The Ubuuta's private quarters were utilitarian and simplified. Mel wasn't exactly surprised by their fairly Spartan appointments-the rakir didn't seem big on comfort and luxury, even in their 'royalty' apparently, and probably considered it a sign of weakness.
The most lavish part of the room was the fireplace and even that could only claim such because of its sheer size…it looked large enough to roast a grown varren on a spit, with room to spare. It was currently alight regardless of the pleasant day outside, the sheer heat from it making Mel and the two other asari with her glimmer with sweat almost immediately.
Besides the asari and the Ubuuta, two other rakir were in attendance. Sihra, which was completely unsurprising, and the fertile male that had been introduced a while back as Juffbak Hotes, one of the One Hundred. He remained near one wall, a looming but relatively silent shadow.
"I can tell by your scent already you're going to ask for more time," Sokka said bluntly almost the moment they walked in the door. She turned from the fireplace and fixed Melara with a look. "We have discussed this, detrak. Do not strain our friendship."
"I hold our friendship and the treaty between our people with the utmost reverence, Ubuuta. It is not in my desire to strain it."
"We were told that governance over our world and our people was to our discretion," Sokka said. "That the Council and the detrak species would respect our laws on our own ground, and our right to develop and guide our own world. Was that a lie?"
"No," Melara said honestly. "You know it was not, and you know that I am telling you the truth now."
"Yet you want more time. More time you were expressly forbidden from having. I thought we had an understanding," Sokka said.
"New and vital information has presented itself, Ubuuta. News I have struggled with telling you."
"You seek to hide information from us?" Sihra asked dangerously, narrowing her eyes. Melara looked at her evenly.
"I had to weigh all my options, Protek. I had to consider what would be best, for my people as well as yours, as well as the greater galaxy. Hiding the information from you was one option of many that I have explored."
"And discarded," Sokka said, watching her carefully.
"Yes. While all my options would put strain- perhaps irreparable strain- on our treaty, hiding the truth from you was a choice that both I and Matron Neska felt would cause far more damage. If nothing else, you deserve to know the truth, whatever your reaction to that truth may be."
Sokka hummed slightly, but by her expression it was impossible to tell if she was pleased or displeased by this revelation. "Tell us," she said simply.
"It will be difficult for you to understand," Melara said. "We have found evidence that Nakira is not your native home world."
Sokka looked to her aunt, who all but blanched. "What? Explain!"
Speaking carefully, taking into account that the rakir were only starting to understand even the rudiments of technology, Melara told them everything they had learned. She told them about quarantine, the Senate and the Iovino. She told them about Goruba, Alba, and Relldo Sivarr.
It was not a quick tale, but throughout it the three rakir watched and listened silently. Finally, Melara- damp by now with sweat from the heat- cleared her throat.
"You and your people are in great danger," she said finally.
"You believe these hostiles- the brasa and their Senate- will come after us," Sokka said.
"Yes. If they discover that the Iovino still exist…that you exist…they will likely make a concentrated effort to finish what they started millennia ago."
"We will fight them," Hotes said with a low, dangerous growl. Melara looked at him calmly.
"You will lose."
"Leave us," Sokka said. "I would speak with Captain Shepard alone."
"Sokka-" Sihra narrowed her eyes, only to be fixed with a look. Flapping her ears slightly, the Protek scowled and gestured sharply at Neska, her assistant, and Hotes.
"Go."
Mel stayed where she stood, waiting until the others had filed out. The door shut heavily-a final, nonverbal expression of how Sihra felt about Sokka's order.
"These brasa may not even exist anymore," Sokka said when the others had gone.
"A slim chance," Melara said. "It is true the creature we saw at the Oasis base may not have been brasa-or they may be very much changed from what they were when the quarantine was instituted, but make no mistake, Sokka- that creature and its companions were hostile toward us, and they will likely return in force. For all our advancements, even we may not be able to stand against them. If they turn their sights on Nakira- we will do all we can but it would be devastating to your people. Especially now. You are still struggling to recover from the Affliction."
"It will be decades before the number of our fertile males are to safe levels again," she agreed, then looked at the fire. "I find this hard to fathom, detrak. You are certain of this information?"
"Yes," Melara said.
She was quiet for a long moment. Melara could see the tension in her body and watched her carefully, but said nothing.
"Then this 'Senate' slaughtered my people," Sokka finally said in a low voice. "They exterminated them, drove them into hiding…into desperation- like prey."
She growled, one hand moving out. For a moment Mel thought she meant to lean on the wall next to the fireplace. Instead, her claws dug gouges into the wood.
"They stole everything from us. Our name, our heritage, our lives."
"No," Melara said. "The Iovino were your ancestors, it is true. Their blood runs in your veins, but that is all, Sokka. You are rakir. You and your people may not have evolved here but you were born here. You struggled and grew and survived. You made your own way, your own path and heritage. Other than your basic DNA, you are not Iovino. You are rakir. This is your home. The Senate slaughtered the Iovino but they have never slaughtered the rakir."
"How can I take this as anything but that my people have come from weakness?" Sokka demanded, rounding to glare at the asari captain. "These Iovino couldn't save themselves- they fled! There was cowardice in their veins and so there is cowardice in mine! How does this mean anything else?"
"There is no cowardice in strategy," Melara told her firmly. "The Iovino didn't flee. They fought. They fought and they sacrificed and they did what they had to do in order to survive, in order to keep the Senate and the brasa from winning. They fought until the very name Iovino meant 'devil' to the overwhelming force of the Reapers- until the very name instilled fear in those that had no reason to fear anything."
Sokka studied her, and Melara nodded. "They didn't fail. They didn't flee. They survived, and they succeeded. You are here. You and your people are still here. And if the brasa and the Senate do come for us-they will see what they failed to destroy, teeth bared, ready to destroy them."
Sokka snorted, then chuckled. "You are intent if nothing else, Captain. You would have made a good rakir, I think."
"Thank you, Ubuuta. I take that as the highest of compliments."
Sokka hummed again. "The lake is no longer deadly?"
"No, the Screen has been shut off. Life will return to it, and your people can make use of it without fear."
"And this…Goruba. What about it?"
"She is still coming on line, and she is damaged. She is beyond our scope to repair, but we are hoping that we can utilize Pio and Alb to help in that capacity. Now that we know why Pio shut himself off-clearly, when he saw your aunt he thought she was Iovino and he was being tricked somehow-hopefully we can get his trust again, get him working. In the meantime we are doing what we can to retrieve the information in Goruba's databanks, in case repairs cannot be done."
"The information," Sokka repeated. "You mean the records and history of my people."
"Yes, as well as anything we can possibly use to prepare for the brasa and create defenses. Neska is also receiving all data at the research base. It will be provided in full to you and the rakir, Ubuuta. It belongs to you."
"Does Goruba belong to us as well?" Sokka asked thoughtfully.
"That may be trickier," Melara said. "We need to see how functional she is first. She may be fully sentient in her own right, in which case, she really belongs to no one."
"And if she is not?"
"Then the Council will likely put extreme pressure on you to obtain her."
"They would take her from us?"
"Outright steal her? I wish I could say no for certain. The chances are very slim, but if they think that she holds technology that might protect them if it comes to full on war with the rest of the universe, they may consider war with the rakir a very small price to pay for the lives they think she'll save. It is far more likely they will try and obtain her from you in exchange for either a very large sum of money or widened considerations for your entire species-extended territory rights, colonization rights, research and tech rights, that sort of thing."
Sokka looked thoughtful at this, and remained silent again an extended period of time. Finally she fixed her gaze back on Melara. "Take the time you need at the lake, and keep me informed. I will need to pass this information on to the Kodra."
Mel felt an internal surge of relief, but did not indulge it. "What if they take exception?"
"Then they are fully within their rights to kill me and try and take the Ubuutis," Sokka said. "They will find that no easy chore. At any rate, they are my concern, not yours. Take the time you need. However make sure your Council is very aware we will not tolerate being robbed. I expect to be updated soon with the information regarding my people you pull off that 'Goruba'."
"I will send Neska in to make arrangements to that effect right now," Melara said.
"Very well. And Captain…only your team or those vitally necessary approach that lake. You are at least forthright and I trust you at your word- that trust does not automatically extend to other detrak. Let us be clear on that."
"We are clear, Ubuuta. Thank you."
Sokka grunted and jerked her chin, the motion a clear dismissal. Melara turned and strode out.
Melara arrived back at the lake to find her mother, Daenys, Lily, and EDI working on shore, the submersible parked on the beach. The new banks of equipment had been set up, protected from the elements by temporary static canvas tents that had been hastily erected. EDI remained where she was working at one of the consoles as Melara disembarked the shuttle, but the others headed her way.
"What news?" Liara asked as she approached.
"We have been given permission to stay and continue working. The Ubuuta took the news surprisingly well though she is clearly a bit conflicted over the truth of where the rakir came from."
"So the treaty is still intact," Dae said with relief.
"Don't get me wrong," Melara said. "She's not happy. The treaty holds for now but if the Council gets it in their heads to try and keep any information away from the rakir- or Goddess forbid, tries to 'confiscate' Goruba without fair trade in exchange, that treaty is going to dissolve like ice in the sun. That aside, Sokka is breaking the news to the Kodra right now. If it doesn't go well we could be looking at civil war, or an abrupt change of leadership if Sokka and her One Hundred fall. How are we looking?"
Lily looked pale, but spoke evenly. "We continue to transfer the data as records and systems come online," she said. "Joker went aboard with Pio to help Nevil and Alb directly, EDI is coordinating from here."
"Pio's awake again?"
"Yes," Liara said. "EDI created a quick burst data file to try and break through his automated shut downs, containing what we had learned about the rakir and the Iovino. Once he realized it wasn't an Iovino trick from those who had stolen his ship, he reactivated. He seemed eager to interface with Goruba and the reactivating Pio there."
"We still need information from him."
"And he still wants to cooperate," she said. "As well, so far Nevil has identified at least two thousand newly reactivated Pio programs within Goruba, as well as additional records that may contain the very information we need. It is a lot to sort through and process, but the answers to our questions are undoubtedly there."
"Captain."
Melara looked over as EDI called from the equipment tent, then lead the others that direction. "EDI?"
The synthetic glanced at her. "Captain, we have found the original Crucible plans in Goruba's databanks, as well as what appear to be plans for devices similar to the Cinch. We also have verification regarding the true nature of the infection that lead to our galaxy's quarantine. It is as you suspected."
"It's biotics," Melara said softly.
"Yes," EDI said. "According to these records, the problem is a matter of advanced metaphysics and multi-dimensional string theory. Dark energy is native to the multiverse, but not to our particular level of it."
"Explain…simply for those of us that aren't eggheads."
"Centuries ago, it was discovered that there are certain energy forces that do not originate in our universe but 'bleed through' from elsewhere," EDI said. "Gravity is one such force. We now know that gravitons move freely between the branes that make up the multiverse according to string theory. We know that because gravitons are closed strings lacking endpoints, they are not bound to any particular brane and leak into adjacent branes of higher multi-dimensions."
Melara looked at her mother with a blink. "I thought I said 'simply.'"
"I can simplify further," EDI said. "Gravity does not originate in our universe, our particular dimension of the multiverse. Gravity is a force of gravitons, which accumulate far more tightly in what would be considered 'lower' dimensions-areas of space-time in the multiverse where energies are condensed and incredibly strong. Consider it like an engine core, tightly packed, highly and dangerously energetic. However gravitons escape from this core and radiate throughout the higher dimensions, ours included. This 'leakage' of gravitons into our reality gives us gravity at a far weaker level than it is on the lower levels where gravitons are far more dense and concentrated. This allowed the big bang to happen. If gravity were any stronger in the higher dimensions, all matter would be compressed into a point and nothing outside of it would exist."
"You're saying dark energy is the same way," Melara said, realization coming over her.
"Yes. Dark energy is a very dense and powerful force in the lower dimensional levels, just as gravity is. Faint radiation of this energy reaches our level of dimension, but naturally it is too weak to have much of an effect as it cannot be bound to our particular brane-our dimension as we know it- just as gravity cannot."
"That's it. That's exactly it," Melara said. "That's what Pio meant. The Iovino tapped into the 'Foundation Levels'…the Foundation Levels are the lower dimensions, the engine core. They somehow managed to tap directly into it."
"Precisely. Because of their efforts, they-for lack of a better term-punctured a hole through our brane and tapped into the core, allowing dark energy to pass through and accumulate at far higher levels. Element Zero is to dark energy what gravitons are to gravity. The more eezo passes through this puncture into our universe, the more it widens the 'hole'. The more it widens, the more eezo passes through. It has been accumulating now for millions of years, and eezo has become so invasive in our brane that it has literally 'infected' many life forms. The asari are a perfect example. Eezo itself accumulates- that is its nature. One eezo particulate attracts another if they are in proximity, building upon itself. If any naturally biotic being from our galaxy were to depart to the other galaxies who were not 'punctured'-"
"They'd become infected too. The eezo brought in the blood by the biotic, or by their engine cores, would start drawing more eezo through from the foundation levels, into those areas as well."
"The effect is cumulative. The Senate was right to be concerned. Left unchecked, the amount of eezo and dark energy in our dimension will continue to increase until the very fabric of our brane is irretrievably torn. We will collapse into the Foundation Levels and a chaos of natural forces. The damage would probably be fairly localized-our brane, as well as perhaps a few trillion other branes in direct contact with our own."
"That's 'localized?'" Dae asked, flabbergasted and horrified. "A few trillion universes like our own utterly destroyed?"
EDI looked at her calmly. "Given that the multiverse is likely infinite, a few trillion would be a negligible number when taken on that scale. A pebble dropped in an ocean the size of a galaxy."
"This…this is all because of what the Iovino did?" Lily asked.
"It was not their intention," EDI told her. "To them, they had merely found a far more efficient and powerful source of energy, one that could be more easily manipulated and even utilized biologically, and they tapped it at the source. They could not have foreseen what would occur."
"How do we…how can we even try to fix this?" Lily said, looking at Melara, her eyes wide and her breath hushed and ragged. "Was the Senate right? Was the quarantine the universe's only hope to contain-…m-maybe they didn't ignore us, ignore the Cycle. Maybe there really is no other solution…"
"What would happen if the infected galaxies were sterilized?" Melara heard herself ask, ignoring her niece as she looked at EDI. "All life within them wiped out?"
"The effect would be cauterized," EDI told her. "If all organic life in the infected galaxies were eliminated, there would be nothing beyond natural cosmic forces to carry the eezo particles near to others to allow accumulation. The process would be all but halted, reduced to levels negligible enough to allow the branes to 'heal' themselves. Within a few million years element zero would be back to the rare levels it was before the punctures occurred and the danger would be passed."
"So the only way to fix this is to completely wipe out all life in all the infected galaxies," Melara said neutrally, then added almost inaudibly, speaking more to herself than the others- her father's voice echoing through her mind.
"Killer of galaxies…"