Eír gasped against the swirl of vertigo, trying desperately to orient herself. Her stomach lurched, her head spinning, but at the same time she didn't appear to have a stomach or a head that she could feel.
Everything around her was perfect blackness. There was no up or down, no point of reference. Regaining some level of equilibrium she said, "Where am I?"
"You are still where you were," Blithe replied. Eír tried to look around but could not see her. She could not, in fact, even tell if she were moving her head or her eyes. "We are projecting this information directly into your mind."
Abruptly she remembered the nanites her daughter had taken from Del's head, that had spoken to them with her voice from EDI's spare chassis. Shepard's ghost had told them about Id, about how she was 'shown' the purpose behind the Reapers by the AI. She wondered if this was similar, and then she suddenly felt confirmed that it was, even though Blithe had said nothing directly.
Then, the blackness was broken by visions, scenes, all passing so rapidly, yet she felt almost as if she were watching them in real time. She saw the other galaxies of the universe, a trillion different sentient species, some so alien she had no concept for what they were- mammalian, reptilian, even vegetation did not seem to fit. They were advanced, many of them…but not to the point that Eír would have expected. It puzzled her.
She had the feeling that she was seeing recent events and yet they seemed little more advanced than the species of the Milky Way. Perhaps five hundred or a thousand years ahead of them, but not the millions they should have been.
In the vision, there were tales told to children, stories and legends and myths, about a great, golden civilization that had thrived across all known galaxies. Everyone had lived in peace, and great wonders had been performed, things that were considered magic. Then, some kind of a demon creature had risen up at the edges of infinity. Enraged by the peace and magical gifts of this golden civilization it had laid waste to it. None could stand against it. Trillions died as it ravaged world after world, swallowing whole systems, whole galaxies. In the end, the best and brightest that remained, a force known as the Senate, had managed to drive this beast back and imprison it asleep at the very fringes of the universe…in an area that translated best to Eír as 'the Nothingness'.
"That's…none of that is true! None of that makes sense!" she said.
"These are the stories that remained. This is what many believed," Blithe said. "They would have been dismissed as pure superstition, however so many unrelated species shared similar tales. As our peoples advanced and became more interconnected, we discovered evidence of entire worlds and stars that had been destroyed- in some distant sectors of space, even proof of entire galaxies just vanishing. As our technology grew yet more advanced, we could see those galaxies millions of light years away disappear over the course of weeks. We were seeing into the distant past, of course, not real time events…but it was proof of the demon-or so my ancestors first thought."
"But you do not any longer."
"No. As yet more time passed and more technology became available, we found ancient structures on some ravaged worlds. Evidence of the golden civilization, far in advance to us. At a time that would to you be just over three centuries ago, a strange signal began to draw our ships to a single scorched planet. There, we found what we later learned was a record archive and military command center dating back millions of years old. It has taken us most of these three centuries, but we have learned the truth."
"Show me."
Again, images appeared. This time, she saw what she knew to be the time of the Senate. She could see the Iovino, the brasa, the cyberbiological technology. She could see them using Folds to travel instantly from galaxy to galaxy among their empire.
She saw the Iovino develop the method for drawing dark energy from the distant, still unformed dimensions- the Pio's 'foundation levels', increasing the amount of element zero in their own universe and inadvertently introducing biotics as a far more powerful and efficient energy source than had been used before. At first, this was heralded as a magnificent discovery. The Iovino used this new energy source to create far more efficient intragalactic relay systems, to create Citadels. They used it in all their technology, harnessed it for a thousand purposes even the asari had never before contemplated.
Then, came the problems. It was discovered that the increased levels of dark energy were creating a serious instability in the fabric of space/time itself. A series of accidents resulted in events similar to what the Milky Way was seeing now- eezo was accumulating in the cores of healthy stars and causing them to age prematurely, or a specialized ship core would overload and create a chain reaction that would nova an entire system without warning, creating black holes.
In the beginning, the Iovino tried to correct things, but they were moving out of hand far too rapidly. People from those galaxies were starting to be born with innate and natural biotics, nodules of eezo forming in their very blood and tissues. When those people and their ships went into a new galaxy that didn't have the same particular technology yet, they found that eezo and dark energy levels began to rise there as well.
There was a panic. It was projected that the levels of element zero would continue to increase exponentially until it finally set off a chain reaction that would destroy everything. The Iovino disagreed, certain that with more time they could find a way to stabilize dark energy and biotics, stop the chain reactions from occurring, stop the damage from happening. The Senate allowed them the chance, but insisted that the infected galaxies be quarantined to prevent the problem from worsening in the meantime. Eír saw the arks being developed for harvest and quarantine, saw the Iovino and other species searching desperately for a way stop what they had caused and protesting the quarantine- more especially, protesting that the populations and species of a dozen galaxies would be harvested, their civilizations destroyed.
The Senate, however, saw such drastic measures as their only hope to securing the rest of the known universe. They sent in their newly created Reapers, securing the infected galaxies and started to raze their worlds, harvesting and wiping out every advanced form of life. The Iovino revolted, which lead- ultimately- to the Senate finally wiping them all out (with the exception of the single ark the Iovino had managed to steal in a desperate bid not to be rendered extinct). Other species that tried to protest the treatment of the Iovino were also threatened with genocide.
The quarantine was in place, the Reapers set to their Cycles to allow time for the Senate, ostensibly, to find a solution to the problem of dark energy.
The ripples of what they had done, however, refused to die. The slaughter of trillions in the quarantined areas, the systematic decimation of the Iovino, lead in a few short decades to a full out war as half the Senate worlds revolted.
The brasa took full control of the Senate in the decades to follow and began to pursue the same solution as they had with the Iovino against those other species that opposed them: genocide. In the end, less than a thousand years after the quarantine was put into place, the war had cost everything. Mega weapons were in use that were capable of sterilizing entire planets of life down to the microbial level; others could be set off in the heart of a sun and erase an entire solar system. The brasa, no longer content with mere genocide, were systematically cleansing every galaxy of all life other than themselves. Down to extinction levels, the last few species developed their own mega weapons of a scale that was mind-boggling. They managed to make ten, nine of which were driven by suicide squads into the galaxies that were now occupied only by the brasa- the heart of their empire and stronghold.
There, they had only one target- the galactic core. The detonation of the weapons in the core set off a chain reaction that literally erased those galaxies from existence.
"The war was over, but at unimaginable cost," Blithe said as the images faded. Eír felt cold and shaky, unable to catch her breath. Her chest felt as if it were being crushed under the weight of what she had seen. "The known universe was all but depopulated of any life capable of any sort of space flight. Those few species that remained with technology above stone age were at extinction levels, and soon vanished. Millions of years have now passed. New life and species have evolved, ignorant of the travesty of those who came before us."
"I-I can't…" Eír tried, her voice weak and shaking. "I-I can't accept this-"
"We did not know," Blithe said, and damned if it didn't sound almost heartbroken. "Myths, stories, these were all we had- stories of a demon who swallowed worlds. We did not know what the stories truly meant. No one took them seriously; who would? Not until that signal. Not until we found that ancient archive."
"The signal-"
"Was a warning device," Blithe said. "So long as the ones you call the Reapers were signaling back to the ancient monitoring station, it stayed silent. When they stopped, the warning went off. It was meant to inform the Senate that the quarantine had been broken."
"N-no…I can't…"
"Since that signal went off, we have been learning all of this," Blithe said. "Our scientists have been studying the archives, discovering the truth of our history, of the region of the universe we call 'the Nothingness.'"
"No," Eír said angrily. Though she still could not feel her body per se, she knew she was shaking. "No, this makes no sense. You are brasa! If the brasa were all destroyed-"
"Not all were destroyed. There were a few, scattered and isolated among the other galaxies during the war. When their…our…galaxies and homes were destroyed we were castaways on a dozen different planetary islands. We had nowhere to go, no way off the worlds we were on, no technology left to us. We were returned to living primitively. The children of those original castaways knew no other home or way of life. Their children's children's children forgot that any other home had ever existed. We are brasa, and discovering the truth about the actions of our ancestors has brought us much shame…but we had no hand in it. Their way and culture is not our way, not our culture. Not…all of us."
Again, Blithe sounded sad, even grieved.
"All of you?" Eír pressed.
"Information was not the only thing stored in the archives," Blithe said. "As well, we found a few of the creatures your lexicon labels as Jabberwockies. We call them Atrinids. They were cybernetic soldiers, specially bred and enhanced to be part of the Senate's army. They have a hive mind, each unit or platoon controlled telepathically by a single dominant individual. Only that individual has any real independent thought, and even they are programmed to explicitly obey. Curious, we wakened them."
"How many?"
"Several hundred," Blithe said. "They seemed unconcerned about the time that had passed or their new situation. Obedience and slaughter was all they understood, but they seemed inclined to obey us, having been programmed to obey our ancestors. This did not sit comfortably with most of my people. We are not warlike as the ancient brasa may have been, nor were we keen on the idea of slavery-even genetic or cybernetic slavery. We were attempting to rehabilitate them…see if we could return them to their base genetic code, the way they were before they were taken and enhanced by the Senate."
"And that failed."
"Yes, but not for the reasons you think. About the same time we learned of the truth behind the Nothingness and the quarantined galaxies, and that truth spread among the sentient species, we were faced with a huge dilemma. The quarantine was a travesty and the war it caused was a horror beyond contemplation, but it remained that dark energy was very capable of destroying everything…and it was capable of spreading with the quarantine no longer in effect, even around a single galaxy. Then, we were able to take accurate readings of the Milky Way. The dark energy levels in your galaxy have grown nearly to a catastrophic tipping point. If that tipping point is reached, your galaxy will be annihilated and the chain reaction will tear apart the entirety of our universe and untold universes beyond.
"Our people are frightened. Fear does terrible things," Blithe continued miserably. "A group formed…an adequate synonym in your tongue would be 'the Solvers'. They are a small group but they have military resources. They have members not only of my kind but of several other species. They have many of the awakened Jabberwockies. They wished to invade the Milky Way, and do what the Reapers had failed to do."
"Wipe us all back to the stone age."
"Worse. They wish to sterilize the entirety of your galaxy of all life, insure that nothing ever evolves to leave again."
"They were the ones that attacked Oasis."
"Most likely. The group went into hiding, but they have the technology and resources to fold space. If you have experienced attacks of our kind from within your galaxy, it would be the Solvers."
"You didn't agree with their plan," Eír said.
"No, most of us did not," Blithe replied. "There is an effort ongoing now to try and find the solution the war prevented the last time- discover a way to stop this outpouring of dark energy into our universe before that tipping point can be reached. We are devoting all of our resources into that end, however time is running out. Your galaxy is at the breaking point. Rupture is all but imminent."
"Decades?" Eír asked, her voice sounding hollow.
"Years, at most."
Some small relief thundered through her. "Years. We can handle that, that gives us a chance," she said. "Between your scientists and ours we can no doubt find a solution by then-"
"You do not understand," Blithe said sadly. "You may have years. However, the rupture may happen at any given moment. Any large scale dark energy event within the confines of your galaxy could be all that stands in the way of survival and the annihilation of everything."
"H-how large scale?"
"Our research tells us that you had an equivalent large scale event very near to the time the quarantine was broken."
Another vision appeared…a red giant going brilliantly nova, dissolving an entire system before collapsing into a massive black hole.
"Anadius," she whispered. "You mean, another event like Anadius is all it will take for-"
"For the end of everything," Blithe said softly.
"Then we have some time, right? I mean, Anadius was massive, and a unique accident. A regular ship's eezo core going critical won't cause it. We have some time?"
"Some time," Blithe told her. "We have been…authorized to grant you some small amount of time."
"How small?"
"By your measure…two weeks."
"Two weeks?" Eír gasped. "That's nothing! We cannot possibly solve this problem in just two weeks! You said there were years before…"
"I am sorry, Eír," Blithe said. "We cannot risk it. We cannot risk the end of everything. We are working hard, we are trying to find the answer. I know that your people are as well, but we cannot give more time than this. Too many lives, unfathomable lives, all hang in the balance. The loss of a single galaxy is far preferable to the destruction of possibly thousands of entire universes. Your galaxy is the closest to going critical. If we can stop it here, that gives us more time to save the others still under quarantine."
Eír's horror was like a beast in her chest, feasting on her insides and leaving her shaking and hollow. She shook her head. "Blithe...you send ten of those galaxy destroying mega weapons had been built."
Blithe said nothing. Eír's throat grew tight.
"…but only nine were used…"
Silence.
"Blithe, what…" she could barely form the words, her voice little more than a heated breath in her throat. "…what happened to the tenth? Was it destroyed? Was it lost?"
"The location of the tenth was preserved in the archives, secured deep in a large asteroid in the Krohakki galaxy. I am sorry…"
"Th-that doesn't matter. Millions of years, that asteroid could have been destroyed…"
"I am sorry…"
"Th-the weapon couldn't have survived that long! It couldn't possibly! What happened to it? What happened?"
"Eír, I am-"
"Blithe, damn it! What happened to the tenth?"
A pause, and then the brasa spoke in a miserable, tiny voice.
"You…are standing in it."