CHAPTER FIVE:
Looking for Answers from the Great Beyond
The Skyllian Blitz will live in infamy. It was one of the most hectic, terrible attacks to every assault an innocent colony. The cover of night had fallen over an ordinary colony on Elysium, a peaceful planet where, according to those it's inhabitants, the sun always set at a reasonable time. There always seemed to be just a few more hours in the day at the placid planet, plenty of time to enjoy a colony with slightly low gravity, a pleasant climate, and, more importantly, beautiful rolling hills.
"Riiiiicolaaaas!" Commander Shepherd proclaimed as he yodeled aloud, wearing nothing but a plain white shirt and dark pants, his dog tags bouncing against his chest as he bounded down the hill towards the resort where his fellow space marines were stationed.
"Oh c'mon, cap. That's so cheesy." Richard L. Jenkins insisted, sitting at a nearby table with several other soldiers in the Alliance military who were all, like Shepherd, on shore leave. And loving it, evidently…despite their commanding officer's habit of quoting old and corny pop culture tidbits.
"When am I going to get a chance to say it?" Shepherd insisted as he plopped down next to them, Jenkins dealing out several cards to the other marines as a soft wind blew through all their hair…or, in Jenkins's case, his almost total lack thereof, the poor man. Puberty had hit him hard, but on the PLUS side, he'd been able to pose as his own father and get beer from the stores in high school. That was some small comfort to losing most of your hair.
…some.
"I could use a little help over here!" A voice rang out, Shepherd turning to stare at the brown-haired young medic who was kneeling by one of their friends, Shepherd frowning as he stood up from the park table, heading across the brick road to the medic and the downed marine, noticing several others were being wheeled into the park as well by OTHER medics, all of whom were speaking in hushed whispers as the dark blue sky overhead seemed to get darker and almost more sinister. "We've got trouble, Mr. Shepherd. We were on patrol just outside the city limits and we got shot at by snipers. We don't have time to take them to the hospital, it's on the other side of town, we need to work here."
"How bad is it?" Shepherd wanted to know, kneeling by the pale-faced, dirty-blond-haired marine who had been downed, who's chest was barely rising and falling as the hazel/green eyed medic sighed. "Mr. Grey? How bad is it?" He asked of the son of Mr. Lucas's dear cousin, who had also taken the name "Nicholas". Evidently taking your father's name was a "thing" in the Grey family.
"Shoulder wound. Not too bad yet, but he's SHOCKY…" Chief Medical Officer Grey sighed, hanging his head and shaking it back and forth, scratching at the permastubble on his chin in a nervous tic. "Wait. Wait, his pulse is weakening, he's more shocked than I thought he was. Elevate his feet, I can't get a pulse!" Grey gasped, Shepherd lifting the kid's feet up.
"Cardiac arrest?" Shepherd asked as Grey held a small pack up to the man's arm, the pack stretching out like an octopus wrapping itself around the arm, tiny needles injecting necessary adrenaline into the wounded marine.
"I'm still not getting a pulse!" Grey hissed out, frowning darkly. "You're not dying from a freakin' shoulder wound!"
THRAKKA-THRAKKA!
They whipped their head up, seeing the table their friends had been at EXPLODE, everyone barreling away. "SNIPERS!" One of the marines yelled out, all of them barreling away, yanking their pistols out from their pockets, wishing they'd brought things that had more PUNCH to them as Shepherd and Grey carried their patient behind a tree, propping him up, flinching visibly over and over again as Shepherd nervously rubbed the back of the trucker hat he was wearing.
"Is he responding to the treatment?" Shepherd demanded to know, Grey listening carefully to the downed soldier's heartbeat, the KRAK-KRAK of sniper fire filling the air, their friends firing back in kind as they tried to get a full bead on where the obtrusive fire was coming from. "Come on, come on!"
"…wait!" Grey gasped. "It's beating! His heart is beating! YES!"
"Good, good. We can move him proper now." Shepherd insisted with a firm nod, lifting the soldier over his shoulder, another THRAKKA-THRAKKA filling the air, the ground to the side exploding as he and Chief Medical Officer Grey took off running. "I'm sure your father had plenty of war stories just like this." He told him as they barreled towards a nearby diner, someplace where they could take shelter to a better degree.
"The one everyone loves hearing about is the big escape from Palaven with Mr. Harper." Grey admitted with a small smile. "Who knows, we might end up with a story just as exciting."
"I suspect these snipers are an expeditionary force. They're just TESTING us. If they weren't, they would have had much better aim." Shepherd reasoned with a firm nod. "They want to know what we're capable of before we strike. But they didn' count on me being here. I'll call the others, let them know we need to rally everyone here, get on high alert."
"So much for a nice, relaxing vacation, sir." Grey admitted sympathetically.
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…
… "Well, so much for the nice, relaxing trip to an alien planet." Nick sighed sadly, currently pinned to the wall by Saren, the Turian breathing slightly in his face as the being that HAD been Ben Hillsop, Jack's cheery, smiling right hand man and dear comrade, tried to grab hold of Dr. Eva Core as she barreled up a ladder, trying to escape to the roofs of Illium.
"You shouldn't make this difficult." Saren insisted. "We want you ALIVE."
"I don't know what those bastards have done to you, Ben, but I swear I'll blast them straight to-" Eva began to say before Ben grabbed hold of the ladder in his clawed hands, growling darkly, pointed nails tearing the thing clear off the wall as Eva plummeted down. "HELLLLLLLL-"
THRUKKA-THRASH. She crashed into the wreckage below, softly moaning as Ben looked down at her, his face and tone becoming softer for a moment as Jack's eyes widened in surprise as well. "…Eva?"
"Human! Bring the woman to the transport. NOW." Saren called out, Ben's face returning to it's normal, almost feral appearance as he lifted the unconscious Eva over his shoulder, marching off with him as Saren and the cloaked and hooded Turians marched Jack and Nick onto a Turian Transport which was soon to leave Illium.
And it wasn't long before all of them were strapped in to harsh medical examination chairs, Jack swearing up a storm as Nick shook his head back and forth, sighing inwardly as spittle flew from Mr. Harper's mouth in a furious frenzy of rage. "Your mothers suck cocks in hell! Get your f—king claws off me! You wanna see what we humans are made of, let me loose and I'll show you!"
"Oh, we know all about your bspecies/b and your biology, Mr. Jack Harper, all the corpses on the battlefield told us more than enough, believe you ME." Saren wryly remarked.
"Jack, don't ANTAGONIZE the people who are going to play the evil nazi dentist to our Dustin Hoffman!" Nick yelled out. "Or they'll take a drill to our mouths and start whispering "Ees eet safe"!?"
"For Mr. Harper, that treatment is tempting, but…no, no." Desolas insisted as he folded his arms before his chest, looking over what was obviously an x-ray of Jack Harper's skull, Eva to his right and Nick to his left as Ben stood over by a nearby bench, cloaked arms folded over his chest. "It's not your body that we're interested in…at least, not in the way you're imagining. You've got something very unique about you, Mr. Harper."
"If that IS true, let Eva go!"
"No, no, we cannot do that." Desolas went on, putting a hand on Ms. Core's shoulder. "You see, unlike you and your very odd friend there, she can provide a baseline for understanding what's different about you two. She's an ordinary human…albeit very mentally skilled, but otherwise, in all other aspects…normal. Ahhh…but you two?" Desolas gestured at their friend Ben. "You're different now. Affected somehow by the Artifact just as your friend was. Affected and yet…still not quite the same. Why is that, I wonder?"
"You DID something to Ben, you…BUTCHER! You and your experiments!" Eva snapped. "You turned him into a monster!"
"We've done nothing, I assure you. But you don't even have to take MY word for it, Ms. Core. Ben, if you could? Speak. I know you remember how to…for the moment." Desolas inquired as Ben blinked a few times before nervously, almost stutteringly opening his mouth to talk.
"I…I HAVE changed. But it wasn't the Turians. It was the Arca Monolith. The thing in the cave changed me when I touched it. I lay there, seemingly dead…in a blank, black state, but…when the Turians attempted to move the Monolith…I AROSE." Ben murmured.
"A resurrection?" Eva asked.
"Not far FROM it, Ms. Core." Desolas remarked with a big, proud grin. "The same thing happened to our first researchers when they first analyzed the relic. They refused to abandon it, just like your friend Ben. And now they, like he, serve me."
"He must feel so happy." Nick muttered. "His skin looks like it's been ripped open in chunk and I can see blue machinery poking out from underneath…"
"YOU should feel happy, Mr. Grey. For you and your friends are about to become the first humans to ever set foot on Palaven! What's the phrase you humans have?" Desolas mused. "Be it ever so humble…"
"You're a general returning from what was technically a stalemate." Mr. Harper mused. "And from what I know of your kind, your people value honor and tradition. They've been beaten and bruised again and again and they value military victory above all else. That's why all your politicians are former generals."
"Yes, normally I wouldn't get a hero's welcome like this." Desolas sighed as the ship finally touched down on Palaven. "…but frankly in this day and age…what IS normal anymore? No, Mr. Harper. Things…are going to change."
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…how…colorful they were, Nick thought to himself as he and Jack and Eva were escorted off the ship, looking over at the assembled Turians, the crowd numbering in the thousands as they surrounded the ship. All had various levels of "war paint" on their faces, from pale blues running across their eyes or down their cheeks to white faces with dark red and black stripes, some having yellow stretched across the crested foreheads, others intriguing shades of green, and all to match the attire they wore. And yet…none commanded more attention than the simply-dressed Desolas and his grey and steely attire…and the black-cloaked, hooded beings that stood behind him as he addressed the crowd, hands held in the air, speaking with a vibrant charm and a persuasive aura that seemed to permeate his every word.
"People of Palaven, I have returned! They tell me I'm the first of our generals to address you since the Citadel brokered an end to the war with the human intruders. No surprise there. No REAL Turian actually wishes to admit that any foe exists which he can't defeat. But I shall not be admitting such a defeat. Those Turians who lost their lives in the war did NOT die in vain. BEHOLD!" He proclaimed, gesturing at the cloaked beings about him. "Valluvian Priests! You all remember the legends. For centuries, NOBODY has been worthy to wear the cloak and cowl of their order, and none were allowed into Temple Palaven. But THESE Turians come from the front lines of the battlefield with honor, and their faith and fighting spirit transformed them!"
"It's pretty clear, oh "superstar", you think you're who you say you are." Nick sighed, shaking his head back and forth bit as Jack snorted slightly.
"On Shanxi they chose to help me achieve their mission, a most holy quest, to return to Palaven, to reopen the temple, and to share the wisdom of the ages with our people!" Desolas proclaimed as his friend Nihlus handed him a cloak and cowl of his own, the dark-red-armored Turian giving him a firm, but worried-looking nod. "Now I, who led you into war, will take up the cause of peace, joining my brothers…YOUR brothers…in the temple. Within the past will we find the keys to a greater future for the Turian people!"
"I know that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it but…I think he's condemning HIMSELF." Nick whispered as Jack rolled his eyes.
"I'll give him this. He knows how to put on a show."
"This is all a load of horses—t, Jack." Eva murmured. "He's bucking for something. I know it. If it wasn't for the fact the Citadel Council wouldn't let him tie us up in chains, he'd DO it and trot us out as trophies."
"He IS up to something. Think about it. Military man gets religion JUST at the time he finds a device that makes super soldiers. It could work…well if everyone is on the same page." He added, seeing Saren was nervously speaking to Nihlus and Saren, Nihlus heading over to them as Saren kept talking, Nick focusing in on their hushed, barely audible words.
"They're speaking Latin." He murmured. "How good are your translators with that?" He asked the other two.
"Our translators aren't good with dead languages. Do YOU know what they're saying?"
"Yes, because I AM good with dead things." Nick chuckled a bit. "Saren's worried about the "evolved Turians", he said they're not really interested in serving them. They only care about the monolith. But Desolas says he's trying to figure out how to make the artifact control them."
"How very interesting." Nihlus mused, his dark eyes slightly dancing with amusement. "You know our language so fluently." He remarked as he led them along with the cloaked and hooded Turians, all of them making their trek to bring the artifact out of the ship and into the temple. "Are you enjoying our planet otherwise?... besides, well…the whole "handcuffs" issue."
"Truth be told…" Jack spoke up as he noticed the crowd immediately making a path for them to bring the artifact deeper into the city. "I AM impressed. Even a bit with Desolas too. It's no police state here, but he's already got the crowd moved with just a simple wave of his hand. He's got some pull here, huh?"
"PULLING is more like it. Is this bastard even sure the relic's inside that thing?" Eva asked, looking at the gigantic red container situated atop the treaded vehicle that was carrying it, Jack nodded a bit.
"It's in there, Eva. It's like…I can feel it in my mind." He murmured.
"Me too." Ben spoke up, the three turning to see Ben walking alongside them, his face solemn and sad. "It is all I see, Jack. Yes, that's your name, isn't it? You're in contact with it too, as is…you, yes. The young one." He said, turning to Nick. "Different connections but…connected all the same."
"Like the difference between DSL, Broadband and Dial-Up. I sometimes hear…whispering." Nick muttered. "…words I can barely understand."
"It desires us to follow. Protect. Prepare." Ben murmured.
"Forget THAT bunk! Ben, if you're still in thre, you've gotta get us out of this! We can get you back to normal!" Eva insisted as Ben mournfully stared back into her eyes, his pale blue irises flickering slightly.
"I'm sorry, Eva. But there ISN'T any "normal". Not any more."
"Yes, like he said, Eva…I can feel it too."
"I KNEW it." Desolas whispered, Jack and Nick shuddering as he put a hand on both their shoulders. "You two are coming to the front with me. The WONDERS I have to show you…"
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"We've got the city kept somewhat safe by putting up barricades all around the entrances. We've been in contact with the other capitals who have followed our example and we've been holding them at bay, for now." Jenkins admitted to Shepherd as he paced back and forth in the makeshift war room they'd set up inside the "Holiday Inn" of Elysium, several of the shoulders munching on the leftover remains of a continental breakfast as Shepherd rubbed his chin, passing his finger over the holographic map they had of the city.
"Snipers will stay on position at the top levels of the following city buildings from THESE vantage points. From the Northside Hotel, Blackwing Apartment Building, the Elysium Apartments building and the hospital, you can see the whole city and have evenly distributed views of oncoming Batarian soldiers." Shepherd warned everyone as he gave a firm nod.
"Gotta say, sir. Can't believe you rallied everyone so quickly." Jenkins admitted as Medic Grey nodded in agreement
"Now we know what the skeet feels like in a skeet shoot." He joked as Shepherd chuckled a bit, everyone moving out of the room, Shepherd taking off his hat and looking it over with a sigh before noticing something. A hole. A hole right through…
…he'd almost gotten shot in the head. And had just barely avoided…
Shepherd held the hat in his hands, quietly staring down at the hat before Jenkins slowly poked his head back in. "Sir? You alright? Our chief medical officer thinks you should check in on the patient you saved."
"…we should, shouldn't we?" Shepherd murmured. "I mean…the man was DEAD, Jenkins. DEAD. For three whole minutes. And…" He trailed off, slowly turning the hat over in his hands before finally walking away from the table. "Guess I should check in on him. Yes. Suppose I should." He muttered.
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… "By the power of GRAYSKULL." Nick whispered as the assembled "priests" used a pully system to carefully lower the artifact down into the center of the temple, a place who's interior was made entirely of a mixture of steely floors…and beautiful, dazzling golden crystals which made up it's walls and roof, especially the towering central dome, a gigantic "sun" carved at the very top, a soft and gentle warmth cascading down onto them all. The light atop the ceiling caught the beautiful shine of the Arca Monolith as it seemed to glisten, Jack's mouth slowly opening as he beheld the sight before his bulging eyes.
"You like what you see? Temple Palaven stands as a relic of a rather superstitious past we had. Our origins tell of titans that strode the world, reaching for the Heavens. And now true titans have come to Palaven, bringing something to be revered by humble worshippers and to bring our people into prosperity never seen before!" Desolas cheerily proclaimed, spreading his arms wide after taking off the hood he had on his cloaked person.
"Clarke's Third Law…" Jack murmured.
"Ahhhh." Desolas mused. "I know that one. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", correct? Words from an Earthly scientist. A mythmaker, as I recall…as all scientists are. But unlike him…I can bring what seemed like myths to life. This is an EVOLUTION ACCELERATOR."
"I didn't think evolution WORKED like that. Isn't it just a fancy term for species adapting slowly over time?" Nick asked.
"Slowly, nothing, my boy! I'm going to change everything people think they know, from the people on the Citadel to even YOUR race. Frankly, I need to, when any upstart race can enter as equals, you have to change up the equation." Desolas remarked with a wave of his hand. "It makes my people stronger, faster, harder…you don't call that evolution? A betterment of our race?"
"I don't know what I'd call it for sure. But I know this. You DON'T know what in the holy living hell you're screwing around with, Desolas." Jack insisted.
"Ah, but see…I think YOU two do." Desolas mused. "I'm having this place renovated, you know. Once upon a time we talked to our gods in here. Now we may do the same again. We've got scanning material set up twenty-four seven in the west wing of this temple to understand the Arca Monolith, which shall be seated at a place of honor in the Rotunda." He informed them, bringing them through a hallway and into an enormous laboratory, Turians pouring over data from various computers as Jack and Nick glanced about.
"These are all just surface scans and the like. Why not just bring the thing into a laboratory?"
"ATTEMPTS just result in more transformations. And the transformed and evolved Turians can't tell us much of the Arca Monolith…but as I said, I believe you two can. Whatever bond you have with it transcends space and distance. You're the only ones who came into contact with it, fully retaining your identity and outlooks. I need my people to do the same." Desolas explained. "We wish you to speak to it. Science I can understand…"
"Let me guess. But "magic must defeat magic"." Nick finished with a chuckle.
"Believe me when I tell you, classic science fiction aside…there's far more to this monolith than just a kind of evolutionary jump start. It's dangerous." Jack insisted, Desolas "harrumphing".
"Exactly what I'd expect from a racial partisan who hates aliens. You're standing in the way of Turian Destiny." Desolas said with a snort. "Perhaps your friends will be more cooperative?"
"Eva doesn't know anything, and the kid won't be able to tell you anything either. But I can tell you something right now." Jack said quietly. "You're a man of science, Desolas of Palaven, not magic. So let me say that in the absence of good results…a scientist should to end his experiments."
"And YOU?" Desolas asked of Nick as Jack was led away.
"…how much do you know about Earth culture? Because right now…I'm seeing "Frankenstein" all over your face. A misguided guy playing with a force he won't be able to control." He murmured.
"So you won't help me?" Desolas mused.
"Oh, I AM. By not doing it." Nick said calmly. "We ALL are looking for answers from the great beyond at some point in our lives, but I'm asking you nicely. Stop this. The answers you want…you won't find from something like this."
"I appreciate you actually being polite…but we intend to go forward. We have faith in this." Desolas said, turning around before glancing back at the mood cross necklace Nick wore over his shirt.
"There's a difference between blind faith…and BLINDNESS." Nick murmured, being escorted out of the room, he and Jack led down a long, grey, dreary hallway, passing by Eva's cell as each were placed in cells of their own, odd, strange hieroglyphic writing on their walls as Nick sat down on an ordinary-looking bed they'd set up in the almost-totally hewn-from-the-rock cell, a single powerful "transparent aluminum" glass shield erected to keep him from getting out…though he COULD speak clearly to the being on the other end, who in turn turned his head to look at him.
"I can't let you out."
"I just wanna talk, is that so bad?" Nick asked Nihlus calmly as Saren stood outside of Jack and Eva's cells respectively, walking back and forth. "Do you believe in magic?"
"What sort of question is that?" Nihlus wished to know, laughing a bit before his deep brown eyes glanced through the glass to see Nick's face was utterly serious.
"…do you…believe…in MAGIC?" Nick asked quietly, Saren turning his head to look as Nihlus's face became almost…younger, somehow. Longing and quiet.
"I…I did once, it…it's something I believe we all have faith in at one point in our lives. We think it'll make our existence more…interesting? Exciting? Better, somehow? Give meaning? But…" Nihlus turned away, holding his assault rifle up and shaking his head back and forth. "It is similar to believing in stories of the ghoul who would crawl out from under your bed. You grow up and find there's no such thing."
"And you're going to keep believing that for at least a few more weeks, I'm sure." Nick sighed as Nihlus blinked stupidly.
"…whatever do you mean?"
"…would you like to hear a story?"
"You'd be willing to tell me one, though I'm your guard?"
"With the greatest pleasure."
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… Chief Medical Officer Grey peeked at the patient's bed, Shepherd sitting near him. His hazel/green eyes narrowed as he kept watching the commander who looked even more shaken than the patient was as he laid down on the couch in their makeshift hospital wing, which had, at one point, been a lounge room.
"Please, tell me what you felt, Corporal Benjamin." Shepherd wanted to know, the patient nervously biting his lip, slightly wagging his head back and forth, black, shaggy hair flopping about. "Did you see anything?"
"I…don't know. It's all such a blur. And I'm still kind of tired."
"Was it like dreaming? Did you hear voices?"
"No, I mean…when you were…you know. Did you…when you were…GONE, what did you hear, see?" Shepherd wanted to know, hands gripping his knees, a pained expression on his face as Grey looked from him to the confused face of Corporal Benjamin, who looked as though he'd been whacked in the face with an oar and couldn't believe what was happening to him.
"Sir, I'm really not that sure what you mean?" Corporal Benjamin asked as Shepherd rubbed the back of his neck with his gloved hands, taking in a deep breath before slowly closing his eyes.
"When I was much, much younger, my friend Lewis, who was practically like my little brother, he…passed away not too long after I enlisted in the army. He died on the first week of my first shore leave back home on Earth." Shepherd muttered quietly, his voice pained, barely a whisper. "I couldn't, uh…that is…I didn't really understand it at the time, but…but for months after the accident he was in I…I couldn't walk past the street we'd played in so often without…without this nameless fear gripping me." Shepherd said, grabbing his chest, tightening his grip. "I would get this…this odd tingling in my chest and my arms…"
Corporal Benjamin just blinked. And Grey simply kept watching from the doorway, unseen by both of them.
"And yesterday I came very close to death, and…that sensation returned. But you…you were THERE, if only for a moment, and…I MUST know what you felt." Shepherd begged, Grey finally stepping into the room, Corporal Benjamin nervously glancing away.
"I just…I wish I could help, sir, but…I'm just so tired."
"And I think, perhaps, we'd better talk." The medical officer spoke up, Shepherd stiffening as he turned around. "…like, NOW."
"Y-yes, of course." Shepherd murmured, the two stepping out into the hall, Grey quickly closing the door behind them as Grey folded his arms over his chest. "I'm sure you'd like to ask me-"
"Why in the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks are you hovering around Corporal Benjamin like a…like a GHOUL!?" Grey yelled out. "I don't give a crap if you're my commanding officer, you're out of your skull!"
"Let me ask you a question, then, AS your CO! Have you NEVER wondered what it was like?" Shepherd asked, pointing a finger in Grey's chest. "Never wondered what lies beyond?"
"No." Grey said stonily.
"Well you can cloak yourself in denial all you'd like, but I'M not afraid to confront the issue head on!"
"Well then I'll make this issue for you simple by speaking plainly. He's. MY. Patient. I'm invoking doctor/patient privilege and trumping you, and if you keep acting this way, I'm going over your head to Admiral Hackett." Grey whispered quietly, dangerously. "You CAN'T keep obsessing over this! You won't get the answers you want from a wounded corporal lying where we used to have a DART BOARD!" He insisted.
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… "Well?" Nihlus asked as Jack, Eva and Grey sat together in a shared cell for dinner, Jack poking at his serving with his fork. "Is it satisfactory?"
"Oh, believe me, we remember yesterday's breakfast, Nihlus. What do you call that recipe, Eggs Benzedrine?" Nick chuckled as he waved a floppy excuse for a meat patty on his fork around a bit, Jack sniffing at a slice of French toast.
"Hey now, I'm sure that meat will taste fine…once you've combed it."
Jack added with a snort, Eva giggling a bit as she struggled to not laugh and make powdered milk shoot out of her nose.
"Now, now. Really, you're too harsh on our cooks. That's exactly the sort of food I used to eat at home…before I ran away!" Saren remarked as he stood nearby, glancing up from his snazzy metal clipboard as he checked off a few things, chuckling a little.
"Did YOU just crack a JOKE?" Nihlus asked, a slight twinkle coming to his dark eyes as the brown-skinned turian smiled. "Ah, the wonders I see every day. It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier." He said, the pale blue lights of the cavern glittering about them, including the strange odd hieroglyphs on the walls that made Jack flinch as he looked them over once again.
"Hey, uh…Nihlus, how long have those glyphs been on the walls?" Nick inquired with a faint air of…nervousness.
"Centuries, really." Nihlus admitted with a shrug. "Why?"
"It's just…there's something about them that…seems familiar, but…I can't quite READ them." Nick murmured as Jack slowly scanned left and right, eyes widening.
"Wait. WAIT. That's IT!" He gasped out. "That's…all this time?"
"All this time is RIGHT, Mr. Harper. You and your friends have been here for quite some time now. But after weeks of our hospitality, my scientists have been able to tell me what none of you could. And now you'll get to see our findings firsthand." Desolas's voice rang out as he entered the room, wearing the exact kind of blue robe his "evolved" friends had, holding aloft a long, three-pronged staff/scepter that glittered gold.
"What exactly do you mean?" Jack wanted to know as they were led out of the hall and down a long, hewn-from-the-rock hallway, Desolas smiling with pride.
"WE cannot find the mechanism by which the priests are linked to the monolith. But it's enough to know that they ARE indeed linked. The bond is strong, transcendental. They'll do anything to protect it. And to see others brought TO it, and if I bring others to it…the priests shall do what I wish."
"Desolas, wait. There's something you need to know about it. Something I've just realized myself, the truth about the monolith!" Jack insisted.
"Mister Harper, the TRUTH is simple enough. Imagine a legion of turians…evolved, ENHANCED to the state of ultimate physical perfection!" Desolas proclaimed as they stepped out into the rotunda that held the monolith, Desolas laughing with delight. "Never resting, never yielding! The time for equality of races in the Citadel is past. Now the Turian Destiny is at hand, and tonight…tonight, it BEGINS! You shall bear witness to this historic day. Perhaps you'll have something to tell your children about should we decide to let you go off-planet."
"Jack…please tell me you have a plan." Eva whispered quietly as Nick paled.
"…I'd tell you I have a plan…" Jack muttered, head slightly hung. "…but then I'd be lying."