Shepard started to think that she might be able to relax, even if she had to breathe heavily, during their walk back to the shuttle. She decided she could settle for a nice little stroll in the jungle if she could not get her beachside fantasy. But no, as usual, trouble was just around the corner. In the wake of their carnage, the local fauna had descended in snarling packs, picking fights with each other—and the approaching trio—for rights to scavenge the bodies. These were no ordinary predators, oh no, of course not. Their skins glowed blue and some of them, the spindly-armed monkey-like creatures, could even throw biotic missiles at them. At one point, Javik ran into a nasty surprise as one of those creatures dropped down from a tree right onto his face and started messing with the Prothean. Okay, she had to admit that it was pretty hilarious watching Javik snarl as he tried to grab the elusive critter running in circles over his body. Apparently, Garrus thought so too, as he hid behind a fallen tree trunk laughing his ass off. Finally, Javik managed to grab it by the tail and throw it off of him with a flicker of green biotics. Needless to say, the creature learned its lesson and slunk off into the bushes.
Once back at the shuttle, Shepard plopped down on a rock with an un-ladylike grunt. "Biotic monkeys," she said, shaking her head. "What's next?" Javik snorted in assent. "I, too, am surprised to see your cousins flinging something other than their own feces." Shepard shot him a scathing look. Garrus balked. "You're going to regret that, Javik," he warned. But as usual, the Prothean scoffed, brushing it off. "You can certainly try to make me, primitives."
Shepard decided that it was not worth the effort, which earned her a head tilt from Garrus. When he spoke, the amusement was telling. "I bet you're wishing you had the Mako right about now," he drawled. Shepard grinned at the memory they both were thinking of. "Hell yeah. Just like old times," she said.
"I don't understand," Javik cut in, so Garrus filled him in about Eletania and how Shepard was so pissed off about having to run around trying to find a prothean data disc off of a pyjak, that she began running over the little vermin until one of them dropped the disc. And Tali—"a quarian friend of ours"—dryly remarked that perhaps it was a little too extreme. Javik let out a dark laugh, startling both Shepard and Garrus. "I would have done the same. The little beast had it coming."
"That's exactly what I said," Garrus chuckled.
As Garrus lapsed into conversation about other missions during their run up against Saren, Sovereign, and the geth, Shepard, still grinning about the Eletania memory, casually scanned the surrounding area. Large trees, the size of Red Cedars back on Earth, made trekking the canopy quite difficult as their enormous roots tangled every which way and created annoyingly tall obstacles and treacherous ankle snares. She sighed. Roots, roots, roots, monkey, more roots—wait... Suddenly the vestiges of the pleasant memory are chased away when she realizes that a lot of what they thought were roots is actually more metal debris, like the one she tripped over during the firefight. She ventured over to the nearest one, not noticing the six pairs of eyes that glanced up from their conversation in curiosity at her sudden departure. It was very large and was bent over an actual tree root. Curiously, she began to peel away some of the moss and found something that finally shattered her doldrums. A strange language was barely visible underneath the rust. "Oh my..." she breathed as two pairs of footfalls approached.
"What is that? Some kind of wreckage?" Garrus queried.
"I think it's part of a hull from a very old ship," Shepard replied, not looking away from the metal. "Very old," she repeated softly, in awe.
Suddenly detecting a presence looming over her shoulder, She flicked her eyes, clandestinely, in that direction. Again, Javik caught her gaze, but this time she returned it. "Do you know what this is?"
"Yes," he breathed and his lips slightly twitched upward. "How intriguing."
She raised an eyebrow, still meeting his gaze. "Care to explain?"
"Today, your life was saved by the ruins of the civilization that came before mine. The Inusannon," he clarified. Shepard's eyes grew wide and Javik smirked.
"You recognize the language as theirs?"
"You don't?"
Shepard snapped her eyes back to the ancient debris and she gaped when she realized that she could read it, her mind translating the ancient, elegant script to Anglicized letters. "Mamihlapinatapai," she whispered, brushing her fingers over the raised letters. The word sounded vaguely familiar, oddly enough. Javik must have been struck by the same curiosity, for they ended up accidentally brushing each other's fingers. At this, she returned her gaze to his. For a few brief moments, they stared at each other as if waiting for the other to say something they were unwilling to suggest themselves. But the moment passed as soon as it had come. Later, Javik would explain that the Protheans were able to decipher the language of the Inusannon from the same plans that were now being used to create the Crucible. Shepard would sigh and say that she wished she could've learned how to read Salarian through beacon technology. Javik would reply that he agreed; there are many things he felt that the species of this cycle were missing out on without the sensory ability he had. And then, they would share that look again. However, at present, she opted for distracting herself from the intensity of his gaze.
It was in this moment that this wish, and more, was answered. A sudden breeze wound its way through the forest floor, and with it came the distinct scent of salt air. Shepard closed her eyes and tilted her head back to inhale more deeply. Javik also took to sniffing the air. "The ocean must be very close," his rumbling voice confirming what she detected. "I think I'm going to take a look," she barely made out before taking off in the direction of the breeze, leaving two startled aliens in her wake.
Beautiful ivory white sand, shimmering in the sunlight, stretched far and away under the clear aqua waves that tumbled upon the shore. Closer to the trees, curiously, the sand blended into a deep, rose colour. But she quickly figured out why, spotting rose granite rocks that rose in small cliffs along parts of the shoreline. And upon closer look, the ivory sand seemed to shift, ever so slightly, to a rosy hue and then back with the breeze working the fine grains. This, combined with the stellar view from the heavens, she concluded, was the perfect seaside vacation spot. Once she dealt with the local vermin, of course. Maybe Acherusia was growing on her, after all.
The voice of responsibility told her that she ought to head back and get the shuttle comm working to send a signal to the Normandy. But once she had tasted the salty air on her lips, she craved taking off her armour and diving underneath the pristine waters. Before doing that, however, she at least retained enough sense to scan the premises for bioactivity and the waters for anything that might be toxic. She had learned early on in her travels that beauty often was a guise for death. Fortunately, unlike the monstrous plant and animal life they had come across, this beach turned out to be quite normal. The water was slightly saltier than the majority of Earth's ocean currents. It had about the same content as the French Riviera, where her mother grew up and had often took her to visit during shore leave. That was where she learned how to surf. It had been years since she touched a board. She held her arms up and stretched. The sun felt so good. "Too bad I don't have one with me now," she sighed aloud.
"Have what?" Javik's voice startled her from her thoughts, making her drop her arms and whirl around. He and Garrus had emerged from the brush, taking in the sights just as she had.
"Ah - well..." she scratched her head awkwardly, and then let out a small sigh. "Nevermind."
She began to back away, turning slowly while keeping a wistful gaze fixed on the sea, but Javik stopped her with his voice. "The water looks inviting, does it not?"
She closed her eyes and silently let out a breath, realizing what he was getting at. She would have been surprised, but the words carried his blessing in them, which was all she had needed at the moment. Someone to not suggest going back just yet, back to the war, the loss, the grief, the pressure constantly threatening to suffocate or break her. Someone to, instead, tell her that it was okay to take five, to take a breather and clear her wits. And the fact that it was coming from Javik, the spartan Prothean Commander, made her feel better about it. It took her only a few seconds to shed her armour and then she took off, beaming and shouting in delight. Nobody saw the wide smile that crossed Javik's face. It was gone by the time Garrus had returned from his short exploration.
Garrus came to a halt a few feet away from Javik and watched their Commander act like a little kid—splashing around, gliding through the water, and doing somersaults. He shook his head, chuckling. She always did manage to find great enjoyment in the little things. He felt privileged to be one of only two people to see his Commander like this. She was happy, really happy, for the first time in a long time and she damn well deserved it, he thought. That, however, was what made what he had to say next feel like he would rather bury his head in the sand. "We should probably get the Normandy on the comm," he stated, slowly, regretful that he had to be the one to shatter the stolen moment, and made to move to get Shepard. However, Javik caught him by the arm. "No. Let her have a few more moments." And then turning his gaze back to Shepard, he added softly, "she needs it."
Garrus did not miss way the Prothean's visage softened as he said that last bit. "Well, I'll be at the rendezvous, you know, in case any of the local wildlife can also repair and pilot spacecraft," he jested lightly and left.
Javik continued to watch his Commander curiously. There were not many times that he could remember ever seeing someone this carefree and happy. He let his legs guide him, meandering right up to the edge of the water. He lazily noted that the waves that lapped at his shoes were slowly sinking him into the sand. "Ah!" Shepard breathed. Javik snapped his head up at this. She was standing waist-deep in the cool water with a smile on her face, lashes fluttering, and skin glistening with water in the descending sun. He watched her toss her wet hair back, smoothing it with her hands and then smoothing the water away from her face. She blinked the rest away and looked at him. He did not consciously realize that just watching her made him feel very relaxed. A protective warmth rose in his chest as he watched over her, keeping his attention also partly fixed on their surroundings.
Shepard suddenly froze and her smile broke into a full grin. He watched, eyes narrowing, as she suddenly darted off toward deeper water, plowing her way to her destination. About twenty strokes out, she stopped and seemed to ready herself for something. His puzzlement then turned to amusement when he watched a flicker of blue build, lifting her up out of the water and catching the motion of the wave. "Impressive," he murmured as she managed to keep her balance for quite a while. She never stopped laughing even as her biotics flickered and faded*, sending her toppling into the water. Several moments passed and she did not emerge. Javik felt his chest clench in worry. Did she hit her head on a rock? He reached to undo the clasps that would shed his armour when, he heard her voice calling to him from above and to the right.
"Up here!" She called from atop one of the small, rose granite cliffs. He let out the breath that he had not known he was holding. She was smiling, laughing at him, even. He growled. "Do not do that, Commander! I thought you were drowning!"
She sobered a little at that. "Sorry, Javik. Didn't mean to. But come, look at this!" He shot her a skeptical look, but did as she ordered. He could not be sure at this distance, but he felt there was a suspicious ring to her voice. He mentally noted to read her body chemistry when he got close enough.
The view was even more spectacular from atop the small cliff, his skepticism blowing off him with the breeze. He almost smiled again, but something caught his attention. Shepard pointed at a large globe wedged between the rocks, half submerged, the ocean waves pummelling it. It was not a globe, exactly; it was a silver polygonal surface, comprised of thousands of small triangles. Though it was obviously some kind of metal, there was no rust or visible erosion on its surface. The water seemed to skitter off of it like the droplets on Shepard's skin, he mused, flicking his eyes to the subject of his thought.
Said subject was sliding herself off of the top of the cliff onto the rocks, five feet below, that encircled the polygon. "Commander," Javik said in a wary voice, "we do not know what that is. I would not approach it if I were you." When she did not halt, an annoyed rumble built in his chest.
"Have confidence, Prothean Commander," she smirked up at him, "I scanned it with my omnitool. The metal seems to be fused with some kind of advanced polymer with aid of microscopic mass effect fields. I'll be sending the schematics to EDI so that she can relay them to the Crucible scientists in case they find this of use. Seems to be inert and safe to inspect." Javik made a noise—she could not tell if it was annoyance or disbelief, but she shrugged it off all the same.
Stalking toward the polygon, she took note of its form. It was about ten metres in diameter. She looked down over the cleft between the two immense boulders that flanked it and saw that there was a thick shaft made of the same metal that extended from the bottom of the head down into the water below. It was about twenty metres from where she stood to the water's surface. As she could not make out whatever was underneath, she looked at the readings to learn that the shaft extended beneath the water for another ten metres and then the sand for another five. Furthermore, underneath the sand, the shaft was connected to a platform of about fifty metres in diameter. More staggering readings were coming in, but their perusal would wait for another time because a sudden movement on the surface of the sphere caught her attention. The triangular surfaces seemed to shift in a ripple pattern that passed over the entire structure when she got within reach of it. Extending a hand, she lightly touched the surface, skimming her fingers over its small triangular ridges. It pulsed again underneath her touch, but nothing else happened. Then she heard it—a low whirring noise that must have started off below her hearing range, slowly growing in pitch and intensity. Alarm and curiosity waged a war in Shepard's head. Curiosity won out as she lowered her head slightly and turned an ear to it to be able to pick up the sound better. With the sound also came a building of heat. She pressed her palms firmly to the silvery surface. That was when it began to glow with an orange light and the whirring noise accelerated. Shepard gasped and tried to pull away, but alarmingly discovered that she could not remove her hands. A burst of white light flooded her senses, momentarily blinding and disorienting her. She heard Javik shout "Commander! Get back!", as if from far away, before his voice was drowned out by the noise.
*A/N: Bonus Power = Barrier. Whether or not it is a good tactical move for an infiltrator, I decided for Shepard to have learned Barrier as it would make the most sense for her to be able to craft a small one that acts like a surfboard.