Melara straightened, staring at it as EDI and Joker took hold of the swiftly sagging chassis.
"What happened? What's wrong?"
"I am not entirely sure. Pio's processing connection to the chassis' system seems to have overloaded. I tested the connections thoroughly. This should not have happened."
"How bad is the damage? Can you fix him?"
"I will need to examine both hardware and software in depth to answer that question. Permission to take him to Engineering for diagnoses?"
"Granted. Do it. Have Nevil and his team help you."
EDI and Joker carried the limp chassis out. Sihra glared at it as they went past, still rubbing one ear.
"So ends our Q & A session for now," Athena said with a bitter twist to her mouth. "Not that it much matters, everything it told us so far is forty million years out of date."
"It remains better than no information at all," Melara said, trying to keep her voice and posture schooled.
"Hopefully EDI and Joker can repair the chassis and return Pio to function," Liara said. "If nothing else, finding out what these 'Foundation Levels' are and what this infection is that quarantined our galaxies in the first place remains our best hope to preserving our safety."
"Agreed," Vina nodded. "If we can find the solution they, apparently, didn't even really look for, then they have no reason to try and wipe us out."
"We must proceed as if Pio will never regain function," Melara said. "We need to lay out our strategy. With any potential combat situation the first thing that is always needed is information, and that has not changed. We need to know what this 'infection' is. We need to gather intel on exactly what is heading our way, if anything. Most of that hinges on Irie's research."
"I have worked solidly for the last five years to improve the megascope's longevity and range," Irie said. "We have managed to improve the efficiency of the power usage, allowing us to leave the Fold open for longer. So far, we have been unable to determine much more than we already know, however. The Reapers around Andromeda and the other local galaxies seem to be dormant and in their quarantine formation; none appear to be mid-Cycle, or heading in this direction. As for the rest of dark space, we have picked up nothing heading our direction- but chances are there could be a war fleet on a course right for us, numbering millions of ships, and we would never see it coming."
"Why not?" Sihra asked.
"Space is infinitely huge, Sihra," Liara said. "Unless we know precisely what direction to look in and at what time, Irie could use her megascope round the clock, for hundreds of years, and only have a chance to view a relatively microscopic portion of it."
"It would be like using a hollow tube to look through an empty sea for the only school of fish within it," Eír said.
"Precisely. Honestly, sending ships out into dark space would be far more efficient and likely fruitful," Irie said.
"I don't know if doing that would be a good idea," Vina said. "Ships going out into dark space may be the exact thing that triggers their notice and an invasion- that's why the quarantine was set up to begin with, right? Not to mention they'd only be able to go a relatively short distance before their supplies or fuel run out."
"Irie, can you use your Fold to make a doorway large enough for a ship to pass through?" Melara asked.
Irie shook her head. "Eventually, yes, but it is not so simple. The Fold needs an anchor point, which is why we have the remote station out in dark space. It acts as the focal point to lock in and open the Fold in that location. The remote station is small, perhaps only two or three feet in diameter, and allows a Fold of only a few inches to be opened within it. To accommodate a ship, we would need to launch two more anchors, each several hundred meters in diameter. One would have to be stationed within the galaxy for the ship to pass into, and the other at the exact point where we want the ship to emerge. In this case, deep into dark space. The anchors can only be deployed at FTL speeds- it would take it several decades for the second to reach the appropriate point, even if I one that size already built and could launch it immediately. That is not even taking into consideration the amount of energy that would be needed to open a connected Fold that large- we would need to tap directly into the nuclear heart of star to power it. In a hundred years, perhaps…but for now using the Fold for ship travel is not an option."
"Irie, I would never question your work," Melara said. "I ask only for my own clarification because I am not quite following you. Do you not only use a single anchor now for the megascope?"
"Yes, I do. Two anchors are not necessary for the megascope's purposes. We are not passing something through the Fold, we are simply using the scope to look through it, which means only light from the other galaxies needs to pass through it to us. Even so, its small size is the only thing that even makes that much possible- the larger we try to make the Fold, the more unstable it becomes. It is easy to focus it where we want it to be when it is only a few inches. Much larger, and its focus becomes far more chaotic, rapidly fluctuating through random locations not only in our universe, but potentially throughout the whole of the Multiverse."
"You're talking multidimensional string theory. I understand," Melara said. Athena's interest was piqued, however.
"Wait, you mean you can make your Fold larger and peek into other dimensions? Other entire universes?"
"No, unfortunately. Increasing the size of the Fold loses its focus. It switches locations so rapidly-millions of locations within each nanosecond-that even with computer capture we cannot see any sort of coherent image through it. A much larger Fold might switch focus far more slowly- with sufficient size perhaps cycling through perhaps three or four in a given sixty second period, but at this size it offers no insight or even verification that it is actually switching between dimensions, and not merely between points in this dimension."
"So we really have no way of efficiently telling if a massive fleet is actually on its way," Melara said. "What about this theoretical extragalactic relay network?"
"The evidence is there that this extragalactic network exists," Athena told her. "It uses different energy isotopes than our local network- much weaker than eezo. There is still a chance that these are random static signatures but I am fairly confident they do represent a solid network."
"If that network exists, is there reason to believe that it connects to similar networks around Andromeda and the other galaxies?" Melara asked.
Athena shrugged a little. "There is no reason to think it does not. It could be that each galaxy has its own isolated network but there is a chance they all link up together."
"We would not be able to determine it unless we can tap directly into that network," Irie said. "To do that, a ship would have to go out into our local dark space, find one of the relays, and find a way to tap into it for transport."
"Melara," Liara said hesitantly. She knew what her daughter was inevitably thinking. Melara glanced at her.
"If one ship leaves the galaxy for dark space, it is far less likely to trigger an alert- not if the destruction of the Reapers already hasn't triggered such an alert. If the Normandy can find and tap into one of these extragalactic relays, and if it does in fact connect in a vast network to the other quarantined galaxies-"
"To what purpose?" Eír asked. "It was supposed that the extragalactic relay networks connected all to one single hub, which was the only path that connected to the Citadel in our galaxy. If it is the same in the others, it stands to reason this first single hub would be the connection extragalactically as well. You could arrive at Andromeda only to find yourself locked in dark space, surrounded by their Reapers. Your ship wouldn't be able to unlock their Citadel, and it's very likely that just arriving will trigger the Reapers out of dormancy."
"I agree, you would be destroyed," Liara said. "And if you were not, what would you hope to gain by travelling to the other quarantined areas?"
"Allies, for one," Melara said. "If we can show them how to build their Crucibles, tell them about their Cycles, they could break their quarantine as well- join us in fighting, or finding a solution to our supposed 'infection'."
Then she blew out a breath, and shook her head, countering herself. "Or it could likely spread the 'infection' out to the rest of the universe before we even know what it is. Not to mention the centuries that would likely be needed just to start talks, educate them, gain them as actual allies-…no. I agree, the process would be much too slow, and only end up putting them and the rest of the universe directly in harm's way. It is best they're left alone for now until we actually know the parameters of what we're dealing with. Still, if we can find a way to access the Citadel relay hub that connects to dark space, we can deploy our own ships around the Milky Way. They can scan in a much broader sweep in all directions than the megascope can, and at least act as an early warning detection system. I'll speak to the Council about that possibility."
"Finding out the nature of this infection must be our first priority," Irie said. "We…"
She broke off as her omni-tool suddenly flashed. Blinking at it, she said, "It is an urgent communication from Leanne at Oasis."
"Take it, maybe she found something," Melara said.
Irie opened the communication. It was audio only, and almost immediately, her assistant's breathy, excited voice came through.
{Dr. T'Soni! We've had a rather exciting breakthrough!}
"What is it, Leanne? What have you found?"
{As you directed we have been looking for ways to make the power draw more efficient for the Fold. We've erected a much larger anchor on the lower level to use to experiment to see how to the power draw can be tweaked, and it looks like our theory about the wavelength focalization actually worked! When we fluctuated the focalization at specific points we were able to create a Fold using a third of the direct power draw that it would normally take!}
"Wait, Leanne…how big was the anchor you constructed?" Irie asked.
{About four feet in diameter. The Fold was only stable for .32 nanoseconds but it was there. The geth believe that with minor adjustments we should be able to sustain that Fold for at least three or four seconds. Of course, with no connecting anchor point and with a Fold this size, we can't actually test and confirm as of yet, but the data looks solid.}
"Leanne, that is fantastic news. We-"
Her assistant's voice suddenly interrupted her, but it was not addressing her. {What are you doing? We can't run the test now! Shut it down! You can't-}
There was the sound of a geth whining, a pair of rifle shots, then something crashing loudly. Leanne shouted again, her words unintelligible. Something else crashed and then a scream. The sound was notably inhuman, definitely not geth. It was high pitched, predatory, but Melara could not recall ever having heard its like. Then Leanne let out a guttural sound, and the communication went dead.
"Leanne? Leanne!" Irie tried to get her back, her face pale.
"Everyone, I'm afraid you're staying on board for a while. Signal your ships to follow," Melara said, then touched the Normandy com. "Joker, put on course for the Oasis research base and get us there, now. Send out emergency hails to any ship close to that base; they may be under attack and need assistance."
Gerty had his arm around Irie, who was in tears, still trying to reach anyone at Oasis. Melara glanced at her sister worriedly, but her eyes caught a more alarming sight as she did so. Liara had gone flat pale, her eyes unfocused. An expression Mel had never before seen was on her face. It looked as if she were about to faint.
Sam noticed it at the same time, reflexively grabbing Liara's elbow. "Li?"
"Mama? What's wrong?" Mel asked, moving past Vina to reach her side.
"I-I am all right," Liara said, her voice shaking. The tears in her eyes showed she was most definitely not all right, punctuated by her hand covering her mouth as they started to fall. "Oh, Goddess…"
Lily hurried over, the doctor in her moving to the fore. "Sit her down before she faints."
Mel hauled over a seat, and Sam guided Liara to sit in it. As she sat, Liara looked at Melara. "I know what it is," she said. "Mel, I…I recognize that scream."
"What is it, Mama?" Mel asked, crouching in front of her and taking her hand. "Tell me."
"There is only one creature I have ever heard that makes that kind of a sound. I last heard it in the bowels of a volcanic pit on Rakhana," Liara said, clearly trying to keep her voice steady as she met her daughter's eyes. "The Red Queen."
In the high night sky, only the stars shone crisp and clear. The moon did not get above the horizon on this hemisphere at this time of year, and so the shadows among the steep crags of the mountains were thick and heavy over the soft blankets of snow.
High up, one of the cliff faces was split with a deep, oblong crack swamped in darkness. In this darkness, something moved a little, and then waited. An hour passed in silence, and then it moved again, edging into the open and looking first out over a glacier, before up toward the sky.
Long fingers lifted, cradling an orb almost as black as darkness itself. The fingers parted and the orb continued upward, making the softest of hums as it floated up, and up, and upward still, quickly becoming lost from view.
Its first task done, the creature to whom the fingers belonged looked downward toward the glacier again…then saw the softest glow in the distance.
The indoor garden was large and beautiful, with vaulting glass and crystal ceilings spotted with snow. The large fountain endlessly spilled water with a gentle murmur, darts of brightly colored fish swimming in and out of the gentle turbulence caused by its function. They clustered at the edge of the fountain where the two figures sat, hoping in vain for a few crumbs to be tossed down to them.
Ehlas trees ripe with pink blossoms dominated lower bushes of cultivated flowers and herbs, each carefully and lovingly tended and formed. Mikaysa looked at them without joy or appreciation. To her, she was not in a garden, but a prison. To her, these were not trees, they were bars. Lovely bars, but bars nonetheless.
The young asari let her fingers drift over the surface of the pond, watching the eager fish as they chased their tips, thinking them food. Occasionally, she would feel a soft touch, like a kiss, as one caught up. Normally, such a thing would have delighted her, but here, and now, she found no delight in anything.
She could feel Viole's eyes on her. The much older asari had been soft-spoken and very kind, but Mikaysa wasn't terribly interested in hearing kindness. Further away, she felt another set of eyes. Sending a glare toward the figure standing silently a dozen yards away, she sighed.
"Do they always stare like that?"
"You will get used to it," Viole said gently. "You will be tempted to resent them, but the synthetics are there for our benefit, not our harm."
"I do not like them," Mikaysa said stubbornly, eyeing the one staring their direction. "Synthetic or not they could have manners. They-"
She felt something strange, a sensation like someone had brushed a hand over her thoughts. The sensation was as unexpected as it was disorienting, and she felt a kind of swoop in her stomach for just an instant. Chills ran sharply down her spine.
"What was that?" she asked as the sensation passed, eyes widening as she looked at the synth. "Can they-"
"No, that was something else," Viole said in a low voice. She was looking past Mikaysa and deeper into the garden. As she slowly got to her feet, Mikaysa rose to hers as well. Looking in the same direction, Mikaysa searched the trees and flowers with her gaze, but could see nothing. Then, the soft mental brush touched her mind again, bringing along with it a swoop of vertigo. Viole's skin started to sing with biotics, the soft blue brightening the immediate area. Seeing it, the distant watching synth began to rush forward, already sounding an alarm.
Reaching out a hand, Viole sent a light wave of biotics toward the distant trees. Nothing of force, but apparently merely an attempt to further illuminate the area and reveal whatever was hiding. As the energy approached the trees, something fast swept out of them.
Mikaysa saw only a bright blue streak, a gaping mouth. She was so startled she didn't even think to use her own biotics, a small surprised scream breaking out past her lips. Then she was knocked aside, thrown to the ground with enough force the air coughed from her lungs.
Horrible sounds reached her ears, including a ragged wail of pain. Rolling over, her eyes widened. She frantically shifted back on the grass, scooting away from the sight in front of her, unable to think, unable to wrap her head around what was happening.
The thing…whatever it was…had sprung so quickly Viole had not been able to react in time. She was now on the ground, tangled with something Mikaysa had never before seen. Swatches of royal blue coated in dark purple punctuated guttural snarls and rending flesh. Limbs, thin and angular, seemed to be everywhere as claws and teeth slashed and tore.
The synthetic arrived, firing its weapon at the beast. Mikaysa could see the flash of the pistol barrel hanging in midair, slowly expanding as if time itself had congealed and nearly edged to a stop. She saw the thing bunch and leap, much faster than even the shot, and then the synthetic was on the ground too, tumbling away with arms filled with frantic death.
Whooping in what felt like her first breath since hitting the ground, Mikaysa edged onto her knees, staring at Viole laying only a few feet away. Every part of her appeared to have been torn open, her body trembling in the way meat had when it did not yet know it was dead. Something let out a long, miserable groan- Mikaysa did not realize she herself had made the sound- and she forced herself to her feet, turning to run.
The synth was ripped apart, spitting sparks and still trying to fight the thing that was tearing almost mindlessly at it. Terrified beyond all reason, Mikaysa tried to run. The motion caught the monster's attention, and before she had made five steps something hit her hard, sending her feet out from under her. The grass came up fast, and fire burned through her arm, what felt like a million daggers crushing her flesh.
She screamed, the sound more a holler of agony than anything else. Then a rush of static over her body, and the daggers ripped free.
Darkness already sweeping in, great sobs of air and pain and terror bellowing in and out of her lungs, she briefly lifted her head, looking around.
The thing was in midair, encased in a sapphire blaze, thrashing as much as it could and screaming a horrible, demonic scream. Blackness swarmed in, and she only saw the form of another asari momentarily…little more than a shadow with blazing wings of biotic light.
Then, everything was gone.