The great stone stalagmites lit up with marbles of color as the bright lights from the submersible and its two mech escort cut through the intense black of the deep lake water. Thin curtains of silt stirred up behind them, hanging like mist.

They followed much the same path as Mel and Vina had travelled before, using the wide path of broken rock as a guide through the 'forest'. They paused as they found the rakir carving that was still upright, allowing Liara to do deeper scans with the more sophisticated submersible equipment.

"Anything new?" Mel asked her over the com. From her mech suit, she could see through the transparent face of the submersible, watching as those aboard it moved about and worked. Liara looked over at her.

{I have confirmed my prior findings about the age and craftsmanship of this sculpture, and some…potentially new information. This rock broken and scattered around it does not match the broken stalagmite fragments. These stalagmites are calcifications of several heavy metals and minerals formed in the lakebed and then exposed through water erosion and earthquake activity that deepened the bed of this lake. The statue is of granite, matching that found readily in this area on the surface. Though this statue is not broken it is damaged, especially the base. Mel, I believe this statue-and those like it-were at one time standing on the edges of the cliffs above us. Seismic activity or deliberate action would have toppled them into the water, and they merely came to rest here. It is showing clear evidence of erosion…judging by this, I would hazard a guess these statues fell into the lake roughly at the same time our Reaper landed here-forty thousand years ago.}

"Could the Reaper landing in this lake have been what toppled them?"

{Possibly,} Nevil replied. {Ship that big, landing directly on a fault line- if the wind of its descent wasn't enough to shake them loose and make them fall, the act of it settling on the bottom of the lake may have triggered a minor earthquake. Depending on how or even if they were anchored on those cliff tops, as little as a 3 on the Keilson Scale may have been enough to send them falling.}

"All right, just another piece of the puzzle. You need more time here, Mama, or should we keep on?"

{I think I have gotten all that I can learn from this particular specimen. We should continue.}

"Onward then."

Turning her mech she continued on their preplotted path, the submersible following at a healthy distance behind her, silently sliding through the water like a child's balloon on a calm day. Behind it, the lights from Vina's mech cut surreal shades through the misty silt streaming in their wake.

Out of the deep cold, the Reaper slowly began to appear- first on their sonar scans, then on infrared and contour, before finally reflecting their own lights back. The leg that was propped up on one of the stalagmites arched over them, as they reached the true lakebed and what they hoped was a dead giant.

Their progress slowed even more, all scanners and monitoring equipment on full.

{I am receiving no notable power traces or eezo radiation from the ship,} Nevil said. {If there's any sort of active eezo core on that thing, it's shielded with tech beyond anything we have.}

{I am picking up no traces of subharmonics or ultra-frequency vibrations linked to indoctrination processes,} Liara added. {Even this close, that thing does not read like any Reaper we have heretofore encountered.}

{Confirmed.} Nevil said. {All we have is that artifact signature. It is extremely strong now, Captain. I'd bet a month's pay if it's not the Reaper itself generating that signature, then something inside it is. Something big.}

{Perhaps it is the generator for the strange sterilizing field I found,} Lily piped in from the surface. {Perhaps the Reaper found it and integrated it into its systems once it determined what it could do.}

{Be careful, Captain. You are starting to approach the geothermal cabling. The ground around it may be unstable-you'll want to watch your step.}

"Acknowledged."

Like giant snakes, nearly as thick around as the mech was tall, the cabling coalesced out of the gloom. Launching her scanners, she had them verify the solidity of the ground below with every step she took, transmitting the information to Vina so she could trace the same path.

Her lights played over them at the same time her own scans did, and she frowned. "Nevil, I'm picking up levels of heat energy in these cables. Are they still active?"

{One moment. Dae, can you get us a bit closer?}

The submersible edged up a few dozen more feet, its own lights brightening the area.

{That's…that's a ten-four, Captain. These cables are still drawing power.}

"Enough to activate that ship?"

{No, I don't think so. These are nominal levels, and I'm betting most of it is going to generating that sterilization dome. If this were one of our frigates, I'd say its pulling just enough energy otherwise to keep life support and emergency lighting on, and not much else.}

Moving around the large cable and closer to the Reaper, still being cautious of every step, her lights finally reached hull. She couldn't help the low whistle under her breath as those lights reflected back far more brightly than they should have, prompting her helmet's HUD to darken slightly in response.

"Granted, I've never seen one in person, but…I thought Reapers were black. This one looks…silver."

{They were. This is strange,} her mother said. {The hull of this ship is metal, but it does not match the hull of any other Reaper ship we have encountered before.}

{And despite sitting in water for forty millennia there's no sign of erosion or damage.} Nevil whistled as well. {This baby almost looks fresh off the shop floor.}

"Scans?"

{I cannot determine the material that this hull is forged from,} Nevil replied. {Power readings remain almost nonexistent. I'm still not picking up any sign of an eezo core, and our 'indoctrination' scans remain flat. Red's artifact signature remains quite high, however.}

"Is there any way we can determine if that signature is the ship itself, or something inside it, before we board?" Melara asked.

{Yes, but we'd need direct hull contact to be absolutely certain.}

"Can my equipment run it?"

{Melara-} Liara said, concerned. Mel ignored her.

{Yes, you should be able to get an adequate reading with the mech.}

"What's the danger?"

{If I had to guess, I'd say nonexistent…but we are dealing with too many unknowns for me to say for sure.}

"All right. Stand by, I'm going to run the scan with direct hull contact."

{Melara, be careful,} Daenys said.

"I will, but if anything goes wrong the rest of you are under orders to evacuate this lake immediately. Nevil, Mama- keep a close eye on those readings. If power levels spike, you get indications that indoctrination efforts are coming online, or anything else even remotely hostile, you will return to camp and get out of this lake, am I understood?"

{…understood, Captain,} Daenys said quietly.

"Vina?"

{Understood.}

"Good. Calibrating the scan now."

Her fingers flew over the mech controls, preparing the scan. Only once it was ready to start did she move the mech forward, closer to the looming hull curving like a wall before her.

Once in place, the mech halted in a light stir of silt, and she nodded. "Initiating hull contact and scan…now."

The arm of the mech suit lifted and reached out, settling with a light clunk against the side of the Reaper. It took a moment before Mel realized she was holding her breath. As the scan data started coming in and nothing else happened, she let it out as inaudibly as she could.

"Receiving data now and sending it to you and to base camp."

{Acknowledged, we're getting it here,} Nevil confirmed.

{Data receiving here too, Captain,} Lily said. {It…from what I am seeing from this, the artifact signature is definitely the Reaper itself.}

{Affirmative,} Nevil agreed. {That signal is coming directly from the hull of this ship. I'm also getting more solid aging readings, Captain. Judging from what I am seeing…that ship may have been at the bottom of this lake for four hundred centuries, but the ship itself is millions of years old- older even than the Reaper corpse your father found her IFF on.}

"Do you see anything on these scans that suggest it may not be safe to board?" Melara asked, disengaging from the hull.

{Negative,} he said. {There are no signs indoctrination tech is present at all. While there is power there is not enough to suggest any kind of stasis or preservation technology is in use- not even if you took away the amount that must be generating the sterile field- and we are reading absolutely no active life signs, core activity, or anything else that may suggest a crew is still alive on board, or that the ship itself is 'alive' on any level.}

"All right. We are going to risk boarding then. Dae, take the submersible around to the connection we noted earlier-"

{Captain, if I may,} Dae said. {I have been looking over the schematics of this ship gained by our full scans. The airlocks may be unnecessary. I see what appears to be a moon pool entrance at the rear of the structure.}

"What? How did we miss that before?"

{The original scans were half obscured by broken rock in the area. As we got closer in the submersible it appeared almost to be a minor hull breach that had been sealed off. This close, however, I am now positive. It is a moon pool, purposefully designed to allow passage from the ship interior to the lake without need of an airlock. It is large enough to allow both the submersibles and the mechs to enter simultaneously.}

"So this ship being here at the bottom of the lake-"

{No longer appears to be a matter of accident or desperation to hide,} Daenys said. {This Reaper was built with deep aquatic functionality and access ways in mind.}

{Maybe for research?} Vina said. {Nevil just confirmed it is much older than we previously thought. Could it have been a method of deep sea exploration in the years before the Senate quarantined the galaxies?}

"And it just landed here forty thousand years ago? I doubt the Senate was still sending deep sea exploration vehicles into a highly quarantined galaxy they had already all but forgotten about millions of years before."

{And deep sea exploration would not account for this unusual sterile field,} Lily pointed out. {If you are trying to research an ocean or deep water body, why would you generate a field that pretty much wipes out all life in it?}

{Well, I just had an incredibly disturbing thought…} Nevil said.

"What is it?"

{Well, what if the Senate hadn't forgotten about us? I mean, before recently? What if things have changed, and they decided they were never going to come up with a solution for our 'infection' and that continuing the Cycles was a waste of resources? Could they have decided to send in these 'sterilization ships' to take care of the problem without massive destruction? I mean…plant these babies in every water body or ocean capable of starting life and wipe it out at the microscopic level. No more life in the seas means no more life evolves, and eventually- no more need of the Cycles. Once that's complete, they just chalk off these galaxies as lifeless deserts, call off their dogs, and put the whole thing to bed. No more threat.}

{That…is definitely an incredibly disturbing thought,} Liara agreed. {However I am hesitant to entertain it. This is the only ship of this kind we have encountered, and it is in a glacier lake. Were they doing what you propose, these ships would be seeded throughout the oceans of every garden world, going right to the source of evolving life.}

"Maybe it was a trial run?" Melara said. "See if the tech works?"

{We must assume they have any number of their own garden worlds to try it out on. Using a lake in their own back yard they could have tested its functionality far more hands on, with real time results. Sending a test ship trillions of light years, and risking its discovery makes no logical sense. Before dedicating the resources, they would have ensured it worked, then fabricated millions, if not billions, of these vessels and sent them out all at once, right at the end of a Cycle when there were no advanced species left to be able to counter them.}

{Yeah, you're right,} Nevil said. {Just…seems like the more pieces we get of this puzzle the less it makes any kind of sense. I mean, we're dealing with alien minds millions of years and trillions of light years separate from us. Almost anything seems possible any more.}

"Indeed. With every answer we only gain several more questions," Melara said with irritation. "All right. Still sounds like the moon pool is our best bet. Head for it, Dae. Vina and I will follow."

The submersible turned and slowly headed toward the rear of the Reaper. Melara and Vina, still carefully picking their way through obstacles and cautiously testing the ground beneath them, arrived some minutes after they did to find the submersible patiently waiting outside of the moon pool.

The two mechs entered first, slowly surfacing inside the Reaper with weapons ready. When no threat presented itself, they started scans, lights playing over the walls even as they emerged from the water onto solid ground.

Unlike the exterior, the interior was dark, and looked much like the images Melara had seen of the insides of other Reapers. The moon pool chamber was sizable but they could see the whole of it. Several doors lead out but all appeared closed and latched. Along some of the walls were odd, rounded structures- semi-transparent bubbles of dark amber ringed with tech. One lay on the floor nearby, and the 'amber' looked semi-melted.

"There's an atmosphere, but I'd recommend against breathing it. It somewhat matches the natural atmosphere outside in composition, but its several thousand years stagnant. Helmets and rebreathers are to remain on."

{Air pressure is adequate,} Vina said. {I'm showing no sign of any significant radiation or any kind of recognizable disease vector. There are still no signs of indoctrination processes, and power levels remain nominal.}

"All right. Dae, you're clear. Bring the submersible up."

Slowly the pool began to brighten as the vehicle moved up through the water and then into the chamber. Water belled, then broke and spilled down its sides as the vehicle surfaced, Dae guiding it carefully to the edge and anchoring it securely.

Opening her mech, Melara dropped down to the floor, a faint metallic echo ringing as her boots struck the ground. She strode over to the side of the submersible as the doors opened and the others started to disembark.

"Leave the bulk of the equipment for now. I want to scout things out a bit more first. Bring only scanners and weapons. Noncombatants will stay behind until each area is clear, then move forward on our signal."

"These are strange items," Nevil said, looking at the pods, before moving toward them. He crouched next to the one on the ground. "This amber is unusual. I can't tell if it's synthetic or some sort of natural substance."

"It scans as neutral enough," Liara said, crouching beside him. "Here, on the floor…it looks as if it melted and then solidified again."

"Application of heat, perhaps?" Dae asked.

"Given our surroundings, I would say it is far more likely it is an application of water. Sam-?"

"Already with you," Sam said, straightening from a crouch by the pool's edge. She had filled a small sample tube with water, the gloves of her hard-suit protecting her from actually contacting it. Carrying it over, she knelt down by Liara and lightly poured a few drops onto the amber.

"I'm not seeing any change," Nevil said, scanning the results. "I just…no, wait. There is something happening. The water is destabilizing the molecular bond."

Using a thin tool, Liara touched the spot of amber that Sam had wetted. "It is spongy now, almost…gooey."

"Given the rate of change I'd say that if this pod was immersed in water, there would be about seven minutes before the bond destabilized completely and melted away. Take water away from it, and it rehardens in time, so long as enough of it remains grouped together."

"Mama, take a sample of that softened amber if you can," Melara said. "Make sure it's sealed up tight. Nevil, let's get started on one of these doors."

It took the quarian only a few minutes before he became confident he could get the door they had selected unlocked, though he was sure once it was they'd have to muscle it open. "Scans show pressure is about equal on both sides. We shouldn't lose the integrity of this room or the moon pool if we open it."

"Do it."

The others joined them before he had finished, and once the portal had popped free, Liara took air samples from around it.

"No sign of known toxins or harmful gasses," she said. "It more or less matches the air inside this chamber."

"Radiation and power levels still nominal."

"Vina, cover the door. Mama, put up a barrier just in case. Nevil, help me force this open."

They struggled the door open about six inches. Before they opened it further, Mel shone her omni-light through it.

"Looks like a corridor. I can't tell for sure but I think there's a large space beyond. No sign of hostiles. Ok, let's get this open the rest of the way."

Getting their shoulders into the gap, they moved the old door far enough that the largest of them could get through without being hung up. Sam shoved a wedge down into the base so it would not close again by accident as Melara slipped through, light on and rifle up. She scanned the hall, then gestured for Vina to follow her. The two soldiers kept forward, the narrow corridor going straight about twenty five yards before it joined to a much larger chamber.

They quickly cleared their corners just through the chamber entrance, then Melara paused lowering her rifle a bit as she took in the sight. Rippled dark walls sailed into the distance, vanishing quickly into blackness beyond what their omni-lights could banish. Switching on her infrared she could see the entirety of the room, the ringed walkways that circled it, the unusual contours. They were at the cusp of one of those catwalks themselves, arching in a bridge over the center of the space. More of those amber pods were nestled into the floor some twelve feet or so below the bridge, as well as hundreds of thousands of empty slots in even divots.

"Looks just like the pics I've seen of other Reaper interiors," Vina said. "Weird. Dark. Ugly."

"Indeed it does." Mel touched her com. "It's clear. Move forward."

As the lights and footfalls of the others started up the hall behind them, Vina turned her head to look at the arc of catwalk to their right, playing her light over it and the wall beside them. Melara looked toward the rest of the group.

"Big chamber, possibly some kind of manufacturing plant or storage area for those amber pods. Mama, you're the expert, but to me it looks like any other Reaper-"

She turned back toward the chamber and suddenly jolted in surprise, her rifle snapping up as her body suddenly rippled with biotics. Seeing the motion, Vina snapped around as well, her own weapon immediately trained.

A figure stood just a few feet away, at the junction where the bridge met the platform where they stood.

It looked at them solemnly.

"Hello," it said. "Welcome, Iovino."