* * * 66 * * *
Presrop: Kyle

The landing was uneventful and mostly in silence; Shepard was feeling self-conscious about the unconventional way in which he was handling Kyle's arrest, and Ash was making plans to put her boot on Kyle's spine while cuffing him as uncomfortably as possible.

Joker had dropped them from a very low orbit so they would land only a hundred meters from the mismatched collection of buildings, so there wasn't much time to talk anyway. A lone figure was standing in front of the "tuna can" structure; as the Mako rolled closer, his footlocker became more visible. Normandy's exhaust plume arced rapidly toward the horizon ahead of them.

Liara had selected the forward camera view. "Hm. As good as his word, and prompt, too."

"He's killed two Alliance officials," Ash was flipping the trigger protector up and down repeatedly, "We could have put a bullet in his head yesterday."

"All right, one more time." Shepard read from his ARO, "Kaidan, I want you to exit to port, and first. He may recognise you, remember you as a biotic and a friendly. Ash, exit after Kaidan's out, and to starboard. I want you visible to Kyle's left, patrol ready just forward of the Mako's prow, weapon at your discretion. Liara, you'll stay in the cabin, but leave your helmet on until Kyle is aboard, and the hatches are closed.

"I'll follow Ash out, she and I will load the footlocker; Kaidan, you help him in, and then board behind him. Once Kyle's aboard, and we're all sealed up, I'm hoping he'll engage with Liara and Kaidan.

"I'll pilot us back up; Ash, you'll switch to EIO when we get back in."

"Yes, sir." The return to Normandy involved no EIO functions, but it gave Ash a place to sit that would require nothing of her. Shepard continued, "When we get back aboard Normandy, he won't be cuffed, but he will have a 24-hour security detail of one." His ARO updated the plan: "First on duty will be Roz, who's going to be walking the line between the respect due a veteran, and the caution and arm's-length treatment due a prisoner."

The Mako rolled to a stop.

"All right, team: Here we go." Shepard lifted himself out of the pilot's chair, stepping over the console behind Kaidan, but waiting for Ash to climb down from the gunnery chair and exit to starboard before exiting just after her.

As he did, he made eye contact with Liara, nodded toward her and gave her a thumbs-up with a confidence he did not feel.

# # #

Kyle had resigned himself to being taken away for the sake of his children, and the extra time had given him some degree of confidence that he was leaving them in capable hands: Jim, Vinidia, and Mo.

He was already outside when he saw a wedge-shaped ship race past overhead. Then he saw the M-35 falling from the sky, landing jets burning; it was oriented so the jets fired mostly forward and a little bit down, slowing it from the speed at which it had been dropped from near-orbit. It hit the ground in silence, even though it was relatively close.

As it drew closer, he could see that whoever was aboard had left the turret in its Parked position, facing aft, the barrel down in its cradle. In this configuration, it almost looked like a sort of recreational ATV.

It was heading straight for him; he considered whether to step aside, but realised that if they injured him, either through negligence or malice, it would only help his case that the Alliance was out to get him and the biotics under his protection.

He prepared himself to take the hit.

Of course, it never came.

The Mako rolled to a stop in front of him. There was only a few seconds' hesitation before the two hatches sprang open, and the biotic Marine who had been there before dropped out of the portside, the gentle glow of the Kiggs field illuminating the man's right side. He raised an arm in an almost friendly greeting.

The biotic's voice was recognisable, even over the suit comms, "Major. Thank you for already being outside."

"I said I would be here," Kyle almost sounded indignant.

"And it's obvious you're a man of your word." Kaidan knew a compliment from him would have no influence on the tribunal's ultimate decision, but it could make Kyle easier to handle for the next day or so.

Though he was focused on the Biotic, Kyle noticed that another CEVA suited soldier had dropped out of the starboard hatch, reached over a shoulder to catch the stock of the M-8 Avenger AR that had popped up there. The weapon was brought to a patrol ready position by the time the soldier had walked forward to the front of the M-35 and stopped. The soldier looked female, but the heavily-armoured CEVA suit made it difficult to be sure.

Kaidan stepped forward and extended a hand toward the Mako's portside hatch. "We'll load your footlocker for you, Major; let's get going, shall we?"

Kyle barely had time to see the N7 accessory on the soldier who had followed the first out the starboard hatch but assumed it was Shepard (N7s were rare enough that a tiny ship the size of the one he had just seen was highly unlikely to have one, let alone two.) He and the other moved to the footlocker and hefted it. Kyle turned and moved toward the portside hatch.

"Need a leg up?" Kaidan linked the fingers of his hands in case Kyle wanted to use them as a one-step ladder.

"No. Uh…thank you." Kyle reached into the hatch and grabbed the bar on the overhead, pulling himself up and in.

There was one suited figure in the Mako's cabin already. Kyle moved aft and sat in a portside seat opposite, not noticing the distinctive asari helmet because Liara happened to keep her head pointed toward him.

But once he was seated, he looked around uncomfortably.

"Good afternoon," Liara said.

"Hello," Kyle answered stiffly.

Kaidan, who had closed the portside hatch behind him, stepped between them on his way back to one of the seats further aft; Kyle finally looked more closely at Liara, saw the blue caste of Liara's skin through her visor. "Are you the asari who came yesterday?"

"I am," Liara nodded once. Thumps of the footlocker being loaded through the starboard hatch reverberated through the Mako.

"Why are you here now?"

"I…wanted you to know…that it will be okay."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I have seen you are very concerned for your people. You fear for yourself as well, are uncertain about how you will be treated by Commander Shepard. And so I wanted to vouch for him. If not for him and his crew, I would be a captive of the geth, and likely Saren Arterius."

Two CEVA-suited humans climbed through the Kiggs fields of the open hatch as Kyle paused to recall who Saren Arterius was. "The Citadel Council…Spectre agent?"

Liara nodded. "The same."

Kyle looked aside, his expression unconvinced.

Liara continued, "Commander Shepard has also spoken highly of you, both as a veteran, and as a leader who…ahm…genuinely cares about his people."

Kaidan had finished securing himself, and the light atop his harness glowed green. "Sorry to interrupt, but you should get strapped in; we're jumping back to Normandy in a few minutes."

The two hatches klunked shut, rattling the Mako as they did.

"We're all good back here," Kaidan said brightly. He toggled open his helmet's visor; his ARO informed him that his LOSI communications were still active.

"I am also curious," Liara settled back into her seat and pulled down the harness bar, "You are not biotically gifted, and yet you have invested yourself deeply in helping others who are."

"They did not choose this," Kyle snapped, "Most often, Brite chose it for them. Or Conatix. Many of them were permanently damaged. And Parliament just looked the other way, has done nothing for them, even when the damage was shown to be deliberate, exploitive, and with malice aforethought."

Liara looked alarmed, then focused. "But you are helping them! Do you have a patron, or are you able to do this on your own?" They all felt the lurch as the Mako began to trundle across the airless moonscape.

Kyle scowled. "I do what I can. Vinidia and Mo have helped as well, and very much. The outpost itself was paid for with my own money. We bought the modules used, from Sunshine Mining, and Kastner Poly – they are asteroid miners – for a write-off. Jim is an accounting wrangler, and he made it possible. The greater cost was getting them delivered, inserted, and restarted."

"But why? You are not yourself gifted, why do you care?"

Kyle frowned deeply, his brow furrowing; for a few seconds, he didn't speak. He looked like he was about to burst into tears. "They…deserve better."

"Yes we do," Kaidan agreed. "You might be glad to hear that Chairman Burns has agreed to take up the cause to the Transhumanist Studies Committee for review. I think he was genuinely moved by hearing their stories in person."

"That Canadian MP?" Kyle seemed astounded. He was interrupted from continuing as the Mako bounced over the rugged terrain, "Oof." He turned to Kaidan, "Where are we going? Are we going to drive there?"

Kaidan smiled easily and shook his head, "Naah. We're aboard the latest in APCs; it has a solid-fuel return booster that will jump us high enough to be retrieved by the ship. We want to get as much forward component in our vector before we jump; Normandy is on a low and fast semi-ballistic orbit to come around again and pick us up."

"We're going to jump that high? It'll break our necks!"

Kaidan shook his head and kept smiling, "No chance. We have a compensator that works in conjunction with a couple of MEFGs that'll kick in just before we do. It's kind of a new application for the tech we've had for a while, and first-gen stuff is a kinda power-hungry, so we don't use it until we actually need it…which will be when we light that booster. When we're on the ground, the MEFGs are used to give the APC 'sticky feet.' This thing can almost climb skyscrapers because the generator is vertically-oriented."

Kyle sat back in his seat, checked his HUD to be sure the Mako was pressurised, released neck catches, and twisted off his older suit's helmet. He took a breath and looked around. "What kind of lander is this?"

"This," the human biotic made a fist and thumped a bulkhead, "is a Rocketdyne-BDS M-35 Mako. Technically, it's an APC, but it's remarkably capable. I've taken some of the trainings, and I'm rated for Pilot and EIO," he smiled proudly.

Kyle regarded Kaidan for a moment. "But as a biotic, aren't you banned from adding non-biotic proficiencies to your skill path?"

"Not anymore," Kaidan shrugged. "We're making headway, Major. Commander Shepard approved my add as soon as I submitted…though we've worked together for most of a decade, so he's already seen me drive a Grizzly."

"The M-29? Those were still being tested back when I retired," Kyle mused.

"And now they're being sold off to Colonial Admin and the standalone colonies, even out in the Terminus." He smiled. "It's been a while, and like I said, we're making progress. The Alliance is getting better."

"I know the Alliance isn't all bad," Kyle looked away. "That's where I got Mo and Jim…and Ken. Good people."

"Sure; there are good people all over. You just have to look for them." Kaidan gestured, "Like Liara. And you should see Wrex, he's a biotic krogan."

Kyle turned quickly, "A biotic krogan?! Here!?"

"He was with us on the previous landing."

"That krogan you brought to the Sanctuary?!He didn't even do a basic manifest!"

"Well, Wrex is biotic, all right. Would you like to meet him?"

Kyle pulled his head back and away from Kaidan. "No! Krogan are insane and dangerous!"

Kaidan looked away and shrugged, reflecting on his own change of heart. "Yeah, I had kind of thought that, too. But he's not actually as crazy as you might think. Probably because he's been around long enough to learn more about us, too."

For a moment, Kyle scowled uncomfortably, changed the subject. "And you're asari. What are you doing on an Alliance warship?"

Liara spoke, but did not have her external speaker on; once she realised this, she raised her forearm to find the key that would open her helmet's visor, or retract it completely.

Kaidan answered, "Oh that's Liara. She's here because we rescued her on Therum."

Kyle leaned closer, as though examining the asari, "A commando? Part of the Council Integration Project?"

"No, actually, she's an archaeologist. We had gone to Therum in the –"

"Yes!" With her helmet finally out of the way, Liara interrupted Kaidan to be part of the conversation, rather than merely its subject. "I'm an Associate Professor at Serrice University; College of Archaeology." At her HIVI's prompting, she extended her right hand, "Doctor Liara T'Soni. How do you do?"

Kyle's was taken aback by the greeting, but took her hand and shook it. "Lawrence Kyle. Uh…hello." His expression shifted from suspicious to curious. "How did you get involved with Alliance ground operations?"

"Ahm…Commander Shepard asked me to. I think because of my biotics."

Kyle looked at Kaidan, shook his head, "This all seems very irregular. Or can anyone join the Alliance now?"

Kaidan chuckled. "Naah. We're still trying to figure it out, too. Commander Shepard is the first human Spectre. Technically, Normandy is now a Council vessel. We also have a quarian and a turian."

Kyle looked away, squinting in recall, "They were here last time too, weren't they?"

Ash's voice interrupted from the overhead PA, "Normandy at two hundred kliks; secure for boost to sub-orbit."

# # #

Ash looked to her left, switched to a private channel, "Damn, that was fast. You think Joker was making a hazard course out of the terrain?"

Still focused on their next manoeuver, and closely watching the Coordination display, Shepard's head bobbed slightly as he counted down, "Two…one…go." He pulled the joystick back and squeezed the finger trigger as he said "go," and then flipping a mechanical switch that lit the aft booster.

It felt like the Mako and its contents had jostled only subtly with both operations, and the virtual display showed what a real window would have as the APC reared like a horse; its aft booster ignited.

They barely felt the Mako accelerating to match Normandy's orbital speed. As they were doing so, Shepard returned Ash's look, "As long as he doesn't bend up my ship, I won't tell him how to do his job."

# # #

Meanwhile, back in the seating compartment, Kaidan turned toward Kyle after Ash's announcement. "Oh, we'll be aboard Normandy in a few minutes, Major; you'll want your helmet back on before we do."

Kyle looked surprised, "Is the hangar unpressurised?"

"It's pressurised, but –"

Everyone aboard the Mako felt the forward ventral jets fire briefly, and then the aft boosters launching them skyward. But modulated by the compensators, the effect was reduced to two pulses of vertigo.

Kaidan smiled broadly, "Hey, there we go. That is what we can do with MEFG Compensators. We're on our way to orbit!" He became serious again, "Anyway, the hangar is pressurised, but the APC's cabin has Kiggs fields at the hatches."

"It has what?"

"Kiggs fields," Kaidan explained, "They keep the air in, make it so we don't have to depress and repress the cabin every time we exit or enter. It's a huge time and tech saver." He pointed to them, port and starboard, the faintly-glowing rectangles on the angled lower half of the outer bulkheads.

Kyle looked away as he considered the implications.

Kaidan let Kyle think for a moment, then explained further. "However, the field itself is like a two-dimensional autoclave. If you step through it with your helmet off, you can get first- or even second-degree burns on the skin that's exposed to the field. I have even used one myself to cook an MRE." He pantomimed holding a plate by one edge and sliding it slowly in and out of the field.

Kyle looked at his helmet and then back at Kaidan. With a shrug of resignation, he pulled the helmet on, seated it on the connector ring, and snapped its manual catches shut. Liara toggled the key on her left forearm, and the armoured visor dropped back down into place; the helmet repressurised.

Kyle's voice sounded over the suit radios, "Did they motorise suit helmets because of this Kiggs thing? It does look a lot easier to use."

Kaidan nodded. "Eh…yeah…pretty much. The suit can communicate with internal networks on landing vehicles, so it can close itself if you forget. There's a VI that manages that, both in the suit, and in the vehicle. Only one has to be working for the system to be considered 'safe.'"

# # #

Kaidan and Liara kept Kyle engaged in conversation until they felt the Mako successfully grappled by Normandy's hangar arms.

"As we come within the effective range of the ship's various fields, it might feel a little weird," Kaidan said. "I reckon it's why they use the giant waldoes for docking."

With Normandy under thrust, the main MEFG was in use, and the gravity planing (a gift from the asari Republics) didn't exactly overlap it. In terms of inertial transfer, the cumulative effect was not unlike skydiving into a swimming pool full of salad dressing that was itself falling slowly with the help of balloons.

"Mmh," Kyle grunted in reaction to the experience, "That is a bit weird."

Shepard held two fingers to the side of his helmet, "Kaidan, Liara, I want you to exit to port with Kyle. Ash and I will pull his footlocker from the starboard hatch."

Kaidan touched a YES icon displayed by his ARO; his answer displayed on Shepard's as Acknowledged.

The Mako jostled one last time as the arms released and retracted into spaces under the hangar deck; the deckplates closed over them as Richard approached and banged on the hull to let them know they were secure. He flipped open a small door and pushed the charging connector he had lugged from the bulkhead station into the port inside it.

When the hatches opened, Shepard had stepped over the footlocker; he grabbed the lower of the two bars and dropped out to the deck. Richard handed him a datapad, which he signed and returned. Ash had followed him out, and turning, she reached in and gave the trunk a pull.

From the portside hatch came Kaidan, Kyle, and Liara. Standing there ready to greet them was Tal Draven, saluting. "Good afternoon, Major. I'm Warrant Officer Talitha Draven, and my twin and I will be your shadow while you're aboard. The CFS has asked that you report to the MedBay as soon as you're through decon (including a multi-frequency scan,) which is right over there." Smiling cheerfully, she pointed with the stylus already in her hand. "But we're state-of-the-art, so it only takes about three minutes!" She stepped forward, waving for him to follow.

Kyle looked to Kaidan.

The Canadian shrugged. "Hey, at least it isn't a week's quarantine. Three minutes is cheap insurance."

Kyle nodding his agreement/thanks. "Lieutenant."

"The mess is right next to the MedBay; when you get out, come find us." As Kyle went around the Mako and then to starboard, Kaidan turned to Liara, "Hungry?"

"Yes, and I'm not sure why. Thank you."

# # #

Tali was on her way to Engineering, feeling like there was more to this "Butcher of Torfan" name than merely blowing up a cruiser. Capital ship engagements do not result in the Captains of those ships being called "butchers."

Still, she was unsure of how she could pursue it. Maybe it wasn't that important.

The doors to the Reactor/Engine Room were locked. A holographic addition to the labelling read,

Danger: Exposed Hazard. No Access.

Below it was a countdown timer with over 30 minutes still showing.

She considered what to do for the wait, and took the lift to the middeck. The dextro printer produced a serving of food pebbles almost immediately; as she turned from the printer with the serving tray in hand, she saw Kaidan and Liara just sitting down to eat.

"Hey! Mind if I join you?"

Liara smiled, "Please do."

Tali set her tray on the table, sat next to the asari, who was eating some teal-coloured plants native to her homeworld. "Ahm…Kaidan. Not that I mean to prise, but is there anything else you can tell us about this 'Butcher of Torfan' business?"

Tali's eyes widened, but no one else saw this.

Kaidan, utensils in hand, froze in place as a grim look appeared on his face. "Not a lot. I wasn't on the mission, and I'd only just met him a few weeks before. But I know it was tough." He shook his head sadly. "Dunno how I'd handle losing my whole team. The Chief's been through that too…and more recently. I do know that Kyle was the CO for that operation; Shepard was way down the chain of command.

"But maybe someone called Kyle that to his face, and he's displacing it to the only other survivor?" He shook his head again. "Aw, I just don't know. But I do know that they were the only two to come back, and Kyle was in a rebuilder for more than a day."

"Then let me ask you about something you do know, and that I never think about asking when you can answer." Tali accepted the food pebble from its emitter, and tucked it under her tongue so she could finish asking, "What are biotics like? How did you become one? I know human biotics are very rare, but quarian biotics are even rarer."

Kaidan still hadn't cut into his food, but did so as he looked to the quarian with an indulgent smile. "Oh…you want to have…the talk, do you?" He lifted the slice to his mouth. "You mean how did humans start to get biotics, or how did I get it?"

"Either…or both…whatever!" Tali continued chewing as she spoke.

"I'll tell you my story, then. You could probably get a more complete story of Earth's cultural adventure from a search engine." He finished chewing, swallowed, cut another slice, and held it up. "Though you should know that humans have been doing telekinetics and telepathy for centuries, depending on who you ask. But there wasn't any science to back it up, and little or no rigor to the study for a long time, so a lot of people simply thought it was demonic powers, or staged trickery, or outright lies.

"At least, until we discovered the ruins on Mars, and the eezo leak on Charon that hid a mass relay, and then Transtellar got hold of that and started using it to rocket stuff around the system at speeds and volumes that made people think someone had invented a teleporter and doing a terrible job of keeping it secret.

"But we didn't really know how to handle it, and sometimes those things crashed." He shook his head. "Even a long ways from the crash, eezo can insinuate and persist if the conditions are right.

"I first started manifesting when I was eight or nine. I'd seen an air show and wanted to fly, and I was building models of the stuff we were flying at the time; SSTOs like the Ragnarok interceptor and the VentureStar, and building little dioramas of their launch and landing pads, and then flying them in the back yard.

"But the models I was building were the non-flying ones meant to sit on a shelf. I was lofting them with my mind, and then running to catch them. Then one of the times I was back there doing that, and friend of mine, Joey, came over to play and my mom just sent him through the side gate." He shrugged, "She just thought I was out there playing 'spaceships.'

"He gets back there and sees me having caught one, and taking it back to the pad, and starting to set it up again, and he comes over and asks if he can help, and so we're setting it up, and talking about kid stuff, and then when it's all ready to go, we step back and…well, I guess he must have thought I had some hidden spring-loaded launcher, because he looks at me and I think he doesn't want to launch one of mine because he doesn't want to break it, and so I…" He lifted a free hand from the table to over his head, "Zip! Away we go."

Looking across the table at the aliens in turn, he gave a sigh and a shrug, finally putting the next bite into his mouth.

Tali began to lean slowly forward, "Well…what happened?"

A wry smile. "I caught it and ran back, and he's standing there with a look like I just grew another head. He's all, 'what did you do?' and I'm all, 'What do you mean, "what did I do"'?"

"So I discovered that my ability to fling my little 100-gram models a few meters into the air was a big deal. Joey told his parents, and all our friends, and for a while there, I was a circus act. I thought I was going to get my own dedicated net channel or something.

"Instead, the school got wind of it, and Conatix sent out a rep to see if it was for real. I show her my trick, and she has me take some other tests, and then talks with my parents, and goes away. I thought that was the end of it.

"But then the school says I'm not to do that while at school, or on school grounds. And after they've seen it, some of my friends kind of stopped being my friends." He shrugged casually, though it was obvious it still hurt, "It got a little weird, and then it got lonely. I had a few friends who were sympathetic, and Joey continued to think it was cool…at least until he figured out this wasn't something that was going to happen to him, too, like when your voice changes.

"Then, a couple of years later, just after my Junior year started, Conatix shows up at our door, waves radiometric sensors all over the house and especially me, flaps down some lawyer stuff on the kitchen table, some CPS [child protection services] stuff on top of that, and then packs me off to Brain Camp."

"That kind of barbarism would never be tolerated in the Republics," Liara snapped. "I am sorry it happened to you."

"Yeah, so was I. It sure doesn't happen anymore," Kaidan half-smiled, "but it was like the Wild West for a few decades, there. First Contact with the asari really put the kibosh on Conatix, though it took a while for that class action that really broke up the company."

The three of them continued eating for a moment, before Tali said, "Huh. So how do they feel? When I do something with technology, even things that are controlled from my HUD, it feels external; I'm controlling a process outside of myself. It doesn't feel like anything in particular, like it does when I sneeze, or eat, or whatever."

"What do biotics feel like?" Kaidan looked thoughtful. "Each one's different. A Barrier makes me feel like I'm suddenly thicker and denser. And like I'm holding on to a live electric wire." He seemed to reconsider, waved his hand, "Aw, that's not quite right. It feels like I'm electric. I know the backflow is brighter than with others powers; you can tell when I have a barrier up. It can be a problem if I'm trying to be stealthy. But sometimes, depending on exactly how I do it, it can make me feel like I'm…well…soaking power out of other people to do it."

He looked guiltily toward the quarian, "Sounds creepy, doesn't it?" He waved his hands as if casting a magic spell, "Vampire biotics, ooOOoo.

"Whereas Lift I can feel in my gut," he patted his belly, "It makes me feel heavier. But it's easiest to detect that when the think I'm lifting is relatively light…under ten kilos or about. If I Lift something heavy, like something I couldn't actually hope to lift with my arms and legs, it doesn't make me feel as heavy, but it aches all over. Kind of like aBarrier, but less electric, and more like I'm being squeezed."

Tali stopped munching her food pebble to ask, "Like…a hug?"

Kaidan chuckled, "That would be nice. No, it's…uh…more like I've got a hippo sleeping on me." Both Tali and Liara were using a HIVI that displayed what a hippopotamus was and how big they are compared to people.

"Your description of a Barrier is very similar to my own experience," Liara added. "Though I have found I can focus it if needed." She smiled nostalgically, "I must admit I'm less aware of how Lift feels, other than that it feels like a Lift. Though it was my first gift, and I did it shortly after I had been birthed to get closer to my mother."

Tali leaned her head closer to the asari. "You did what?"

"I was in a…ahm…you do not have an actual analogue, but it is like a self-driving bassinet…and when I saw my mother approaching, I lifted myself toward her." Liara smiled in recollection, "But I was very small, and could not maintain it. I could barely control it, as most babies are still learning how to live in their bodies, and control only comes with time and practice.

"But it was a story my mother recounted to me. Of course, I have no personal memory of it, but it is noteworthy, like a first word, or a first step."

Tali knew that no one could see her smiling, so she nodded her acknowledgement. "That is a cute story." She turned to Kaidan, slid another food pebble into her chowlock, "You have other powers, don't you? I thought you could Throw."

"Yes I can." Kaidan swallowed his food and began cutting another slice. "Hm. That's a weird one, though. Do you know what a compression wave is?"

"Like from an explosive?"

"Well…yes, but a really big one. Like the kind that you'll want to be at least four kilometres from so it doesn't liquefy your innards."

Tali pulled her head back. "That's a lot of explosion. You mean a nuke? Or one of those eezo bombs?"

"But without the fallout. Like a conventional rocket, no MEFG, just…a big one."

"At four kilometres? You're talking a really big one."

Kaidan nodded. "Like a million Newton-meters of thrust."

Liara held her fork where it was and squinted vaguely towards Kaidan, "I'm sorry, you're far enough outside my knowledge that I'm not sure where this is going."

"A compression wave is the kind of thing you get from a big explosion, but if it's small, like a grenade, you'll likely be much closer to it, so it can do some other kinds of damage, including any incendiary effects, or exotics like Einstein-Bose condensates, or whatever.

"But when we didn't have mass effect systems, MEFGs and so on, we'd had to launch payloads into space atop rockets, the mass of which are 95 percent fuel. When they launch, it starts with an explosion, one that you'd want to be very, very far away from…like four kliks or so. But even at that distance, you'll want to be protected from the compression wave, which will push an unprotected human back a meter or so." He gestured with his hands, extending them across the table.

"In fact, one kilometre from an explosion like that can disrupt your internal organs badly enough to kill you. A Throw can do the same thing, if it's got enough power behind it.

"Anyway, a Throw feels partly like a compression wave inside my chest…aaaand partly like a sneeze." He smiled self-consciously. "I think it's a Newtonian balancing because it isn't relativistic; you're directing a force in one direction, so there has to be an opposing force. Though with biotics, you can displace that force in all directions that you're not trying to apply that force."

"Actually, even if it were relativistic, balancing would still apply," Liara looked at him curiously, smiled in amusement, "But I agree with you, it does rather feel like a sneeze, doesn't it?"

Kaidan nodded as he continued to cut food on his tray as he looked to Tali, "I'm glad you asked this now; I've never actually thought about it, or at least not how to describe it to someone who hasn't experienced it." He turned to Liara, "So what does a Singularity feel like?"

"A Singularity is one of the two-stage gifts; one that must be formed, and then ignited. Forming it feels like…ahm…well, to me, it feels like being set on fire, except that it's not painful or unpleasant. I have to power all my nodes at once, and then sweep up and forward once they are on. You can use Newtonian steering by moving arms and posture, and Push – which is like a slow-motion Throw – to steer it after it has been created. Sometimes, if I sweep too much up and not enough forward, I have to use an overhand Push to steer it in flight.

"Once it is positioned where I want it, I can actually draw some energy back…but because I only want to stop it moving, I must…ahm…I am sorry, there are not even technical terms in your language for it, at least not yet…anyway, I sort of…jerk backwards on it, and stabilise it so it doesn't move around after it's been ignited.

"But igniting it, and then powering it so it can stay continuously active has always felt to me like…ahm…I am not sure this translates, either…like screaming from my heart. Not in an emotional sense, there is no trauma involved or recalled to make it work, but it requires great investment to keep a Singularity powered."

Kaidan nodded his agreement toward Tali. "Right. That's why even though I have some biotic ability from the eezo contamination, I'm still limited by cellular ATP burn rates. There's a lot of augmentation required to make a human significantly biotic, and even at our best, we're simply no match for asari." He scoffed at the thought. "We wouldn't even know what we do if they hadn't told us." He inclined his head toward Liara, "Thanks."

"It was not my decision," Liara looked away, "But it is consistent with our culture. For my part, I still would have done it. Of course, I am a product of my upbringing."

"What about Stasis?" Tali was clearly enjoying herself, "What's that like?"

Kaidan looked to the asari, who was prompted by the ARA to simply tilt her head slightly to one side, widen her eyes and smile, which the human interpreted as "seconding the question."

Kaidan shrugged. "Well…to me, Stasis is more of a protective move. I like to use it to de-escalate a situation when I can, so in my mind's eye, I freeze the target in place, and then use a gesture that…does something technical with my amp and omnitool integration. So to me, it kind of feels like an actual super-power…or a kind of bear hug."

"Interesting. I did not know that we had made our technological prosthetics available to you as well," Liara nodded approvingly. "Normally, they are reserved for use by people who have been injured in a way that affects the ability to Mold, Jet, and Trellis." She touched a finger to parts of her head, "Head trauma often affects biotics, but those effects in particular are especially sensitive to damage. It is important, because this is how many other gifts are finessed to do – or become – particular things."

Tali was insistent, "But what does it feel like?"

Liara sighed and looked down, then to her left; she appeared to be in thought. Then she looked up again, "Have you ever played with a toy top or a gyro?"

Tali gestured in front of her as though pulling the string on such a toy, "And how! They're used everywhere, so it's a great gift for teaching curious minds about them and what they can do!"

Liara nodded agreement. "When you pull the string on a gyro, you are adding rotational energy to it, which gives it its intriguing stability. When you perform Stasis, it feels similar, in that you are pulling something away from your target, but you're Drawing kinetic energy, and then encasing the target in a Negative Barrier. It requires great skill to perform correctly, as these two phases are not related in any other way; failing to accomplish either results in," she shrugged, "No Stasis. Though the Draw can at least cause the target to stumble or even collapse."

Kaidan's expression was one of mild puzzlement. "So what you're saying is, I don't really have the ability to perform Stasis, I'm just using another form of tech?"

"Ahm, no. Not exactly. Only a biotic can perform Stasis; it still requires all the usual organs and abilities – and an amp – used in any form of biotic power, but you're getting a little technological help."

"Like a prosthetic limb?"

Liara seemed quite uncomfortable. "Ahm…in some ways." She looked to Kaidan, "But consider: After you had been trained, have you ever failed to perform a Stasis?"

Kaidan shook his head. "Never."

Liara nodded, "That is because your ability to perform this is highly dependent upon neurotronic automation. Once they were installed and fully integrated, operating it is like squeezing the trigger on your gun: It is highly technical, and it all happens automatically. At least, for you. When you are performing Stasis."

"How about that?" Now it was Kaidan's turn to tilt his head. "The stuff you learn."

Tali giggled, "This is great."

Kaidan looked toward her and smiled. "Yeah. It is."

They continued to eat for a minute or so.

"All right, now it's my turn." Kaidan lifted his fork and waved it toward Tali, "What is that you're eating, and what do they taste like?"

The quarian immediately lifted a food pebble off her tray and started to extend it toward him, but stopped herself. "I'm sorry, what am I thinking? You can't eat this."

Kaidan smiled and shrugged. "Hey, it's the thought that counts. I appreciate your intended generosity."

With a finger-push, the 14mm cylindrical chowlock sprang forward; Tali dropped the pebble into its open top and pushed it back in. "Anyway, when I first bite into it, it's crunchy, like a little spherical cracker ball. But after it's mostly chewed up, it interacts with the microbiota of my mouth, and it starts to adhere to itself, and get chewy, kind of like a high-viscosity resin…well…except that it tastes a lot better. When I get tired of eating it, I can swallow it, or add another for a combination flavour."

Kaidan pointed to the food pebbles. "I see they're slightly different colours. Is that how you tell which flavour they are?"

Tali shrugged. "Yes and no. You can, but I don't. They're identified on my HUD with taglets. Well, at least, when I look at them." She waved a finger at them, "My VIs are fairly well trained about when I need to know things, and when I don't. It would be pretty distracting to always have everything covered with ARTs."

Kaidan nodded. "Yup. The software for my ARO isn't that capable, so I leave a lot of the functions off to keep it from doing exactly that. Helps keep me IRL."

Before Tali can read the translator prompt, she asked, "What?"

Kaidan looked surprised. "Oh, sorry; that means 'in real life.'"

The quarian reacted, waving her hands at the Augmented Reality that only she could see. "You don't think of this as real? In here, I can do things you can hardly dream of…and do it to your 'in real life' self." She sounded indignant. "Our lives on the fleet are awful, and a lot of people…I would even say 'most of them'…use AR and VR to make it less terrible. I don't usually go full immersion, but that's just who I am. Statistically, there are more EVA specialists who don't, I suppose because they share a lot of cognitive vectors. Augment my reality, don't replace it."

"Hm." Kaidan put a hand to his chin. "Is it also true of you?"

Tali sighed, and then reacted mildly. "Of course; that's why I'm telling you. It may be why I'm aware of the correlation. But still, VR and even AR is no less real than you and I having this conversation aboard Rayya. It's just…' She paused as he VI displayed an idiom and its meaning on her HUD, "I suppose it just seems to youlike it's in another dimension."

"Well, this has been a lot of fun," Kaidan started to rise from his seat, "but duty calls. We should do this again, though."

"Yes," Liara smiled and nodded. "What a delight. Thank you for your time, Lieutenant; I hope we have not kept you too long."

"Oh no, it's not like that," he tapped his head, "But I only had enough time to throw down a bit of lunch before an appointment, and now my lunch is over." He smiled, "It's not usually this rushed. I'd love to do this again, if you can."

"It would be my pleasure," Liara smiled.

Tali nodded, "Love to!"

* * * Glossary * * *

Accounting wrangler: An accountant whose training is a variation of prompt engineering and innovation to find and "lawyer up" the contracts needed, or to analyse someone else's.

AGI: Artificial General Intelligence; an artillect designed to encompass the range of intellectual abilities and many of the tendencies of an organic human brain, but with many or most of the flaws designed out (i.e., cognitive biases such as those listed at dot org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

APC: Armoured Personnel Carrier

ARA: Augmented Reality Appliance

AR: Assault Rifle

ART: Augmented Reality Taglet

ARO: Augmented Reality Overlay

ATP: Adenosine triphosphate, an organic compound that provides energy to drive and support many processes in living cells, such as muscle contraction, nerve impulse propagation, condensate dissolution, and chemical synthesis. Found in all known forms of life, ATP is often regarded as the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. It is also used as a coenzyme, and is a precursor to DNA and RNA. When consumed in metabolic processes, it converts either to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) or to adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Other processes regenerate ATP; a human adult processes around 50 kg of ATP daily.

ATV: All-Terrain Vehicle

basic manifest: Usually the first step in any biotic act; activating the biotic nodes and generating untyped biotic energy, which is stored, capacitor-like, in the biotic nodes, usually in the scalp and shoulders of a surgically-augmented biotic (e.g., human, or quarian, where the biotics are not yet genomic, even if they are rare, like with turians and krogan) and all over in asari (or any other individuals for whom biotics are in the genome.) Thus, a "basic manifest" is the nimbus of biotic energy centering near or at the 3rd or 4th cervical vertebrate, usually at the "neck and shoulders" at a minimum.

CFS: Chief Flight Surgeon

CEVA: Combat EVA

CPS: Child Protection Services

EIO: Electronics Intelligence Officer

EVA: Extra-Vehicular Activity

HIVI: Human Interaction VI, designed for alien use by aliens, usually with human help

HUD: Heads-Up Display

kibosh: a slang term meaning "to stop"

Kiggs field: Named as a portmanteau of its human re-inventor's first and last names (Kent Biggs,) the most recognisable example of a Kiggs field is keeping large openings able to contain an atmosphere without requiring a door. It also has the side effect of acting like a 2-D autoclave at point of contact between the 2-dimensional field itself and any solid object passing through it. (Yes, I'm talking about it now instead of when the technology first appears in the story [Normandy's arrival at the Citadel] because it's already part of canon…but now it starts to get more interesting.)

It takes a lot of Voltage to generate the initial field. When being constructed, the linear emitters (sized for the opening) are usually in direct contact with each other, and the effect does not suffer from inverse-square law with at least two functioning emitters in opposition to each other. Once the field is in place, a second set of emitters (sized to the other axis of the opening) can be fitted perpendicularly to the first set and powered up, providing a completely redundant field over the same opening.

Once powered, a Kiggs field draws hardly any Amperage; you could leave it powered for hours with a button battery, so the generators are equipped with tiny independent capacitors for just this purpose (in case the mail supply fails.) What draws a lot of power is: 1) Creating the field, or 2) Point-of-contact. When something interrupts (breaks) the field, it draws Voltage for as long as the field is interrupted.

Most ships use Kiggs fields at hangar entrances and within hull plates, but bury the fields inside the plates so they can remain unbroken, and thus keep their power draw low and easy to maintain. Hence the orthagonality of early post-contact Alliance ships. Normandy is an early example of a joint project that uses simple-curve fields of this sort.

The effect of containing a ship's atmosphere can be compromised if the field is broken with a tube or similar hollow shape at right angles to the field; clearly this can be exploited as sabotage. If only one set of emitters-in-opposition is functioning, the effect can be compromised in this way even with a half-tube, if the open side is oriented square to the emitters (e.g., if the emitters are "above" and "below," a half-tube shaped and oriented like the letter C would fail the field's seal; if the emitters are "left" and "right," a shape and oriented like the letters U, V, or lowercase N (n) would have the same result.) The effect is called a "shadow", and any area "in shadow" like this results in an incomplete field, and the potential loss of pressure, at least for the time that the "shadow" is "breaking the field." Once the emitters can "see each other" again, the field effect is restored, and any outgassing stopped.

One potential workaround for this can be emitters that form a ring (though this doesn't work in the case of a completely hollow shape with a cross-section like an "O,") to prevent any but the most unfortunate of oversights causing such a compromise. This is what the Citadel uses at its docking bays,

Re-inventor Biggs did not discover a novel technology, or even a novel use for element zero (Council races had used similar tech for centuries,) but – because he was approaching the problem from another direction – discovered another way to create the same field in a novel manner. Fans who are paying attention will notice that this is a counter-example given by the geth via Legion about how, "Technology is not a straight line. There are many paths to the same end. Accepting another's path blinds you to alternatives. Nazara — Sovereign — said this itself. 'Your civilization is based upon the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your society develops along the paths we desire.'"

What the Council races did not pursue was applications with fields when they are bent and twisted upon themselves like a soap membrane, and for many of the same 3D and 4D mathematical reasons (bookstore dot /stml-10/, or dot com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-00143-2_30, or consider the Eames Office exhibit Mathematica, with its soap bubble dip examples; eamesoffice dot com/the-work/mathematica/ image #5…or youtube dot com/watch?v=aUg_rCQKbIs#ddg-play 0:23) and you'll get an idea of how weird and exotic rachni ships could get (they could do some unusual things like high-efficiency gliding of a non-aerodynamic vehicle inside a sufficiently thick atmosphere, or reflecting hostile fire.)

LOSI: Line-of-Sight Intersuit; A telecom protocol used by the Alliance to allow fireteams to communicate with each other over short distances without having to worry about interception. Primary mode of data exchange is optical, but the fallback radio component is also scrambled.

MEFG: Mass Effect Field Generator

MP: Member of Parliament

MRE: Meal, Ready-to-Eat (or for the snarky, Meals Rejected by Ethiopians.)

PA: Public Address

Ragnarok Interceptor: fantastic-plastic dot

VentureStar: dot org/wiki/VentureStar

VI: Virtual Intelligence; a limited, usually task-specific or "narrow" AI (cf. AGI)

VR: Virtual Reality

A/N - Late again. I know I must sound like Marvin the Martian ("Delays, delays...") but that's my life.

Lots of amazing stuff happening in AI/AGI, and here's a shout-out to David Shapiro and Matthew Berman, guys who are getting stuff done, and to whom I'm indebted for what I've been able to build so far. Excellent YT channels, I recommend them. There are others that I occasionally watch, but David is actively addressing the Alignment Problem, and Matthew consistently has easy-to-follow instructions on how to build these things yourself and run them locally (constrained by hardware.)

On the road for three weeks of the past four, and won't be "home" until almost December. But I persist at this. I have toyed with the idea of building an authoring AI to do some of the heavy lifting, but I think I want to build AitD myself first, and then let a custom AI take a crack at it. (Whether I'll publish it remains yet another question.

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