Eden Prime

- March, 2183

Dead Council Agent, a colony in flames, death robots, a destroyed artifact, and Jenkins. Considering these things Messalina shouldn't have considered her weird dreams important, and neither should have Anderson. Sitting at the edge of the sickbay 'slab' she recalled how Chakwas had warned Jenkins about a similar fate, which unfortunately seemed to have been an understatement. Anderson was pacing about in frustration at the botched mission and Messalina's passing out on the site didn't seem like much to fuss over. But Chakwas had brought the subject up, and for some reason it was now on center stage.

"A vision?" Anderson drilled.

"More like a nightmare." Messalina rubbed her temples.

"Of what?"

"Synthetics wiping out organics.. Death and destruction." Messalina tried to concentrate on the weird images that flashed in her head, but the imagery was too dense to make any sense. When she tried to focus on a particular image it blurred past in hurried confusion, like a broken video feed that skipped through hefty chunks of frames.

"Geth?" Alenko offered.

"It's silly but despite our run in with those robots, I haven't seen them in my visions." Messalina admitted.

"Dreams are usually fragments of our memory." Chakwas offered. "Dumped overload of imagery in our brains. The Commander's dreams are intense, showing extreme condensation of neural activity whenever she tries to recall them. It's more likely that it might be some form of psychic data transfer from the artifact, and not simply a dream."

Messalina was no scientist, but she was a trained covert operative used to accepting information and processing them quickly. She had prided herself of her ability to sort through relevant information on the field, and her senses told her that Chakwas's assessment of the situation was correct. It was no dream.

"Unfortunately, if it were information from the Prothean beacon it's a locked box for now." Messalina concluded. "The format may be incompatible with human physiology."

Chakwas nodded. "I agree with the Commander, Captain. Whatever is stored inside her head may have been meant for other Protheans only."

"We have to report this to the Council." Anderson seemed to be catching at straws. As much as Messalina was fond of her mentor, she could see that he hadn't much to go on. The mission was botched and the Council operative was dead. Humanity didn't look good in this situation. As far as the Turians were concerned, humanity had overreached its ability to protect itself on a colony world. There would be some down valuation to restrictions on Alliance ships and colonies, with the downsized quota of colonization given to the Elcor or Volus.

"And tell them what? That I had a bad dream?" Messalina shook her head. She was looking at some severe charges against her and the fantastic story of an ancient civilization passing her visions of gory death didn't seem to fit any form of report she would sum up. "What happened to Chief Williams? We could use a statement from the local marine detail."

"We brought her on board, ma'am." Alenko offered.

"She's on the ship?" Messalina didn't like the Gunnery Chief. She seemed typically earth-born, begrudged and overprotective of the place of humanity in the galaxy. Spacers, Earth-born and Colonists never got on well. The Alliance political structure had only recently allowed representation of the Colonies, and that was only for the most populous colonies, while Spacers were generally regarded as people in transit. It was unfair, considering that most Spacers like Messalina never set foot on a planet most of their lives.

Hannah was a single mother who had found living on a ship was the most affordable environment to raise her daughter. And like most Spacers, Hannah and Messalina had a nationality belonging to some country on earth, but usually forgot about it and had to dig up personnel files to recall what pseudo address they were registered to on Earth. Furthermore, like most Spacers Messalina was typically uncomfortable with the natural gravity that planets emitted. It was rough and slightly off from the standard gravity that was controlled to 0.95 G on any ship or station to match the galactic standard of the Citadel. Planetary gravity always made Messalina tense, as if she were on a mission. It helped making her focus on a mission but it was tiresome.

But Earth-born usually considered their Space-born cousins as unpatriotic, unrooted and oft times traitorous to the needs of the Mother Planet. There were several Earth-born conservative political movements, like the Gaian movement, Terra Firma and extremist terrorist groups like the fabled Cerberus organization which cemented the image of Earth-born as typically 'speceist' against aliens in the Spacer's mind, while Spacers who had the most contact with aliens and were often in precarious positions based on the whim of the Council begrudged the vocal dissent of the Earth-born against aliens.

Alenko and Anderson were more sympathetic Earth-born as they spent the majority of their adult lives off world. But Williams was young, and fierce, and had taken the plight of Eden Prime as another excuse to propound her views of Solidarity to Messalina during their short encounter.

"I don't want her on my ship." Messalina spat.

"It's my ship." Anderson rebuked her, irritably. "And Williams is a hardy warrior, a good addition to our crew."

"Just one step away from Cerberus." Messalina argued. Usually quiet of her own opinions, she found her extreme dislike of Earth-born suddenly exploding.

"That is totally unfair, Commander." Anderson scolded. "I want you to go talk to her and finish your report of the incident including her statement. I want that report on my desk before 6 hours ETA Citadel."

Anderson turned heel and exited the sickbay. Kaidan hurried after him.

"That was a bit too much, Commander." Chakwas noted, but Messalina could see that she was smiling.

"See you for dinner later, Doctor?" Messalina jumped off the slab. The two usually dined together, which Messalina admitted was one of the few friendships she fostered on the ship.

"I'll bring some fresh fruits I picked up on our last port. My treat." Chakwas offered.

Messalina found Ashley Williams on the crew deck with several of the Normandy marines clustered around her. She was almost the polar opposite of Messalina. Williams, with her dark healthy complexion and wholesome figure, seemed to attract interested men like a magnet, while Messalina who was small, petite with a wiry frame usually chased everyone away with a cold uninterested stare. Messalina caught Williams's eye and called her over.

Williams took some time to disengage herself from the coterie of men, but the marines quickly made themselves scarce when they caught Messalina glaring at them.

"You wanted to see me, Commander?"

"You seem to be fitting in well." Messalina could see that Ashley's feeling toward her were mutual.

"Captain Anderson was kind enough to invite me on board. I'm looking forward to working with him."

Messalina frowned. "Put your priorities straight, Chief. You're now a Normandy marine. You report to Lieutenant Alenko; He reports to me. And I do not remember welcoming you on board."

"Captain Anderson seems to think otherwise." Ashley retorted evenly.

"If it were my ship I would not have tolerated some deserter like you."

"I did not desert my men." Ashley nearly shouted. "I told you on Eden Prime and I'm telling you again now: I held up as long as possible."

"Well I only have your word for it." Messalina noted. "I hope your report reads with enough clarity and objectivity than what you're giving me now. Get to it, Chief."

Without saluting, Ashley left for the barracks. Messalina caught a muffled expletive as Ashley passed her.

"Don't be too hard on her, Commander." Kaidan's offered as he came up from behind.

"You're one to talk," Messalina threw him a glare. "What were you thinking when you activated the beacon?"

Kaidan hung his head. "Sorry about that, ma'am."

"I expect more from you, Lieutenant." Messalina continued. "I can't have you poking about like some unprincipled child. You're the marine commander, for crying out loud." Kaidan offered no excuse. "If you ever pull a stunt like that again I will vehemently see to it that you are severely disciplined."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Excused."

Messalina spent the next couple of hours on coffee while reviewing the telemetry data from her armor. She compiled Geth battle data from her helmet visor and rifle computer, sorting out four or five different Geth models. Messalina had an exceptional track record of sorting out battle field data. It was mostly possible since Messalina generally prefered sniping from tactical positions, which allowed her a clear view of the field and returned single shot damage reports more accurate than what would be generated by random dispersed rifle fire. There was no doubt the data alone would be pored over by outsourced Quarian engineers after submission to the Council. Noticeably, Williams had suggested in her report to keep most of the Geth data classified for Alliance eyes only. Messalina discarded the memo without a second thought.

The husks were what worried Shepard. There had been random reports of Dragon Tooth devices before, but it was the first time Messalina had seen the biomechanical transition first hand. What bothered her was the uncharacteristic need for a machine society to turn captives into drones. Her perception of artificial intelligence dictated that Geth would more likely replicate more mobile platforms and exterminate organics than painstakingly develop technology that would mutate biomatter.

Another important statement was from the dock worker Anton Powell who reported another Turian who shot Nihlus. Indeed, Nihlus's autopsy revealed that he was killed by a Mass Effect projectile than an energy weapon typical of the Geth.

The final report looked abysmal: Messalina would have to report that Geth were in collusion with a putative Turian whom Nihlus may have been familiar with, and the Geth have in some way developed technology to convert organics into synthetic drones, which may be indicative of another source directing the Geth, possibly the phantom Turian. Was there a Turian rogue group analogous to Cerberus within their own hierarchy? Blue Suns activity? But none of those explanations allowed cooperation with the Geth.

"I need more data." Messalina muttered to herself. Grudgingly she submitted the report to Anderson.