I made a promise to that fast-talking salarian and I am going to keep it. If they are in the mood, Thane and Samara will be joining us. We're the only "spiritual" people aboard. Separately, I've talked to both at length discussing the knowledge in their religious texts. It convinced me someone in their past also discovered ascension and wrote it down. Usually, they are encoded through stories so it is more easily passed down the generations and only for those meant to find it will.

I'm walking to Mordin's lab, and I can hear the music twenty feet outside. This time is much louder than usual. I plug my ears and kick the door to knock. The music stops and the amphibian researcher lets me in.

"******** Please sit. I've been waiting for you. Jacob mentioned you were interested in studying elemental species. With your permission, I would like you to create species of each known element" he said.

"Sure. I'm curious too. I won't let you publish any information, but I'm happy to try. It's easy to make protons, neutrons, and electrons when you know what they are made for, but what is this other subatomic particle that makes elements act strangely?"

"I took the liberty and have this for you. This is what salarian researchers hypothesize to be the case. Let's start simple and try hydrogen atoms." Mordin hands me a datapad with instructions in american. Love the diagrams. Catching to the eyes and colorful. Oh how thoughtful. I create the atoms from the image in my mind and it comes into fruition.

"As expected it's a gas at room temperature. Please insert some into this container. Will be studying thermodynamics properties later. While you have control, please generate an electric current through the gas" I do so. Nothing happens. Mordin turns off the lights.

"Odd. Expected visible photonic activity. Perhaps in UV range. Do you detect anything with your enhanced senses?" He turns the lights back on.

"No I didn't, but I wasn't really checking. I don't see the whole electromagnetic spectrum at once or the other things. It's too much for my brain to handle. What do you think happened?" I delete the remainder between my palms.

"Perhaps it increases electron attraction to the nucleus. Not permitting electrons jumping into higher orbitals. Will need to study."

"I wonder how this reacts with traditional hydrogen. Let me check. Dododo. Well this is odd."

"What do you see?" He leans closer. Excitedly. A childlike curiosity as he tries to see the molecules between my hands.

"There is something going on I can't explain. The flow of energy appears enhanced. It's changing how the stuff that allows me to use my abilities is traveling. So weird." This feels familiar. Like I've seen this before but where?

"Please save me some. Oh let's try making water with it" Mordin is beaming with excitement.

"Wow, slow down. I'm interested as much as you are, but the combinations of normal atoms vs this stuff and generating different molecules will be trillions. I'll send this information to my guild and they can start experimenting with it. How about I give you the first 25 element species then we can proceed further?" My suggestion has Mordin thinking.

"Yes, that sounds better. Perhaps I can document new periodic trends and form predictions. If you please?" Mordin gestures to fill sample containers. As I do so, I notice oddities. It's been a long time since I took chemistry, but I know argon isn't supposed to be liquid at room temperature. This is bizarre. I wonder if any of these are element zero. I'll have to keep searching. Now I should talk to Mordin before Thane and Samara come. It can be any moment.

"Hey Mordin. Are you depressed? I think you're overstimulating your mind. I did the same for a long time. You can talk to me." I remember Mordin felt guilty about his genophage work in the game, but it seems worse in this universe.

"Not at all. Typical salarian work habit." He claims.

"Aren't salarians only supposed to sleep an hour a day? You do it several times. And I know you are lying. I can see your expression generator firing in a negative pathway."

"... How much do you know?" Mordin's low voice asked.

"Just tell me what you're comfortable with."

"My work on modifying the genophage has always left me questioning my decisions. Then you came. The krogan are beginning to flourish. Becoming more civilized. Rebuilding infrastructure. Hope returned. I always told myself I was doing what was best for them. That preventing overpopulation of the Krogan was necessary but also a gift to them. How wrong I was. ********* will something bad happen after I die because of my actions?"

"The guilt you're carrying will make your transition a rough one, but you're probably going to reach the Apogee or whatever your people believe." I said.

"We have something similar to reincarnation like the Buddhists of your world." Mordin explained.

"Oh yeah. Buddah lied about reincarnation being a cycle in order to nudge people to our place. I mean it's a choice. Not one I ever made. I was NOT going to lose my memories. Although universes such as this one with a low concentration of the special stuff do make it harder for souls to reach the Apogee, but not impossible. It's weird. Normally universes with a high concentration have materials like element zero or the inhabitants having powers like biotics, but not this one. I looked it up. The speed of light is much faster here. That means the basic particles aren't generating much friction against photons." I said.

Excitedly he asks "so I did no wrong?"

I frown "I try to stay out of moral affairs, and I have my own biases about population control, but what your ancestors did to the krogan was disgusting. The stories I heard about the dozens of miscarriages before having one healthy tadpole disturbed me and that is very hard to do. Why couldn't they make it so females release one egg like humans do or something?"

Ashamed, he answers "The original strain was rushed, and data was destroyed to prevent korgan discovering a cure. It was to prevent Krogan expansion into citadel space."

"While I'm not stupid enough to believe things at first glance, Wrex said his people were promised territory in exchange for defeating the Rachni and the asari feared what would happen if the krogan came to power over the millennia."

"This is ancient history."

"Not to the korgan. If what I was told is true, they were betrayed by the galaxy they saved, forcibly sterilized, and their hope of a future was taken away. It was like that for centuries before I came and unintentionally lit the spark."

"Please take this guilt away from me. I didn't do any of that. The things I did were under orders. If I didn't do it, someone else would have."

"Mordin… you will have an opportunity to earn redemption. All you have to do is the right thing and try to make things better. That's all we can do."

"Thank you *********. I can live with that."

"Please try taking better care of yourself."

"I'll try. I should welcome Thane in" Mordin presses a button on the table and the doors open. Thane enters.

Thane slightly bows "Greetings *********, Professor Mordin. Samara shall be here in a moment. What were you discussing?"

"Oh a little about reincarnation and how it's usually a choice. Do drell have that?"

Thane explains "Drells have been converting to the hanar belief system, but I am a worshiper of Kalahira. Goddess of oceans and afterlife. I hope to return to the ocean and laid to rest in the blissful waters."

"Yep sounds like the Apogee. The primordial substance flows like water and a high vibratory concentration feels blissful I was told."

Samara knocks on the door then waves hello. "Pardon my lateness. Commander Shepard wished to discuss some important matters. I have a question. You said you were told by others about the Apogee. The only possibility of that is if someone left. Why would they make such a choice?"

"I've asked that same question and I get different responses. Some people like to take a break from there. Mostly people leave because they can't do certain things in the Apogee."

Thane asks "Such as?"

"Riding a brontosaurus for one" one of my favorite moments.

Samara asks "A dinosaur correct? The one with a long neck?"

I replied "yeah how did you know? Are they popular among aliens? Human boys tend to love them."

Thane said "no. The only reason we know is because it's Grunt's favorite, and he will not stop talking about them."

The (fake) waterworks start flowing "I'm proud of that boy. It's my favorite also."

Samara says "I'm glad it makes you happy. I wished to discuss with you the crossover. According to texts within the code, there is a journey into the fields of splendor. The asari afterlife for good souls. Can you explain this?"

"Yeah. So when you die, your energy is free from the limitations of a physical body. But since the energy is naturally chaotic, a process occurs where everything starts to order itself then is able to proceed to higher vibrational areas. Depending on how much good or bad data is in you, the process can take weeks or months to purge everything out. It can be quite unpleasant."

Samara asks "And the evil ones?"

"Not just the evil ones. Anyone who accumulated a lot of bad data from their choices or excessive trauma, well if your energy becomes too dense, you will go to a very bad place and you won't be able to leave until you work on yourself. It will take a very long time and the process is extremely painful. It's better to work on it while in your physical body. Fortunately, most people get treatment in their life and it's usually not an issue."

Mordin asks "Can the soul be broken?"

"No, it's indestructible. I've been to places where people were believed to have lost their souls or a part of it was missing, in actuality it went dormant. Or universes where a soul was "destroyed" was actually ejected from their universe. Those places tend to have pseudo afterlifes, their own version of heaven hell whatever, but the soul instinctively knows that isn't quite right and eventually they'll learn to escape and make their way to the real Apogee."

Samara speaks up "some of my race's masters have been said to have left their bodies and become one with the cosmos. This is believed to be different from the afterlife."

I shiver at what she reminds me of "Ok, there are two ways a soul could be let's say sprawled out. Some people believe in converting the energy of the soul back into raw primodial energy. Essentially dissolving into the universe, but it's unknown if they keep any sort of self-awareness and they only way to know how is to try it and I am not risking it. The other way is if someone is so irresponsible with their energy that it can no longer maintain its form, thankfully it's practically impossible. The amount of energy you would need to lose would be astronomical."

Mordin zealous for more "Fascinating. What about gods? Are they real?"

Thane says "Yes I am interested as well to learn if Kalahira is real."

"Depends on the universe. There are incredibly rare events where a soul spontaneously generates awareness. Normally a physical vessel is required, but in those cases, that particular soul will have tremendous instinctual control of energy manipulation and believe themselves to be a god because why wouldn't they? The truth is they are unknowingly using the primordial substance to use their powers. But they aren't doing anything I can't eventually learn."

Samara says "You could fill a library full of stories. To satisfy a curiosity, what would happen to me if my daughters were born normal?"

"Don't go down that road. First off, I don't know in your case. I went through a period where I wanted to see how things would change and different problems emerged. I saw a universe where Hillary Clinton was elected president. We were so screwed either way" Shivers.

Thane asks "Who is that?"

"She's not important."

Samara replies "It sounds like she was. Also isn't Hillary a female name? That sounds rather progressive for your people."

"Ha. No. A male billionaire former tv host got elected instead in my universe."

"Was he the more qualified candidate?" Mordin asked.

"They were both horrible."

Thane Samara and Mordin giggle while I wait. "You're joking, correct?' Mordin asked.

"I wish. My universe was so weird." See no one ever believes me when I tell the truth!

"What was wrong with your universe?!" Samara asked.

"Oh God so many things. Let's talk about something else. How long has it been since Shepard woke up from his coma?"

EDI answers "a year and eight months." Something isn't right.

Samara says "you look disturbed. Is there something wrong?"

"I don't think it took that long in the game for Shepard to beat the collectors. Why haven't the collectors made a move yet? We're supposed to get a part that will allow us to access something we need. Why hasn't it happened yet?"

Mordin says "it's unlikely those game developers would produce a realistic timeline for missions to occur, and as you mentioned, this isn't an exact replica of the game you experienced. Maybe it's supposed to take longer here. Good news collector activity has been miniscule and it's giving us more time to prepare."

"The same holds for them. Hmm. I should go talk to Shepard about this. Hopefully it's nothing and if it isn't, well I'll step up."

Samara asks "Are you leaving now? There are some topics in the code I wished to discuss with you in private. I'm not supposed to talk about these topics with outsiders, but I'm making an expectation for you."

"No, I don't have to go this second. We'll talk more after Thane and Mordin's questions are over." The two asked me so many different questions and I tried answering the best I could with Thane. His beliefs are confusing if they are to be taken literally. Mordin has extensive knowledge of a variety of earth religions, and he kept questioning me until I became exhausted. He looked satisfied. Afterwards, Samara requested I go to her room. I thought it was excessive since EDI is probably recording everything, but she insisted. That was a long day of questioning.