Chapter 5: Liara


The morning had started under a saddened note with the burial of many friends who had died during the Normandy's crash, but as soon as Garrus had told Liara that she was given the go ahead with her and Tali's satellite she'd been excited, until she was told that she was going with Javik who was leading a scouting excursion into the jungle and silently she groaned.

The man was annoying. At first she'd been excited about learning from a living Prothean, only for that excitement to be squashed the second he began talking about how primitive everybody was and that her words were worth nothing. She'd done everything in her power to prove him wrong, but at every turn he fought her and at every turn her opinion about his people soured.

Now she was stuck with him all afternoon. She turned her head as she looked at James and Cortez, they at least gave her some company and didn't snort at every word she spoke or had a horrible sense of humor by talking about how tasty a salarian liver would be right now.

"Hey blue," James began, "I'm curious, how do you expect the outside to hear us with this tiny thing?" he asked pointing to the satellite piece that he and Cortez had been talked into carrying.

She smiled. "Tali put some geth parts in it that'll allow the signal to excel through this system and theoretically give off a pulse that'll push it into the next system and with each pulse the signal gets stronger and stronger until it can reach one of our satellites that the galactic community uses or even one of the many spy satellites that every species has in or around their neighboring systems." She paused and then smiled. "However it also has a geth VI onboard that'll send us information about this planet and help give us a heads up when the weather is about to change."

"Huh." was his reply as they continued their trek through the jungle until several hours later they came to a stop at the top of a mountainous range.

Liara watched as the two men put the satellite down and she began to type in coordinates and linked it up to her omni-tool. Stepping back she pressed a button on her omni-tool and the satellite sped off up into the air until it could no longer be seen. Suddenly her omni-tool gave a beep. Looking down she watched as the satellite thrusters began to push it into a stable orbit. The satellite with the VI onboard began to send information back to her.

"Well?" Cortez asked

"It's working." She said as she looked back up at the two men. Turning she saw Javik had gone a bit further upon the hill of the mountain and was starring at something.

"What's it saying?" Vega asked as he walked over to her and starred at her arm.

"It's saying nothing right now." She said with a frown. "It's scanning the area we're in and it'll take about an hour for it to send the data back to me." she looked back at the men. "But it's working. It's also sending the signal that Tali programmed it with. So, hopefully we'll have a reply in the next week or two."

"I hope Sparks and Scars have enough food supplies to last 'em." He said as he went to join Javik.

As soon as the group had reached the ancient they found themselves starring at what Javik was looking at. Liara's eyes widened. "It's a Prothean ship!" she gasped as she looked over towards Javik. "This could be good news."

"Yes." he said seeming to come out of his daze and the three of them began to make their way down to the ancient ship.

It didn't take as long to get to the ancient Prothean ship as it had taken them to get up the mountain from the Normandy. Liara looked at the sheer size of the ship. It was six times the size of the Normandy and was armed from one end to the other. It was a gun metal color and tinted windows. On the right side; which is the side they were on were lettering that didn't look Prothean but rather…

"This ship was not made by my people but rather the Inusannon." He said this while looking at the texts on the side. He frowned as he looked closer. "But its design is just like my people's and how our ships were designed."

Liara looked at the metal spikes that were hanging outward towards them and watched Javik begin to climb them with ease followed by both James and Cortez and lastly herself. Upon hearing glass break above her, she looked up just in time to watch Javik vanish inside of the ship and soon they all followed him.

Liara looked around the room she'd pulled herself into and followed the men as they looked out of the windows on the other side and gasped. Cryogenic pods lined the entire insides of the ship and each glowed a warm green color, indicating that every last one was active. It was then that a holographic display became active and a low hum was heard followed by the holographic display to change its form until Javik suddenly growled and pulled out his Prothean gun and readied it to blast whatever the thing was.

The being that had taken form looked like a small bee-like creature about the size of a krogan hand. "Do not attack me." it said. "I am free of indoctrination, as I can sense that you are as well."

"Javik?" Liara asked as she saw that the Prothean was not letting his guard down.

"It's a Zha'til." He growled.

"You are only partially correct." It said. "I was created by my masters the Zha, however, unlike the others who seized control of our masters bodies and then altered their genetic material at the deepest of levels and then turning them into the swams of monsters for the reapers to use; I warned my masters of what was happening and we began to plan together." It paused as it brought up the historical data and allowed them to see video's that were recorded. "Read and listen and if afterwards you still do not believe my words, then I will accept my fate; but do spare the children. They are the last of their species and I have been protecting them and hiding them here until the Reapers are no longer a problem."

"How did you compensate the power strain that these pods surely are causing on the ship?" Liara asked as curiosity was getting the better of her. After seeing so many Prothean pods with dead ancients in them and none, but Javik surviving there had to be an answer as to why these pods were still active.

"I drilled to the core and this ship is now powered by the core of this planet." It stated as Liara began to sift through the thousands of vids and data that had been left open on one of the nearby consoles and suddenly gasped.

"Javik, there are Protheans onboard!" she looked at him and watched all of his eyes widen.

"How many-"he was interrupted by the AI.

"437,987 Protheans are currently aboard. 198,086 are in cryo-pods. Leaving 239,901 in pre-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks." It said. "There are also 623,876 Zha on board, with 98,256 in cryo-pods and 525,620 in per-fertilized eggs that are in cryo-tanks." It paused. "Should I continue?" It asked.

"Why did you warn your masters?" Javik asked still not trusting the AI.

"Because something wasn't right with the offer that we were being given." It said. "As organics say, Something smelt wrong. So I told my masters what was going on and most listened, especially the scientists. However, I was not fast enough in my warning and millions of my masters were killed." The AI said this sounding truly sad. "Therefore with what we had left of our people and choosing that the younger ones who had yet to be implanted with AI components, the Zha decided to take me from them and make me the Liberian who would protect the young ones until order was restored." He looked at Javik. "Then your kind got into the mess and got noticed by the Reapers. I decided on my own to begin collecting the young of every species that was known at the time and gathered every egg that was deemed acceptable by the categories that I'd been left with and within fifteen years after the war began I was able to hide the young somewhere no reaper could find them. It was a long journey, but we managed just fine. I never lost a single child." It paused and turned its holographic image towards Liara. "Then your species came into the system and I began using a shielding unit that I had yet to use. Basically it made me invisible to your scanning devices. I've had to use this shield many times to ensure I would not be detected. I then sent out my own scanning devices and began listening to your comm. satellites and listened to everything that was going on outside this system. I would've released the young to this planet and allowed the fertilized eggs to grow in their tanks, that was until Faith Shepard began telling people about the Reapers and that they were coming back." He paused. "The species of the galaxy did not listen to her then, and even as humans vanished from colonies her words were yet again silenced. It wasn't until recently when the Reapers had arrived that the galaxy's races listened and many were too late."

"Maybe so," Liara began, "but we're defeated them."

"As far as you know." The AI shot back. "I've been monitoring your ship as soon as it came in and crashed. You have an AI onboard, but she isn't rebooting correctly." There was a pause. "I have the necessary components that'll allow her to reboot to how she was when she shut down."

"What do you want in return?" Vega asked his assault rifle still pointed at the console where the AI was.

"I want data concerning the Reapers." It replied. "When your people leave, I want you to send me data on whether or not the Reapers have been dealt with."

"And what will you do with this data?" Cortez asked finally deciding to ask a question of his own.

"If they have been and are dead, I will begin the process of releasing the young from their pods, and allowing the eggs to grow and let them evolve their own way through life. I will only ask that nobody be allowed to come back here until the young ones have evolved enough to have their own starships. No outside influence." It paused as its image shifted to a sequence of numbers. "However, if the data you send says that the Reapers are still a threat, I will ask that not only do you never return here; but that you lose the data that'll tell where this planet is."

"Sounds reasonable." Liara deducted "We'll have to talk to Garrus." Her eyes drifted towards the AI's image. "He'd our defacto leader right now." She explained.

"I do not mind." It replied. "Also, I noticed that your ship is not space worthy. I have supplies that you may use…free of charge. You may also use the shuttle in the shuttle bay to go back and forth from this ship. The corridor behind you will lead directly towards the shuttle bay area." It paused. "Now please leave." with that the image and AI's presence vanished from the room, the consoles with the data and vids; however, stayed online.


M-Angel: There, I've posted all the chapters I've written so far. Now I'll have to finish this story. :wink: