Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: The Mass Effect universe is the property of Bioware/Electronic Arts. No infringement of these copyrights is intended as this is a not for profit fan fiction work.
Author's Notes: The instrument mentioned in this piece is inspired by the Roli Seaboard instrument.
Revision History: 11/04/2017
Part 1: Chapter 4::24 hrs. Post Awakening: Normandy SR2/MSV Menrva
The soaring notes of a flute like instrument rose in bright flashes of whitish-emerald above the steady midnight-green beat of a drum while the sound of strings interwove in flashes and swirls of forest-green and white amongst both, harmonizing and supporting the main melody of the song. The tempo of the song slowed in forest-leaf like dappled shimmerings of white, forest-green and midnight-green, like light beams though the leaves of a deeply shadowed jungle. Throughout the song her fingers danced over the matte black surface of the dual keyboard in front of her creating the music swirling in the air. Her biotics interacted with the sensitive electronics inside of the instrument to shift through the available sounds while her six fingers tapped to create a clear note, pressed to create a sustained tone, wavered to create vibrato tones, and glided to bend the note's pitch up or down the octave.
With a shimmer of emerald, there was an alteration of the tonal quality and then her fingers were off again, playing over the surface while she closed her eyes and felt for the music with her órë. This time, while her fingers flowed over the surface of the pressure sensitive keyboard, she affected the notes with her biotics creating subtle changes in the tones with the mass effect fields. Smoothly shifting the notes upward in tone by lightening the field in one place while increasing it in another to lower the tone. The tone and tempo of the music shifted as her fingers flew over the keyboard in an intricate exchange of notes that her biotic field accentuated the amplitude of the sound waves, causing the notes to rise in a glorious crescendo of sound as the song reached towards its finale.
Her fingers stilled upon the keyboard, her four eyes opening as the emerald tones of her biotic field faded from around her body. The sound of applause caught her attention, and she turned in her seat to see her father standing in the doorway. She smiled, "Father, you are home earlier than I expected."
"I was curious about your message," he confessed as he straightened to his full height and entered the room. "You said you had been working on a method that would allow you to use biotics and sound to shatter any material with a lattice molecular structure."
Pride tinged her órë as she rose from the bench, "I have, by using a barrier field to reinforce the lattice structure and reduce the dampening effects of the material, it makes it easier to introduce a resonance field at the natural frequency of the material and shear it along the lattice."
His four eyes blinked in surprise. "A barrier," he repeated thoughtfully, "instead of a warp field, using its effect of inertial stillness to reinforce the structure of the material instead of disrupting it. An interesting application of the technique, where are the results of your experiments?"
"In here," she responded with a wave and then respectfully waited for him to precede her before following along behind him into the next room. This was an almost empty room with strategically placed sound baffling to prevent echoes. She usually used it for making sound recordings of her compositions, but it also served well for this demonstration. She had placed a podium with a vice secured on top of it in the center of the room, on it were the results of her earlier experiments. Five metal bars, all of different compositions laid upon the podium, each of them neatly split along a fracture line. Her father halted in front of the podium, took the time to examine each of them, first by touch to see what he could determine from it and then by using his omni-tool for a more in-depth analysis. She remained silent, as was proper so as not to disturb him. He was still dressed in his armor, and she found it a sign of how seriously he was taking her experimentation that he had not even taken the time to change out of it before seeking her.
"You have more of these?" he inquired as he turned toward her, his scanning completed.
She nodded, "There are five more of each, I stored them on the bottom shelf of the podium." She motioned toward the back side of the object in question.
Her father grunted his acknowledgment as he stepped around the podium, glanced down and then knelt to retrieve another set of bars. "Demonstrate this to me," he commanded her as he secured one of the bars into place, "I will sense what you are doing as you are doing it."
She nodded, "Yes father," she acknowledged as she approached the podium and them waited until he came back around it to stand beside her. "This is a carbon steel bar," she commented looking at the silvery metal, "if I did not know what it was I could scan it and have my omni-tool calculated its natural resonance frequency. However, I already know this from my earlier experiments, did you want me to duplicate that step father?" she inquired respectfully.
Her father shook his head, "That will be unnecessary, please go ahead and proceed with your demonstration."
She raised her hand over the bar and waited as her father moved closer, placed one hand on her shoulder and then placed his hand over hers. She did not do anything else until she felt her father carefully attune himself to her biotic field, it would be dangerous for them both for her to proceed before he did so, otherwise their differing biotic fields might set off a biotic explosion as her father extended his órë to sense what she was doing with her own.
"First, I form a barrier," she suited words to actions, willing her biotics to form the desired mass effect field as an emerald-white shimmer surrounded her hand. Her lower two eyes narrowed as she concentrated on extending the field over the bar and then willing the barrier to be as still and rigid as possible. As soon as she felt the barrier stabilize, she raised her other hand and formed a second, mass increasing, biotic field. She then drew in a breath and sang a pure C note through the midnight-green biotic field and observed the bar as she used the mass increasing field to modulate the tone.
Lower and lower until she could no longer hear the note itself, but only sense it through her órë. She felt the moment within her barrier when she reached the proper tone and the metal of the bar began to vibrate along with the deep note. She immediately ceased modulating the tone and instead began increasing its intensity. Now she could see the bar vibrating as well as feel it in her órë.
Ping, she heard the loud retort as the piece of steel abruptly snapped cleanly in two. She fell silent and released her concentration at the same time letting both mass effect fields fade away as the upper piece of the steel bar fell onto the podium, leaving one sheared off piece still standing upright in the vice.
"Hmm," her father hummed thoughtfully as he stepped away. "There is a biotic power, shear, that is similar to this."
"Oh," her head dipped in dismay, of course a similar technique was already known to actual warriors.
"No," he turned to look at her, "that is more brute force and depends on raw biotic strength to produce two opposing mass effect fields to physically break the material's molecular bonds. It is very exhausting to use on a mass of any significant size or density. This, I could tell, actually uses very little biotic force, but it requires more understanding of how to use mass effect fields to modulate sounds as well as the ability to hold multiple finely-controlled biotic fields simultaneously." He smiled, "I am impressed my daughter, both with your control over your biotics and with the way you utilized your musical training to create a new and very useful technique."
Her father was a high ranking governmental official and a Dragaran member of the highly respected Order of Varnor, for him to acknowledge this… She drew in a surprised and elated breath, "I am honored Father."
The dream faded into indistinctness as the sound of a violin like instrument playing a haunting refrain took over the focus of her attention. Amanda's silvery grey eyes sleepily opened as the solemn notes played enticingly in her memory. Still half asleep she frowned, the music sounded so familiar yet she couldn't quite place it. The crease between her dark eyebrows deepened as she realized that she couldn't identify the instrument playing it either, the sound was violin-like, but it was not a violin. Then wisps of the dream prior to the music made themselves known and all of her sleepiness abruptly fled in the face of these new memories. She sat up, staring into the darkness of the room, conscious of the sound of her quickened breathing, that hadn't been her. That - the image of a plated, wedge-shaped head, four eyes, and three pairs of slit-like nostrils filled her mind - hadn't even been a human.
Amanda consciously forced her breaths to slow, then concentrated on the images in her mind's eye, bringing them into what was actually a rather disconcertingly detailed focus. The dream seemed so very real, as if she had actually been the young prothean woman. She could still feel the daughter's love and great respect for her father, and could recall every detail of both his appearance and the appearance of the two rooms she had seen in the dream.
He was tall and imposing, and had worn gleaming reddish-colored armor with inlaid golden embellishments. The thick, layered carapace of his wedge-shaped head was grayish-brown in color, while his two sets of eyes were bright yellow and had two distinct pupils. Now that she thought about it, Shepard realized, her field of vision had been oddly wider, as if she could see both in front of her and around the sides of her head. The colors she recalled seemed subtly different from what she could see as a human as well. Had…her thought stilled as if she didn't really want to consider it…yet…had that been a Prothean memory? One from the beacon, or, she considered, from the Cipher? But why now? She had nightmares from the beacon, but nothing like this and nothing like this after getting the Cipher on Feros from the asari Shiala.
The only thing different between now and then was…the fact that she had died and Cerberus had rebuilt her body to bring her back to life. She knew her body had been badly damaged, that she had been exposed to sub-zero temperatures, had she been frozen? What had been the state of her brain and how had Cerberus preserved her cognitive functions and memory? She ran one hand distractedly over the fuzz of her newly growing in hair, how to find out though was the question. She certainly didn't want to just spit out that she seemed to be dreaming about some young Prothean woman's life. Shepard snorted, even if it had been the Alliance who brought her back she might not want to just blurt that one out and that went double for Cerberus.
Her mind worked over the problem, her best bet she suspected was to simply ask Dr. Chakwas if the older woman knew anything about how exactly her memories had been preserved. Not at all an unreasonable question, and it shouldn't raise any questions in anyone's mind that she was curious about how exactly Cerberus had managed to bring her back to life. Shepard had stopped by the medical bay earlier after finding out that the older woman had been recruited along with Joker. Karen, it turned out was actually taking a leave of absence as opposed to having left the Alliance altogether like Joker. Unfortunately, if anyone found out she was working with Cerberus, the Alliance would quickly pull her clearance and probably bring her up on charged for working with a known terrorist group.
Shepard was humbled really, both of them were risking quite a lot in order to be here with her. The same with the two engineers Donnelly and Daniels down in engineering. They were all here solely because of her, not because they agreed with Cerberus's human supremacist ideas. Amanda sighed, she was grateful they were here for her, but on the other hand they had likely all thrown away their careers because of it.
She slid her feet over to the side of the bed, stood, and glanced over at the clock. It was only 0300 hrs. and she could still feel the fatigue in her body, but now her mind was racing. There would be no going right back to sleep for her, not after that dream…memory. That technique, Shepard wasn't sure whether or not she could duplicate it. Before her death she definitely could not have, but now? She wasn't sure if it was the new L5n implant vice her old L3 implant or something else Cerberus had done, but her biotic abilities were much, much stronger than before and her conscious control over the mass effect field she generated easier and more precise than it had ever been. That was not all though, she was also using her biotics in ways she never had before and had no idea how she was doing some of the things she was doing. It was almost as if she had learned entirely new muscle mnemonics while she was dead.
Shepard had been taught to use her biotics to hasten her movement speed in a manner similar to the way krogan biotics added speed and force to their charges. Her biotics' trainers at the Academy had called what they taught her charging, and she had used it, as most biotic vanguards did, to move from one firing position to another more swiftly or close with the enemy faster. The first time it, with it being the anomalous charge, had occurred had been on Lazarus Station, shortly after she had woken. She had needed to keep her momentum against a group of mechs firing upon her and Jacob. One of them was standing in a perfect location off to the side, next to a stack of containers which she could very conveniently use for cover after taking it out. Shepard had noticed that the dark blue mass effect field swirling around her seemed more powerful than she recalled, but had chosen to ignore that technicality as she was partially exposed to the mechs fire and, at that time, it seemed much more important to move than ponder the before and after difference in mass effect fields. Then she had charged; only instead of moving swiftly across the distance, she had covered it in what seemed like an instant of time and had impacted against the mech with such force that it had slammed into the containers behind it hard enough to not rise again. Thankfully her barrier had been correspondingly stronger as well, or the impetus of the impact would have left her on the floor as well as the mech.
Differences, differences, first her biotics and now this dream…and, she hesitated to add this even within the privacy of her own mind, maybe her memories. She closed her eyes and dipped her head, thinking about the last. Today walking through the ship, she couldn't help but mentally compare it with The Normandy, her ship, her actual ship. Those memories they just seemed…very real when she thought about them, all the way down to the ambient sounds and smells. Maybe whatever it was they did would fade, Amanda hopefully thought as she straightened and opened her eyes.
In any case, that technique the female prothean had developed, could she replicate it? First there had been the barrier field, Shepard raised one hand, and concentrated with her brows furrowed. Whitish blue energy formed around her hand and arm, and Shepard focused on it, refining it. Rigid and still, literally meant to reinforce the lattice-like molecular structure found in most rigid materials. Seconds passed and still it evaded her, finally Shepard shook her head and let the field fade. She wasn't getting it right, how had the prothean done it? She closed her eyes and focused on the memory dream, recalling everything she could about it. Finally she lifted her arm, focused, formed the barrier and concentrated. Rigid and still…she focused on the dream and then finally felt her barrier stabilize in the same manner. Slowly she opened her eyes, keeping her focus on maintaining the barrier. The first thing Amanda noticed was that the biotic energy field appeared unusually regular, the bluish-white lines of mass effect energy forming a coherent pattern in the air. This was how the prothean's field had looked as well, Shepard elatedly realized. She had done it! Amanda held the barrier for almost a minute longer, trying to memorize exactly how it felt to hold and maintain it, then finally let it dissipate.
That was one of two mass effect fields from the dream recreated, the second one though she suspected would actually be harder to master. More intriguing though, using biotics to manipulate sound. Once, before slavers had killed her family on Mindoir, she had dreamed of pursuing a career in the arts. She had dreamed of being a famous musician, dancer and actor. Now she was considering how to use sound and her biotics to rip apart doors and walls. With a slight shake of her head, Shepard snorted in bemusement, how things had changed since those innocent times.
She sighed, none of this reminiscing would get her any closer to figuring out how to alter sound with her biotics. Since it had been so effective before, Shepard closed her eyes once again and focused on the memory dream, this time concentrating on exactly what the female prothean had done to modulate the sound of her voice. How she had formed the mass effect field, exactly how it had felt. It had been a mass increasing field, which made sense as sound was caused by the molecules of a medium vibrating. If you increased the mass of that molecule with a mass effect field, then just like the difference between a thin string on a guitar and a thick string, the pitch of the sound would be lower. When Shepard thought she had it, she inhaled and then softly sang a simple mid-range C note. She heard the drop in tone as the sound passed through the biotic field, but feeling it as the female prothean had felt it…the fine-tuned ability to sense and manipulate the sound wave was just not there.
The female prothean had been able to sense the sound through her órë. Unlike everything else that had been said between father and daughter, that one word didn't seamlessly translate in her mind, but perhaps biotic aura was closest to it. The field one biotic could sense around another biotic when they were close enough. Amanda's brow furrowed as she considered the problem, perhaps if she brought the mass increasing field closer to her it would help her sense what the female prothean had been able to sense. She released the mass increasing field around her raised hand, then brought her hand in closer, only a few inches from her lips. Slowly she reformed the biotic field, and this time it certainly it felt as if she had a greater sense of the mass increasing field. Once again she inhaled and then held a mid-range C note on the slow exhale. This time she felt it, not as clearly as in the dream memory, but she could finally sense the effect of the mass increasing field upon the sound wave. Lower, lower, lower, she increased the Mass Effect field until she could no longer even hear the deep pitch and then reversed the effect, lightening the field and raising the note to a piercing high tone.
Shepard let the sound and the mass effect field fade, considering the difference between how she had just sensed the note and how the prothean female had been able to sense it. She felt half deaf to be honest, she had been able to barely sense and manipulate the note compared to what she remembered of the prothean female's level of sensitivity and control. Why was that? She seemed to recall that the prothean female had just felt it, nothing special had seemed necessary for the effort. Sensing with her órë, how exactly had the female prothean sensed with her órë?
Shepard frowned, her brow furrowing and her lips curved downward as she pondered the question, trying to dredge up every piece of information she could recall from the memory dream…
"Again," she said patiently, "focus your thoughts, and bring your órë into focus with mine." She waited until she felt the male xenthan, Arlox Ethian, do so before continuing, "Now concentrate on feeling what I am doing with my órë. With the xenthan's green fur covered arm on top of her own, she reached forward with her three-fingered hand toward the data entry device, a common and essential piece of equipment in any government office. "Activate it like so," she deftly manipulated the faint electrical field or órë that extended a few feet in every direction around her body in a particular pattern which the console's sensors detected and responded by activating. "Then identify yourself," now she actually relaxed her órë, let it return to its natural state which also served as a unique biometric identifier, and her name appeared on the screen. "At this point you would place your hand on the data input sensor and recite your name and activation code to enter the system, but first let us get the initial activation and identification steps correctly completed before proceeding any further." She lowered her arm and the xenthan did the same, "I will harmonize with your órë and then you will attempt the initial activation stage while I monitor you."
"As you say, Elder Instructor Lindariel," the Arlox agreed respectfully, as he lifted his arm and waited for her to place her arm on top of his.
Xenthan fur was very soft, she thought as she did so, then scolded herself for getting distracted as she harmonized her órë with his. "Proceed please," she instructed him when she was ready. Service Recruit Arlox Ethian had been preliminarily accepted for government service in the Prothean Empire, and had been through the implantation surgery to augment his biotic abilities nearly two weeks ago. His new implant would allow him to interact with prothean technology, now he had to learn the specific techniques necessary to pass his entrance exam to actually become employed in the service of the Empire. She frowned as she felt the slight betraying variance in his órë as Arlox attempted to once again activate the data entry console. "Hmm," she murmured thoughtfully, "I believe I understand why you are failing."
She lifted her arm from his, took a few steps away from him and then stared at him sternly, "Have you been dutifully practicing the exercises I showed you a week ago? You have employed me as your instructor, and I will do my best to teach you what you need to know, but you must also do your part to succeed. Certainly the Empire will not tolerate you expecting someone to do your work for you, we must all strive to do our best in order for us to defeat these machine forces, the Metacons, that seek to destroy all our lives."
Service Recruit Ethian drew himself up stiffly. "Of course," he assured her, but then dipped his head in evident embarrassment, "but I am having difficulty with them," he reluctantly admitted.
She stared at him for a moment, then with a slight exhale nodded her understanding. He was perhaps not the brightest student she had ever taught, but he appeared to be sincerely trying his best, and she could feel his gratitude for her teaching with every touch. It certainly made for a welcome change to some of the more privileged young students she taught during the day. Take Adlanna Nayzle, who was one of her more gifted students, but despite having some of the best tutors train her, still lacked the mental discipline needed for proper mental communications. The young woman should have excellent control of her thoughts, as all children were taught how to focus their thoughts from a young age. Adlanna however, seemed to have little control over hers. Odd thoughts kept intruding and the Elder Instructor had no desire to know who the young woman thought was cute or otherwise. That was the drawback of working at one of the more prestigious academies in all of the empire. Some of the students were truly gifted and joys to work with because they truly wished to learn, and others were the children of the rich and powerful, and some of them were…less than enthusiastic learners.
She nodded, honestly she had expected as much with what she had just felt in his órë as he attempted to activate the data entry console. "Then let us go over them again together. You must first master the fine control of your órë, or you will never be able to become proficient in the skills that will be required of you as a civil servant of the Empire." Thus they went through another hour of training, with Lindariel patiently going over the exercises and then monitoring Arlox's attempts to copy her. She had to correct some of his efforts, but by the end of their session she felt that he had made significant improvement in his ability to control his órë and would hopefully be able to master the necessary skills to be accepted into the Empire's service within the next few weeks.
The two of them parted for the evening and as the elder prothean made her way back to her home her thoughts wandered back to the annoying interaction with Adlanna which had occurred only a few hours ago. "Focus Adlanna," she sternly admonished the young woman, "your thoughts are drifting."
The young woman said sulkily, "Yes Lindariel."
Abruptly breaking the mental connection between them, Lindariel straightened. Such impertinent familiarity was completely unacceptable!
The young woman immediately withered underneath her stern glare, "Pardon, Elder Instructor Lindariel, my apologies to you."
She stared down at the young woman until Adlanna seemed to realize that she had truly stepped beyond the bounds of proper behavior this time. "I accept your apology," she finally allowed, "but your behavior will still be noted in my daily report to the Chief Instructor." She paused for a tiva before adding, "Who will doubtless forward it to your parents."
All four of the young woman's eyes snapped to her, their pupils narrowing in shock, doubtless she had thought the apology would be enough. It was not, the young woman had skirted on the edges of showing proper respect to her and the other instructors for the last time as far as she was concerned. The elder was tired of her behavior. Let her family deal with it, no matter that he was the owner of Hayll Nayzle and greatly respected by many, his daughter's behavior, if not corrected soon, would bring great dishonor upon him and his family.
"Now again," Lindariel instructed giving the young woman little time to recover from the news of her punishment, "strengthen your mental barriers, clear your mind and push aside all other thoughts, focus only on the information you want to convey, bring your órë into harmony with mine, initiate the mental connection and then open the way only to those thoughts you wish to share."
Music interrupted her thoughts, causing her to slow to listen to the unfamiliar sounds and singing. What language was this? She knew almost ten different languages, but this sounded like none of them and where was it coming from?
Lindariel opened her eyes, and saw a completely unfamiliar room. She looked around in alarm, what had just happened? She had just been walking along the pathway to her apartment, how could she have suddenly been transported here? She straightened her shoulders, she was Elder Instructor Lindariel not some youngster to be frightened by the unknown, she calmed herself by pure force of will and then took a second more careful look around. She was standing by a chair and table, over to her left side there was a resting platform, though not like the resting platforms used by her race. Along the wall on the left side of the resting platform there was a long tank filled with water and a few plants, but nothing else.
She turned to examine the rest of the room, three steps led up to the next area and the wall that divided it was transparent with carefully placed dowels in between the two panes. Some type of display case evidently, she decided after a moment, but currently empty. Actually, she looked around the room again, then glanced at the resting platform with its rumpled sheets. If it weren't for them she would think that no one was in residence here, the room was so bare of any personal adornment.
She went up the steps, ah now here was something that looked familiar, Lindariel thought as she saw what was obviously some type of data input device upon the desk to her left. She sat down in the chair and as soon as she did one of the objects on the desk suddenly activated, displaying a picture of an alien. Lindariel reached over and picked it up curiously, what race was this? So strange looking and yet…familiar? Liara, the strange word came to her mind, but how did she know….
Shepard, she was Amanda Athene Shepard, and not Lindariel Ealothen, Elder Instructor. Amanda just stood beside the desk for a long moment, Liara's picture in her hands as she considered what had just happened to her. This time hadn't been a dream, she had just relived a piece of that prothean woman's life so vividly to the point that she hadn't even realized that she wasn't Elder Instructor Lindariel Ealothen. The song playing changed, and Shepard realized that what had brought her out of Lindariel's memories had been the alarm she had set the night before activating to play music in ever increasing volume until she woke and acknowledged it.
She blankly listened to the music playing for several more seconds before she finally drew in a deep breath and placed the picture of Liara back on her desk. Her gaze rested on the image of the maiden for a brief moment before skittering defensively away, instinctively she knew that right now she couldn't deal with this and those feelings at the same time. Instead she glanced over at the open terminal, wondered what Lindariel would have made of it had she not been brought out of the woman's memory. There was no telling she decided after a moment, but she suspected the prothean woman would have went poking around trying to figure out what was going on regardless of the fact that English at least wasn't familiar to her. Ten languages…Amanda was impressed, Elder Instructor Lindariel certainly hadn't lacked in intelligence, she chuckled ruefully remembering how the woman had responded to suddenly not being where she expected, or determination and courage for that matter. Lindariel had certainly freaked out less than she had just freaked out over reliving the prothean's life and she was a N7 while the prothean had been a teacher. Shepard reached up and ran a hand over her face, Goddess, she wasn't even certain how to think of what had just happened since Lindariel hadn't just existed, only the prothean's memories in her own mind.
The volume of the music playing increased another step, reminding Shepard that she had yet to acknowledge the alarm. She took the stairs down and crossed over to it, tapping it to turn it off. Turning she sat down upon the bed, her thoughts focused on the prothean memories she had just relived. She had hints in the memories of the musician, but now she was sure that Prothean society was rather strict and honor based. It almost reminded her of some of Earths Asian cultures. And damn, Elder Instructor Lindariel was one scary woman. Shepard was happy she hadn't had any teachers like that in high school. If she had, the entire class would have probably been quiet and awake in an effort not to attract her attention to any one of them, much less mouthing off to her as that one teenager had foolishly done.
As unexpected and disconcerting as she had found the experience of completely reliving Lindariel's memories, Shepard had to admit that she now had exactly the information she needed to further develop her control over her órë or biotic aura. The different ways the Protheans used their biotic aura was intriguing, she knew that the Asari were able to harmonize their biotic auras in order to combine their biotics together, but they, at least to Shepard's knowledge, did not use them for identification or as a primary method of interacting with their technology. The Protheans seemed to use a combination of their biotic auras along with their ability to touch read both things and each other to interact with almost all of their technology. No wonder the beacons were made to download information directly into their user's minds, everyone who came into contact with them was either prothean or…her eyes narrowed thoughtfully, had one of the special implants Lindariel had mentioned that allowed them to mimic the ability.
She shook her head, her mind shying away from the thought, she didn't want to get caught in yet another memory. There were bits and pieces of Lindariel's memories now floating around her mind, quite a lot of them for the prothean had been a teacher for almost three hundred years. Shepard's eyes widened, she doubted anyone realized that the Protheans were fairly long-lived species, though not nearly as long as the asari or krogan. Lindariel's memories indicated that she expected to live until she was around six hundred or so years old. She also suspected she knew how the Thorian, for now she was almost certain these memories were from the Cipher, had absorbed Lindariel's memories. Fifty thousand years ago, the building complex they had found the Thorian under had been an educational complex with both an academy for the younger students and what would be equivalent to a university for the older ones.
Shepard glanced over at the time, she had turned on the alarm for a reason. In just a few hours they would be leaving for the prison ship Purgatory to pick up the mysterious Jack. That meant that she needed to start getting ready now. If she were quick with her shower and breakfast, maybe she would have time to practice some of the exercises Lindariel had taught to Arlox before getting into her armor and going down to the armory for her weapons.