Melara walked side by side with Eír and the Wolf, and the tension in the air- at least, from her perception-was palpable.
How does one apologize for killing a daughter? she thought. Though it was not in truth her who had killed Athena, she would instantly have done so had the opportunity afforded itself on that distant planet. As far as she was concerned, Athena's death was her responsibility, and just by knowing she would easily have pulled that trigger, it made her as culpable as if she had.
She was also concerned for her mother's sake. Liara had been the one to pull the trigger. She had done so in a bid to save her daughter's life but regardless of circumstance, it had been she who had put an end to the child of her sister.
Eír may understand the circumstances but a grieving parent's heart is not rational. Melara didn't know what she would do if someone killed Aleu, even if they did so attempting to save their own life, or the life of a loved one, whom he threatened.
She firmly pushed the thought of Aleu out of her mind. Right now, his death and that of Daenys was a very real possibility.
The deaths of myself and my family-everyone I know, everyone in the entirety of the galaxy. Even if we succeed, we may all die. The gun is in our hands now.
It was a tremendous weight, one that she was not sure she could bear for long. How did Bába handle it so well? How did she not lose her mind?
Liara remained weak and bedridden in the infirmary on the very ship whose halls the three now strode, but the infirmary was not their destination. The captain of the Thessian vessel had leant her permission to use a conference room near to the medical wing. Little Ashley had been brought up a couple of hours before, and with Liara in the condition she was, Melara knew that Sam would be strongly reluctant to leave her side. Given the short amount of time any of them might have, Melara didn't want to take her further or longer away from Liara and Ash than she had too.
When they entered the conference room, Sam Williams was already inside, but clearly had not been there for long. Though her eyes moved to Eír and the Wolf first, Melara stepped forward to greet her.
"Sam, thank you. We will make this as quick as we can. How is Mama?"
"She's troubled by everything and still weak and sore, but she is…well, she is your mother. There is not a one of you in your family, I think, who is not indelibly stubborn."
"You do realize you are in our family?" Melara said, though her heart didn't feel the attempt to lighten the mood. How did one lighten the reality they were facing?
Sam, however, gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said, then looked over at Eír and the Wolf again, her back stiffening with military precision. Although the doctor had not ever been in the military herself, her family was Alliance going back to before Ashley Williams, the second human Spectre. Military was in the way she had been brought up and in her very blood.
"I am so terribly sorry," she said softly. "Liara is…she is grieved about what happened, Eír. She wanted me to tell you how sorry she is, and while she understands if you do not wish to speak with her-"
Eír looked at Sam with awareness dawning on her face. "I…she has nothing to apologize for," she said. "I do not blame Liara for what happened. She was trying to save the life of her child. I would have done the same in her stead. What happened was Athena's will, and my fault."
"Your fault? You couldn't-" Melara began, but Eír gave her a look.
"My feelings do not need to be assuaged, Captain, though I thank you. We have more pressing matters at hand."
"Indeed we do," Sam said, then made a helpless gesture. "I've never tried to pass on these exobiotics to others on purpose. I'm…not even entirely sure where to start."
"First, we need the Cinch," Melara said. "If it cannot be charged with exobiotics the same as dark energy, then there is little point in trying-our plan will not work anyway."
Eír reached into a pouch at her belt and drew out her Cinch, the one that Shrive had given to her unimaginable lifetimes ago. She had not touched it since Thug's death and her own Cinching by a secondary device Shepard had gotten from Subject Zero, but she had not been able to bring herself to get rid of it or destroy it either.
Her fingers slid over the silken smooth links of the device, eyes distant with memory a moment before she handed it to Sam, who held it as if it were a somewhat docile but heavily venomous snake that might turn to bite her.
"What do I do?" she asked.
"Just light up," Melara said. "If your exobiotics can charge it we should know immediately."
Sam nodded, and then let out a breath, regarding the thing in her hands. Along her skin, the flares of purple and white appeared, illuminating her arms and her hands for a moment.
Nothing happened. The Cinch remained dark.
"Ta ma de!" Melara said with sudden fury.
"That is it then," Eír said wearily, shaking her head. "The plan will not work."
"I'll have to tell the Admirals not to bother moving the Crucible," Mel said. "We need to concentrate the fleets and see if we can't at least slow down that galaxy-buster-"
"Do you mind if I try something?" Sam asked. Their eyes moved to her.
"Try what?"
"It's…just a hunch," she said, then held out one hand. "May I see the cube a moment?"
Eír fished in her pouch again and removed the small control cube, a little block of the same material that made up the cinch, less than three inches across on each plane. She passed it to Sam, who looked at it.
"This device is what tunes the Cinch to a particular user, acts as a remote control of a kind, correct?"
"Yes. It is both a remote device and a genetic scanner," Eír said. "Only the last person to have touched that device can activate or release the Cinch's stored energy. It obeys only their will."
"I wonder…" Sam said, turning it about in her fingers, before she slipped it into her palm and closed her eyes in concentration. Her hand lit up again with just traces of exobiotic energy, surrounding the cube for a moment. Then she let it go, setting the cube down on the nearby table.
"Ok, let's try this again."
Holding the Cinch in both hands she lit up again. This time, her skin didn't even have time to flare with light. As soon as the glow began around her fingers the links of the Cinch started to shine as well, drawing the energy away from her and storing it inside of itself.
The glow was purple and white.
Mel's heart started again with a thunder of relief, and she barely restrained herself from whooping right out loud. Instead, she grinned at Sam.
"Dr. Williams, you are a goddamn genius," she said, as Sam let the glow go. The Cinch remained dimly shimmering. With an almost tremulous reverence, Sam set the Cinch on the table next to the cube, then wiped her palms off on her hips.
"Now we just need to see if I can willingly 'infect' another biotic with these exobiotics," she said, then looked at Eír. "I am open to suggestions."
"Irie and Lily were both affected by a meld with Liara," Eír said. "Irie directly, but it was strong enough to transfer over to her daughter just by touching her. I suggest we meld as well."
Melara pulled a pair of chairs out and directed them both to sit. "The last thing we need is someone collapsing and smacking their head," she said. "We're not entirely sure how this is going to go."
As the pair sat down, she moved the Cinch to the other side of the table so it could not draw on their energy, careful not to touch the control cube itself. She didn't want to somehow tune it back to biotics.
Sam again wiped her hands on her pants, then looked at Eír. "You are ok with this? Losing your biotics, I mean?"
"My biotics have been nothing but a source of grief my entire life," Eír said. "From what I have seen of exobiotics their use and affect is not that much different."
Reaching out, she offered her hands to Sam, who carefully took them. Eír nodded, then closed her eyes. "Relax, doctor. Take even breaths. Let go of yourself, let go of your fears. Embrace eternity."
Liara opened her eyes as the door to her infirmary room opened. Weary and weak as she still was, the moment she saw who came through she shifted, trying to sit up.
"No, shh, lay still…"
Melara hurried to the bedside, adjusting the controls to allow her mother to sit up. Immediately, Liara weakly hugged her, pulling her close.
"Melara," she said, her voice faint and shaking. "You are all right? You are not hurt?"
"Mama, I'm fine," she whispered back, though she herself was shaking faintly. "I'm fine…"
"You lie just as badly as your father did," Liara said softly, tears in her eyes as she released Mel enough to touch her face, looking into her eyes. Mel said nothing, only nodded slightly and kissed Liara's forehead.
"It worked, Mama," she said. "Sam was able to transfer the exobiotics to Eír. Zyara too."
"And the Cinch?"
"She figured out a way to make it hold an exobiotic charge as well. Eír will be responsible for the bulk of the Cinch's charge as we make our way to the Citadel but Zyara and a couple of others will be taking up the slack when she tires. Hopefully by the time we arrive it will have enough of a charge to do…well, to do what the other Cinch did at Anadius."
She pulled up the nearby chair, sitting beside her mother's bed. Liara took her hand. "When we get to the Citadel-"
Melara shook her head. "You're not going to the Citadel, Mama. You're staying on this ship with Sam, Aleu, and Ashley, and it's taking you to Thessia."
Liara's sky blue eyes, fogged as they were with pain medication, still managed to sharpen. "I am doing no such thing. If the Sol system is wiped out-"
"If the Sol system is the only thing wiped out we'll be lucky," Melara said. "And if it is, you and the children are going to be nowhere near it. I'm sorry, Mama-"
"And you?" Liara asked tensely. "Irie, and Lily? Daenys? Am I to stay tied to this bed halfway across the galaxy and watch as you are all lost? I will not bury one of my children, Melara, let alone two, a grandchild, and someone as good as a daughter to me! You are truly going to ask me to-"
"I'm not asking anything," Melara said kindly. "You do not have a choice in this, Mama. Your fight here is done. You have already fought your war, and more. Ashley needs her mother, and Aleu is going to need someone to…"
"Mel, don't you dare," Liara said, tears standing in her eyes. "Your father-"
"Bába would have done the exact same thing," Melara said gently. "You trusted her to come back to you, Mama. Even when you had no rational reason to think that she even still lived, you never let go of that hope. If the goddess is with us...no. No, not the goddess. If Bába is with us, we will come back to you. I will do everything in my power to get us back to you, I swear it."
Liara said nothing, only pulled Melara close and clung to her tight, tears streaming silently from her eyes. Melara held her just as tightly, mindful of her still healing wound, and closed her eyes.
The frigate was called the Newcastle, and was fresh out of dock. It already had a full crew roster and a commander who was assigned to take it over in two days, but those assignments were on hold in light of the current situation. They had arranged for it to be brought to Kallini and put under Melara's hopefully temporary command.
Stepping foot on the Newcastle was like slipping into a shoe that was just slightly off-size and stiff. While still an Alliance frigate and even bearing a lot of the same cutting edge upgrades as her own ship, no vessel would ever be the Normandy other than the Normandy.
No other ship would ever be home.
Stepping past the helm she paused behind the pilot's seat. "Joker, the moment everyone is aboard I want us off, top flight speed, to the Citadel."
"I've already got the coords programmed and ready to go," he said, then looked at her. "Once we set off ETA should be about five hours."
"Five hours?" She shook her head. "Normandy could make it in four."
"Well, the ship is nice," he said, and looked back toward the front. "But Normandy she isn't."
She headed back toward the CIC. Vina was already there, as was Daenys, taking the station of communications officer. As she headed toward her wife, Vina cleared her throat.
"EDI has the rakir on board Goruba and they are lifting off toward the Sol sytem," the turian said. "The Ubuuta was reluctant to stay behind." Melara looked at her.
"I bet she was, but if she and Sihra and that many of the One Hundred all are killed the rakir will have no coherent leadership. The Kodra will tear themselves to dozens of holdings and there would likely be civil war."
"She understands that. It is the only reason we were able to get her to remain behind. Sihra, however, is still aboard and is in command of the rakir."
"And Pio?"
"They were able to locate the nanites and information databases in Athena's light ship. They are confident that by the time we reach the Citadel they will be able to reintegrate the ID firing program, or at least themselves act as a suitable substitute, allowing the Crucible to target and fire as we need. Eír, Ziyara, and two other new exobiotics are down in the cargo hold. They will be consistently charging the Cinch on our route, and Nevil is working on ways to help that effort along."
"Zyara," Melara said, looking at her XO. Vina nodded, puzzled.
"Yes, Ziyara."
"No, Zyara," Melara repeated.
"What did I say?"
"Ziyara."
Vina blinked, lifting her brows slightly. "I…do not hear the difference."
"It is a name that is very often mispronounced by those who are not asari," Daenys said. Melara snorted.
"That's probably why she goes by 'Wolf'. Have the brasa and their superweapon entered the Milky Way?"
"Yes," Vina said, tapping in some commands. The galaxy map shifted, showing a highlighted line in red bisecting the Milky Way. "They entered the Sol system very shortly after the Fleets began to return home. At Grunt's command several of the krogan ships from his fleet are shadowing the vessel and this is their expected course of travel to reach the galactic core. At their given speed and apparent trajectory, they will reach the Omega relay in four standard days."
"Once they go through the relay, how long until they reach the core itself?"
"Sixteen hours," Vina said. "That is, if they must navigate through the ship graveyard and plot a similar path around the black holes and supernovae as one of our ships would have to, and if they have to actually reach the event horizon of the core before detonating their weapon. If they have similar buffer technology to the Collector base and the black ship from Commander Williams' home volume they would not have to navigate the graveyard and could reach the event horizon within four hours. If they have some unknown technology that allows them to maneuver far closer to supernovae and black holes than we can, they will reach it within one."
"They promised us two weeks," Melara said in a low voice. "If they keep that promise we have nine days left."
"If they do not, we have five," Daenys said. "It is not a lot of time."
"Plenty of time if my plan works," Melara said, looking at the galaxy map. "We reach the Citadel in four hours. The Crucible should be locked into position by the time we get there. If the Cinch is sufficiently charged we go immediately to the Council chambers, set off that Cinch and send a wave of exobiotics through the relay system and clear across this galaxy. Within two solar days we should have enough evidence for the brasa to see that we're no longer at risk of collapse."
"And if your plan does not work?"
"If it doesn't work the Sol system will be wiped out, and chances are we'll have started a galaxy wide collapse that will erase the Milky Way from the map anyway. If it doesn't work and nothing happens at all, we send all the fleets we can to stop that ship and hope we can do it before they reach the galactic core. Can you pull it up, Vina? Can we get a look at it?"
"One moment."
Vina isolated the brasa ship and zoomed in until it dominated the view. Melara lifted her eyebrows as she took it in.
"That is…an amazing piece of technology," she said. "That design is beyond anything I've seen before, even with the Reapers. Vina, can we see it to scale?"
With nothing to compare it to, it was impossible to determine size just from the static image. Vina nodded grimly, and tapped another control. A small blip appeared next to the brasa ship. Melara squinted at it.
"Goddess, is that the Normandy? That ship is huge-!"
"The ship is huge," Vina said. "But that is not the Normandy. That is the Citadel."
Mel heard her wife gasp and felt her stomach sink and tighten. "That's the Citadel? I don't understand…how did something that huge even get through the Sol system? That monster is the size of the goddamn moon! The gravitational pull alone should have destroyed the Citadel and torn Earth apart!"
"Apparently they have technology to compensate for such gravitational forces," Vina said. "When she came through, the Citadel itself didn't so much as waver. However, the size comparison you are seeing is accurate."
Melara felt her hands grip the edge of the console, her heartbeat ringing in her ears.
"There's no way the fleets can take that thing on," Daenys said softly. "Even if we had every ship in the galaxy hitting her at once, they would barely make a dent."
Melara stared at the image in front of her, her voice deceptively calm, even to her own ears. "My plan can't fail," she said. "No matter what happens, no matter what we must do…my plan cannot fail."