out of thin sheets of amber. More importantly, a door control gleamed on the wall next to the entrance.
"Here, brace yourself for a second, I'm going to try to scramble this lock, buy us some time." She guided Nihlus to the wall and waited for him to nod that he was stable before pulling away.
The door closed at a touch, but then Shepard hesitated. They needed to be able to get people through there. She and Nihlus might need to get out. Fuck. She scrubbed at a sudden itch at the base of her skull. What she needed was some sort of lockdown code. Something the Collectors or whoever operated the facility—and the spotless holding cells confirmed that it remained operational—wouldn't know.
"Come on, Tashac," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Tell me enough of you remained to embed something. Or Merol. Something … please."
Silence answered her pleas. Absolute silence, not even a wail or a mutter. Shepard let out a shrill hiss of frustration, scratching at the spot on her head again. "Damn it, you were the strongest commander in the prothean military. You fought off indoctrination for half a lifetime. You can find the courage to help us get through here."
"Haksaya kubenar," Nihlus whispered, his voice listless and flat. "Prothean characters."
Shepard glanced back, eyebrows raised in query. Nihlus just let out a long breath and nodded. Turning back to the panel, she entered the endearment, praying that Merol came through for them when his mate couldn't.
The panel flashed blue once then the controls began to blink. She let out a long sigh of relief, then turned to scoot back under Nihlus's arm, bearing as much of his weight as she could.
Pressing a quick kiss against his mandible, she said, "That one's for Merol."
Nihlus's breathy, wet-sounding chuckle killed her relief. He teetered on the edge of collapse. "How about we move a bit slower," he said, trying to make it sound like a joke.
Shepard hesitated with her hand on her belt pouch. Did she dare give him another stim? Too many would end up causing a crash in his vitals when they wore off. A slow, diffuse pounding began to resonate inside her skull like a vast, deep-bass drum beat … or a heartbeat, but slow … so slow.
"Yeah," she said. "The door should keep the ones behind us at bay for a bit." She let him set the pace, helping him more and more as he began to falter.
He stumbled, going down on one knee. Forearm leaning across his thigh, he panted, fighting for breath. Shepard could feel him shivering and reached down to turn his heater up a little more. She stripped off a glove and pressed her palm against his throat and inside his collar at the back of his neck, wincing at the clamminess of his hide. Shock was setting in hard and fast. She needed to find a place to let him rest for longer than five minutes.
"Here," she said, stepped in close. "Lean on me. I need my hands for a second." She braced herself against his weight then reached up to open a channel to the Ypres. "Hey, Doc. I need to send you another set of scans. He's starting to crash on me." Even as she spoke, the medical scanner popped up on her arm. After sending the readings, she dug into her pouch for another ampule of painkillers.
"You okay?" Nihlus asked, nodding toward the shot. "That's your second in less than an hour."
She injected it. "Yeah. Oddly enough, rolling around on the rock isn't good for the canyons of open flesh. Strange, I know, but true." The doctor came back, drawing Shepard's attention back to keeping Nihlus alive. "Okay, but … my supplies are limited." She opened the pack. "What have I got? Ummm … salt tabs, an analgesic, medigel—both kinds, antibacterial spray."
Rooting through her pouches in order, she listed off their contents. "Feminine hygiene products, water purifier, sugar tabs … ." She stopped as the doc called out. "They're my sugar tabs, Doc." Her eyebrows rose. "Really … sugar is dextro? How didn't I know that?" She cracked open the metal tube and passed two of the large, minty tabs to Nihlus. "Here, chomp on those."
She stuffed the tube into the front pouch. "Okay. So a salt tab and keep pelting the sugar into him, and then food, rest, and warmth. Okay, thanks, Doc. Shepard, out." She changed back to the open squad channel, the distant chatter comforting as she held out her hand. "Come on, old guy, up you get."
It took a bit of heaving to haul him onto his feet and get him sorted. They moved slower than a team of slugs in a tractor pull, but he'd used up his every resource getting that far, so all she could do was pray that the door lockdown held. At least if the enemy had to take a different route or batter the door down, it bought her time to find somewhere she could build some solid cover, maybe even force them into a bottleneck.
"Captain," EDI called over the radio, "the Ypres has taken a stationary position above the facility. Beginning scans. I have located your position. A large chamber is located fifty metres ahead of you. Energy signatures present, but no life signs. There are three exits, all sealable with emergency blast doors."
A long, grumbling sigh greeted that news. "Glory hallelujah, EDI. Thanks." Shepard smiled at Nihlus and nodded forward. "Not much farther."
Shepard felt the air currents shift as they reached a fairly steep down-grade, the floor dropping away at enough of an angle that she had to lean back, keeping her weight on her back leg in order to counterbalance Nihlus. Halfway down, they stopped to let the Spectre regain his breath. Shepard tested the air, the quality definitely changed, a cooler draft curled along the floor. It smelled less musty and dank, but carried the scents of hot carbon and polymers … and something else. She couldn't put a name to the odour, but it crawled inside her, wrapping old, dry tentacles around her heart and lungs.
Through the arm wrapped around her shoulders and the hip pressed into hers, she felt Nihlus's trembling worsen. "Okay, partner, time to move," she said, forcing her voice to fake a cheeriness she most definitely did not feel. The entire mountain felt as though it housed a virulent cancer just waiting to find a way to spread. She shook that off, forcing herself to fight her own good sense as it tried to pull her back up the way they'd come, begging her to run until nothing but open sky hung above her and sunlight warmed her shoulders.
But no, that route led to nothing but death. As counterintuitive as it might be, salvation lie in pushing into the darkness. She needed to get them to the next chamber before Nihlus went down and couldn't get back up. As strong as Cerberus had built her, weariness and pain had begun to weigh heavily enough that she knew she couldn't drag him very far.
Light seeped into the gloom, making the rock shine, black and slick where it curved toward their destination. With every step Shepard took, the tentacles of doom wrapped tighter and tighter until they began to strangle her from the inside out.
"How far, EDI?" she asked, guessing their position no more than a dozen or so metres from a sharp corner into the chamber. "Any change in the energy signatures in there?"
"Negative on changes to the energy emissions. No life signs. You are currently fourteen point six metres from the door on the eastern wall."
"Thank you." Shepard glanced up at her partner. "A few metres out, I'm going to leave you behind. Don't fall over; I'm too tired to drag your asslessness even a few metres." She counted the steps, pausing when she figured them less than five metres from possible sanctuary. Please, sweet baby Jesus, let it be sanctuary. "Okay, once I make sure the chamber is clear and lock up those other two doors, I'll be back." She helped him turn so that his back pressed against the wall, then handed him the container of sugar tablets and a bottle of water.
"Five minutes," she said, backing away from him, a stern finger pointed at his nose. "Stay on your feet for five more minutes."
Nihlus merely nodded and opened the sugar, slipping a tablet into his mouth.
Shepard held his stare for another breath before tearing herself away. Covering the last few paces at a shuffling jog, she closed in on the doorway. She took cover then launched Droney into the space, giving him a count of twenty to find enemies before she stuck her head out to do her own survey.
What awaited her dragged a long, shuddering exhalation through a paralyzed throat and slack jaw as her eyes travelled up the monstrosity at the center of the chamber. "Oh … fuck ... me."
The tentacles gloated, chortling happily to themselves as they finished crushing her pulse and breath into dust. Frost painted its way up her spine; her implants digging painful claws into her back muscles as they froze solid.
"What the hell are you?" she asked, not realizing she'd even spoken until her words echoed back at her.
Fifteen metres away, a massive computer erupted from the cavern floor, all oil-slick black and sinuous as if hell had spat it out rather than someone assembling it. Surrounding the computer, equally huge and undulous stalagmites and stalactites of the amber substance wove through the hardware, creating a Lovecraftian horror that filled her with an ancient, primitive terror. "Is there anything these bastards can't corrupt?"
Tearing her eyes away from the machine, she searched the rest of the room for any sign of Collectors. Something told her the banshees didn't excel at being covert. Droney floated around the perimeter, blythely blipping to himself, so she entered, sidestepping along the wall toward the door on the south wall. Other than the machine and a few medical beds, the room sat silent and empty. She closed the door, using Merol's override to lock it down, then ran across to do the same thing to the west door.
Nihlus had slid about a half metre down the wall by the time she got back to him, but remained on his feet. Sweat beaded along his throat, but when she touched him, he felt ice cold.
"Come on, there's a horizontal surface in there with your name on it." She wrapped her arm around him, shaking him a little when he was slow to respond. "Hey." Reaching up with her free arm, she patted his cheek. "We're both getting out of here, so come on … buck up and lets move."
He nodded and took a deep breath, pushing off the wall. "I'm with you, Shepard." Leaning heavily on her shoulders, he hobbled beside her, taking slow, painful steps.
"I think I may have underestimated how much blood you lost," Shepard said, trying to keep her voice light. "Even if I aged you eighty cycles, for you to accept help without bitching … damn. You must have lost at least three quarters of your volume."
He chuffed, but straightened a little and their pace picked up a touch.
"What in the pits of buratrum … ?" Nihlus staggered, pulling Shepard to a stop in the door.
Chuckling, she tugged on him. "Yeah, that was just about my exact reaction." She waggled her head a little. "Except saltier." She led him toward one of the impeccably clean medical beds. "This won't be overly comfortable, I imagine, but up you go."
Nihlus pretty much just lifted a leg up and rolled onto the surface, sinking in far more than Shepard would have expected. She pressed down into the gel … her heart suddenly thumping hard and fast. It was soft and deep. Crouching, she read the manufacturer. Elkoss-Combine Medical. Shit! Someone was bringing new medical equipment in there. Why? Keeping the place functional and clean over time was one thing … upgrading it meant they had current plans for the nightmare in the center of the chamber.
"The door, Jane." Nihlus's armour clattered against the solid parts of the bed as he settled himself.
"Yeah," the word came out as much breath as sound, and she pushed up. "Yeah, the door." Plenty of time to worry about modern equipment showing up inside a fifty thousand year old house of horror. Still, her eyes darted around the space, searching out the traps she felt everywhere, jaws open and ready to spring.
The Collectors don't exactly hide, Janey. It's not unreasonable to assume they have agents all over the galaxy.
She shut and overrode the door. It was true. Although certainly not ones to attract notice, the Collectors remained active, trading tech for all sorts of the strange and unusual. Once the room was secured, Shepard let out a small sigh. They were safe-ish for the moment, and she had a partner to tend to. She went into her pack, pulling out her thermal sheet and a bottle of water.
She ran a hand over Nihlus's fringe. "Okay, old guy, let's get you sorted." It took nearly ten minutes of prodding to get a high nutrition bar and a half litre of water into him, but then she covered him in both of their thermal sheets and let him sleep.
Stepping back from the bed once she got Nihlus settled and reassured herself that he was stable, Shepard let her gaze return to Computer Cthulhu, her brain refusing to follow any one line from beginning to end, eyes sliding off in the same way they had when she faced the Conduit. Although she didn't see any sign of an indoctrination field like the one around the Conduit, she reached into her pouch and took another shot of the counteragent.
"What are you for?" she asked, edging around the machine. "Help me out here, Tashac," she whispered. "You had to have had a hand in this. Is this your terrible secret?" An interface jutted out from the main body of the thing, but she continued to circle, using every bit of engineering knowledge and creative talent she possessed to try to figure out its purpose.
On the far side, a wide gap between two large of the amber constructs led into the heart of the beast. She activated her omnitool to scan the amber, but the chia interface activated.
"They are chia corrupted by the suzerain's servants," the chia gauntlet said. "They emit nothing for your scans to detect. In this state, they are drained of everything that defines our people. They possess no intelligence, their purpose subverted to that of the machine. This is why we fled, took refuge in inertia or within the Cynosure. This death of slavery is the worst fate the chiastyllia can imagine."
Shepard stepped closer, careful not to even brush against the amber. The technology involved definitely looked Reaper. How would Tashac have known how to construct anything that complex? She'd been a soldier through and through. Merol was the scientist. Of course, Merol hadn't looked into the vast, empty darkness. Perhaps the Reapers had just used her, a puppet to perform their will.
The circle completed, Shepard stepped toward the interface. She'd never learn anything without being a little bit brave and really, really stupid. "EDI, monitor this thing carefully. Don't interface with it at all, just in case its purpose is to hijack electronic defense intelligences. Just let me know if it looks like something is about to enslave my mind or chop me into varren kibble."
"Understood, Captain. Do you intend to access the machine's logs?" the AI asked, her voice taking a curious upturn at the end.
"That is my very great hope. Preferably without the brain enslavement or aforementioned kibble tragedy." Shepard eased toward the console and reached out a single finger. "If I get disintegrated or launched into space or eaten by sharks, tell Nihlus he's still to blame." Wincing, she closed her eyes, and pulled her head back. When she felt her finger make contact with the console, Shepard opened one eye. The interface was turned on.
Slowly, she eased back around. "No sharks. Okay then." She looked up, then gave her head a shake. "EDI, anything from the machine?"
"The computer core has power, but no processes are running at this time."
Heart pounding hard against her ribs, she nodded. "Keep an eye on it, I'm going in." After clenching her hands into fists a couple of times, Shepard started searching for some form of log to tell her what the computer did, and how long ago it had last been used. Maybe even why the place was being continually maintained and upgraded.
"Your armour's onboard scanners are displaying elevated heart rate and respiration, Captain," the AI stated. "These readings indicate a state of considerable stress."
Shepard laughed, a harsh, mirthless cough that startled her as it echoed back. "Yeah, well, that might be because I'm currently under considerable stress, EDI. Thanks for the update."
"If it helps relieve your state of mind, I calculate that your odds of being eaten by sharks are one in one hundred billion and twenty seven given your current distance from the nearest ocean."
A bright, genuine laugh greeted that fact. "Excellent, you're right, EDI, I feel so much better now." And in truth, she did. Between the interface proving thus far benign and the joking AI, Shepard's pulse settled a little and her breathing slowed.
"Okay, right, soldier mind on hold," she whispered, allowing the cypher to feed her the prothean characters and commands, "scientist mind in gear. Let's find out what you are, you ugly, mother-fu … " She glanced over at the sleeping Spectre. "... frickin' nightmare."
Once she set her mind to the task, time passed without meaning. After a half hour, Shepard's legs began to tremble with fatigue, so she paused to eat and drink, then dragged a crate out from under one of the medical beds and sat on it.
As she worked, she uncovered just a mind-boggling amount of data: genetic analysis of the asari over the entire fifty thousand years, results of experiments done to analyze how the asari developed their innate biotic talent, chemical and cellular breakdowns for millions of subjects … it would take an entire university of analysts and researchers to break down what all of it meant. However, even with her limited knowledge, an anomaly stuck out. Every once in a while the sample—she shuddered to think that the sample very likely was a terrified, screaming asari trying to claw her way out of bonds—ended up contaminated in some way, and it appeared to be those contaminated trials that interested the Collectors the most.
Rustling and then ceramic banging off metal pulled her attention away from her work. "Anyone trying to get in, EDI?" Shepard blinked rapidly, trying to sort her vision. "Damn, I've been staring at the screen too long … can't see anything more than a half metre away."
"There are no life signs in your area at this time," EDI answered. "However, Spectre Kryik's onboard scans report that he has regained consciousness."
"Oh good." Shepard leaned back and stretched. "How are you feeling?" She peered around the computer, still seeing nothing but shadows and fog, then rubbed her eyes. A low purring sound accompanied the glorious pain as she dug the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. "Oh yeah, that's the stuff."
"Better," Nihlus replied. A heavy thump echoed around the cavern as he slid down off the table. "Hungry." He limped toward her, pausing to look into the gap in the side of the machine. "How long have I been out?"
Chuckling, Shepard shook her head. "No clue. EDI?"
"Three point six four hours."
Shepard shrugged. "There you have it." She stretched again, her muscles all humming happily as she cracked her neck and then pulled both arms across her chest to snap her shoulders. "I guess I was right about the Collectors herding us here. Doesn't make sense that they'd chase us halfway through the mountain and then just leave us alone." She pushed herself up onto her feet, groaning as her body complained. "It gives us time to figure this thing out, though."
Looking up, she saw Nihlus slip through the amber, entering the gap. "No … wait … we don't know if that's safe." She ran around the console, reaching through with one hand. He stood, half turned back as if he'd meant to leave, his face looking down and completely, horribly blank.
"Nihlus? You okay?" She glanced up into his eyes then lunged for his hand to pull it away from the tech. "Didn't the beacon teach you anything about touching unknown tech?" She pulled, his arm not just resisting, but rigid, unmoving in even the slightest degree. "Nihlus? Oh fuck, come on, old guy … you don't get to do this—" The words continued to appear inside her head, but her vocal chords and mouth stopped giving them form. She tried to release his hand, but her fingers refused her commands.
Annoyance exploded into terror. Fuck! He'd landed them both in a trap once again. That one far more deadly than the beacon if the computer logs could be believed. Heart racing, she tried to move anything … even blink her eyes, but nothing. Around them, the amber chia began to form, encasing her and Nihlus in a thick tube. Fighting, struggling with everything she had, Shepard hammered at the inside of her internal prison.
Move … anything at all, just move!
Not even her eyes twitched, her stare not wavering from Nihlus's by even a millimetre. Terror sloshed through her veins, setting her entire body on fire, every cell burning to escape, building up an explosion inside a prison strong enough to contain it. Diaphragm and lungs succumbing to whatever held her captive, Shepard's breathing slowed and then stopped. When her heart followed—a wind up toy with a slack spring—Shepard waited for the black. Seconds passed.
One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi … .
Nothing. No darkness fell over her vision. No peaceful nighttime to cradle the fear inside her body, wrapping it tight in her flesh until the sun broke through to warm her, dismissing all the monsters conjured within the void.
They struggle, they scream and rail as their insignificant lives end, but they amount to no more than bacteria. Your worlds become our laboratories, and then they fall. So it has been for millions of your years, Shepard. The harvest cannot be stopped, you have already failed.
Had Shepard been able to move, she would have cowered as that thunderous voice hammered at her again.
I am the Harbinger of your ascension. Face your annihilation.
Shepard faintly heard the radio chatter from the other side of whatever barrier had been thrown up between her mind and her body. She stared into the blank emerald of Nihlus's eyes, only one thought roaring through her mind as the paralytic took hold, his hand warm inside her grip.
Save Nihlus.
§§§
… "What are they doing?"
… "I don't know. It looks like they've found a way in."
… "It's a door. It looks like a main door into the mountain. What we found up above must have been the back way in."
… "No! Stop! We don't know what's on the other side of that door."
(A-N: Surprise! This chapter just tumbled out, both characters cooperating really well. I noticed that the views on 113 were a lot lower than normal, so if you missed it, you might want to have a read before this chapter. And yes, I'm still officially on hiatus, and the 24th is still the next chapter. :D Thanks as always, love as always, and ... yep, hugs as always.)