Petroleum Effect
Chapter Nine – Therum
Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Therum Orbit, Knossos System, Artemis Tau Cluster, 26 June 2183
Helpful Bear woke up. He had aches and pains all over his body and he was lying on a hard, uncomfortable, cold, flat surface. This was not helpful! There was a bright light shining in his face and he was thoroughly restrained by tight, cold bonds that felt like metal. The bear tried to use his powers but nothing worked.
Helpful Bear thought back to his recent memories. He had traveled on a ship with Matriarch Iniyaez and a number of other Asari followers of Gold Star, including multiple commandos. The ship they had used was supposed to be a really good and sneaky one. It was called the Arrow of the Golden Star and it was a gift from a friendly Asari republic. The Asari government was made up of many republics and several were now friends of the Temple of the Golden Star.
The expedition was chasing a rogue Turian spectre called Nihlus Kryik because he was suspected of being part of the evil enemies of Gold Star who were keeping the stars of this galaxy wrong! The expedition was large and well equipped. There had been a number of other bears with them, as well as many Daughters.
When they reached Therum, they had found a giant black ship with tentacles in orbit as well as many other Geth ships – horrible uncaring machines. There was something going on down on the planet, which was why there were so many ships in orbit. The big black ship was supposed to be Geth but not everyone believed that. Fortunately, the alien ships did not detect the Arrow.
Helpful Bear, as part of a team of 20 Asari, 10 Care Bears and 10 Daughters had dropped to the surface to try to find out what Nihlus was doing. That was when things had gone wrong.
Not long after the investigation team reached the surface, they received an urgent message from the Arrow. An unknown black ship had appeared in orbit, just appeared out of nowhere like it came through a hole in space. It was massive, about 3 kilometres long. It even scared off Nihlus' giant black ship, which was slightly smaller. The new ship destroyed several Geth with a few shots. It only took one shot per Geth ship. Then, communications with the Arrow were lost.
Having no other option, the investigation team had continued on and encountered ground forces landed by the attackers. Dozens of troops wearing black appeared on all sides firing powerful weapons that disabled mass effect shields. Mostly though, they fired stunners. Something had hit him and now he was here.
As he lay on the hard, cold, surface, Helpful Bear heard a smack and then something like a Care Bear trying to yelp whilst muffled.
"Hello," came a loud, cold, feminine voice, "tell me your name."
"I'm Helpful Bear," replied the bear.
"Thank you. What a useful name. We need some help."
On the sword ship Image of Violence, Miranda was sitting in a plush black leather chair, remotely commanding the science laboratory aboard Truckin' Fantasy. She was watching on a screen and remote viewing, psionically. Truckin' Fantasy was one of her favourite ships – outwardly a supposed bulk cargo carrier, actually more of a troop transport and xeno-lab.
When she had received the tip from the Citadel keepers, Miranda realised the Normandy would not be able to stand up to the Geth fleet with Nihlus let alone whatever his flagship was. She did not intend to just sneak around in stealth and the relay route to Artemis Tau went past human space anyway, so she had requisitioned the Image of Violence, the Truckin' Fantasy and the gate ship Circle of Hermes, which had joined them at the relay in the Rainbow system. Only two days later the Normandy was in Artemis Tau with backup.
The attack was simple. First, they had scouted out the Knossos system and then the Normandy returned to dock with the Image. Once the scouting was complete, they had the sword ship gate into orbit around Therum. The black ship Nihlus was using as a flagship had fled, going to FTL not long after the Image of Violence portaled in. They had detected a smaller ship – a shuttle – docking with it and then it had fled.
The few Geth remaining behind were destroyed with ease as the sword ship opened fire with warp bolt turrets. All but one of the Image's shots had struck home due to its advanced targeting system and each shot destroyed a ship. One of the Geth had been disabled by laser fire to obtain specimens. Then, they had struck pay-dirt.
The advanced detectors aboard the sword ship had detected a stealthed frigate. It was a bit like the Normandy, with heat sinks but without the psionic cloaks and it was definitely Asari. It was trying to sneak away but was easily disabled by point laser fire.
The Image wiped the entire field without even identifying itself or bringing out the big guns. The main weapons had spent the whole engagement on standby. The crew of the Asari ship were subdued, including several Daughters and Eviloids, then they were all brought to containment facilities on the Truckin' Fantasy.
A ground team had gone in led by Lilith Shepard, who had wiped out some Geth and a Krogan battlemaster called Wrex Urdnot who was working for Nihlus. They had found Liara T'Soni trapped in a Prothean forcefield and 'invited' her to come aboard. The Terran Dominion had taken a lot of prisoners.
Right now, the Image of Violence and the Truckin' Fantasy were in orbit around Therum and the Normandy was nestled in one of the Image's hangar bays. Miranda was nestled in the palatial quarters her rank entitled her to on the Image. Wired to a discrete port in her neck was a top-of-the-line laptop running a full First Transcendence suite. Miranda preferred not to bring equipment like that out of Sol, but they were in a sword ship and the laptop itself had more bombs in it than she cared to think of. It was vanishingly unlikely it would be captured.
So, right now Miranda was far more than human and she was supervising the key interrogations. They had broken one of the Asari commandos from the Temple of the Golden Star first. It was a disgusting creature and she had enjoyed its suffering. It yielded a lot of information about the Temple of the Golden Star, its forces and goals. The Temple thought Nihlus was linked to the galactic genocides involving the Citadel – that was why they were there to investigate.
One of many important facts learned from the ongoing interrogations was that the Daughters were actually the product of physical miscegenation between Eviloids and Asari.
The extremely unlikelihood of biochemistries from two different worlds being compatible was what had piqued Miranda's interest and concern. Clearly, the first time they had exterminated the Eviloids they had not done enough dissections first. The parasitic strategy of subverting a host's reproductive system was seen in some species on Earth, such as the crab parasite Sacculina carcini or the cicada parasite Massospora cicadina.
Miranda needed to understand the process at every stage to be able to counter any threat. Fortunately, they had captured Eviloids and a number of Asari, so they had everything they needed to conduct experiments. Helpful Bear was the first Eviloid candidate.
"What help?" replied Helpful Bear to the voice.
"We have a special plan we are investigating. We wanted to give you the first chance to help, Helpful Bear. Of course, if you don't help, we have some of your other bear friends watching."
Helpful Bear could not turn his head, but from the muffled Care Bear whimpers and noises he heard, some of the others were restrained nearby, watching him.
Without warning a robotic arm unfolded from the ceiling, reached between his legs into his pouch and coldly grasped his private bear parts! It slowly drew them out into the open. It hurt! It really hurt!
"Where do the Daughters of the Golden Star come from, Helpful Bear?"
"Ow! We make them with the Asari! We plant the seed and then all their daughters are Daughters of the Golden Star!"
"I need you to help me Helpful Bear. We need to collect some seed from you and we need you to give some to Asari we have with us. Will you help us?"
"I will never help people who are horrible and don't like Gold Star!"
"Are you sure … you know I can do some experiments just with your private bear parts. They don't have to be attached."
Helpful Bear could not see it, but Miranda had restrained several other Eviloids of both sexes upright, forced to watch the interrogation and what came next.
"No! I need those parts!"
Miranda interfaced with a robot arm with a razor sharp scalpel. A moment later Helpful Bear felt an agonising pain as he lost the organs the Terrans needed to examine. As the creature squealed in pain and despair, Miranda gave an order to the laboratory AI.
"Dismantle the Eviloid. Extract all organs and body parts for storage, starting with the eyes. No anaesthetic or soundproofing. Let the others see and hear the consequences of incompliance. Then clean up and get the next one ready. Let's see if they are prepared to be more cooperative after the worked example."
As Miranda turned her attention to one of many other rooms, the robotic arms of the laboratory began to automatically and efficiently carry out the task she had set to the AI.
Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Interstellar Space, Local Cluster, 27 June 2183
Liara T'Soni sat in a comfortable room, with a drink. It seemed to be a crudely replicated Asari drink. There were snacks too. She had barely heard of the Terran Dominion before they rescued her. It was just one of many species she had heard of. They did not seem to do much in the Citadel Council and rarely made waves. She had been treated well, but although this room was comfortable, she could not leave, had no communications and her omnitool signal was blocked.
The door opened and an alien walked in. Liara could not help but marvel at how much like an Asari it looked. Aside from the skin colour and the strange fibres instead of crests, it was basically identical. The tight white outfit left no doubt of the similarities in body plan.
"Hello Liara. My name is Miranda Lawson. I've come to talk to you about your case."
Liara found herself experiencing a surprisingly strong sense of liking and attraction for the alien. The creature was extremely pretty and friendly with a warm reassuring voice.
"Have you seen the news recently?"
"No, I'm sorry," said Liara, "no offence but you've left me incommunicado here."
"Sorry about that," said Miranda, "security you see. This is a military vessel. We can't have outbound signals whilst in stealth, but we can certainly see about getting news routed to you."
Miranda was not actually in the room. She was not even on the ship. She was still on the Image of Violence connected to the First Transcendence device – she was testing her ability to create hallucinations. The conversation was real, but the door to Liara's quarters had not opened and she only thought she heard Miranda aloud.
At the present time, the Image of Violence, the Circle of Hermes and the Truckin' Fantasy were en-route to a holding area in the Local Cluster, in interstellar space not far from the Rainbow System.
"Thank you," replied Liara, "how about – no offence – dropping me off somewhere."
"Of course," lied Miranda, "whatever you want. There may be a slight delay though due to mission priorities. Lives are at stake."
As she spoke, Miranda was manipulating Liara's emotions psionically. Before long, Liara would rather die than be separated from the humans she loved. She continued, "Liara can you tell me what happened on the planet?"
"Yes, of course," said Liara hesitantly, not wanting to embarrass herself in front of the beautiful and oh-so-cool human, "it was my own fault really. I was exploring and triggered some sort of ancient system. It wrapped me in a force sphere. I would have died of thirst if you had not rescued me."
"What about Nihlus and the Geth?"
"Oh by the Goddess! That was real? I thought I was hallucinating. There was this Turian, he called himself Nihlus and he had my mother with him, Benezia T'Soni. She said Nihlus was a spectre. They found me and I asked them to help but they just kept asking me about something called the, 'Conduit'. Something Prothean. They didn't offer to help me out until I told them I could look through my files. They said they would try to release me but then they ran away and you arrived."
"That must have been upsetting. I can confirm Nihlus was there. We have no knowledge about an Asari, but we'll look into it. Do you actually know anything about this, 'Conduit' or where they might go next?"
"No, I'm really sorry but I don't."
Terran Dominion Bulk Cargo Carrier Truckin' Fantasy,
Interstellar Space, Local Cluster, Artemis Tau Cluster, 28 June 2183
Liara was eager to see the human again. She really liked Miranda. It was something she looked forward to. The news was so depressing. The humans had kindly been able to route an Asari Citadel News Network channel to her room and it was horrible! The galaxy was under attack from this bizarre cult, the Temple of the Golden Star!
Today Miranda was serious.
"I need to ask you for something, Liara," she said gravely.
"The Temple of the Golden Star is a threat to the galaxy and we have discovered they have an awful ability that could give them the edge. The horrible little furry creatures at the centre of the cult, the Eviloids, have the power to breed with Asari. Not just meld, but inject their biological material and produce hybrids."
"We need to study the process and we need volunteers to have this material tested on them. We've secured an Eviloid to provide the material. The first one refused but the second one proved far more cooperative."
"Now all we need is some brave, public spirited Asari to receive the material so we can study the process at every stage and learn how to stop the Eviloids!"
Liara listened to the pitch in awe at the human woman's beauty, nobility and bravery. She was repelled by the idea of taking part in the experiment, but then she felt guilty. These courageous humans were saving the galaxy and she was being selfish!
"I'll think about it," Liara said.
"Thanks Liara," said Miranda, "I know it's a big ask. I'll leave you to it."
Miranda ended the conversation and Liara saw her walk out. Lawson smiled inwardly. Liara would 'consent' of course, under Miranda's psionic influence. Then she would become a perfect test subject. As Miranda understood it from the other interrogations, the process was irreversible. One impregnation would cause the Asari host to reproduce continuously, even with no further Eviloid contact. They would spontaneously become pregnant and give birth to a Daughter at regular intervals. No sooner was one born than the next was on the way. The process wore out Asari bodies causing them to die in less than a decade, often much sooner.
Liara could not be allowed to live, or go free. She had been unsupervised in the presence of Nihlus for far too long and might be related to one of his closest backers. She would become a little baby factory, churning out experimental subjects until her body gave out.
It was the last time Miranda thought of Liara, except for when in later years she occasionally read reports of the experiments on the many Daughters she produced and the changes in her Asari physiology observed as the experiment progressed, before the inevitable autopsy.
Miranda continued to review the other subjects until a comm call came in. A Terran Dominion expedition on a planet called Feros was under attack by Geth. The small task force set out at once.