"I have run it through every analysis program we have," Liara said. "And I still can make no solid conclusions. In size and dimension, that ship lying on the bottom of the lake is a small Reaper. The designs are almost identical."

"But?" Melara asked, folding her arms. They had only been back out of the lake less than an hour, and she found herself deeply grateful that the days on Nakira were three hours longer than galactic standard. They'd need every one of those six extra hours before they were forced to vacate this site forever.

"But there are too many odd variables. It does not read like a Reaper- we are more than familiar with that particular energy signature. The designs are only almost identical- there are subtle variations that we have seen in no Reaper previous to now. And these…"

She indicated the infrared and contour mapping still being sent up by the tiny scan probes. They showed odd structures coiled around the base of the Reaper where it lay, some appearing to vanish directly into the lakebed. "I cannot say for sure without seeing them face to face, but Nevil agrees- these look like cabling."

The quarian engineer nodded and adjusted the schematic. "Geothermal guide cabling, to be exact, extending down through natural faults in the lakebed to seek out any underground heat source it could use to power itself."

"If we are right," Liara said with a nod. "Then this Reaper was alive on that lakebed for at least a short while. It would have extended that cabling, trying to locate an alternate source of power."

"So it was damaged in the crash…eezo core could possibly have been failing, and in desperation it was trying to repower itself to escape the lakebed," Melara said.

"That is just it. It is still a possibility, but we are showing no signs- at least from these scans- that the Reaper actually crashed."

"We saw the debris trail," Vina said. "Broken stalagmites, some two hundred feet tall and nine or ten around. They were snapped right in half."

"Yes, but the trajectory is wrong," Nevil said, and altered the display, demonstrating. "If the ship crashed directly into the lake, we should a sharper angle to that path of debris, culminating in a very small area of devastation around the Reaper itself. The angle of this path suggests that the Reaper may have been resting on this very shore we're standing on, and then retreated under its own power down into the abyss. Some damage to the stalagmites was unavoidable, but you see by the angle here? And there is no damage I can tell from these scans to the Reaper itself; certainly no bed of debris around it. It came to a gentle halt; probably barely stirred the silt on the lakebed when it did."

Melara pressed her hand to her forehead a moment, closing her eyes. "So we have a forty thousand year old Reaper that doesn't quite match the Reapers we know, sends off an entirely different energy signature, and that just…what, crawled into a lake on a remote uncivilized world and never came out again?"

"Could it still be alive?" Dae asked. "Just slumbering, dormant? Like the Reapers become in dark space?"

"We cannot say for sure but it is not likely," Nevil said. "We have Shepard's old data from the Reaper wreck where she found the IFF before the war. That Reaper was, for all intents and purposes, just this side of dead, and it still had a strong enough energy signature to be easily detectable. Its eezo core still worked, though it was almost depleted and very weak. We are getting none of the same energy readings here. Other than that static signature, that thing may as well be made of rock."

Dae lifted a brow. "Could it be?"

"What?" Mel looked at her.

"Made of rock. Perhaps it is merely a giant sculpture, a statue of a Reaper, carved by those who carved the rakir statues we found."

"Interesting theory, but no," Nevil told her. "Even if the sculptors had been able to complete such an enormous undertaking, the infrared can distinguish between metal and stone- that thing is metal."

"What it comes down to is that we are going to have to get closer to it before-"

"Captain!"

The gathered group turned at the shout as Lily jogged up from the other end of camp. Melara straightened.

"I thought you were helping Sam with the geological survey of the cliffs."

"I was," she said, panting a little as she reached their side, almost immediately urging them to follow her as she started right back the way she'd came. "We found something."

"Found something?" Melara echoed as she started to follow her niece, the others quickly doing the same. "You could have alerted us by com."

"Yes. I mean, no….I mean…I didn't think, I just ran. But yes, we found-…at the south end of the beach, near the water and the cliffs, there…where it looks like a small landslide occurred? Sam's scans determined that landslide likely happened about two hundred years ago. On a hunch she planted some deep resonance stakes to get a vibration image of the area behind the loose stone and dirt. They show what looks like a structure."

"Are you sure?" Mel asked her question of Sam directly, as they were nearing the spot where she squatted beside the landslide. The flashing ends of the resonance stakes could be seen jutting from between various rocks, or stabbed into the dirt.

"I'm just fully compiling the resonance image now," she said as she straightened, her omni-tool lit. What looked to Mel just like indeterminable noise appeared on the hovering display. "Yes, you see here?"

"This is clearly an artificial doorway," Liara said excitedly, clearly seeing something in the image that Mel could not make out. "The lines are far too even and precisely made to be a natural cavern in the rock."

"I'll take your word for it," Melara said, eyeing the debris. "Question is, can we get to it?"

"We can clear this mess easily enough," Nevil said, regarding it. "I'd want to do heavy scans first, make sure the rest of that wall won't come tumbling down. Using one of the mechs and some low yield blasts…should take about an hour to shift this enough for access."

"Normally I would suggest a far more meticulous and less destructive way of shifting this avalanche," Liara said. "The archaeologist in me is cringing at the very idea. Valuable artifacts, some no bigger than grains of rice, will no doubt be lost or irretrievably damaged by blasting."

"I know, but we haven't got the time. It would take weeks, if not years, to meticulously move all of this."

"I know. That is why I said 'normally'. Still, Nevil…please be as precise and careful as you can."

"I'll do it surgically, Liara, I promise," he said. "Captain, it'll take at least two hours to finish the scan and make sure we can blast, then thirty minutes or so to calibrate one of the mechs for precision and low impact targeting."

"And another hour to gain access," Melara finished, then nodded. "Could we use biotics to start shifting some of this?"

"I wouldn't try, not yet. Not until I get a solid scan of that upper wall. Shifting any of this, even with biotics, may start a full scale collapse. If its solid enough, the biotics may be able to help contain the blast debris, shore up any weak spots."

"All right. Get started on that mech."

As he turned and headed off to get his equipment, Vina following along after him, Dae looked at the fallen rocks. "It will be after dark before Nevil is finished clearing this. We should eat and finish analyzing the data we found while we have the time."

"Sam and I will continue to scan this area and the landslide," Liara said, looking at her daughter.

"Good. Lily, I want you to keep on those water and soil samples. I'll report what we've found so far and see what I can do to help Nevil get that mech ready sooner. Everyone, get a bite to eat as you can. It's going to be a long night."

They set up arc lights, illuminating the camp and the area around the landslide brilliantly. By the time Nevil had finished his scans to his satisfaction, and calibrated the mech, the sun had vanished below the edge of the mountains in a wash of golds and blood reds, and the light was waning fast. The lake water, a crisp and cool blue in the bright of sunshine, now looked like a still puddle of oil, blacker than the deep of space.

They had put on their hard-suits, just to be safe. Of the group, only Vina and Nevil were nonbiotics. He was, of course, watching the scans and directing where the blasts would be targeted, which left Vina the job of actually using the mech and following his instructions. The rest of them gathered outside of the projected debris field, ready to engage their biotics to shore up the wall, or limit the scope of the shrapnel.

Melara thought she saw her mother and Sam both cringe slightly when the first shot from the mech tore into the landslide. She knew they would both be feeling those blasts, imagining any number of unique pieces that could potentially be destroyed.

Like an artist watching a painting being set on fire, with nothing they can do to stop it, she thought.

Dae and Lily were able to contain the scope of the first blast, and as the dust settled, Nevil scanned and pinpointed the second target. "Ok. This is going to be much trickier," he said. "We need to hit it here but if we do, that top section is going to fall."

"Mama, you and Sam concentrate on catching that fall and moving it out of the way," Melara said, shifting her position. "I'll contain the blast debris."

They shifted duties like clockwork, the second strike going off without a hitch. They quickly fell into a routine, and foot by foot the avalanche debris was cleared away from the hidden 'cavern'.

They were nearly done when Liara suddenly called out, the dust from the latest hit just clearing. Melara's head whipped around, for a moment thinking her mother had been injured, only to see her hurrying forward toward the rocks. "Hold! Hold a moment!"

"Mama?"

Liara crouched by the newest conglomeration of debris they had just shifted, digging carefully at the dirt and rock with her hands. Sam powered her omni-light, casting it on the area as Melara got to her side. "Mama, what is it?"

"I thought I saw…yes! Yes, here it is!"

Gingerly, almost reverently, she brushed dirt aside and carefully shifted something out of the debris. Sam quickly pulled something from a pouch at her side, directing first a pinpoint scan, then a soft jet of air, over the object. As it softly blew away the dirt, Mel could see her mother was holding a small statuette in her hands.

"This appears to have been carved by the same type of tools as the tail sample of the statue you retrieved from the lakebed."

"The rock is different. Those statues looked carved from the same stone of these cliffs, this doesn't."

"No, this is scanning as limestone," Sam said. "These cliffs are granite."

Liara continued carefully cleaning and turning the statuette over. "These stylizations look as if they could be the beginnings of a form of writing," she said in a soft voice. "And this figure…this is not of a rakir. These hands have six fingers…there is no tail and… it seems to be simian."

Melara crouched and looked closer at the statue. The eyes were large, taking up most of the face over a tiny mouth and nose that were little more than chips in the rock. Swirls that she took to be hair covered the head and cheeks, and there was a prominent, almost scowling brow. "If it weren't for the eyes and forehead, it almost looks human," she said.

"Humans evolved from simians, as you well know. This is clearly not human- this simian species looks to me to be nocturnal, if those eyes are any indication."

"Looks like we found our 'People of Stone,'" Sam said.

"Yes, so it would seem. Melara, I would bet that these are the people who used to live in this area- the ones that carved the statues you found in the lake. We have already determined the rakir were nowhere near advanced or skilled enough at the time they were made to have created those carvings- or this one."

"So there really were two sapient species developing on this planet at the same time. One species- this one-slightly more advanced than the other."

"And the other unfortunately far more violent," Sam said. "Think the rakir wiped these people out millennia ago?"

"It is possible, even likely," Liara replied. "However it remains simple speculation. It…does awaken a thought, however. I wonder-"

"Wonder what?"

Liara looked at her daughter. "The rakir call us 'detrak'. It is the name they have for a small simian creature that is fairly common through their forests, even near the capital. It started because of how we looked to them at first, how our faces were shaped similarly to those animals, but the term has come to mean 'anyone not rakir'."

"Yeah, I've heard them call krogan 'detrak' as well, and they look nothing like monkeys, asari, or humans."

"Precisely. I wonder…could those monkey-creatures have been named after these people? Could these be the true 'Detrak', and the name simply got attached over time to a similar, nonsapient creature that looks somewhat like they do, as it has now been attached to aliens that are not rakir?"

"Interesting thought, but there's no way to know."

"You are right of course. Still, I am glad we were able to save this one relic at least. We must continue; the cavern is still not uncovered."

Liara carefully wrapped the statuette up and stowed it to study later, and they returned to their work of getting the landslide cleared. As they worked, Melara couldn't help but wonder.

They now had substantial evidence that a second sapient species was evolving on Nakira, right along with the rakir. Were they all extinct, or were they perhaps just in hiding, clinging to tiny islands or lands yet unclaimed by the rakir? No other civilizations showed up on the planetary research scans but tiny nomadic tribes could possibly be still hiding somewhere out there- if they were rare, and clever.

Even if they are completely extinct, I wonder how the Ubuuta and her people will react to the news that they once shared this planet- that the rakir were not the only children of Nakira?

Finally, the fallen rocks were cleared, the dust of the final blast settling to reveal the carved entry the scans had indicated. Liara and Sam immediately started forward, only to be stopped by a gentle buff of Mel's biotics. Stepping in front of them, she scanned the door, then drew her pistol.

"Mel, whatever is back there has been sealed underground for at least two hundred years, if not much longer," Dae said, as Vina climbed out of the mech and started their way.

"Yeah, and my parents found a whole cave of jabberwockies that were trapped for millions of years, still quite lively," she said. "Not to mention we don't know if this is the only entrance- there could be an entire network of deep caverns. Traps, pitfalls-"

"Yes, I got the point."

Mel gave her wife a wink, then nodded to Vina, who also drew her pistol. Moving carefully, they played their lights into the dark, regarding their scans, before stepping within. A few minutes later-minutes which seemed to the rest to stretch like hours- Vina reappeared, holstering her weapon. "We're good. You're clear to enter. Bring the lights."

The 'cavern' was quite small- only about twenty meters square. That it had been artificially and painstakingly carved out of what had probably started as a natural recess in the rock wall was evident, even to the non-scientists among them. Worn bowls made of stone were set into slots etched into the walls- surrounded by pictographs and dingy paintings made of dyes, clays, and ochers. A few more broken items lay around- statuettes similar to the one that Liara had found, the rotten, barely notable remains of old baskets and woven mats. Most puzzling were the three small mounds of artifacts, heaped almost haphazardly but clearly with purpose, near the back of the wall. Making up some of the mounds were yet more broken statues, and there appeared to be crude traces of rotting leather or beadwork. Tiny wooden bowls had smears of sludge in them.

"This is…" Liara began breathlessly, looking around as she first stepped in. "If I am not mistaken, this appears to be a religious chamber of some kind. There is evidence here of ritual and- Goddess!"

The lights that Nevil carried in suddenly illuminated a section of the far wall brightly. Liara gripped Sam's hand as she gasped, then started forward. "Melara!"

Her daughter, idly looking around, moved to her side, looking at the paintings covering the walls. "That…is a Reaper."

"Yes, it is the same Reaper that you found on the lake bottom," Liara said. "That swirling line is meant to be the water, they are showing it landing. Here…look. More of the 'Detrak' people, stylized here-"

"Li," Sam touched her shoulder, pointing at the next wall.

"…and rakir. These are rakir!"

"I'm no archaeologist, but that doesn't look terribly friendly to me," Melara said, gesturing at what looked to be the image of a rakir tearing into one of the Detrak. Other rakir seemed to be trying to flee the lake in the next panel, some perhaps drowning, as a much tinier and more abstract image of the Reaper lurked below the water line.

"No, it does not. It appears they are describing some war or battle that begins when the Reaper lands in the lake. If…If I am not mistaken, this is not a temple but rather a burial chamber."

She took a deep earth resonance spike from the equipment Nevil was bringing in, and moved over to the three mounds of artifacts. Setting it carefully into the dirt nearby, she activated it, then began looking over the echo readings. "Yes. Yes, it is. There are three bodies buried here. I am reading traces of organic remains."

"Rakir or Detrak?"

"Impossible to say at the moment. This is…this is going to take some time. I will set to work on trying to understand these pictographs. Sam, if you could start identifying and cataloguing some of these artifacts. Lily, we will need your help. There may be traces of DNA that can be pulled from this soil or off of these artifacts."

"Wouldn't just digging up one of the bodies be easier?" Vina asked. Liara looked at the turian as if she had suggested piling everything up and burning it.

"That is a last resort," she said. "I do not want to defile or destroy this place more than necessary. We have already lost who knows how much valuable information just by blasting our way in here. These dead have had their resting place disturbed enough. If I can find out who they are or what their story is without digging them up and disturbing what remains of their bodies, I would much prefer it."

"Do what you need to do, but remember we've got to head down into that lake tomorrow as soon as there is light," Melara said. "Time's slipping away from us fast. Nevil, I want you to make sure the equipment is ready for the drop tomorrow, and do some work on the data we pulled. Four hours then sleep. Vina, make sure the security perimeter is tight then get some chow and shut eye, at least four hours. Dae, rest for now. Four hours. Then I want you to take over the data analysis and let Nevil get some bunk time."

She looked back at her mother, Sam, and Lily. "You three. You have two hours. After that, shifts. Lily goes first to get some food and rest. Then Sam, then you, Mama."

When Liara looked at her Mel lifted a brow, speaking before her mother could, knowing what she was about to stay. "You are not going to stay up all night long with no food or sleep, not even for this. I need you at your best. I'm letting you have the longest stretch in here as I can, but you will go and rest when it is your turn. I'm not asking you as your daughter, Mama. I'm telling you as the commander of this mission. We all need to be at our best when we hit the lake in the morning, and that includes you."

"And you as well," Liara said sternly. "I did not hear your name in that rotation."

"I'll get some food now and then spell Vina on security rotation. I'll make sure the perimeter is secure and check in with you. When Vina's back up I'll get some rack time, that's a promise. Now, we're wasting minutes. Do what you need to do. Dawn is in fifteen hours."