The two krogan ships captained by Grunt and his daughter broke off as they left the Kallini system, heading to join their vessels shadowing the brasa weapon. Melara watched them go with mixed emotions.
Evacuation efforts had been underway on the Citadel and in the Sol system since she had outlined her plan and requested the Crucible to be moved, however they were a gesture at best. It was realistic they'd get most everyone off the Citadel in the amount of time they had, but Earth and the few scattered bases and small colonies throughout the system would take months to evacuate.
And to what end? she thought. The only safe direction to go is out of the Milky Way altogether.
It seemed the Council and Alliance Command felt the same way. Even as ships were leaving the solar system, others were arriving. Every species was sending live ships through the now open Citadel relay into dark space. If the worst happened, these ships would take course for Andromeda and hope that they could either get past the Reaper's net or avoid being destroyed by them.
Once in Andromeda they would make contact with the natives there-if any were advanced enough for it of course- and warn them of both the Reaper and the dark energy threat, and hopefully succeed where the Milky Way had failed.
Let's hope they have their own 'Iovino' to lead them…
Mel remained at the CIC promontory on the journey to the Citadel, reports passing over her console or through her hands until they all became a blur. Her mind was on her family, on what they were about to do, on what they faced.
She had no fear of dying, of giving up her life for this galaxy, but she did fear for her family. Liara had already lost so much, and losing any of her children would be a devastating blow that Mel feared she would not survive.
Aleu was at a safe distance for the moment, but her wife, Irie, and Lily all were aboard this very ship. Their lives were in her hands, and were something to happen to one of them and not to her…
She'd lost Beth already. Her heart and soul still felt gutted from that, a pain that she kept forcing sternly to the back of her mind in order to focus. If Daenys died as well-
"Captain, we are through the Sol relay. ETA to the Citadel about ten minutes."
Melara's mind snapped back to the here and now with force and she straightened.
"Get us docked," she said, then looked over at Vina and Daenys. "Vina, you're with me. Nevil too, Eír and Zyara, if they are not too exhausted…"
"Irie expressed interest at joining us as well," Vina said to Melara. "She has an idea that may allow the spread of exobiotic energy to Andromeda without travelling there."
"By all means, her too," Melara said with a blink. "It's worth a shot, and if she thinks she can do that-"
"She is fairly convinced."
"Then we'll do it. Daenys, you're in command as soon as we're on the Citadel. Take the Newcastle through the Citadel relay and join the ships waiting in dark space-"
"Are you trying to protect me?"
"It is pointless for this ship and this crew to sit docked at the Citadel when they could very easily get to safe space," Melara told her. "If things go well, the moment we're done you can come back through and pick us up-"
"Anyone can command the ship to do that-"
"Yes, but I trust you-"
Daenys folded her arms. "No, you are trying to protect me."
Melara stepped down off the promontory, gently taking her wife's arm and leaning close, whispering softly so that only she could hear.
"Fine. I am trying to protect you. Please, Dae. Losing Beth was hard, but it's nothing compared to what would happen if I lost you, and there is literally no reason to put you into harm's way more than necessary. I can only do this if I know you're as safe as I can make you. Please, Daenys."
Daenys, her copper eyes sparking a little and sheened with gloss, leaned even closer. "Do not make me into my mother, Melara," she said in a heated, thick tone. "Do not make me into the ghost she was for half my childhood. Do not make Aleu grow up seeing me like that. You come back to us. Do you understand me?"
Melara hugged her close, holding her tightly. "I swear it to the Goddess."
Dae shook her head, her face buried in Melara's neck. "So far, the Goddess does not seem to have helped this galaxy much. It seems that duty is solely for Shepards."
It was almost eerie, stepping aboard the Citadel and crossing the empty docking ring. Usually bustling, the only figures now to be seen were those waiting for her. Pausing before she reached them, Melara looked back and watched the Newcastle undock again, heading back out.
Irie briefly touched her arm, and as she did, Melara refocused her attention and they continued on their way.
"How did Gerty take being left on the ship?" she asked.
"Probably about as well as Daenys did," Irie said, then shook her head. "The sooner we have this finished, the sooner we can see them again."
Melara saluted as they reached the waiting group, Admiral Essien at their head. Essien was a rigid, no nonsense woman who was efficient and precise almost to the point of being cold, but Melara had once served directly in her command and knew her better than most. Essien's hair was nearly white now, wrinkles set in the corners of her dark ebony face, but that glint in her eye hadn't dulled a bit.
"Captain," she said, saluting back with a crisp toss. Her eyes went briefly to Eír and the Wolf. They were standing silently, the chain of the Cinch held between them, each with one hand grasping it. The glow of the links was bright, almost throbbing. Nevil was lingering near it, monitoring it with his omni-tool. "We are just waiting on the shuttle bringing EDI and the Pio. They should be docking any moment."
"Is the entire station evacuated?" Mel asked.
"There is a skeleton crew of engineers and C-Sec, and some stragglers who simply refused to leave. We haven't got the time or energy to roust them out. I suppose they're in this ride with us. You are certain these Pio can activate the Crucible? Our engineers and scientists have tried everything since the War and none could get it to so much as glimmer."
"The Pio are synthetic AI programs that are familiar with the technology," Irie said. "They also have the fragments of the original ID firing program in their possession."
"If anyone can get that thing to fire, it's them," Mel said with a nod.
"And this is the Cinch device?" Essien asked, gesturing to the glowing chain.
"Yes," Melara said. "They've been charging it constantly with exobiotics for the last several hours. Hopefully it will be enough. Nevil?"
"It is impossible to say if the charge is sufficient, or even close to the charge that the other Cinch held when it triggered Anadius," he said. "That one was thrown into an eezo core, so there is no telling how much raw biotic power it absorbed before it was detonated. Eír is the closest thing we have to an exobiotic 'core', and she has refused to stop. She's giving it her full power."
"And she is still on her feet?" Essien asked, stunned. Melara as well was shocked. She didn't realize that Eír had been charging it at full strength this entire time.
"Eír, you were supposed to take breaks and replenish while others continued to charge it," she said.
"We have one chance of this working," Eír said distantly, her eyes looking tired and hollow. "Stopping would have lessened the charge. I kept on and let the others add to it as well."
Melara stared at her, wondering if this wasn't Eír's way of punishing herself for Athena's death…for Athena.
She truly does blame only herself for what her daughter was, for what she became…
Shaking her head once, she refocused. There was no helping it now, and they truly did need as great a charge as they could get. Eír exhausting herself as she had was irrelevant considering in just twenty minutes, they could all be dead.
The strange, podlike shuttle from Goruba docked soon after, EDI and Pio emerging. As they joined them, Mel made quick introductions as they headed into the station and across the Presidium toward the Council Tower.
"Pio, do we know yet if we can make the Crucible fire?" Melara asked as they went. The synthetic looked at her oddly, a strangely emotional look that made Mel's heart cold somehow.
"I have recovered a sufficient portion of the ID program and integrated it with my runtimes," it said. "I can make it fire just fine, Mel."
"Mel?" She blinked, and looked at her sister. Nearby, EDI looked sheepish.
"I should have warned you," she said gently. "In order to utilize the fragmented ID program the Pio had to make it part of their own programming. The fragments from the nanites were still inextricably tied in with Shepard's encoded memories."
Irie went pale. "It thinks it is-"
"No," Pio said. "I remain Pio, but I have access to many of your father's memories and personality engrams. They have been assimilated as deeply as if they were my own. I do not think I am Del Shepard, I…we…retain our original memories and identities. But she is part of us now. We cherish the aspects that were once her, but they also influence us in a way we cannot truly describe. We apologize, we did not mean to sound familiar…"
Melara looked at it sadly. I suppose in a way it is now yet another child of Del Shepard, formed from who she was but a unique identity at the same time; a blend of synthetic 'genetics' that is more than the sum of its parts.
"You sound as familiar as you desire, Pio," Irie said softly. "And refer to yourself in the singular if you wish. You are who you are, and you will find no judgment for that here."
"Thank you," Pio said quietly.
They emerged from the lift into the Council Chambers, and as they stepped out EDI looked at Nevil. Eír and the Wolf were still silently charging the Cinch, following along with the others like weary ghosts.
"We will have to bring the Cinch to the Keeper maintenance area through there." She pointed at a blank wall. "I have the Keeper code that will allow us to access it. It must be inserted directly into the power juncture that feeds into the Crucible."
Without releasing her hold on the Cinch, Eír slowly reached into the pouch on her belt and fished out the control cube, passing it to Melara before they followed EDI and the quarian engineer toward the Keeper area.
Irie was already at the master control now with Pio, the pair of them activating the interface. As Melara approached them she asked, "What is this plan of yours, Irie?"
"I have already contacted Oasis," she said. "Under my guidance they have manufactured and launched a small anchor array into orbit around the base, just large enough to allow a Fold about a foot in diameter. If we can precisely calculate its location in relation to the relay in that sector- and if this plan of yours works and the exobiotic charge travels the relay system- we can open up that Fold the moment the beam hits the local relay, and send a portion of that beam directly to Andromeda's relay system. It will not be enough to halt or heal their dark energy threat, but it may just be enough to slow it down. If they have an advanced enough biotic species capable of space flight, it may just 'infect' a few of them as well, start the ball rolling."
"That's brilliant, Irie!"
"Yes, I know," she said with a faint smile as she continued to work, then shook her head. "It is likely the beam will be far too weak to do anything once it reaches Andromeda. It may only register as a strange signal, a 'blip' on whatever monitoring devices they may possess. Just strong enough and artificial enough to get their attention, get them examining it. That might lead them to discovering the Reaper quarantine before a Cycle can be initiated, or if strong enough, might prod them enough to be able to recreate exobiotic energy, realize the threat of dark energy themselves. Or, it could be so weak it does nothing. Still, we must try."
"Let me know when you are ready and have everything calibrated," Mel said, then looked at Pio. "How about your end?"
"I have established communication with the Citadel systems," Pio said. "It should only take a few moments before I am able to calibrate the firing system to draw energy from the discharged Cinch rather than through the relay systems' eezo cores. I cannot make the final calculation until the Cinch is actually discharged."
Melara touched her omni-tool, contacting EDI. "The Cinch is charged as much as it's going to be," she said. "We'll be ready to fire in a moment. Let me know when it's integrated into the system."
{We have stopped charging the Cinch and are integrating it now,} Nevil replied. {ETA according to EDI is about four minutes.}
"Understood."
"Mel-….Captain," Pio said. "I should warn you. The Crucible itself was never designed to fire twice. The amount of energy that was channeled through it when it eliminated the Reapers damaged it quite extensively."
"Can we get it to fire again?" Melara asked.
"Yes, it will fire again, however the second surge of energy will likely cause a catastrophic overload in the Crucible itself. It will be completely destroyed."
"What will happen to the station?" Melara asked.
Pio looked up from its work with an almost contemplative expression, fingers still moving over the controls. "I figure…there is a seventy-five percent chance that the damage will be limited to the Crucible itself. There might perhaps be some minor damage to the station. There is a twenty three percent chance that the destruction of the Crucible will feedback through these systems. If that happens the damage could be localized merely to this floor of the Tower, or to the entire Tower itself."
"Killing everyone here."
"Yes, most likely," Pio said.
"And the remaining two percent?"
"The destruction of the Crucible will feed back into the Station's own master power core and the entire Citadel will be destroyed."
"I see."
"That wouldn't extend to Earth and the rest of the Sol system?" The admiral asked. Pio looked around at her.
"Negative, that scenario would only see the destruction of this station. However, there is a great chance that when the Crucible fires the exobiotic charge itself will cause a ripple effect that will compromise this station's core, destroying the station and locking the Cinch in a similar feedback loop as to the one observed at Anadius. The wave of energy will spread at nearly half the speed of light, breaking the moon, Earth, Venus, and Mercury apart, before it reaches the Sun and causes a core collapse. The resulting supernova will wipe out the rest of the solar system. The wave itself may travel the relay system and destroy several more suns and systems, creating a further cascade effect that ends up collapsing all of the known galaxy in a matter of a few days. That is, of course, the worst case scenario."
"We knew that coming into this," Melara said. "What are the chances of that happening, Pio?"
It cocked its head back and forth a moment, then pursed its lips. "I'd say, fifty fifty?"
"Wonderful," Essien said.
"It's either that, or we sit and wait for the brasa's weapon to destroy us," Melara said. "I'd much rather die trying."
"As would I," Essien told her. "However, you won't mind if I really hope it doesn't come to that."
"I don't mind at all," Melara said. "I'm hoping the same thing."
"I am ready here, Mel," Irie said a moment later, looking at her sister. Pio had returned its full attention to its work and nodded.
"I am also ready. I cannot initiate the final command until the Cinch is detonated and the Crucible has an alternate source of energy to draw from."
Just at that moment, EDI and the others appeared back through the Keeper tunnels. "The Cinch is integrated," EDI said as she looked over. "We are ready to detonate."
Melara nodded to the admiral, who opened up a communication with Earth and the orbiting fleets. "This is Admiral Essien. We are prepared to fire the Crucible. All ships need to be cleared to the designated safe zones now. This is it, ladies and gentlemen. With luck I will be contacting you again soon. God be with us all."
Melara could feel the edges of the cube biting into her palm as she gripped it tightly, looking at Pio.
"On my mark, Captain," it said.
"Ready," she said.
"Then let's light this fucker up," Pio said with a grim set to its lips. "Now."