They were waiting in the conference room at one side of the ops center, on the platform above the militia office when Captain Dunn arrived. The humans jumped up from their seats. Addison and Kesh rose also but slowly with a confused look at them.
"No need for that," Captain Dunn said at the former military and she nodded at them all to take their seats. They seated themselves after the captain had taken hers. "So why have you called me here?" she asked those left behind in the Nexus.
Addison spoke first. "Let me just say that I'm happy you all arrived safely here at the Nexus." Captain Dunn smiled ruefully at that as Addison went on. "Yours was the first ark that arrived. Please excuse us for not being prepared. A lot of things happened in the past year."
The smile quickly became serious. "What happened?" she asked, remembering the Nexus looking gutted when they first arrived.
"We've arrived at Andromeda as scheduled," Addison started to explain, gripping her hands tight atop the plastic surface of the table. "Then as we were going deeper into the cluster on the rendezvous point, we've hit an anomaly. Most of the damage was on the cryo pods deck where unfortunately, most of the Initiative leaders were sleeping. Jien Garson and many others died."
"Anomaly? Let me guess-invisible to sensors and able to pass through shields?"
Sloane looked at her knowingly. "Seems you've encountered it too."
Captain Dunn nodded. "Thankfully, our Pathfinding team managed to free us from it in time, though not without losses," she said, with a proud glance at Scott and his team.
"The Nexus was shredded before we figured out how to free ourselves," Addison continued. "We had to detonate one of our drives. Unfortunately, the explosion had knocked us off course and blown away half of our building materials. With one drive, we were hobbling. Our survival then took priority. After we're stable enough, we started building the Nexus. But with half of our materials gone, we needed to send out people. The rest of the leadership turned into emergency Pathfinders to search for planets where we could extract materials or establish outposts to keep us stable."
"Then all of them went silent," Sloane said. "As we tried to find them, a mutiny broke out. When we hit the anomaly, it also triggered the reawakening program early. So, we've got thousands of colonists waking up only to see their ship about to be blown apart. We managed to calm them during the time we were trapped, but we're not as successful after. We convinced some of them to return to cryo but the others refused. They were terrified to go back and adamant about not dying in their sleep. But with the rationing and the work, they started to grumble again. The disappearance of the Pathfinders was the last straw. Some people were tired of waiting and so tried to jump ship. Others had...different agendas. Senior Tesius Caedus, the one left behind to oversee this station, was killed in the riots. And then someone released a powerful virus into our main computer. We're still repairing the damage but for the time being, our systems are scrambled."
"What happened with the mutineers?"
"We let them go," Addison answered. "Please understand, the situation was dire. We have to let them go or the station will be torn apart. They left with our remaining materials and we've been surviving ever since."
Captain Dunn looked at the three of them. "So it's just the three of you here," she said despairingly.
There was an embarrassed look that passed between the Nexus leaders.
"There's Director Tann. He's the deputy director of revenue management and next in line of the succession," Addison confessed.
Captain Dunn searched their side. "And where is he now?" she asked, not seeing anyone else.
"Director Tann is indisposed," Kesh informed them.
"By indisposed we meant popsicled," Sloane clarified. "After Senior Caedus was killed, he assumed command. But he was more harmful than helpful especially during the riots, all regulation this, regulation that so I stuffed him in the fridge."
"That's rather extreme," Scott remarked.
She shrugged "Yeah well, he was no help and actually made it worse," she said and continued. "To keep the situation under control, Addison here decided to wake the krogan."
"Krogans can survive without food and water for months," Addison explained, her tone a little defensive. "This was why they were allowed here in the Initiative: to oversee the Nexus during the 600-year journey along with some asari because of their long lives. Of course, they were screened beforehand and Nakmor Rusk is of the reasonable sort of Krogan. He asked to have a representation on the Nexus in exchange for their help. With our chief security, William Spender, out of contact and the riots getting worse, I think my actions are justified," she finished, raising her chin a little.
"William Spender?" Captain Dunn asked.
"My former boss," Sloane explained. "Due to a misunderstanding, he joined the mutineers and then into exile."
"And you didn't stop him?"
"I got spaced," she answered. "So, the Nakmor clan forced the mutineers to a stalemate, where we agreed to part ways. But when the coast was clear and Rusk came to collect, Director Tann rescinded the deal because it did not follow regulations, which he meant that it did not pass his approval, despite being nowhere to be seen when the riots started. So, Tann nearly got himself strangled and all of us nearly killed, if Kesh wasn't there to intervene. She tried to persuade them back into the fold, but the damage was done. Rusk won't trust us again and left together with his own clan."
"And then the fridge stuffing happened," Scott said.
"It happened after. I was pissed about how he handled the crisis. He ordered me to fall in line because he was eight in line of the succession and told me that I have to respect that. I answered that we are in a civilian station. We don't give a damn about military hierarchy. And so, he's back in cryo."
Then they fell silent, then all of them turned towards Captain Dunn, who was silently contemplating this series of unfortunate events. "So, it seems there's a lot of things to do around here," she observed.
The three from the Nexus exchanged looks, locking eyes then finally seeming to have agreed on something. "That's why we called you here," Addison said carefully to Captain Dunn. "We've seen how the Hyperion has arrived intact. And the Nexus needed a leadership. We thought you were qualified and we are offering you the position of Acting Director of the Nexus, until such a time that the Nexus Pathfinders are found."
Captain Dunn's brows rose and she blinked several times. "Of course," she said smoothly. She turned to Sloane. "And I expect you'll give a damn about military hierarchy from now on?"
"Yes, Ma'am. As long as we do our jobs," Sloane said with a slight smirk.
Captain Dunn looked around the room and over them all. "Now that the leadership problem is resolved, I'll need to speak with you individually later. But we need to focus on our most pressing problem. Right now, we're severely low on resources. We need a colony." She turned to the three. "Is there something you can provide for our Pathfinder?"
"We found a suitable planet, Eos," Addison said. "It's extremely hot and the atmosphere's not compatible, but our experts say we can start a settlement there. We tried to establish outposts. But it failed twice."
Sloane turned to Scott. "We've found alien presence there and violent wildlife. If you're going down there, bring lots of firepower," she said and he nodded.
"There is something else," Addison said to him. "It's best if we call our science team. They can explain what they found."
Three people entered and took their seats. One was an asari, then a turian male and a salarian male and they introduced themselves. All were dressed in the white and blue uniform of the analysts.
"Sloane Kelly informed me that there were something about the planet Eos that we need to know about?" Captain Dunn asked when they were settled.
"The golden worlds are...not what we expected, but we found potential in the nearest one, Eos," Dr Leynomi Aridana, the expert in astrophysics and leader of the Nexus science team, explained. "It contains some strange alien structures on the surface. We'll call them monoliths for now." She tapped at the console in front of her and a projection of a planet appeared in the middle of the table. Then a cut section floated from it, showing and magnifying the strange buildings. They all saw tall dark pillars, with glowing lines running from the sides, jutting from the ground at an angle.
"Preliminary analysis from soil samples and rocks indicate the world wasn't habitable for organic life but then we detect changes caused by climate sometime after these structures were built," Chief Lucan, the team's xenogeologist, explained. "We think those structures may have played a role in the formation of the habitable worlds. However, time lapse images from halfway the trip here show that the climate changed again a hundred years ago and became hostile. Present living organisms are currently struggling to survive on those conditions."
"There were two attempts to test the feasibility of a colony there and also to study those monoliths," Dr. Aridana added. "However, those failed due to attacks from the wildlife and hostile aliens. But before they died, they had transmitted their data to us. What we discovered was…very surprising."
She paused and looked away from the projection to address them all. "We may have different reasons for going here in Andromeda but for us scientists, it's because we saw a chance of discovery of a lifetime. Now, part of the reason we went here was because we saw proof of habitable worlds in this cluster, right? Statistically, this concentration of habitable worlds in one cluster is unlikely to happen in nature-unless there is outside interference. We have pored over the data the field teams had transmitted and it was likely it didn't arise naturally."
Captain Dunn nodded. "Go on," she urged.
"We've tried to establish another outpost," Addison cut in. As you can see, we've failed. We won't risk more people out there unless we became stable. We were hoping you can change our luck," said, with a hopeful look at Scott.
"But what about the…thing we've ran into?" Scott asked, not daring yet to fulfill her hope. "Judging from what happened to us in Habitat 7, it may appear there."
"We're calling it the Shroud for now," Dr Aridana answered. "We've been running tests on it and so far, we don't know what's causing it. But from your experience, we can theorize that it reacts to the activation of those alien structures. If it is true, then this is…troubling."
The doctor fell silent, her brow furrowing, making the pink speckles of her face converge like the stars on the night sky drawn together by an invisible force. Her face went grimmer but then she shook her head and focused on them again. "But we think Eos is too far in the cluster for it to appear. We think that the black hole at the center of the cluster is having an effect on it. We've observed streams of it being sucked into the black hole on a system near us."
"What else have you found about it?" Captain Dunn inquired.
"It seems to surround the whole cluster, concentrating on the outer edges. We also confirmed that it can appear out of nowhere. We don't know if it has a source, or it is simply there. It doesn't show up in our sensors until the moment something enters its territory." She stopped again and frowned. "What's even stranger is that it destroys anything that's more technologically advanced than a spoon instantly, but takes its time disintegrating people."
They gaped at her.
"What do you mean it takes its time disintegrating people?" Captain Dunn asked sharply.
"So far, it devours everything inorganic and anything organic that we throw at it, be it just a piece of meat or a pyjak. However, the vids at first contact with it show that people hit in the cryo deck did not get destroyed immediately. Their cryo pods were disintegrated, then it stopped when it reached the people. It only started disintegrating them when they died from suffocation."
There was a long, tense silence. They tried hard not to imagine the last moments of those unfortunate people caught in it.
"So…is that thing sentient?" Scott asked. "Or just intelligent?"
Sloane scoffed. "You think an invisible barrier is sentient?"
"You think something that can distinguish people isn't?"
Captain Dunn drummed her fingers on the table. "Let's go back to the topic at hand." She looked over at Dr. Aridana, who looked at Professor Herik who looked uncertainly back at her with his large dark eyes. The professor rubbed his temple, almost near his ash gray horn. "We...don't know. The tests are inconclusive and we've long stopped investigating it when resources were diverted to more pressing issues."
Scott broke the silence. "So, let me guess this straight. You're saying we're stuck here, with few resources, with all the golden worlds busted, and can't go back even if we had a fuel for it because there's some something out there ready to shred us as soon as we do?"
"That's about it, yes," Sloane said coldly.
Captain Dunn waved her hand sharply to get their attention. "I know we've got lot of problems right now and we've been through much just getting here," she said with sympathy. "I know there seems to be only problems ahead but we can only move forward. Succumbing to fear won't work; the situation can only get better if we go out there, get past our fear and act," she told them, looking them all in the eye.
"So enough about the Shroud," she said, changing the subject. "Right now, our priority is those structures," she said, pointing at the projection then turned to the science team. "You say Eos is not habitable as of present, but those alien structures might help in improving viability?"
"If we can make it work to benefit us then yes," Dr. Aridana replied.
"That's good enough. I'll take that chance," Captain Dunn said and she looked over at Scott. "I assume you know what to do now?"
Scott nodded. But he needed to know more so he looked over at the science team. "But about those aliens. They were around the structure causing the storm that trapped our ark. They weren't friendly.''
Dr. Herik nodded. "So far, none of the attempts of the field teams to establish peaceful contact with them have succeeded. From the biological samples available and a study of their equipment, we conclude that they were not native of Eos. The planet has no record of any civilization. And, judging from their ships capable of interstellar flight, it is highly likely they were not from there."
"From what we can see of their facilities, it seems to be more of a temporary outpost than a settlement," Chief Lucan added.
"But are the monoliths theirs?"
"Hard to say," Chief Lucan said. "Images of their outpost and the monoliths have widely different designs. We've also observed them interacting with the monoliths without success." He stopped, his white cheek plates flaring a little in frustration. " We...think that it's not theirs, but we won't rule out the possibility that it is."
They all looked to Captain Dunn.
"This is a matter for survival now," she declared. "We'll deal with the repercussions later." She turned to Scott. "Take it over."
There was a barely audible sigh around the room but from the uneasy looks around the table, they weren't ecstatic about their next course of action either.
"We have a partial translation of their language. We'll upload it to SAM's databanks as soon as we return to our lab," Dr Henrik suggested.
Scott thanked him.
A lull fell after that so Captain Dunn looked around the table. "Anything else?" she asked.
A look passed between the Nexus leaders, a pleading one from Addison answered by a slightly furious one from Sloane, which is replied by a goading one from Kesh. After minutes of staring at each other, Sloane decided to announce their decision. "It's a…security matter," she said. "But I think it can wait. I'll discuss this with you in depth later," she told the captain.
Captain Dunn gazed at her then nodded. "I'll have to talk to each of you regarding the specifics of your field. Are there anything else our Pathfinder need to know?"
They've talked all there is to know so Captain Dunn ended the meeting.
As the people filled out of the room, Scott looked at them one by one, wondering if they have seen someone he needed.