The ruined crawler lay in a halo of dirt and dust, drunkenly listing onto its side with its nose jammed against a large boulder. One wheel was still faintly spinning, trickles of rock and gravel disturbed by its violent passage still shifting and settling around it. The driver's door hung open, all but wrenched from its hinges. A form in a dark hard-suit stumbled away from the aperture, weaving drunkenly on the slope, more small rock and dirt slipping in tiny landslides in its wake.
The slope the crawler had tumbled down descended three hundred feet from the roadside before it dropped abruptly off. Beyond this edge, there was a further hundred feet of open air before the valley floor. The crawler had halted just twenty feet short of this precipice. The boulder the crawler had caught up on was the fortune that prevented a far more tragic end to the vehicle and its occupants.
At the bottom of the valley the idyllic green of gently sloping hills and scenic soft riversides were marred by the wreckage of a large geth ship. It was sprawled like a dead insect, tiny prefabs sprouting both around it and along its hull where the project workers had established Prometheus station.
Shepard wobbled, halting momentarily, before lurching forward with another pair of staggering, shuffling steps. More rock spilled around her feet and she half tripped, dropping to her knees just ten feet short of the drop-off.
Face turned toward the distant geth ship the human woman seemed to shudder, arms spread at her sides, a guttural grunt escaping from her mouth before forming into breathless words.
"Please…make it stop…"
Her eyes turned upward toward the azure sky, pupils wide and shimmering with emerald fire, before the glow suddenly snuffed out. As if some kind of cord was cut her whole body seemed to slump, her now brown eyes rolling back as she fell limp to the ground.
Coughing in the dust, Liara felt almost as if they were still tumbling as she blinked open her streaming eyes. Her whole body ached from being thrown around in the restraints, and her lap was covered in glass from the shattered windscreen. Beyond it, she could see part of the slope and the thick tan cloud of dust that was abrading her lungs.
Fingers ventured upward and she winced a little as she touched her tender cheek. Bruised…no more. Despite the aches, she didn't think she was injured.
She coughed again, fumbling for the latch of her restraint. "Shepard…?"
A three fingered hand suddenly reached forward and grabbed her shoulder. "Liara, are you all right?" Tali asked, her voice shaky. Groping her hand up, Liara gripped Tali's a moment.
"I…I am fine, I think," she replied. "Are you hurt?"
"N-no, just shaken…"
"That is one ride I do not want to take again," Kasumi coughed raggedly from the back.
"Are you injured?" Tali asked the thief. There was a faint click and a curse as Kasumi managed to get her restraints off.
"No, I'm fine. Bit of a bump to the head but nothing to worry about."
Liara coughed again, waving away the dust, managing to work her own restraints off. As the clouds of tan started to clear a bit she realized the driver's door was open…and there was no sign of the commander. "Shepard!"
"Keelah! Where did she go?" Tali gasped. Frantically Liara tried opening her door but it was warped far too badly. Ramming her shoulder into it she quickly gave up, scrambling instead over to the open driver's side. Tali and Kasumi forced their doors open as well, all three shaken women scrambling out of the beaten crawler.
Liara only had time to shudder at how close they'd come to actually sliding off the precipice, before she realized the dark shape laying further down the slope was human and not rock. With a gasp she ran as quickly as she could toward the figure, half sliding on the loose rock and dirt as she did so.
"Del!"
Shepard did not move or respond, and as Liara reached her side, she could see the woman's eyes were half open. That distant, glazed and fixed gaze immediately brought a memory to mind…a memory of seeing Shepard's burnt and decimated body in that cryo-case. One of her eyes had been saved from the damage of her death and had borne that same fixed, absent fog.
"No!" she all but screamed, clasping Shepard's face in her hands before ducking her ear down to her mouth and nose. Rock rattled and tumbled by as Kasumi and Tali reached her side.
"She must have been thrown free-"
"She had her restraints on just like the rest of us!"
"Maybe the clasp failed…Li, is she breathing?"
Li's half sob was the only answer given as the asari pressed her fingers into the sides of Shepard's neck. "Oh, Goddess…" she moaned as she realized there was no pulse either. Grabbing her head again she tilted the woman's head back, gripped her nose, and gave her a breath.
Kasumi sat back on her heels, hands over her mouth and eyes glossing as she watched. Liara planted her hands over Shepard's chest before she realized she could not give compressions with the chest-plate of the hard-suit in the way. She began to fumble for the clasps, the thief swiftly reaching out to help her as Tali lit up her omni-tool. Her fingers were shaking as she quickly worked, and as Kasumi pulled the breast-plate open and Liara began to plant her hands, the quarian knelt down.
"Wait, let me try this," she said, brushing Liara's hands back and then aiming the omni-tool at Shepard's chest, directly at the heart and just above the hem of her tank top.
A short, directed pulse of electricity flared from the end of the tool, the holographic display immediately flickering and dying as most of its power was drained. Shepard's skin reddened in a swath and her entire body jolted, spasming for a second before falling limp again.
Liara pressed her fingers into her neck, then shook her head before bending and giving her another breath. Tears dripped unnoticed from her eyes to land on Shepard's cheeks, sliding softly away into the dirt.
Tali reset her omni-tool. "I only have enough juice for one more," she said, then re-aimed it at the same spot. Liara drew back and another pulse of electricity flashed, the omni-tool immediately dying. The burn on her chest grew worse and Shepard spasmed again before falling limp.
Shaking, Liara's fingers once more pressed into her neck. A frown creased her brow and her hand shifted, pressing directly to her chest before she lay her ear down as well, listening.
The softest throb could be heard, slowly growing stronger. The asari let out a cry of relief. "I can hear it…her heart is beating again…"
Both Kasumi and Tali let out their breath as Shepard's face wrinkled a little. She faintly coughed, head turning. Liara pressed her palms to the human woman's cheeks as brown eyes came back into focus, blinking in confusion.
"…the fuck?" she rasped and coughed again. Liara lost the struggle, tears falling freely as she gathered the woman up and hugged her with a trembling sob.
Tali slipped the latch of the harness into its lock, making sure it was fastened before she hauled on it as hard as she was able. Nothing happened. Even throwing her full weight against it did not cause the fasten to so much as slip, let alone come undone. Shaking her head, she looked at Kasumi, then paced over to the boulder where Shepard and Liara were.
The commander was sitting against the rock, her breastplate still hanging open as Liara carefully dabbed the burn with medi-gel.
"I don't think that you were thrown," Tali said to her as she folded her arms. "Granted with your hard-suit on you weigh a bit more than I do but I couldn't get the lock to even budge."
"Not to mention you're not wounded beyond a bruise or two," Kasumi pointed out with a nod. "If you'd tumbled all that way over this loose rock you'd have lacerations, cuts…you'd look like you'd gone over a cheese grater."
"So…what?" Shepard squinted at them. "I…unfastened my restraint, got out of the vehicle, walked down the slope and just…dropped dead?"
Liara made a soft sound in the back of her throat, and almost unconsciously Shepard reached down and grasped her hand with a comforting squeeze.
Kasumi shrugged. "Facts are facts, Shep. I can't explain it any more than you can, and you have no injuries even remotely severe enough to-…well, to put you into the state in which we found you."
Shepard scowled, cracking her neck. It was true. Her head still ached but there was no cut, no bump, no sign she'd hit it on anything. Beyond the burn on her chest (which was now numb thanks to the medi-gel) and vague aches from their bone-jarring ride down the hill, she wasn't injured, let alone injured enough to stop both her heart and her breathing.
Liara drew her hands away to repack the remainder of the medi-gel and Shepard got to her feet, swinging her chest-plate closed again and refastening it.
"Tali." She gestured at the young quarian, who stepped forward, then blinked as Shepard pulled her in and hugged her tightly.
"Thank you," the commander murmured. "That was good thinking."
Tali returned the hug with a nod. "You're welcome," she replied with a sniffle. "Keelah, I'm just glad you're ok."
Smiling at her friend as she released her, Shepard cleared her throat. "How long until your omni-tool recharges?"
"Should be usable again in about twenty minutes," she said. "So long as we stay in the sun for that long."
"Good. Why don't you and Kasumi see if you can't scout out a good way back to the road."
"Of course," Tali nodded. As the two women headed away carefully over the slope, Liara took Shepard's arm. Turning toward her, the human woman was completely unsurprised by the tight embrace. She could feel the asari trembling as she hugged her back just as tightly.
Neither woman said anything, just stood and held each other, Liara's fingers gripping the fringe of Shepard's hair as silent tears of relief traced down her cheeks.
"How did the AI get control of the crawler?" Liara asked as they picked their way over the slope. Tali and Kasumi had found a way down to a lower section of the road. It would take them nearly an hour on foot to reach the valley floor but even if the crawler hadn't been completely demolished, Shepard would never have let her friends get back into it again.
"I don't know," Shepard replied. "Tali scrubbed it which means it was scrubbed. It has no wireless connection for the rogue system to infiltrate it that way. What's even more concerning is that it somehow affected the steering…the damn thing was completely mechanical, not linked to the computer system. It doesn't make any goddamn sense."
Liara reached out and took her hand, squeezing it tightly as they walked. So many pieces did not fit. Infiltrating the crawler, sabotaging the steering, the odd way Shepard had ended up away from the vehicle with no breath or pulse…that last one still made the asari's blood run cold. She owed Tali everything for saving Shepard's life.
Goddess, when will we be able to just…be. When will all this be over and let us both just live in peace?
Afternoon slowly made its way toward evening, shadows growing long and the light more golden as they finally reached the valley floor. In the distance, perhaps a mile further on, the wrecked geth ship loomed like a portent of waiting doom.
Since the beginning of time, every human being who had ever sailed…be it on the seas and waters of Earth itself or within the endless expanses of space…knew one simple fact. Ships had lives, souls, of their own. Not to the extent of Sovereign or the other Reapers, obviously but…a personality seemed to fill each one, welded into her very structure with every nut and bolt.
Shepard had served on many ships, and she had felt many of these spirits, these…personalities. The Jefferson had been a bold and lively girl, saucy in her way…the kind that would burst into a room with a giggle but still lay a man on his backside with a single broad-fisted punch.
The Ottawa had been quiet, mellow, somewhat shy…the cute blonde girl in the corner with the freckles and the demure grin.
The Normandy, of course, was a huntress…graceful, sleek, sophisticated but as deadly as a jungle panther, a woman willing to fight to the death for honor.
As every ship had a life and a spirit, however…so, too, could that spirit be broken. It could be torn, traumatized and twisted into an evil, broken thing. Such ships had a specific name. Every nerve in Shepard's body spoke that name the moment her foot set down within the geth ruin.
Ghost ship.
Not a single human begin was alive here. She could feel that down to her very bones. As her omni-light passed over the limp forms of several geth slotted into the walls her chill only grew, her jaw tightening.
"It's haunted in here," Kasumi whispered, the feeling not having escaped any of them.
"You believe in ghosts?" Tali asked.
"Don't you?" Kasumi asked. The quarian shivered a little.
"I didn't until we came in here," she admitted.
"Take it easy," Shepard ordered. "Let's stay focused. The sooner we find that lockdown the sooner we can get out of here."
"Just so long as all these geth don't just suddenly wake up," Kasumi pointed out.
"You just had to say that, didn't you," Tali lamented.
Moving deeper into the ship, weapons up and fingers on triggers, the quartet was tense beyond belief. Shepard forced herself to keep her breathing even, making a conscious effort to remain focused and steady. Startling when weapons-ready was how people got killed accidentally. Their footsteps echoing strangely through the convoluted corridors were not helping…and on more than one occasion made it sound as if they were being followed.
Shepard had never been on a geth ship before. Cold and technical as it was it also had a strange flowing architecture about it. The dormant machines they came across now and again seemed to be watching them, even in lifelessness.
For all their tension, however, nothing happened. They found the console uneventfully, and as the other three stood guard, Shepard released the lockdown command.
Almost instantly, the console lit up in flashing green, the now familiar high-pitched shriek lancing out, adding teeth to her headache.
"Bosh'tet," she heard Tali grump even as she snatched her hands back from the console, reaching automatically for her rifle.
Warning. Geth activating in sections 2 and 9. Emergency 101 is declared. Section directors are ordered to put their sections on lockdown.
"Of course," Kasumi breathed as the four headed quickly for the door. Scanning the corridor and seeing it empty, Shepard narrowed her eyes.
"Kasumi, Liara, left wall," She ordered. "Tali with me on the right. Move steadily and fucking shoot anything that moves and is not us."
They moved to position, flanking the hallway. As they went, Shepard half glanced back from her rifle sights and told Tali, "31.24."
The quarian blinked in confusion. "What?"
"The answer to your question," Shepard said in irritation. "31.24"
"I…I didn't ask any question, Shepard," Tali replied.
"Tali, you just asked me what the square root of 976 was!"
"I-I didn't," Tali insisted. "Why would I ask you that and…how do you even know the square root of-"
"Three hostiles, dead ahead," Liara warned just as a trio of geth lights bloomed from the darkness. Shepard snapped her eye back to the scope and dropped one, biotics wreathing the second.
"30.8," she announced as if giving an order. "30.2"
Tali's confusion was turning to worry. They were in the middle of a firefight with the geth and Shepard was reciting numbers.
Maybe she did hit her head…there was no cut or lump but…
Everything dissolved into chaos as more and more geth units appeared, the project VI announcing every few moments that different sections had become active. Barely able to hear anything over the near constant roar of gunfire, Tali was unable to tell if Shepard's recitation was continuing.
What she failed to notice at all was the faint green shimmer that flowed over Shepard's eyes once or twice, each flare lasting only a fraction of a second but punctuated by a sharp shudder of her muscles, a momentary lapse in her gunfire.
After what seemed like an eternity, scorched and overheated, the four managed to bully their way through the geth ranks and out of the wreckage of the ship. The cool evening air seemed to wrap around them as they ran into the grass of the valley floor.
They stumbled to a halt, Shepard turning and pegging two trooper units that had managed to follow them. As they fell she kept her weapon up and fixed until it became apparent no more were in pursuit.
Pulling off her helmet, her face grimy with sweat, Shepard swiped a glove over it before pressing her finger to her ear bud. "Archer, Shepard. The goddamn lockdown is lifted. Where the fuck is David?"
{Commander…are you and your team all right?} came the tentative response.
"Oh, we're fucking peachy!" she spat in return. "We just fell down a goddamn mountainside after that thing took over our crawler, and then had a lovely stroll through your broken geth ship filled with active motherfucking units! How's your day going so far?"
{My God I…I'm sorry, I can see how it might have activated the dormant geth but…how did it get control of your crawler? That shouldn't be possi-}
"That's just one of about a million goddamn questions I want answers to!" She snarled back. "Give me the fucking coords to Atlas so I can stop this thing before something else explodes!"
{I…you are not too far from there now,} he answered. {It is set into the mountainside at the northern end of the valley floor, perhaps two miles from your current position. Shepard please…remember, this is not David's fault. He is confused or…delirious. When you find him please…don't hurt him.}
"Shepard out," she replied with a grump, cutting the connection. She looked at her team, the scowl still affixed to her face. "Anyone hurt? No? Good. Station is two miles north. Let's get moving and get this done."
As they headed off across the field Liara started to move up to Shepard's side, only to slow when Tali caught her arm. "Li," the quarian murmured softly. "I'm…worried. A-about Shepard…"
"Why?"
"Just before the firefight, she said a number," Tali confided. "I asked her what she meant and she said it was the answer to my question…the square root of something. I didn't ask her that question. I didn't ask her any question at all. Why would I ask her to calculate square roots in a situation like that? And that wasn't all…even as we were fighting, at least a couple of times I heard her just saying random numbers…like she was giving orders. I don't think she realized she was doing it."
Liara looked worriedly forward at Shepard's back. "Could…she must have hit head when the crawler crashed but…why would there be no bruise? No mark at all?"
"I-I don't know but…I don't even know if it's that but…I thought you should know. I think we should be careful, keep an eye on her."
Liara nodded, taking Tali's hand and squeezing it before moving forward and falling in to step at Shepard's side. Looking at the woman's face a moment, trying not to think about how close she had come to losing her yet again, she ventured, "Is your head feeling any better?"
Shepard half-blinked and looked at her. "No, not really," she admitted, then shrugged. "It's just a headache. All that goddamn shrieking, it's like shoving ice picks in your ears."
"It is…unpleasant," Liara admitted, and the human woman gave her a faint smile, reaching over and gripping her shoulder lightly a moment.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this, Tianlán."
"If I recall, it was I who dragged myself into it," Liara reminded her gently. "You wished me to stay aboard the Normandy and watch vids."
Shepard sighed, shoulders sagging a little before she shook her head. "I just want you safe," she murmured.
"I know," Liara told her. Her hand moved out, finding that of her love, their fingers entwining. Feeling the asari's faint tremble, Shepard held it tightly, trying to convey silently what she did not feel she could articulate well enough verbally.
By the time they reached the great doors to Atlas station, the evening had matured to almost full dark, the sky alive with stars. Though the sun hadn't quite set all the way, the mountains around them blocked any trace of its waning light.
Liara told Shepard nothing about what Tali had said but she had been watching Shepard closely as they walked, and the woman seemed her normal self…tense, irritated, yes but not erratic or notably out of sorts.
As they got the doors opened and looked into the gloom beyond, Shepard checked her thermal clip and warned, "Remember, we have a lot of mechs not yet accounted for, and there could be more geth inside. Keep 'em peeled and be ready for anything."
The three others nodded, but none of them truly had any idea of what would soon befall. In all their collective experience, nothing could have prepared them for what would confront them within.
Shepard's prediction of her luck as always, sadly, came true. Barely had they entered than wave after wave of mechs descended upon them, their normally red face-lights shimmering with waves of green as they came. Mech after mech dropped, the quartet leaving a trail of shattered metal bodies and spent thermal clips in their wake as they pressed onward and inward.
More frustrating than the mechs were the doors. The AI had completely infiltrated everything in the building, including the door mechanisms and the holographic interfaces. Shepard cursed as she watched yet another one flash to red, a green interface dancing over the wall before sliding into place over a further door.
"It's herding us," Tali lamented. She couldn't even attempt to hack the system or open the doors herself with her omni-tool, as any connection would only leave an opening for the AI to take over that device as well.
"We haven't got a choice," Shepard stated. "Until we find a way to take this thing out or hack in without risking our own devices we've got to go where it leads and hope an answer presents itself."
They moved down a set of stairs into a lower level. There were fewer mechs now, and more geth. Their progress was almost painfully slow and at times backwards as they tried to find an alternate route…a route the AI didn't immediately lock down.
Confronted with yet another wall console that flashed with green and screamed at her, Shepard's temper finally wore too thin. Gritting her teeth she aimed her pistol at it and blew a hole through the display, the image and sound dying as the screen ruptured and bled wires.
Her head felt like a band-saw was running through her skull, her nerves were singing with tension. The anesthetic quality of the medi-gel was wearing off and her chest was an angry flame where her tank rubbed on the burn. No matter how many synths they killed more seemed to appear. They were being herded by a sadistic, murderous AI who continuously shrieked at them. She just wanted all this fucking mess done.
Even so, military discipline and her own common sense wouldn't allow her to make foolish mistakes…especially not when such mistakes would possibly cost lives under her protection. For not being trained soldiers, Tali, Liara, and Kasumi all seemed to be holding up better than she was, and she was both humbled and shamed by that fact.
A squad of geth troopers pinned them down a few corridors beyond. With no grenades left among the group a problem that could have been erased in mere moments became a drawn out firefight that left them nearly spent of ammo…and Kasumi injured.
"It's just a scratch," she protested as Shepard scrutinized the gash in her leg. A bullet had torn by, grazing a deep laceration along the muscle. Had Kasumi been wearing a full hard-suit it would have only dented her pads. As it was, she had insisted upon simple body armor as it was hard to be light on one's feet or stealth about unseen when you were more heavily encumbered.
"You're a doctor now, Goto?" Shepard asked as she accepted a packet of medi-gel from Tali, very carefully packing the wound and then pasting sealant atop it. "It will need sutured and even numb, you're going to limp. I want you to stay in the middle of the group, let the rest of us cover you as needed. No more running ahead."
"Kind of puts a damper on my position as scout," Kasumi teased.
"I'd rather have you alive," Shepard said sternly. Finishing dressing the wound she helped the thief to her feet. Kasumi tested the leg, wincing only slightly, then nodded.
"All right. I'm point. Tali and Kasumi in the middle. Li will cover our asses. Plan your shots. We're running low on clips and if we run out we are royally fucked unless we can salvage more."
They continued on, down a small service lift and through yet another small squad of AI-controlled geth before confronting three doors. As they approached the HIs did their strange little dance again before two locked down, leaving the furthest door in the green.
Jaw muscles as tight as steel, Shepard edged up and opened it, her sniper quickly scanning over the dim room beyond.
Her first thought was dead end…of course. The room had no other clear egress. A large computer console dominated the center of the floor and the far wall was composed of thick Plexiglas. A strange rippling light glimmered through it, the impression similar to being underwater. As the four moved into the room, Shepard removed her helmet, setting it aside as she warily regarded the console.
Visually it looked clear. The display didn't shift into their cyber-stalking green banshee friend, nor did the HI interface suddenly power down or lock up. As she looked over the data scrolling over the display, Kasumi and Liara cautiously approached the far window.
"Shep, you'll probably want a look at this," Kasumi called a second later. Abandoning the console Shepard strode over and peered down.
The window overlooked a huge room, dominated by great cables as thick as tree trunks, ringed with huge slabs of machinery. In the midst of the cables and circle of machinery a brilliant ball of white light hovered and spun, as cold in light and swift in shape as a pulsar in the depths of space.
"That must be it," Liara whispered. "The heart of the AI."
"I don't see Archer's brother," Shepard noted, squinting at the light. "He's got to be in there somewhere, or close-"
"Shepard, I think this is the AI power control," Tali said from behind them. When Shepard had moved away she'd taken to scrutinizing the displays herself…though wisely had made no attempt to touch them. As Shepard got back to her side, she indicated some read-outs. "These are the results of generator status checks done every few moments. The amount of energy and data flowing into and out of that room is astronomical. I've never seen anything like it. Shepard...this control sequence here would halt the generators feeding the AI. It would starve in mere moments, too quickly for it to even hope to attempt to power them back on itself."
"Would we have time to input the cut-off sequence fast enough?" Shepard asked. "The moment any of us starts accessing this interface that AI will be all over this console like a bad rash."
"Manually…no," Tali admitted. "However…if the sequence were input into an omni-tool it could then be transferred into the console in less than a nanosecond. The sequence would be complete the moment the AI even registered its connection. But…"
"That means using an omni-tool," Shepard frowned, then straightened. "Can you isolate mine? Wipe it of any non-essential programming or information the AI could hack?"
"I could but it would be cleared back down to factory defaults. Any data or personal programming you have preserved on it would be lost forever."
"I have backups on the console in the Nest," Shepard told her. "And it sounds like it's our best shot. Do it."
She powered up her omni-tool and held her wrist out toward Tali, who immediately began to purge it. In seconds, the tool was reset back to its factory program. She input the code sequence for the shut down, then nervously nodded. "There…th-that should do it."
Shepard wiped her free hand over her face, then raked it back through her damp hair, her brown eyes shifting to meet Liara's a moment. The asari looked nervous but gave an encouraging nod. Shepard managed a thin but genuine grin.
"All right," she said, looking back at the console. "Be ready for anything. I wouldn't be goddamn surprised if this summons a Reaper."
Aiming the omni-tool at the console Shepard couldn't help holding her breath as her fingers hovered over the controls. "Three, two, one…go."
As Shepard sent the sequence the console's displays and interfaces suddenly went wild. All four women recoiled a little, Kasumi shielding her eyes from the bright amber flashes that…thank heavens…did not turn green.
A breath later, the HI displays all went dark. Shepard lowered her arm, her omni-tool interface dying.
"Did it work?" Kasumi asked, blinking. "Was…was that it?"
"Hnn…" Shepard murmured, taking a step back. Liara looked at her, brows knitting as Tali moved past, rushing over to the window.
"No…no, the systems still look like they're active…oh fist'aka!"
Shepard turned, seemed to stagger slightly, and made a stiff, weaving course for the door. Her hands spread and groped in front of her as she stumbled slightly, then regained her balance.
"Shepard!" Alarm appeared on Liara's face as she trotted after the human. "What is the matter? Where are you going?"
She caught her arm just as Shepard lurched out of the door and into the hallway. Behind them the portal slammed shut, whisking just centimeters away from the heels of Liara's boots and locking down with an audible thump of bolts. She whirled around, eyes widening as she stared at it, then gasped as she turned back to Shepard.
The commander was standing there, swaying slightly back and forth as if on the deck of a gently rocking boat. Her hands were slightly spread as if to keep her balance, and she was noticeably shivering. Then, beneath the woman's exposed skin, Liara could see a slow ripple of emerald light. It traced over her veins, rising in a pulse along her neck and up over her face before it seemed to fade. As it did, the pupils of the woman's wide brown eyes suddenly lit up the ghostly and eldritch green of foxfire.
Liara felt both her heart and her stomach clench, fear and realization filling her with ice water at the same instant. She had forgotten. They had all forgotten.
The AI can control electronics, anything with a computer program…no matter how minute. Shepard is filled with cybernetics, her very blood swimming with microscopic computers that accept repair protocol commands not only through pre-programmed imperatives but also through wireless impulses!
The programs were incredibly sophisticated, of course. Nanites were so cutting edge they were still considered theoretical in most fields. Cerberus and its immense resources were the only reason that any organically developed nanites even existed…and they were all within Shepard.
As it had taken control of the computer consoles, the door interfaces, the crawler, the geth and the mechs…the AI now had control of the deadliest weapon on the planet.
Commander Shepard.
All of this was realized by the asari in a single breath, her whole body left cold and shaking and horrified in its wake. Struggling, she managed to gasp only a single word.
"Del…"
The inhuman green glow of those eyes shifted from staring blankly at nothing to focusing on the asari. Liara found herself eye to eye with the monstrosity of the AI, looking at her from out of the face of the one she loved.
Then Shepard's lips parted, and in the soft green glow Liara saw tears well up, spilling over the commander's dark lashes and tracing down her cheeks.
When she spoke, her words were barely more than a hoarse whisper…Shepard's voice and yet, not.
"Please…" she said, another glistening pearl of saline breaking free. "Please…make it stop…"