Chapter 10- Rebirth
October 1st, 2160
"BREAKING NEWS: A massive series of prothean ruins has just been discovered on the newly settled human colony of Eden Prime. A joint human/council science team is being sent to begin excavations. The Human team is being led by the famous Dr. Henry Lyman, an archaeologist famous for his work on the Mars ruins. Meanwhile, the Council team is being led by the young Dr. Liara T'soni, daughter of the prominent matriarch Benezia. While her pureblood heritage calls her credibility into question among the Asari people, her papers were well received by many human scientists, many of which have requested her presence on this expedition. She will be accompanied by several scientists from all council races, including hanar scientist Dolen. They will be departing to Eden Prime aboard the human frigate, UES Independence early tomorrow morning.
The ruins on Eden prime were not much to look at. Human excavators had already dug out an entrance into the ruin complex. Several items of interest had been recovered for scientist investigation. One of them seemed to be some kind of rifle, found next to a strange pod, which had also been recovered. The human frigate slowly descended, its kilometer long form dwarfing the structures on the ground, landing struts extending from its underside. It touched down near the dig site, a ramp extending from its underside, a shuttle flying out, carrying the science team. It touched down at the dig site proper, the science team emerging from within. They were met by the head of the excavation team.
"Hello. Welcome to the Eden Prime dig site. We have removed several objects of interest and put them over there." The man pointed towards a prefab structure to the left of him.
"Good. We'll start there. After this, we'll go down into the ruins. Lets get to it." Dr. Lyman said. The scientists walked into the tent, finding an object that interested them, taking it and examining it. T'soni and Lyman found themselves examining the strange pod. A scan revealed nothing, the pod having a layer of heavy metals to block radiation. It seemed to be powered, as some sort of battery was attached to the back side of the pod. "Sarah, can you interface with this?" Lyman asked the AI mech next to him. "I can." The AI replied, before doing just that. Several seconds passed, before the AI turned to the scientist and said, excitedly, "This is a prothean cryo pod, one that has a single lifesign inside! This could only mean that there is a living prothean inside it!"
"Can you get it out?" Lyman replied.
"Yes. It would just take a moment... there." The AI said, as the pod gave a hiss, steam blowing out of vents hidden in its sides, the pod's front slowly sliding off. Inside, there was a strange, four eyed creature wearing crimson combat armor. Its wide, angular head was still for a few seconds, then its eyes snapped open.
"Remember, for us it has been fifteen years, but for him it has only been a few minutes!" Liara shouted, as the prothean did the same, in an unintelligible language.
"Any ideas Sarah?" Dr. Lyman asked the AI.
"Attempt to appear peaceful." The mech replied.
"Really helpful there," Lyman answered, as the prothean composed itself, before stepping forward, extending a finger, touching the human doctor.
Dr. Lyman fell still, his eyes focusing on things that were not there. The marines in the tent stepped forward, rifles aimed at the freshly defrosted prothean, before Dr. Lyman slipped back to reality. The prothean then spoke, in english. "Asari... Hanar... Salarian? Human? I am surrounded by primitives!"
"You know about our races?" Lyman asked.
"Know? Our kind practically created the Asari. You humans were only supposed to be a control group for them. I assume that the Asari are the ruling race of this cycle?"
"Ruling race? What do you mean?" Liara asked.
"You are not the leaders of this cycle then? Then of which race is your emperor?" The prothean replied.
"We do not have one. The asari, turians, and salarians form a council that, until the humans arrived, was the prime government in the galaxy. The humans have some form of parliament, where their population, as well as the population of their allies, is represented." Liara replied.
"How primitive. If someone resists your rule, you crush them into submission. Why have your kind not taken action against the humans? You should have crushed them as soon as they refused to cooperate!"
Dr. Lyman laughed at that. "If the asari, of all people, manage to break through our defenses, then we deserve to be enslaved! They're still using primitive mass accelerator weaponry and kinetic barriers for god's sake! Our ships could cut them apart without taking a scratch, and that is if they even manage to get into our space!"
"Then why have you humans not subjugated the council?"
"We are not a violent race. If we were, then Liara would be in chains somewhere on one of our colonies, and we would likely have shot you as soon as you exited your pod."
"Foolish primitives. In my cycle, there was only one empire. Any that resisted were crushed and subjugated. All new races had the choice to join us or die. We ruled this galaxy, nobody dared resist us."
"What? But all evidence points to your government being a democracy! We structured our council based on this!" Liara said.
"You then, are a particularly foolish primitive in a galaxy full of them." The prothean replied.
"You actually believed that the protheans were a democracy? When we have literally found intact computer records saying the protheans were an empire?" Dr. Lyman said, incredulously.
"Well... yes, as that was the most popular theory." Liara answered.
"You, human, are a slightly less foolish primitive than the rest here. You, asari, meanwhile, are likely the most idiotic sentient in this structure!" The prothean said.
"Does that assumption include synthetics?" Sarah asked.
The prothean turned around, catching sight of Sarah. His eyes widened, and he reached for a sidearm that was not there. Cursing in his native tongue, he spotted the rifle on the table halfway across the room. He dove for it, pushing aside several scientists in the process. Bringing up the weapon, he fired a green particle beam at the mech. It splashed harmlessly against it, the null barrier reducing its mass to zero. The rifle overheated, leaving the prothean cursing as Sarah walked up to it.
"May I ask why you decided to fire on me?" The AI asked.
"Get away from me you abomination! What are you people doing? SHOOT IT!" The prothean screamed.
"Synthetics have been a part of the human alliance since they attained sentience in 2157. They are now considered alliance citizens." Dr. Lyman said.
"I withdraw my previous comment of your kind being intelligent. Your stupidity makes the asari over there," He pointed at Liara, "seem like a genius in comparison! AIs exist only to destroy their creators!"
"My kind are created from cyber-cloned brains of our creators. We are educated alongside them, and they have worked tirelessly to cure various ailments that afflict our kind, such as premature data overloads and various malfunctions."
"Aah. Our kind created VIs using a similar procedure. However, we did not take it as far as your kind has. I will tolerate you, for now." The prothean said.
"This one would like to ask what is your name, oh great enkindler." The Hanar scientist spoke for the first time, reverence obvious in his voice.
"You may call me Javik, hanar."
"This one is not worthy to be in your presence oh mighty enkindler! What can I do to serve the ones who gave this one's kind intelligence!" The hanar quivered in joy.
"You may start by telling me how long it has been since the prothean empire collapsed." Javik said.
"This one believes that it has been nearly fifty thousand years since your kind mysteriously vanished." The hanar said.
Javik's eyes suddenly widened in shock. "Fifty thousand... that means that the cycle is about to happen anew!"
"Cycle? What is this cycle you speak of?" Lyman asked.
"You do not know? No matter. I will tell you. Every fifty thousand years, a race of sentient machines, known as the reapers, appear out of dark space, the void in between galaxies. They were the ones who forged the mass relays, as well as the citadel. They created all this as a trap, one that ensures that all races develop along the desired technological path." Several humans in the room exchanged glances.
"Every fifty thousand years, the keepers of the citadel activate its true function. The station is a huge mass relay, linking to dark space, a conduit for the reapers to enter the galaxy. Once they arrive, they wipe out the government at the citadel, before using the station to deactivate all mass relays. They will then harvest the advanced races of the cycle, system by system, world by world. We never knew their motives, only that we could not stop them." Javik finished his tale.
"What happens if a race develops outside the reapers' plans?" Dr. Lyman asked.
"I do not know. The trap has never failed. All races fall into it. The relays are the perfect trap."
"What if a race has developed an effective alternative to the relays? What if they do not require them?" The doctor asked.
"I said that I do not know. What are you playing at human?"
"We humans do not rely on the relays. We use our own form of FTL, which uses an alternate dimension as an effective alternative to the relays."
"Then your kind may have a chance. The reapers may invade any day now, so you must shore up your defenses if you wish to have any hope of survival."
"By the goddess... I was right!" Liara said.
"We must get you off world. You need to testify before the alliance parliament." Dr. Lyman said.
"NO! The prothean must come with us! The council is in danger!" Dr. T'soni shouted back.
"I will go with the humans. They have avoided the reapers' trap, so my warning will not be wasted on them. I will then visit your council, and deliver my warning to them as well. For now, though, I go with the humans. They seem less primitive than your kind asari. I am disappointed, we gave the asari everything they needed to dominate this cycle, and you were beaten by your control group." Javik said.
"I have a theory as to why that happened." Lyman said. "You gave the asari everything. You made them dependent on your technology, making them unable to make anything on their own. When they found the relays, they thought they were your creations, and thus jumped headfirst into the reapers' trap. They spread their ideology to the other races of this cycle, making them dependent on your technology as well, as they believed that your tech was the epitome of technological development. We had no such luxury. We had to fight for everything we had. While the asari were given biotics, we had to invent tools to compensate. While you gave the asari your technology, we had to invent our own. While you engineered the asari to be perfect, we had to overcome our imperfections. Now, look who has the antimatter cannons and dimensional drives, and look at who's still using mass relays and considers 20kg mass drivers to be heavy weapons."
"I see your point. Now let us leave this world." Javik said.
"I will alert the Independence, the rest of the science team will stay behind, but you are coming with me. Sarah, you're in charge." With that, Dr. Lyman and Javik left the dig site.
As the shuttle approached the Frigate, Javik leaned out the window. "How did your race manage to land a dreadnought on this world? Even we considered this impossible!"
"That? Oh that's just a frigate. Our dreadnoughts can go in atmosphere, but we usually can't find 9x2 kilometer squares to land them in." Dr. Lyman remarked.
"You call that a frigate? Its almost as big as one of our dreadnoughts!" Javik said, disbelief evident in his voice.
"We have 12 dreadnoughts in orbit, as well as one of our super dreadnoughts. After discovering this ruin, we tripled this system's defense force, fearing that some idiot merc pack would be foolish enough to attempt an attack on a human colony for prothean tech."
The shuttle landed in the frigate's hangar, the ramp closing behind them. As soon as the shuttle touched down, the frigate took off, a brief shudder coming from the inertial dampeners kicking in, before the ship soared off into orbit. Javik and Dr. Lyman walked to the forward observation lounge, arriving just in time to watch the Independence rendezvous with the rest of the human fleet. Javik's jaw dropped as the human super-dreadnought came into view.
"How can your race afford to waste so much element zero on these ships?" He asked Dr. Lyman.
"Rather than building one large core, which would be prohibitively expensive, we create multiple smaller cores, and spread them throughout the ship. These frigates are the largest human vessels to use a single core, the larger ships using several AI managed cores. To power all this, we have antimatter reactors onboard, easily creating enough power for our ships."
"Aaah. I see." Javik fell silent, before the Independence passed through the defense fleet. The whine of the jumpdrive spooling up sounded throughout the ship. Javik turned to ask a question, then the drive fired. Two beams flew out of the two cylinders attached to the sides of the ship, a portal opening up at the converging point. Javik's jaw dropped again, as the portal expanded, and the human frigate flew into it, heading for Earth.
A/N: And everyone's favorite prothean/ancient grouch makes his debut! Enjoy, and thank you for all the support. I never thought that this story would get more than 10 favs, let alone over 100! Thank you for the ongoing support and reviews of my work. I look forward to releasing more.