Being essentially allowed to take the Spectre's ship and wander off with Wahea was a little strange. Maka didn't seem the least bit worried about it, and said she'd catch a ride back with her current "neighbours". My first thought was that the Broker, the original one, might have had more Spectres under his thumb than I originally considered, but the cross-strike suggested that maybe she was just an acquaintance, colleague, or friend, of Tela Vasir herself. I almost made a mental note to ask Tela next chance I had, but then I reconsidered. I still had to sort my drawers regarding the current Shadow Broker and whether I'd be willing to work with her long-term or not. Yes, she claimed she wanted to work the reaper angle as well, and I kind of believed her, but it wasn't so simple.
My misgivings about the trip were only amplified when I got to the cockpit and found Wahea sitting in the pilot's seat, omni-tool up and frantically looking through a document. I could see diagrams that looked suspiciously like flight paths, orbital maneuvers, and assorted piloty things.
"Please tell me you're not reading Piloting for Dummies."
"What?" she replied, turning to me in surprise.
"You know, Learn how to Fly in 10 Easy Lessons, Beginner's Guide to Interstellar Travel..."
Things finally clicked into place and she laughed, turning back to her omni-tool. "No, no, I did five years as a shuttle driver on Illum."
"That's it?"
"Yes?"
"You were a cab driver and now you're getting us through relays and planets?" I had started the conversation as a bit of a tease, but now I was a little bit alarmed.
"It's basically the same," she replied airily. "VIs do most of the work, except for the relay transit, which... aha! Here it is!"
"Okay, I'm getting out," I said, already turning, but her arm shot out and grabbed me before I could take a single step.
"Oh no no no no, after all I went through you're not getting away." I looked back and gave her a skeptical look. "I promise! It says here, it's easy!"
I took a deep breath and resigned myself to my fate. I guessed relays were somewhat easy to use. First human that ever went through didn't have a single problem after all. If the reapers wanted the galaxy to use them, they had to make them easy to use. Maybe.
"So where are we going?"
"We-"
She clamped up and pointed at the co-pilot seat. When I didn't move, she made a sort of come on gesture mixed with something else I didn't get, so with another ladlefull of resignation, I sat down and looked at her. She reached across to put a hand to my face, and making sure there was enough room for the final dose of patience, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. And it started. It was a hospital, I knew that much. It wasn't a very deep meld, but it was deep enough that I was getting the context of the scene through Wahea's memories. The startling thing was how Benezia and Aethyta were arguing, a loud screaming match between the two of them. I had never seen Benezia lose her shit like that.
Lose her... what do bowel movements have to do with-
It's a human expression.
Gross.
Soon, the door to the room they had been standing - and arguing - next to opened, and out stepped Shiala, of all people.
"Matrans!" she yelled. I felt Wahea wince at that, and I got it. She was putting her life in her own hands there. And I had no idea how bad it was until Wahea shared how Matran was a very disrespectful way to refer to a Matriarch. Something like an overripe matron, for what I could gather. "If you want to yell, go somewhere else! Liara needs rest!"
Lia- WHAT THE FUCK!
My mental yell of surprise had been so loud that it broke the meld. Wahea gasped in surprise, staggering back on her seat.
"What?" she said.
"What the fuck! What happened to L-hmph!"
Wahea scrambled to put her hands on my mouth, and shook her head, her eyes wide open in anxiety. I didn't stop to think how ridiculous her overenthusiastic insistence on secrecy was, given that we were aboard a Spectre ship, a Spectre that had been specifically sent by Tevos, I might add. Her eyes went completely dark again, and we melded once more.
What the hell happened to Liara?!
I don't know. I know there was an attack, and that she nearly died. She's still convalescent, but almost out of danger now. Recovering.
Freaking bloody hell, wasn't she working on the Mars Prothean beacon?
I... am not sure. I apologize.
After a bit I managed to calm myself down, and she started sharing the memories again. The argument boiled over, Benezia walked off, and Aethyta came to her.
"I need you to find Morgan and bring him here," Aethyta said.
Err... Why?
Call me a squid if I know, she never tells me anything. Just gives me orders and sends me off, so- what?
No, nothing, just that you sound terrified of her.
No! Not of her, I just don't want to disappoint her.
Another memory, she kind of put it out there on a platter. She was standing on a table, in a shitty, seedy bar somewhere she couldn't even remember. Everything was a bit hazy. Too much fun in her system. Aethyta was standing there, ordering her to get down from the table. Flare of biotics, ordering her down again. She was confused, more so as she had to stand there and the matriarch kept drinking ryncol with a krogan. There was a flash of recognition from me, even if the memories were not exactly clean.
Hot damn! That's Wrex! When was this taken? I mean, when did this happen?
A while ago! You know- You know him? This? Oh gosh I was so confused! I- Wait, no, what am I doing?
She cut the meld, leaning back on her seat again and sending my brain spinning inside my skull. She had let go of my head like I had suddenly caught fire.
"Holy crap," I said, blinking furiously to try and regain my bearings. "What the-"
"Sorry! I'm just- Sorry, it's just that I don't know anything that's happening, but if the Matriarch hasn't told me then I shouldn't know! I mean, you... You? Why? How?"
Once everything around me settled down into place again I just looked at her, and had to laugh at the bewildered look on her face. She had that who the hell is this human look I hadn't enjoyed in quite a while.
"I think you're right. You should ask your boss," I said. "I wouldn't want to say more than she wants you to know, for obvious reasons."
"Eh... I guess..."
"But anyway, what was all that?" I said, changing tracks.
"Just... Just that she dragged me out of there, gave me a job. I really don't want to disappoint her."
"I think everyone will be disappointed if you can't fly this thing properly. Specially me. I like safe flying, I really do."
She laughed softly and waved me off, going back to her omni-tool, an checking the console in front of her as she read. I let out a little prayer loud enough for her to hear, and sat down properly in the co-pilot chair. Eventually, we took off, and shortly afterwards we hit the local relay for transit.
Total drift was over sixty thousand, but we made it in one piece, so we called it a victory,
It took a few more jumps to reach our destination, which ended up being a stable orbit around a gas giant somewhere in asari space. The Matriarchs, plural, were supposed to meet us there. It was either because they didn't want to show my face around while I was still technically "missing", or because Benezia wanted to discuss something important aboard her very, terribly private ship. Wahea had said that sending messages wasn't recommended, but it wasn't like I could. New omni-tool and my personal data backups were back home, so nothing I could do - I didn't have any of my contacts loaded into the damn thing. And no extranet access either, we were going silent.
So we waited. And waited. And while we did, Wahea was damn near crawling up and down the walls with anxiety. The first night we had to just wait, and not fly, she had been coming and going in and out of the cabin so much that I ended up just sitting in the living area - where I was bunking - and listening to music because she wouldn't let me sleep.
After the n-th time she sat down in the opposite seat with a sigh, hands to her head, I decided to start digging.
"Can't sleep I see," I said, my finely honed detective skills being put on display.
"Yes," she huffed. "I can't do it. I close my eyes, and I keep thinking about the base, and I don't know how you do it!"
"Practice," I replied.
"And your first time?"
"That was..." I thought back, thinking. First time was Mindoir. Not exactly an op, or much combat really. Just a few batarians. "First time I didn't even sleep." I looked at Wahea, and she was looking at me like she wanted more. I just shook my head. "Not much to say. Shot a few batarians then ran like hell, up all night hiding in the forest until the Alliance found us."
"Us?"
"Yeah, Lana and I," I replied. "During the attack on Mindoir."
Clearly the word Mindoir meant absolutely nothing to her, but she had nodded at the mention of batarians. Common enough scum at least. She leaned back on her seat, a rather comfortable narrow sofa like the one I had been unsuccessfully trying to use for sleep, and kind of slid down a bit, letting her arms rest as if she had no energy left to keep them in use.
"I just can't stop thinking, it's all there, and it keeps happening," she grumbled.
"Didn't you go through bootcamp?"
"Yes but nobody actually tried to kill me then!" She sat up again in frustration and rubbed her face. "Sorry. I just need to get this out."
"I'm listening," I offered.
"No, not that, I mean share. Sharing, proper sharing," she gave me a look as if to evaluate my reaction before continuing. "That's the best way. Asari... we share things with each other, and we help each other deal with our problems that way."
I shrugged. "That's what talking does for us."
"Yeah, not for me."
She leaned forward, hands on her head, and started grunting, louder and louder. I noticed the tips of her fingers went white as she pressed harder and harder, almost as if she was digging into her headcrest. I knew those were sensitive, that had to hurt. I shot to mu feet and grabbed her wrists, pulling her hands away from her head.
"Hey, hey!" I yelled. "Stop!"
She was trembling.
"Goddess it's so hard," she muttered.
"Maybe you should talk to Aethyta," I said. "If you-"
"No!" she snapped, damn near panic written all over her face. "She'll kick me out! She-"
"Hey!" I interrupted her, and waited for her to stop. "I very much doubt it."
I let go after a bit, when she started to calm down. She was stressed like nothing else, that much was obvious. And exhausted, too. I've been there, too tired to do anything but too stressed to get rest, not a nice place to be.
"So what about visiting the family then?" I offered after a while, having taken my seat back. "Do a bit of sharing or whatever you all do."
"Not much sharing in my family," she replied. Once again she dropped back on the seat, trying to relax and sliding down until she was almost melting on the sofa. "Mom's dead, and my other half of the family are all turians."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Got all the discipline in the world, keep your head up and show some turian stoicism. Not a lot of sharing." She stopped talking for a while, so much so that I thought she had fallen asleep, but she was still thinking. "I love them, and they're nice to me, but... I just need that, you know?"
"Well, I still think you should talk to Aethyta. If she really fires you, call me and we'll find you a new job."
"Like what?" she replied, still not moving from her cat-like melting position.
"I'm sure we'll think of something. You can even pilot a ship I'm told."
She chuckled lightly, and despite her protestations about talking not being enough for her, she fell asleep soon after our talk. I helped her down to a proper non-neck-twisting position, put a blanket on her and a pillow under her head, then went to the back room and took the only bed.
Score!
Shepard had woken up just two days ago, and now she was saying goodbye to her friends. It was hard. Having Alenko and Goldie with her after waking up had been absolute relief. Waking up from the nightmare of her own memories, having her head filled with rachni songs and colours, she might very well have lost everything that made her human. But they had been there to catch her and pull her up. She wished for a moment that it had been Roy there with her when she had woken up, but she squashed the thought back. They had saved her life, and they were part of her hive.
Dammit no! They're friends!
Singer-of-Dawn had apologized to her, but knew no other way to heal a mind. The way her thoughts seemed to twist into rachni songs, the concepts themselves turning into something so different, and yet happening so naturally, it was disconcerting. She was getting better. Much like her body was starting to feel like her own. Or her eyes were starting to feel the same, too. Looking into a mirror, the light blue that tinged the whites was slowly receding, but it hadn't completely cleared. And she was starting to notice a few changes to how she saw things, specially in low light. She was sure there were colours there that she didn't recognize.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Alenko said. "I'll stay."
"You would," Shepard replied. "But your leave is running out. You'd be AWOL."
"So are you right now."
"Eh, one problem at a time, no need to drag you both down with me."
As they talked, the shuttle they had been waiting for arrived to the bay, and Goldie gave a squeal as she made for it at a good clip.
"Goldie!" Shepard called. "No taking the workers with you!"
The blonde woman came to an abrupt stop, and turned her head to look back at Shepard. "But... but..."
"No buts, you know we have to keep this secret," Shepard insisted.
Goldie finally turned around, and started walking back. As she walked, she lifted her shirt, and pulled out the worker hiding underneath.
"Fiiiiine," she said, and handed Shepard the worker. With tremendous care, she noted.
"Atta girl," Shepard replied. The worker chittered happily by virtue of being in the Warrior-Princess' arms.
"Are you sure about the secret part?" Alenko said. He was giving a skeptical look to Goldie, without even a hint of hiding what his thoughts were at the moment.
"She will do fine. Keep it secret, keep it safe," Shepard said.
"That sounded like a quote," Alenko replied.
"Yeah, but I don't know what it's from. Roy gave me that one a while ago..."
Goldie giggled and gave Shepard a hug. "I'm so glad you're okay Sheppy."
"Thanks to you two." Shepard returned the favour. Still holding the worker as Goldie tried one last time to tug it away while they hugged.
And with that, the blonde let go and rushed towards the shuttle, turning one last time to wave. "We'll see you soon!"
"She's an absolute handful," Alenko said, smiling despite himself.
"Yeah, she's great." Shepard reached for Alenko with her free arm and hugged him too, adding a kiss on the cheek to the gesture. "Thank you Kaidan."
"Anytime. Call us when you get to Arcturus will you?"
"Of course," Shepard replied, raising her omni-tool with a smile. "As soon as I'm back to civilized space."
"Now I just have to figure out a story of where we've been for the last week."
"You and Goldie going away during your leave?" Shepard said. With such soft, innocent voice one would be excused to think that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. "I'm sure you'll think of something." Alenko gave her a look, and Shepard just started laughing. "Jeez, I'm turning into Goldie."
"She's going to doom us all, I'm telling you."
She watched them go into the shuttle, standing up heroically and with a smile on her face. As soon as the vehicle took off, she felt her legs wobble under her, and reached for the nearby bench. Strong hands held her before she could hurt herself, and she turned her head in surprise to see the asari doctor who'd been taking care of her right next to her. Gellea T'... something. She felt bad not remembering the healing-sing- the doctor's name
"Where did you come from Doc?" Shepard said.
"I was there already. We're very sneaky, that's why we painted the walls blue."
Shepard laughed at the remark and let Gellea work, taking in the sights. The planet wasn't much to look at, or at least it hadn't been. Now she could see things she hadn't even known were there. Everything seemed to glow right after sunset, and she could swear that the sky was a different colour too.
"I told you to move about if you could, but not to overdo it," Gellea said. She was taking her vitals and jotting notes on her omni-tool. "How are the eyes?"
"Better, a lot less blurry," Shepard said. "But I think I've lost my raptor gene mod, I can't seem to get the second focus anymore."
"Not surprising," Gellea replied. "I wouldn't recommend getting another round of genemods for it. I have no idea how they'd interact with your new eyes." She pushed her right eyelids open, gently, and took a closer look. "The sclera seems to be clearing up though, so that's good."
"You think I can sneak out soon?"
"Possibly. I've seen no signs of rejection, your vitals are stable... You'll need some physio time, but you can do that just as well back with the Alliance. I'm still going to keep you a few more days until we finish all the lab tests. We still have no idea if we have found everything the queens did to you."
"Of course you have," Shepard said. She coughed and tried to get a sing-song tone of voice. "Songs of healing, rebirth of the body that was broken. Memory-Song, finding new notes in the melody. Body and mind now in harmony once more."
Gellea gave her a cross look and shook her head. "Yeah, I heard it too. And I still have no idea what any of that means."
My misgivings about Wahea's piloting abilities resurfaced slightly with the arrival of Benezia's private yacht. We had to dock the Spectre ship to the much larger yacht, and while it wasn't a complicated maneuver, I did keep my eyes closed in a grimace as I expected both ships to crash and be engulfed in a huge fireball as they did, and only opened one cautious eye when, with a very loud *CLANG* and a shudder that ran the entire length of the ship, we finally docked.
"Very funny," Wahea said.
"I try," I replied.
She, very humanly, flipped me the bird as she left the pilot's seat, but given our respective smiles there was no ill will behind the gesture. After decon we were met by Fieney, Benezia's personal assistant. Very diplomatically she pointed me to a cabin so I could get a shower and a change of clothes. The shower I didn't particularly need, the Spectre ship had facilities after all, but the clean clothes, most definitely. It was slightly amusing that Benezia had human clothes in my size available. But after that, Fiene showed me to Benezia's room, which I already knew. Same rich decorations, same desk, and Benezia sitting behind it.
"Roy," Benezia called as I entered the room.
"Ma-... triarchs," I replied, seeing that she wasn't alone. That had to be Aethyta. So I was metting them both at the same time. Lovely.
"Roy, this is Matriarch Aethyta Telan," Benezia said. I walked closer and Aethyta offered her hand. "Aethyta, this is Roy Morgan."
"It's a pl-" easure.
Finally get to meet Beni's Man of Mystery.
Err... I guess? Nice to meet you too.
But you already knew me, didn't you?
Kind of?
I offered her a flash of memory from the simulation. That moment in the bar when she's saying that yes, she's a matriarch who just serves drinks. On Illum.
Damn, that's pretty good. Should have gone with the bar after all.
Luckily for me, she didn't feel the need to keep digging. She let go of the meld and my hand, and Benezia gestured at one of the chairs opposite of them.
"How is Liara?" I said, sitting down. "Wahea told me she's in the hospital."
Benezia gave me a flat look and pushed a datapad to me. "Straight to business I see," she said.
"Err, no I was really asking," I replied. I took the datapad, but didn't look at it. "Is she okay? What happened?
"She is recovering," Aethyta replied. "Got two bullets in the chest, damn near bled out too."
I winced visibly at that. Besides the damage and the shock, the blood loss could have long term effects even if she recovered. Damn. Aethyta gestured at the datapad with her chin, and I finally took a look. There were pictures there, most of them taking from security cameras and digitally enhanced. Liara and some woman I didn't recognize. Black hair, kind of cute. Seemed to spend a lot of time with Liara.
"Recognize her?" Aethyta said.
"I'm afraid not," I said. "Who-"
"That's the bitch who tried to kill my little girl," Aethyta said. Despite her obvious anger, her tone was absolutely glacial. Deathly so. "Her fake credentials are very deep. So deep that we're starting to think Alliance Intelligence."
I looked at her with a furrowed brow. That didn't make much sense. "Why would the Alliance Intelligence want to kill Liara?"
"The real objective was to steal the Prothean VI she had with her," Aethyta said. "Other than perhaps the Asari Republics, any government would want to get their hands on that."
"Still doesn't make sense," I replied. I was still flipping through the pictures, which now included more people who were suspected to be working with this woman. "If Liara was working with us, why bother. Our beacon isn't even as good as yours." I glanced up at Benezia. "They know that, right?"
She only gave me an almost imperceptible nod.
"So who else could be after the VI and with that kind of influence in the Systems Alliance network? Her fake identity has enough background that we had to-"
"SON OF A BITCH!"
My yell completely stopped any conversation. I had gone through the pictures, and come up to a dossier. And the first thing I saw, together with the picture of the dark-haired woman, was a name. Eva Coré.
"You know her!" Aethyta said.
"No," I replied. I turned the datapad around and tapped the screen under the name. "But I know the name. That's an alias used by Cerberus. The same assholes who kidn-" The train of thought overtook my words and that one question barrelled through. "Shepard. Where is she, is she okay? They tried to kill her!"
"Morgan!" Aethyta yelled. "Who is she!"
Rather unexpectedly, Benezia suddenly slammed her hand on the desk, the loud report stopping both Aethyta and I. "Enough," she said, her words tight and controlled. "Roy, Shepard is safe. And recovering, last I heard. Now, Eva Coré. Gather your thoughts, and answer the questions. Who is she. And who does she work for."
Damn that was a relief. Tela, no, the Broker had told me she had been rescued, but I didn't know anything else. And recovering to boot? That was damn near a miracle as far as I knew. Still, I didn't get to enjoy the feeling much. Both Aethyta and Benezia were looking at me, and they wanted answers. Where to start? Hell, there was a lot to say. I started with the original Eva Coré, how she was a merc during the First Contact War, and that Jack Harper was her squadmate. Jack Harper being the current leader of Cerberus. Then came to my kidnapping, and that they had tried to squeeze me by threatening Shepard. Then came the drugs, interrogations, torture, all the lovely times I had there. They didn't work me too hard, I figured, because they had questions, and lots of them. It was hard to remember, and I didn't want Benezia "helping" me with that either. Sooner I forgot, the better. And then our hit on the main Cerberus base.
Benezia had done nothing but listen. Aethyta, on the other hand, had been working on her terminal the entire time.
"T'Kali is staying back for now, digging through the Cerberus data." I paused to have a sip of my White Mala tea. I had been talking a lot and my throat hurt. "She said she'll be bringing me back to Alliance space afterwards."
"She will have a cover story for you, I'm sure," Benezia said. "The kidnapping has been ascribed, as far as we know, to your work with the Quarian and Geth task force led by Admiral Drescher."
"I'm not exactly thrilled to lie and keep appearances," I replied. "But who the fuck knows who else is working for Cerberus."
"You've given us everything?" Aethyta inquired.
"Everything I can think of," I replied. "The Shadow Broker will have more. You should ask her." Benezia seemed to tense ever so slightly when I said that, which was a first. "Look, you might not be on the best terms with her, but she rescued me, and if you tell her Cerberus tried to kill your daughter, I think she'll be amenable. Cerberus needs to burn."
"I'll drop some bait and see if she bites," Aethyta said. Benezia hadn't said a word.
"Anything else?" I said. I looked at Benezia, and for the life of me I could swear there was more. "No offense but you look like the galaxy's about to fall apart."
Aethyta chuckled at that, a low, rumbling laugh that reminded me of a krogan, in fact. "Shit Beni, he's got your number."
"Asari politics," she replied simply.
I waited, but she didn't elaborate. "What, I trust you with the fate of the galaxy and you can't trust me with how your day is going?" I said. Yeah, that was a throwback, and as I expected, she caught it immediately.
What I didn't expect was for her to smile. She put her hands on the table, fingers interlocked n a gesture of patience, and dug herself a little more comfortable in her chair. "Very well," she said. "The majority of the asari investors who have been fueling the Systems Alliance Fleet expansion have promised to withdraw their funds over the next fifteen months. This will ensure that the volus bank members who are also invested will make a hasty retreat, and leave the Systems Alliance to fund their own expansion out of their own pockets. This will create havoc in your economy, as there was a considerable investment in shipyards, suppliers, and the rest of the economic chain that was focused on the new fleets. This investment will now be almost completely wasted.
"The reason it will be wasted is not only due to the lack of external investors. Even without them, money could have been found in your economy to continue if returns could be guaranteed. Unfortunately, the Corridor project has suffered the same fate, and investors will abandon them in the same timeframe. The Corridor project being the creation of new mass relays by the Asari Republics, using the information from the Temple of Athame."
I felt my eyes open wide at that. New fucking relays? That was... It was really mind boggling to think about all the implications.
"The objective of the Corridor project was to expand the relay network to systems where no mass relays could be found. This comprises the majority of the galaxy's celestial bodies, even taking into account known dormant relays. It would allow us to also start exploiting the resources found in rogue planets and planetoids. Many of those are known to be rich in eezo, but highly impractical to exploit. It would also ensure that neither the Systems Alliance nor the Council, by way of the Republics, would have complete control of the new routes."
"Is that... Is that why the new carriers are designed the way they are?" I said.
Benezia nodded. "It is a good design. While the primary purpose is for them to become part of the relay as needed, the rest of the design follows the same principles as a relay. It manages the flow of dark energy much better, makes them more efficient at any given size, and the right people at the top of the Systems Alliance knew and were on board with the project. And it means every relay will automatically be defended by a carrier and its attached ships. A good model, all said.
"But unfortunately this will all come to a stop. There will be no money flowing there, and there is no possibility of external investments. The returns for new relays will be very small to begin with, but will add up over an asari lifespan. Not so much for shorter lived races. The turians are far too invested in expanding their own fleets, which leaves little money to be invested everywhere. The salarians could potentially pitch in, if only for the control it would give them to have their little fingers in the project early, but the cost would very likely be giving up a lot more of the contents of our beacon. Which far too many asari who control those decisions will loudly object to. Without the Corridor, there is no reason for the Systems Alliance fleet to expand much more than the new duties under the Treaty of Farixen. Without that incentive, there is no money either way. Without additional fleets, the Hierarchy will not bother to expand much more either, even if they have the support of the volus in their endeavor. Everything will grind to a halt, but with a hit to the human economy that might take years to recover from. My family is wealthy, but not that wealthy. I can fight it, I can bring some others to my side by trading in favors I'm owed, but in the end our combined efforts would be nowhere near enough."
She took a sip of her tea before continuing. "And all I have to do to stop it is give up Liara's project, namely Ilos and the Prothean treasures within."
"Yeah, that'll happen," I said, sarcasm dripping out of my voice. One look at either of their faces said everything I needed to know about that possibility.
"So, Roy, what would you recommend?"
Bloody hell that was a lot that Benezia had dropped on my lap. It made some sort of weird sense, she had us expanding fleets, which the turians, I knew, hated, and which made them expand their own fleets, which in turn allowed everyone else to expand their own fleets if needed. It was a very complicated... house of cards, really. Or a Rube Goldberg Machine. Just pieces moving other pieces that moved other pieces. Then I remembered how Tela had complained about Benezia, how she was doing things the asari way. It struck me that everything she was doing kind of had the asari in charge of the main pieces.
I was also pretty sure Benezia wasn't exactly asking for advice, it was a sort of "there it is, you asked for it" explanation. Then again, I had a couple of ideas.
Aethyta had listened to the lecture Benezia was delivering with a faint sense of amusement. She was calm, and warm, and so inviting that the natural reaction from almost anyone would be to think she was truly asking the human for advice. Of course, Aethyta herself wouldn't have bothered with those niceties. She'd have told the human, in no uncertain terms, that he had no idea what he was talking about and to stay quiet while the matriarchs talked. What Benezia was really doing was inviting a response, so she could methodically, and systematically, shoot down what would likely be shortsighted or pointless, impractical suggestions from Morgan. That's what Aethyta was expecting.
So Benezia's reaction came to her as a complete and utter surprise. The kid had been sitting there for a few minutes with a lost look on his face, working that little human brain of his, but now he seemed to have come to some sort of conclusion, he had twisted his mouth to the side and was doing some imperceptible moves with his head, nodding and shaking alternatively. When he started doing that, Benezia suddenly stiffened in her seat.
"Beni?" Aethyta said. Surely not.
Benezia didn't say anything, just made a tiny gesture with her hand for her not to speak. Her eyes were still glued to the human. She was tense. Aethyta took her shoe off and gently touched the back of Benezia's leg with her foot, something that usually was more flirtation than anything else. Just enough touch for a light meld.
Haven't seen you this tense since-
I know that expression. I did not think my lecture would open the Prism Box.
The memory was there to be shared, but Aethyta remembered it well enough. Morgan dropping that bomb about Tevos and Aria had easily been the funniest moment she could remember for the last decade.
Worked well enough last time, she offered.
But this time it points at me.
"All right, I'm not all that when it comes to politics," Morgan said, "but I can think of a couple of things."
Here we go.
Aethyta shared a mental chuckle and broke the contact, waiting for the human to speak. This human had some interesting opinions and bits of knowledge in his skull, that was clear, but she very much doubted he'd have a way out of the quagmire they found themselves in. She would love it, however; handing those stuck-up matriarchs Liara's project was not going to happen at any price.
"Yes?" Benezia prompted.
"First one is the Collectors."
Aethyta was puzzled as all hell. She looked at Benezia, and while Benezia seemed to at least have a clue of what the human was talking about, she too looked confused.
"The Collectors?" Benezia said.
"Yeah, I mentioned it before, remember?" Morgan said. Benezia gestured at Aethyta, and the human nodded. Yeah, can I buy a clue here? "Right. Well, the Collectors are the last remnant of the prothean empire, made into slaves by the reapers and completely tied to them." Aethyta didn't even blink at that. She wasn't about to let the human surprise her, but it sure sounded strange. "Their base is close to the galactic core, in a safe zone around a black hole that can only be accessed through the Omega-4 Relay."
She actually had to take a moment to let all of that set in. She knew by then that, while she had probably remained completely expressionless, the absolute lack of response, movement, or reaction on her part probably did more to show her shock than anything else.
"The Omega-4 Relay. The relay that no ship has ever come back from," Aethyta finally said.
"I know how the Omega-4 Relay works. If you try to go through, you won't come back because your ship will be torn apart on the other side. But if you have the right IFF, the relay will identify your ship as being allowed to go through, and you'll be able to navigate it. So if one has the right IFF, from a Collector ship or, say, a dormant Reaper," he pointed at Benezia as he said that, "it's possible to get to the other side."
"And how does that help us?" Benezia spoke now.
"Because there's thousands of years worth of ships from stubborn explorers on the other side of that relay. Hell, if the relay has been active for longer than the prothean cycle, there could be millions of years worth of ships on the other side of that relay. Materials, salvage, hell even if all you can get are the eezo cores of those ships it's a ridiculously huge bounty."
Aethyta and Benezia looked at each other. Aethyta had no idea what to make of all that. Benezia looked like she believed it, but had trouble picturing it.
"Could you show us?" Benezia said.
"Err... I suppose?"
Benezia extended a hand, and Aethyta did the same. When Morgan saw that both hands had been offered he made a double take and leaned ever so slightly back. Aethyta managed to bite back the joke about being intimidated by a threesome with two well-endowed asari, and just waited patiently for him to make up his mind. Eventually, he agreed. Benezia took Aethyta's other hand, and started the meld.
"Embrace eternity," she muttered.
Well, here we go, that's- wait, that's the Omega-4 Relay?
Yes, Morgan called through the meld. What I have in my head.
It was a ship, an unknown configuration she had trouble placing. It looked either turian or human. The designation SR2 was displayed prominently on its hull. Then, there was a relay transition, and the ship came out the other end. And immediately had to engage evasive maneuvers to dodge out of the way of a veritable sea of scrap. It look incredibly real, and she could feel the undercurrent from Morgan. He was absolutely convinced this was real.
If you do not believe it, it was Benezia this time, this is where all our information came from, including the location of Ilos.
Hell of a thing.
Next the vision seemed to move away, and they were presented with a far view of the space around the ship. And her metaphorical jaws dropped at the spectacle. There was a black hole in the background, visible thanks to the brightness of the nebula surrounding them, and there was a huge accretion disk, made of the remains of countless ships which attempted, and failed, to make the transition.
What's that?
That's the Collector base.
How big is it?
Well... I have this for comparison.
It was a very short shot, a ship that appeared to be part of an asteroid dislodged from the base, and changed course to attach the SR2.
The ship itself is about two kilometers in length if I recall correctly.
There was another shot of something. Small round drones coming to attack the SR2. Occulus, or Occuli. Large spheres capable of shooting a beam Morgan assumed to be similar to the Thanix. Not as dangerous, survibable with a really good hardsuit and a kinetic barrier if hit for a short time. But a good number of them.
And what about the inside of the base?
Morgan hesitated for a minute, and then showed them a few flashes. The collectors themselves, which nobody had really seen. A swarm of small biomechanical bugs, capable of putting people in stasis fields and that filled the air everywhere they went. It was very big, and very full of enemies.
When the meld broke, Morgan visibly swayed on his chair, and Aethyta, this time, didn't bother trying to hide her chuckle.
"Incredible," Benezia muttered. Going by the tone of her voice, she knew Benezia had already started the machinery upstairs to try and figure out how to use all that.
Aethyta, on the other hand, saw a lot more practical problems. "It's going to be a hell of a job to get to the other side and not get blown up, even with the IFF. Then there's the enemy ships, how many are there?"
"Occuli I'm not sure, quite a few. Collector ships I know there are at least two."
"And then there's the problem of the base. If those swarms can just paralyze anyone who boards, we won't have a chance to do much. Not even mechs would be able to make headway."
"Yeah that. Those... If we could get a sample, it's possible to develop a countermeasure. A signal at the right frequency will render the user invisible to them, just don't know the details. Mordin Solus, salarian STG or ex-STG should be able to develop the countermeasure in record time. All we need is to get that sample, the collector ships have the swarms too."
"STG," Aethyta said, dubiously.
"Yeah. It's not without risks, I know. There's also the fact that we'd have to avoid all reaper tech on the other side, but the VI from Ilos should have ways to detect that. I know of at least one biological hazard, they're called adjutants, although I'm not sure if they're even there yet. They infect other organics with reaper tech and transform them into more adjutants. Bottom line, reaper tech is the biggest hazard. If it can be navigated, then there's an awful lot of salvage on the other side of that relay."
"... the quarians," Benezia said.
Morgan chuckled at that. "You always get what I'm thinking before I open my mouth."
Now it was Benezia's turn to chuckle. "If only it were so."
"All right, let's say it works. That'll help make more ships, even if all you do is reuse the materials to save time and money. But what about the relays?" Aethyta said.
"Yeah, that. The point of the relays..." He hesitated for a moment. "It's for the reapers, right? If we have our own relays, it'll be a hell of a lot easier to fight them."
Benezia nodded. For some reason, Aethyta was starting to feel slightly uneasy, as if she wasn't sure whether what Morgan was about to propose wouldn't be a bad idea, but would also be a bad idea in the same breath.
"So," Morgan continued, still hesitant, "you could give the designs to the geth."
"What?!"
Both Benezia and Aethyta yelled the same at the same time, and Morgan leaned back in his chair, raising his hands in a comical don't shoot the messenger gesture.
"Look, all I'm saying is that they've got nothing better to do and they've been asking to integrate more with us since the day they moved in to the neighborhood," he said.
"And how does giving the geth the design to our mass relays help?" Aethyta insisted.
"Well, if they build a bunch of them and suddenly the Systems Alliance starts expanding with them inside our own territory, then the naysayers on your end are going to look like pikers for denying you investment to complete yours, no? Either they pony up or they get left behind in the dust. At the very least the Systems Alliance gets a hell of an incentive to keep expanding their fleets."
"And how do you suppose we could give the geth the designs without raising any alarms?"
"They could 'find' them," Morgan said, even making the air quotes around the word find, "if a prothean beacon was to appear somewhere in an unexpected manner." He gave Benezia a look, which she would have to investigate later. "Say that they have mass relay designs, and they were adapted to fit the current carrier fleet specs."
Nobody said a single word for what seemed like an eternity. Aethyta knew Morgan was referring to bits of information she wasn't privy to, so she made a mental note to grill Benezia after the meeting. Because Benezia was looking like she was seriously considering the idea.
"Let's call that plan B," Benezia finally said.
"Goddess' tits Beni, let's call that plan Z!" Aethyta replied.
Author's Notes: Every time I visit Benezia the chapters explode in length and... breadth. Now, the idea of suggesting the collector base to salvage stuff has been in my head ever since I started writing... 49,993 actually (if you've read it or remember it, I just dropped a massive spoiler for those of you who like to connect dots). As I say here, it's a huge resource. There's no reason in game to consider that the Omega-4 Relay and its twin in the center of the galaxy were created exclusively to hide the Collectors. Chances are, the reapers had a base there long before that. So there's likely a metric buttload of ship remains on that end of the galaxy. Joker (I think) mentions how some of the wrecks look ancient when they go through the relay.
And I just don't understand why no Self-Insert fic has ever made use of that resource (that I know of). I intend to make use of it with style, and to link it with a couple of plot threads, and I've been planning the O-4 Collector base invasion since pretty much day 1 of this fic. It won't happen just yet, as you can imagine.
Anyway! Due to the development of this chapter, Roy's return home and subsequent scenes have been delayed to next chapter, because I want them to stand out. For reasons. Muahahaha!
Thanks everyone for Reading and Reviewing!
Zeru'Xil: Oh, ho ho ho, you will find out how mad Jack is! And everything else. Just a little more patience.
BJ Hanssen: Yeah I remember that SI as well, shame about lack of updates. It was a good twist for the SI himself, and well tackled by the author.
RIOSHO: Turns out Roy's a natural drill sergeant! Or, if you went through turian boot camp, a natural Drill Centurion :D
Uemei: I love writing asari maidens as being borderline bat-shit crazy, and slowly coming to their senses as they mature. Wahea is just at the edge of those two steps where she's finally calmed down, but is still very green in most fields. As for the RPG, I know it's not exactly fun for the GM when things go off the metagaming rails like that, but damn if it isn't hilarious to read!
I've read all the reviews, I always do, thank you all so much! Next chapter? Well, as I said, next chapter Roy gets to go back home. Expect... Drama. Yes, with a capital D. Until then, thanks so much for follows/favs/reviews and as always, for reading!